Kaira, Donos, Miranda

The Knights of Odan-Urr were quick to recover. The Dark Jedi may have thrashed them, but if there was one thing Jedi had proven over the centuries, it was that you had to kill every last one, or they would just return. Much the same could be said of the Sith and the many off-shoots of their perverted Philosophy, but it was especially true of the Jedi Order.

The Jedi Council deemed it prudent to learn more of their “allies”. By sending small groups of Knights to the Brotherhood’s capitol, they hoped to learn some insight into the thoughts and movements of the Dark Jedi. Not everything went according to plan however. Someone had warned someone else the Jedi were coming and had decided to make the first move.

With their shuttle brought down in the omnipresent twilight of Antei’s Wasteland, the knights found themselves hunted by a lone adversary. He was strong, he was cunning, and he wanted these Jedi dead.

*On the way to Anti*

The hatch door opened to the cockpit, signaling that the strawberry blonde haired human known as, Kaira, to step up to the co-pilots seat. Putting on the head-set, she started to check the sensors to see if any other ship were near theirs.

“Sa, I have asked Miranda to go make sure the cargo bay is in an organized state.”

“Thank you, Kaira. I don’t understand why they didn’t send us with your apprentice; at least he could have helped with the piloting.”

With a shrug from the female they fell into a comfortable silence.

*Ooroo Abbey*

The gand Jedi High Councillor was sitting in The Garden of Meditative Reflection when his second in command, Drodik, came in and walked up to him; giving a bow before he spoke.

“Ji, do you think it is wise to send those three on a Mission with Jedi Knight Sa in charge?”

“Yes I do. As you said he is a knight; so, he needs to be in charge sometimes for missions. Any ways, Kaira is there to help make sure it runs smoothly.”

“I’m sorry for doubting your decision, it’s just I have a bad feeling about this.”

With a bow Drodik left the presence of Ji.

*Jedi Ship*

“Sa, I’ll take first watch; you go and get some sleep.”

“Are you sure? Well, if you are then okay the ship is in your hands.”

With a nod the kel dor got up and left to go get some rest. Before heading to bed, though, Sa checked on their youngest member; making sure she was warm enough, knowing space can be a bit cold. Seeing that the other human was asleep on a bench, Sa went and grabbed a blanket and slipped it over her to keep her warm. After doing his daily good deed the kel dor went into a meditative state to rest before his watch.

After SaOol went off to rest there was a call that came in from there house leader, Ji. The plans had changed in there mission just a bit. He wanted them to drop Miranda off at the shadow Adcamy before they landed on Antei. It would give her time to train, but also gave them an in on what was going on with the other young members of the brotherhood. Her job would be simple compared to what Ji had in store for her and SaOol.

---------

Just as Kaira came into orbit around Lyspair, SaOol rejoined Kaira at the controls. “Lets get Miranda dropped off so we can get on with our own mission.” She said in a soft voice.


SaOol only nodded as he took the ship. As they touched down Kaira opened the door of the ship to let Miranda leave. “Here's your stop Miranda, study hard. See you in a few weeks.”


The young Journeyman didn’t say anything, only kind of gave a deep sigh as she flung her bag over her shoulder. Then she walked down the ramp off the ship. It was about this time SaOol saw the flashing lights on the controls.


“Some things not quit right back there, I am going to check it out.” Kaira only nodded after him.

While SaOol went to check on the ship, Kaira started to plot there course to the planet Antei. It could not have been more than five minutes when she heard such a string of profanities coming from the back of the ship. She thought for sure SaOol was going to tell her that the ship was going to need some heavy repairs as he stalked back into the copit. No repairs might have been better then what she saw when she turned to greet him.


“Where they hell did you drag her up?” Kaira said as she looked right into the face of none other then Lelila.


“She decided to hide out and tag along with us. How ever she could have gotten her self killed with where she hid her body. If we took off she would have been killed. Hiding out in the landing gear.”


Kaira laughed a bit. She remembered being as head strong as Lelila. Always to be in the middle of things. “Well if she is here lets put her to work. She can get our bags ready. Looks like your along for the ride and you better not get in our way Lelila.”


The archpriste knew this was SaOol mission to lead; but now that they had Lelila with them, she hoped that SaOol would be able to keep that girl out of trouble. Lelila was a handful, and Kaira only knew that because of her time as Rollmaster and now her battle team leader. It seemed Kaira couldn’t find a time when she wasn’t with the girl as of late. That left Kaira with a heavy sigh as they took off from the acdamy to head to Antei.

