Star Wars Jedi Lyra: The Search

by currentlemon

Chapter 17

Lyra wasn’t sure on what to do next. There was one last Mandalorian soldier that stood in her way, but she wouldn’t dare to make a move. Not when there is a tall, intimidating man wearing heavy plated armor standing in front of the cages with a double-bladed vibrosword.

She grimaced. There was something off about that man. For a person who had just witnessed his allies get crushed, he seemed rather calm and confident. Realizing that she needed answers, she reached out with the Force and peered into the soldier's mind. An unethical thing to do, at least by pony standards, but necessary. It was the only way she could get a clue of who this person was. But as she scoured through his mind, it only left her with more questions. She had sensed his anger, but it wasn’t directed at her. Rather, it was toward the other soldiers.

An odd sensation, yet that wasn’t the only emotion Lyra could sense. Aside from the Mandalorian’s unbridled rage, there was a feeling of joy and excitement. It’s almost as if the man was happy that he was standing face to face with a Jedi.

“I see that you prefer peering into other people’s thoughts rather than fight,” said the Mandalorian with a cold, devilish smirk. “Is this commonality with Jedi, or is it just you?”

Lyra let out a sharp gasp. Her eyes widened as the man’s cold glare fell upon her. “Surprised?” he asked. “Considering that you’ve yet to attack me, I can only assume you’re either peering into my mind or you’re trying to influence me with your powers.”

“Khal!”

Lyra flinched as a loud, gruff voice echoed into her ears. She quickly spun around and saw an injured Mandalorian soldier standing behind her, panting. At first, she thought he was a threat, but upon further inspection, she realized this wasn’t the case. The man was incapable of putting up a fight. Blood was dripping from his head, and she could tell that he had issues standing upright. He was also holding his right shoulder rather tightly for some reason, though Lyra was quick to realize that his arm was broken.

Wait, broken? How? All I did was conjure telekinetic waves and throw cargo bins at them. Sure, it would explain the blood, but not the broken arm.

“You are too injured to fight, soldier,” said the Mandalorian in front of Lyra. “Retreat, now! That is an order from our commander!”

“Surely, you don’t mean to take on this Jedi by yourself?” asked the injured soldier.

The Mandalorian known as Khal, gave another devilish smirk. “Oh, I plan on fighting this Jedi alright. And unlike you or the rest of this so-called squad, I don’t need help! So, do yourself a favor and don’t get in my way!”

The injured soldier opened his mouth to reply, but Khal interrupted him before he could say anything. “Follow your orders, soldier. Fall back and tend to your wounds. Or else the Jedi won’t be the only thing you’ll have to worry about.”

Lyra’s jaw dropped. Did that guy seriously threaten his own companion? She glanced back at the wounded soldier again and saw that he wasn’t particularly happy about the order he’d been given. Nevertheless, he followed it, and so did the other Mandalorians she fought.

“Useless fodder,” Khal spat before turning back to Lyra. “Quite a spectacle you had back there, Jedi. Not only were you able to turn a bad situation to your favor, but you defeated an entire squad of Mandalorian Neo-crusaders all on your own! I must admit, that is impressive.”

Lyra cocked a brow. D-did he just compliment me?

“I kept warning them that this day would come. That soon we’d be encountering the Jedi on the battlefield,” he continued. “But they didn’t listen. They just brushed me aside, saying that I was obsessed, crazy.”

Shifting to his right side, Khal walked over to a nearby cargo bin. He raised his double-bladed vibrosword, and slammed the right blade onto the bin, creating a loud bang that echoed across the hanger bay.

“They didn’t listen to me! No matter how many times I warned them, they just wouldn’t listen!” Khal shouted as he continued to bash the bin with his sword. “My squad! My team! We were supposed to be the best among all the new recruits in the Neo-crusaders. But now look at us! Our entire team lost to a single Jedi!”

Lyra winced. The rage that she sensed earlier was beginning to pour out. All for everyone to see. Although his anger wasn’t directly at her, it was still frightening nonetheless. It reminded her of the lessons back at the academy, where the masters spoke about the Dark Side of the Force and its users. The more she thought back to those lessons, the more grateful she was that this Khal person was not Force sensitive.

As Khal’s rage began to dwindle, he glanced back at Lyra again, giving her the same cold stare as before. Then, in a move that made Lyra’s heart skip a beat, he took his blade and slid it into one of the pony cages, targeting a helpless unicorn mare. “Tell me, Jedi, are these creatures the reason why you’re here?” he asked.

Lyra did not answer.

“Staying quiet will do you no good, Jedi. All it does is confirm my suspicions.” With a smirk, Khal slid his weapon further into the cage. The very tip of the blade now touched the pony’s neck, causing the unicorn mare to cry. Seeing this, Lyra took her lightsaber out and immediately ignited the blade.

