For every dead yesterday there waits a new dawn,
with no promise of tomorrow.
"Oomphf!" the air burst out from his lungs, his legs suddenly without purchase, feet in the air as he came crashing down onto his chest. She had been quicker than he thought for a woman with a cracked rib, but he had underestimated her, and there was no one to blame but himself. He should have known what Nautolans were like, after all, he had trained a few. He went down in a heap, a crack was heard in his left shoulder and a stab of pain shot up his arm. He heard blaster bolts eviscerate and atomise the ashen sand beside him, missing him by the hairs on his back. Then his head hit the ground with a thud. All turned to darkness. Images stirred in his mind as he fell, tumbling and falling uncontrollably into an inky blackness more dark than that of the vacuum of space. An indescribable darkness that was all consuming. His subconscious mind refused to allow him to think he was dreaming, and the images that quickly began to formulate in his mind were as real as the sand he lay on in the physical, conscious world. It was known among the Jedi Healers that since Coruscant, Jedi Selah had not been the same. He suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. His nights asleep were filled with terrors in the dark that were not real, and one was encompassing him now.
Ekul Selah found the marble floors smooth under his feet, but cold and forgiving. The sound of cloudcutters and starscrapers crumbling away and ploughing into the planet was enough to jar his teeth. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was a place of solitude, peace and prosperity, but such days had finally dawned. The python of fear constricted itself around his heart as his stomach churned. He brushed past the maimed, mutilated and wounded Jedi that fled to safety - and their ultimate demise. An immense diversification of species that interlaced themselves into the stretching crowd that scarpered away from the ensuing fight at the temple steps. Entering into the vestibule he was greeted with a most diabolic sight. The fallen who could not be carried away remained. Their robes cast asunder, deep wounds festered where the molten streak of a plasma blade had extinguished their life. The One Sith were ruthless, and horribly efficient. Ekul, now nearing his late sixties, had to reconcile himself from these atrocities. He repeated to himself, quietly, as to not stir the dragon that sought out the Jedi, weeding them out from whatever hole they could find themselves hiding in. "There is no death, only the Force." It was the final mantra of the Jedi Code. He couldn't think of anything else to say. Nay, it was not time to think.
A slimed skinned nautolan hurtled past him, one of the few Jedi remaining on their feet unaided. In his hands was a large metallic pole, Ekul did not need to pry with the Force to feel the connection this creature had with the weapon. It was purposefully symbolic, a ying and yang. Jedi; protectors of peace. Lightsaber; taker of lives. For all their training, there was instances as these the taking of lives could not be avoided. He willed himself not to mutter that the Sith deserved it, even in the sight of the younglings that lay frozen in time, never again and forever unmoving. He was still a Jedi, and he owed the galaxy a duty. If that mean't his life, such was his destiny. He followed the Jedi, now far ahead, out of the mouth of the Jedi Temple and onto the steps where a fierce battle flowed. He watched as the nautolan burst into the fray, wielding a cerulean lightsaber pike with the deftness, flair and ingenuity unlike he had ever seen before. An expert of his craft. He moved without second thought for his own life and personal regard, upholding the deepest tenants of the Jedi philosophy. Duty before anything else. And their duty today was to spare others of the slaughter they would lay witness too.
An unnoticed trooper fired upon him. If not for the Force, Ekul would have been blasted there and then. His instincts kicked into gear. He found himself leaping aside as he relinquished himself to the cosmic energies. Allowing it to guide him. The marble steps beside his feet were reduced to a molten slag. He reached towards his belt and seized his lightsaber. Before the trooper, who was carefully lining up his shot, could fire again, Ekul activated the blade. With a fierce electronic growl, the energy shaft surged forth, as if eager to be free after all this time. He let the Force wash him towards the trooper, an invisible cascade that carried him down the steps and in a long arc toward the floor. Ekul swung the blade once, then reversed the stroke, slashing and melting through the troopers armour. The soldiers body slumped to the ground in a meaty thud. Ekul rose his chin from the gnarled corpse, looking vacantly at the army that marched onto the temple. There was no hope. They were helpless. A flurry of attacks caught his eye as another Jedi went down in a howl of pain. Ekul quickly battered away a handful of blaster bolts that moved his way, but someone was pulling their attention.