----------

Soon, the trio was in a orbit around Antei as they awaited clearance to land. The Brotherhood knew of them coming, so, she was sure it wouldn’t take long for an answer. She looked over at SaOol who seemed bored.


“Don’t worry, this mission will be over before you know it, SaOol; then we can head back to New Typhon and have a good laugh.” That was Kaira's hope really.


Just then, the ship rocked violently to the right; from somewhere on the planet, shots were fired at their small craft. They had not hit them yet, but Kaira was sure that it was only because this was a small warning as to what was to come. What was going on down there? They had been told to come and they had.


“What is going on? We were invited here, were we not?” Kaira asked softly, so as not show she was a bit panicked.


“I am not sure we were invited so much as the Jedi council wanted us to go to learn more about the Dark Knights we have aligned ourselves with.”


“So what you’re saying is there might be some one down there that does not want us anywhere near the planet?”


Right then Kaira felt the ship rock as it was hit by fighter. “We are going down so I say we find a good place to take it down before we crash."


Kaira called back to Lelila to make sure the girl was ready for what was about to happen. “Lelila, the ship's going down take cover and try not to get hurt when we crash.”


Sa Ool only nodded as he took control of the mission and the ship. He would not let them be killed on his first mission in charge. That wouldn’t look good, now would it? He thought to himself. They were going down but no where near the dark brotherhood's city that lay on the planet. It would be a long hike with someone hunting them, he was sure of that. The young knight wondered what the other team member must be thinking right now. She was still in the back of the ship far as he knew making sure their supplies were ready for when they landed.

Lelila grabbed on to some loose netting when Kaira called back to her. What the stang is going on? she thought. She heard Sa Ool shouting orders and talking about the diagnostics of the ship. She didn't know how long it was before they made a rough landing. Lelila cried out as she tumbled over one of the crates that contained their rations; she would have sworn that she had popped her shoulder, but she was able to move it.

"You alright back there, Lelila?" Kaira called.

"Fine," Lelila replied. "Just a little bruised. What about you guys?"

There was a groan from Kaira, and Lelila guessed that she was trying to stand up; Sa Ool chuckled a little. "She's a little disoriented; she hit her head on the console."

Lelila got up, steadying herself on her shaky legs. Someone lowered the ramp from the cockpit, and Lelila grabbed her weapons: bow and arrows, and her armory saber, which she hooked onto her belt. Sa Ool stepped out to inspect the damage.

"How bad is the damage?" Kaira asked, walking unsteadily toward Lelila. There was a fresh bruise starting to appear just above her temple.

"Bad," Sa Ool replied. "We're going to have to get supplies from the village on our way back to fix it. Lelila, how much supplies do we have?"

"Enough to last us a few weeks," Lelila replied. "A month tops."

"Then I guess we better get going, then," Kaira replied.

A couple of hours later, all three Jedi were carrying packs across the barren land. It looked like Kaira was being affected the most, though; probably from the concussion she had. There was a point though, as they were walking beside a cliff, when Kaira collapsed from exhaustion. "Is she alright?" Lelila asked.

"She needs to rest," Sa Ool said. "We'll stop here for the night."

Lelila looked up at the sky, it was nearly nightfall, and they had to set up their tents and get a fire started.


-----------------


Sa Ool had taken first watch that night. It was his mission, and he was determined to make it through without any trouble.

"Sa," Lelila called quietly to him. He turned to face the young Protector; she should not have come. "Do you feel like we're being watched?"

"Go to sleep, Lelila," Sa Ool replied, ignoring her question. "We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"It's just a question, the least you could do is answer it," Lelila muttered, shifting slightly in her sleeping bag.

Sa Ool sighed. "No, I don't. Why?"

"It's just that... do I really have to say it?"

"Say what?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Go to sleep, Lelila," Sa Ool said irritably. "Nothing's going to happen."

"So you say," Lelila muttered almost inaudibly.

"What?"

"Nothing. Night."

---------------

Not too far from where the trio was, someone hid behind a huge boulder. He saw that the Kel Dor was on watch, and almost did something that would alert him. He had been hoping to dispose of the Jedi by tonight- but there was also something else that had caught his eye. He had heard that only two Jedi were supposed to be here- they had dropped off the third on the moon- so where did this one come from?