“Looks like I finally got your attention,” said Khal. “Now, answer me now, Jedi. Or else I will jam my blade into this creature’s throat!”

Realizing she had no choice, Lyra relented and gave Khal a slight nod. She didn’t answer him verbally, but it was enough for the soldier to slowly retract his weapon. Though to her disappointment, he still hadn’t retracted the entire blade from the cage.

“Ah, I assumed as much. Given that you resemble these creatures, it’d make sense that you’d risk coming here alone,” said Khal. “Next question. Who are you, exactly? Since you already know my name, I’d figured that you’d at least introduced yourself. So, tell me, Jedi. What is your name?”

Lyra stayed silent. In her mind, she pondered on the methods she could use to remove Khal away from the captives. At first, she thought a simple Force Push would do the job, but she quickly brushed that option aside. Conjuring a telekinetic wave would only endanger the ponies behind him.

She then thought about using the Force to lift the Mandalorian into the air. But that required time and concentration. Something that she didn’t have. Especially now that she is in a hostage situation.

Growing impatient, Khal began to shout at Lyra. “Speak, Jedi! You know what will happen to this creature if you don’t! And no head gestures this time! I demand to hear the name of my opponent!”

Lyra curled her lip. With no other choice, she finally spoke up.“It’s… it’s Lyra,” she admitted. “My name is Lyra Heartstrings.”

“Lyra, you say? Hmm, a rather nice name, I admit. Now tell me, Jedi, what is your rank among the Order. Are you a Jedi Knight, or dare I say, a Jedi Master?”

Lyra shook her head. “I am neither a Knight nor a Master. I’m just a Padawan in training. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Y-you are only a Padawan?” Khal asked in disbelief. “But that’s impossible. The amount of skill and poise you had. No mere Padawan could ever accomplish such a feat.”

“Believe it or not, it’s true,” Lyra replied. “I am not a Jedi by title. Only a student.” She kept a close eye on her enemy as he slowly took in the news, all while keeping her guard up in case he threw another tantrum. Her precaution proved to be correct. The anger that she sensed within Khal was boiling up again. The only bright side to this is that he finally withdrew his blade from the cage.

“Damn it! Then it’s worse than I thought!” shouted a frustrated Khal. “It was bad enough that my squad lost to you, but to hear that they lost to a being that isn’t officially a Jedi at all! It’s foolishness I tell you. Complete foolishness.”

Seething in anger, Khal stepped away from the cages and approached the Padawan with his weapon held above his waist. His action caused Lyra to take a defensive stance, believing that he would make the first strike. But to her surprise, he stopped.

“I’ll be honest with you, Jedi, when I first encountered your species, I thought they were weak. An intriguing new species, but weak nonetheless.” Khal paused for a moment as his lips curled into a smile. “But after seeing you in action, I believe your species has the potential to be strong. That if trained properly, you could bend the galaxy to their will if they wish to.”

He raised his left arm and pointed his index finger at Lyra. Then, he provoked her with a hand gesture. “Come, Padawan Lyra. Let’s see how well you fight with that lightsaber.”

Accepting Khal’s challenge, Lyra immediately leapt in. She lunged straight at her opponent with Force imbued jump and attacked him with an overhead strike. She’d had hoped to end the battle soon with her speed, but to her misfortune, Khal had blocked the attack. His reaction was just as fast as her jump.

For a moment, their blades clashed. The green-hued lightsaber blade etched on the durasteel blade. It soon came to an end, however, when Khal pushed Lyra back, forcing the young Padawan into a backflip. A minor inconvenience. Once she landed on her hooves, Lyra charged at him again.

Once within striking distance, Lyra attacked her opponent with a furious saber swarm. Her attacks fast. So fast that the bystanders could barely see the blade’s trajectory. The only time they could keep up is when Khal somehow managed to block each of her strikes.

And that was the problem. Despite striking with the speed of a hawk-bat, Lyra could not land a finishing blow. Somehow, her opponent had managed to keep up with her offensive. For every attack she threw at him, he either blocked it or parried it away.

Seeing that her offensive was rendered useless, Lyra quickly withdrew with another backflip. After landing safely several inches away from her opponent, she thought back to the brief exchange.

There was something strange about Khal’s defense. Although it was simple and straightforward, she couldn’t help but feel that something was off. It wasn’t just the double-bladed vibrosword. She’d already realized that her unfamiliarity with the weapon would put her at a slight disadvantage. But even so, Khal’s defense was extraordinary. Perhaps too good for a non-Force sensitive.

“Incredible!” said Khal. “I’ve heard tales of Jedi being able to use their powers to amplify their speed. To see it in person is nothing short of amazing.”