Ekul observed in open awe as the nautolan moved through the horde, his body moving in two and three directions at once, joints flexing, unlimited by human vertebral restraints. Who he touched went down. And those who went down, stayed down. Ekul realised it was true for what they said about the double-bladed lightsabers, 'they can make enemies stampede over each other running for cover.' Each attack following into the next was as fluid and effortless as his own blinking. He cleaved a path through the Sith troops, he was making himself a target. Distracting the enemy from the Jedi that needed to retreat - lest they die. The lightsaber pike twirled between the creatures aquatic fingers, slamming a disruptor bolt as though he were a baseball player. His pike short-circuited. The plasma vanished before the Jedi could even react. Ekul rushed to his defence, but it was too late. Three slugs slammed into the nautolan. One through his hip, another through his mid-section and a third grazed his shoulder. Fire burst to life, he ignited. And he shrieked. He let out an involuntary Force Bellow in pure agony. A deafening roar that washed out the noise of battle as the nautolan burned alive. Ekul couldn't help but sink to his knees and clasp his ears, pain erupted as his eardrum burst. Through blurred vision he watched the nautolan. He had dropped his Lightsaber Pike, fleeing, flailing, towards the Temple in retreat. His running became sluggish footsteps, the fire was tearing through his flesh. It was taking a toll on him. It was killing him, slowly, ever so slowly and painfully. In a show of considerable skill, the Jedi utilised the Force to expel the flames. He staggered forward. Slugs tore through his chest once more, a single solitary quiet gasp for air could be heard. Then he fell. He slammed against the steps like a carcass slapping on the floor of a slaughter house. Three holes in his chest. He remained unmoving.
"Awk!" Ekul Selah gasped aloud, then subsequently choked on thin air, producing a racking cough. He shot up from the uneven sandy dune and out of his nightmare. He heard something, blasters splattering the ground beside him, churning up the sand. He rolled up, glancing up into the sky to see a Nautolan had been launched high into the air. He realised he had been out, and as his mind came too, he knew it had only been a matter of a second or so. A micro sleep, but the night terror still held some sway over his thoughts. He went to push himself onto his feet to get out of harms way, but his left arm failed him, and he screamed in agony. It was dislocated. Pushing his knees under himself, he managed to pry himself up, his lightsaber remained behind as he beelined for cover. Each time his boots slammed into the soft ground, pain sparked and fluctuated through his shoulder, and it was only when he was behind cover did he grip his limp left arm with his right hand, and gritting his teeth, he pushed it back into place. He almost cursed and shouted, but kept his tongue quiet.
He looked around for any natural advantage, his hands resting on his knees as he crouched in cover. He could feel the Force lending him energy as his muscles grew weary with fatigue, and knew his opponent would be tiring too, at least he assumed so. He did not quite understand Nautolan biology. He moved an inch, and while the pain in his shoulder had gone there was something else. A burning, and he smelt cooked flesh. He looked over him, and his hip left forearm had taken a grazed shot to it. The flesh bubbled and had grown blackened, he would need bacta on it if he had any hope of keeping his arm. He could push past the pain, but he would not have as much use in his left arm, sure he could wave it around, but trying to punch someone to put too much strain on it would weaken him severely. He took a final glance around out from the view of his now-shattered spectacles, cracks in the glass adorned his prized possession. He dodged out from the boulder and for the next closest, right hand shooting out, and he tugged with his mind. Invisible vaporous tendrils of the Force reached out, gingerly gripping the hilt of his lightsaber and bringing it back into Ekul's hand.
The both of them were injured, and the thickly stiff breeze that blew a rich, hot gust of wind was not helping his situation. The robust yet elderly Jedi Selah was once more back behind cover, keeping himself low. He was not sure how high she had been thrown, but he knew that even double the height of your own height was enough to potentially crack bones, and when you reached triple, he had personally seen what happened to those that fell such a height. He tried not to brood too much on it. He needed to end it, and now before the either of them found themselves dead, and looking up at the cameras, he needed to know why they were watching. He had to figure this out before a life was lost this day, on whatever hellish planet he found himself on. He moved from out of cover, taking the form of Soresu in the event she tried to fire any more shots at him. He focused on the cosmic energies, pooling all his strength and knowledge of his art, forming an invisible rope of cosmic energies that would attempt to tighten itself around his opponents throat and raise her from the ground. It was a sub-ability of telekinesis, and known as force grip by the scholarly type. While not innately dark-side, it was frowned upon by the Jedi Order, by Ekul Selah was no conventional Jedi. He attempted to apply pressure, hoping that he could block her airways without killing her, and would only do this long enough to knock her unconscious from asphyxiation.
{ [member="Nei Laa"] }