It didn't matter to him. He would kill them all anyway. But, if he could get to the younger one, he could lure the other two into his trap.

A comfortable glow was coming from the fire; creating just enough light to see a little bit better in the darkness. Looking over a planetary map of Antei to locate where they were and where they needed to be, Sa was getting a bit frustrated. Putting the map away, Sa stood up and stretched a bit while taking a look around at his surroundings; make sure nothing was around that could hurt his fellow Jedi.

?“Humans why do they sleep like they are curled up like a dog?” Sa speaking to no one while watching his two counterparts, while his natural curiosity for humans on and why act they way they do when they are awake or asleep came on; such as Lelila, who was curled on her side, her knees almost up to her chest, and her head resting on her forearms.

Meanwhile behind a large boulder a shadowy figure was watching the Kel Dor seeing what the Jedi would do. Pulling out a blaster and aiming it at the youngest jedi to take her out first. With a pull of the trigger a blaster bolt was shot off for only Sa to jump forward and deflect the bolt with his lightsaber. Effectively it wakes up the two female humans only to have Lelila seeing a purple blade hovering over her.

“Come out whoever you are we know you are there now.” Stated Sa Ool

The other two jedis activated there lightsabers to get be on the bit of defense in case any more shots came out at them while there assassin slowly walked out towards them. With his blaster pointed at them and a small remote like object in his apposite hand.

“Who are you, and why are you attacking us?” claimed the oldest Jedi

“It doesn’t matter who I am. Just so you know you’re going to be dead and are not going to make it to see the Dark Council.” came the reply of their raspy voiced assassin.

With frustration running through the Kel Dor, he rashly stuck out his weak hand, and summoned the assassin' s weapons to him- including the small black device in the assassin's left hand.

"Idiot Jedi!" The assassin laughed.

"You do not know what you just did by having that remote leave my hand." After the assassin had spoken those words, all four of them heard a loud BOOM, and rocks started to tumble down toward them from a nearby cliff.

In that moment of complete chaos, Kaira had her life flash though her mind- there were choices that floated through it as well. Only a year ago, the choice would have been easy in this moment; she would have taken off to save herself without a second thought to her team mates. Now, though, the archpriestess had friends who trusted her as she trusted them. There was more to lose as a Jedi then as a dark Jedi. The assassin was gone, but Kaira couldn’t help but think they had not seen the last of him.

“Sa Ool get Lelila out of here,” Kaira said as she stood in front of them facing the rock slide.

The plan that formed in her mind in that moment was a quick option, and she hoped that it would give Sa Ool enough time to get Lelila out of harm’s way. The Jedi's eyes closed as she put all of her focus into the force as she put up a barrier to deflect the lager rocks. This would only last a few moments, she knew; before long, she would be so tired, she couldn’t keep this up.

Without question the Kel Dor grabbed the young Jedi, Lelila, and took off with her. Sa knew full well that Kaira would not be able to deflect the slide for long or all of it. She was doing this to keep them all from being buried alive. As they ran to the right side of the slide, one of the smaller rocks deflected off the barrier and flew right at Lelila. The pair was so focused on their escape, they never saw the rouge rock that was hurtling towards Lelila. The rock hit her wrist that held her lightsaber knocking it free of her hand. The saber went flying- only to have a lager rock fall right on top of it, smashing it into small pieces.

“Be glad that was your saber and not you. Keep running.” Sa said to Lelila.

“But Kaira... what about Kaira?” Lelila asked, worried about her friend.

“Kaira is a strong Jedi she will be fine.”

Moments later, Kaira dropped the barrier and took off with speed only an Equite could muster. As she reached the other two she dropped to the ground panting. She was drained and she hoped they did not meet that Assassin any time soon. The woman lay on the ground half-awake as she tried to allow her body to rest.

“Kaira, Kaira….. Get up Kaira we have to go…..” Kaira could hear them calling to her but she was in no shape to move right now.

“Lelila how is your wrist do you need it healed?” Sa asked as he tried to deal with Kaira's collapse; although, he knew full well she just needed time to recharge.

“It is sore but not broke you help Kaira.”

“She is just worn out; she used too much energy to keep us all safe. We have to move however, I will just have to carry her.”

Kaira didn’t argue as she would normally about being carried- it made her feel as if she was a weak female- yet, she was so out of it right now she would not question it. They could not stay here out of fear of being attacked; they had to keep moving.