Lyra grimaced. The realization that she had underestimated her opponent frustrated her. If she was going to take him down, she’ll just have to move faster.

Calling upon the Force, Lyra charged at Khal again with another saber swarm. If anyone had any trouble keeping up with her pace before, they’d have even more trouble now. She was just too fast. Her speed was akin to that of a speeding hover bike.

However, this speed didn’t come without a cost. Lyra knew that she could not keep this up for long. The Force had its limits. Relying one its power alone could only take her so far, and it’s not like she could forcibly take power. That in of itself is not the Jedi way. If she were to beat her opponent, she needed to go beyond her limits.

Fortune would smile upon her though, as Lyra soon spotted an opening in her opponent’s defense. Reeling her saber back, she put her hoof down and thrusted forward with the tip of her blade. Her target, Khal’s breastplate. More specifically, his waist. If she could make this one mark of contact, the fight would be over.

Khal saw the attack coming though. He had maneuvered slightly to his right just in time to avoid her thrust. Not that it mattered. At the very least, she could take a swipe at his armor with the tip of her lightsaber.

But when her blade struck her opponent’s armor Lyra was quick to notice that something wasn’t right. The tip of the blade made contact, but there was no sign of any damage.

“That was a good hit,” Khal said, grinning widely. “But it’s going to take more than that to stop me.”

Lyra gasped as Khal’s vibrosword came straight for her neck. She acted quickly and raised her saber to defend herself. She was successful, but blocking the blade made her arms quiver. There was so much power in the attack that it nearly caused her to fall backward. She remained balanced thanks to the Force, but she had to make a hasty retreat.

She mustered enough power to push Khal’s blade away, which gave her enough time to retreat backward. Once again, she found herself standing several feet away from her opponent. Only this time, her confidence had dipped slightly. She hoped the fight would be over by now, but once again, her opponent was still standing.

“Surprised, Jedi? Judging by that look, I would assume so,” Khal said with a shrug. “Well, I don’t know if your masters taught you this, but there are certain metals in the galaxy that can resist your lightsabers.”

He patted his right hand on top of his breastplate. “Cortosis is an example of such. It is a highly valuable metal ore that is difficult to find. Should one craft it correctly, it can resist even the most powerful energy weapons, including that little lightsaber of yours.”

Lyra bit her lip, cursing herself for not realizing her opponent might’ve had something up his sleeve. Though she didn’t expect it to be his armor of all things.

Cortosis. It was the first time she heard of it. Although she was impressed that a hunk of rock could resist a lightsaber blade, she couldn’t help but wonder why the masters haven’t mentioned anything about it. If there was something that could resist lightsaber strikes, shouldn’t that be enough to warrant a lesson?

She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things. Especially in the middle of a duel.

Her shoulders stiffened. If she couldn’t defeat Khal in close range, then she’ll have to find another way. She glanced around the hanger bay. Dozens of container bins still laid scattered from her previous battle. Perhaps she could use them again to her advantage?

“What are you waiting for, Jedi?” asked Khal. “Quit standing around and attack me!”

Lyra frowned. As irritating as her opponent’s impatient attitude was, she had to move quickly. Accepting his challenge, she lifted several bins off the ground using telekinesis. The bins themselves weren’t heavy, so at least she didn’t have to worry about overstraining herself.

She fired the bins one by one, hoping that she could at land a blow to her opponent. If not, perhaps it’d at least wear him down a bit. But to her surprise, she noticed that Khal wasn’t too phased by her new approach. Everything she threw at him, he dodged with relative ease.

“Ugh, this is annoying!” shouted Khal. With a grunt of frustration, he raised his blade and somehow slammed down the latest bin that flew at him. “Resulting to petty tricks, I see. Fine. If you refuse to fight me head on, I’ll just have to come to you, Jedi!”

His words didn’t faze Lyra all that much as she continued to haul projectiles directly at Khal. However, it soon became clear to her that there was meaning behind his words. He soon stopped dodging entirely, and instead swatted the bins away with his sword.

Then Khal began to move. The bins may have kept him back but he was able to adapt quickly. And to make things worse, he was moving forward at a steady pace.

Lyra bit lip. If this continued, she’d be forced to fight Khal in melee combat again. Given his enormous strength and cortosis armor, she could not afford to let that happen. Desperate, she levitated the heaviest cargo bin she could possibly find. She threw it with whatever power she had left in reserve, hoping that this would be enough to stop him.

Thankfully, her opponent could not defend himself against an object this large. The bin had hit him right on his chest, which knocked him back several feet.

As her opponent fell to the floor, Lyra observed him carefully, waiting for any sign of movement. Seconds passed. Khal had yet to recover from the hit he received. It appeared the duel was finally over.

Lyra sighed in relief as she deactivated her lightsaber. It had taken her some time, but at long last, she won her duel. It would’ve ended a lot sooner if it weren’t for the armor, but she had to admit, her opponent was good. Given that he was able to defend against her for so long proved that he was a skilled fighter. And unlike the other Mandalorians, he put up a decent fight.

But there was no point in thinking about it anymore. She had won. The only thing left to do now was to rescue the captives.

“Damn it, I’m not finished yet!”

Lyra let out a sharp gasp as Khal stood back up again, completely unfazed by the hit he received. “Nice try, Jedi, but you aren’t going to beat me with petty tricks like that.” Putting his sword away, Khal walked over to a nearby container bin and grabbed it with both hands. “If you aren’t going to face me, then I might as well use your own tactic against you.”

Using his enormous strength, he threw the bin directly toward her. And although his throw wasn’t as fast as hers, it did force the young Padawan to jump away in retreat. However, once she had regained her balance, Khal had thrown more bins at her.

She soon found herself jumping around the platform, dodging whatever came her way. She tried to grab a few of the objects with the Force, but she couldn’t concentrate with all these bins flying at her. All she could do was to rely on her reflexes.

But as she dodged another cargo bin, she had almost failed to notice that her opponent had suddenly closed the gap. When she landed on the floor, Khal’s sword was again right above her head.

Reacting quickly, she reignited her saber and blocked the attack. Just as before, the amount of power in Khal’s strike made her body shiver. She wanted to fall back, but her opponent wouldn’t let her. The relentless assault from his double-bladed sword prevented her from making any meaningful retreat.

Their positions have been reversed. Whatever advantage Lyra had during their duel was now gone. Khal’s tactic of mindlessly throwing container bins was nothing but a ruse. For every object he’d thrown, he inched his way closer to her, forcing their duel to continue in blade-to-blade combat. But this time, it was she who was on the defensive.

Lyra cursed herself again for letting the duel get so out of hoof. If she had only acted while her opponent was down, she wouldn’t be in this position in the first place.

Instead, the fight continued. Lyra raised her blade to block an incoming attack from her left side. She successfully blocked the attack, but her guard had been broken. Khal’s strike was so powerful that it caused her to stagger backward. And though she tried her best to recover from a bad situation, she was not quick enough to defend against her opponent’s next strike.

Lyra watched helplessly as Khal’s double-bladed sword struck through her chest. She cried out in pain as the blade tore through her flesh. Her body spasmed as blood poured from the wound. She tried to heal it, but it was no use. The wound had left her in shock, preventing her from channeling the Force.

Unable to bear the pain any longer, Lyra collapsed. Her lightsaber fell out of her hoof, deactivating once it hit the ground. She helplessly looked up at her opponent, who seemed to be relishing in his victory. His allies were also celebrating as well as she could hear them celebrating from a distance.

“I win, Jedi,” said Khal, triumphantly as he looked down at her with the same devilish smile as before. “You may not have been a Master, but you have fought well. And for that, I thank you for making my dream a reality.”

He raised his weapon above his head, ready to deal the final blow that would end her life. “But my praise will end there, Jedi. Now, I will take your head.”

Lyra fell to tears as she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. Mom. Dad. Master. Everyone. I’m sorry.

“You will not have her today, Mandalorian!”

Lyra’s ears wobbled as she heard a familiar voice. She meekly opened her eyes and looked up. Though her vision was blurry, she quickly noticed that Khal wasn’t standing above her anymore. But rather, someone else.

“Padawan, stay with me!” shouted the familiar voice.

“M-master?”

“Shh, don’t talk. Just try to relax. We’ll get you and your kin out of here.” Standing boldly in front of her, Master Darran approached Khal with weapon in hand. Though one blade was already ignited, he twisted his hilt to the side and activated the second blade. “Hider, Geefour, get to the ponies now! Don’t worry about cover, the guardsman’s got your back! Chessk, you take my Padawan and run! If you value your life debt, get her to safety, now!”

“Understood,” said another familiar voice as Lyra soon found herself being lifted off the ground. “You fought valiantly, little Jedi. Now, leave the rest to us. We’ll finish the job for you.”

Lyra gave a weary smile. “T-thank you, Chessk.” she said before blacking out on the Trandoshan’s arms.

Author's Note:

This chapter marks the end of Act 1.

Dang, what a ride. And what a chapter too. I had a lot of trouble writing this. Fight scenes are not exactly the easiest thing to do. But, it's done. And now that all characters have been properly introduced, we can finally move on to the next act.

Chapter 18 will be released in three weeks (November 9th). Given that I'm behind on my rough drafts, I need more time writing the new chapters. Please be patient and look forward to the new act. Thanks for reading. May the Force be with You. Always.

Comments

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

This is why I had such a huge dislike for Mandalorians!