Jedi Knight Fiach Dubh’s Missions

Fiach Dubh

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“You can make it up to me now,” Fiach said, frowning. “You let the Jedi down once. Do not do it again.”

“Never, never, never,”
Creft said, shaking his head. “Unless there is terrible danger,” Relo added quickly.

“This shouldn’t be dangerous for you,” Fiach said. “All I want you to do is let me hide in your shipment of weapons. I will find a way to sneak out after you have left.”

“Ah,”
Divad said. “That would be after we get paid, then?”

“Yes,”
Fiach said impatiently. “I just need a way into the building.”

Divad, Creft, and Relo exchanged glances. “Excuse me so much for asking this,” Divad said. “But what is in it for us?”

“In other words, it sounds risky,”
Creft explained helpfully. “And there’s no reward for our risk.”

“Well, I’m not going to pay you,”
Fiach said. She fixed her lilac eyes and her new-found commanding gaze on the three, who squirmed at her scrutiny. “Is that what you are suggesting?”

“Of course not,”
Relo said stoutly. “Unless, of course, getting into the fortress is very important to you – important enough to pass along a few credits...” Divad’s voice trailed off when Fiach continued to stare at him. “It was just a thought,” he added weakly.
 

Fiach Dubh

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“I have a number of reasons you should help me,” Fiach said, trying to keep the impatience from her voice. She did not have time for this delay. “First, because I believe you owe me. And second, because Jedi make better friends than enemies. And you three can use friends, I think.”

“That is true, since everyone despises us,” Relo agreed sadly.

“All right, we’ll help you,” Divad decided. “But wait until we’re out of the building before you start any Jedi saber rattling.”

Fiach paced around the gravsled hauler, where the three had been loading weapons. There was no exterior shell on a gravsled, just a platform and a windscreen. “But how can I hide? They’ll see me at once. Don’t you have a covered vehicle, like a skiff?”

“We could barely afford the gravsled,” Divad said. “But let me show you something. First, we have to unload the weapons. Creft, Relo!”

Divad, Creft, and Relo unloaded the handful of weapons that had already been placed onto the gravsled. Then Divad pressed a lever, and a hidden compartment in the gravsled slid open. It was cleverly disguised so that it appeared to be part of the vehicle’s shell.

“We occasionally have the need for secrecy in transporting objects,” Divad explained.

“You mean smuggling,” Fiach said and she peered into the opening. “Not much room, but I think I can fit.”

“You have to hide first. Then we load the weapons,” Creft explained.

“That means you have to unload the weapons before I can get out,” Fiach observed with a frown. “Not the ideal situation. You’ll have to offer to unload the weapons as soon as we get inside.”

Divad did not look happy at this, but he nodded. “You’d better get inside or we’ll be late for our appointment.”

Fiach folded her long, elegant body into the small compartment and lay flat.

Tup’s cheerful face loomed above her. “I’m going to shut the panel now. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of ventilation.”

“I hope so,” Fiach said softly as the panel slid closed just millimetres from her upturned face.
 

Fiach Dubh

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For long minutes, Fiach listened to Divad, Creft, and Relo loading the weapons, quarreling and fussing all the way. She thumped on the top of the panel. “Hurry up!” she shouted.

“Yes, yes, we’re hurrying. Only a few minutes more,” Divad called. Fiach closed her eyes. She was known for being patient but every second of delay was frustrating.

The gravsled ride was smooth while they were outside, but Divad, Creft, and Relo had trouble manoeuvring the craft through the narrow hallways of the fortress. Each time Creft slammed into a wall, Fiach was thrown against the sides of the compartment and the weapons rattled noisily overhead.

“That’s enough!” a commanding voice said. “Just stop! You can unload where you are.”

With a last shuddering lurch, the repulsorlift engine lowered the gravsled to the floor.

“You can see that we only brought you the finest weapons,” Divad said.

“These are your finest? I’d hate to see the rest.”

“If you pardon my saying this,” Creft said respectfully. “There isn’t much choice to be had.”

“I suppose so.”

“There’s the matter of our fee...” Divad said.

“Unload them and I’ll pay you the credits,” the voice said. “Quickly!”
 

Fiach Dubh

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Overhead, Fiach heard the noise of the weapons being unloaded.

“Watch out!” Divad called. “You just...”

“I didn’t! Creft...”

“Don’t pull that way, push...”

“I have it!”

“No, you don’t!”

“I do!”

“No, you...” A screeching noise and a great crash sent the gravsled shaking.

“Woosh,” Relo said in a small voice. “Guess I didn’t.”

“Do it this way,” Divad shouted.

“If you didn’t shout like that, I wouldn’t be so confused. Just let me–”

The gravsled rose slightly in the air. There was a crash. “Turn off the engine! You’re tipping it!”

“DON'T TOUCH THAT!” Divad and Creft screamed at the same moment. It was too late. Relo hit the hidden lever, and the compartment door sprang open. Fiach tumbled out onto the floor. She rolled away from the repulsorlift engine as the gravsled hovered a few inches above the floor.

“Jedi!” a man screamed, he was flanked by a number of droids. “Attack!” he shouted, backing away from the gravsled. “Shoot to kill!”
 

Fiach Dubh

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Tup’s face went white, and he dropped to the floor. Divad and Creft jumped off the gravsled. The droids trained their blasters on the group.

Fiach reached for her lightsaber. Blaster fire erupted. She jumped in front of the smugglers – they had many faults, but they did not deserve to die.

Deflecting an incoming bolt of energy, Fiach took out a droid. Then she leaped, knocking out two droids as she landed and whirling to deflect fire from a third.

With a sharp command, the man ordered four droids to surround him. His back was to the wall.

Fiach deftly attacked, slashing through the metal bodies of the droids while she whirled and dived, her lightsaber a blur. The young girl’s footwork was impeccable.
 

Fiach Dubh

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The man had taken advantage of the distraction to slip out from behind the droids that were guarding him and dash inside the building. He disappeared into a turbolift.

Fiach dealt with the remaining droids and shouted to the smugglers. “I’d get out whilst the going is good,” she said and headed inside the fortress.

She did not trust the turbolift. No doubt it would have been sabotaged. So, she took the stairs. and burst out onto the roof just in time to see a craft rise in the air. She saw the body of the Jedi she’d come to rescue in the seat next to the mysterious man. He smiled and waved a split second before the craft shot into the upper atmosphere.

She had failed her Jedi companion again.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Fiach trawled the computer records in the fortress. It seemed it had been abandoned and was no longer to be used after the weapons deal had been completed.

She found virtually nothing of use, but virtually nothing was not the same as absolutely nothing. There was a recent access to an otherwise innocent record. A planet. Was it a long shot? Yes, but it was all she had to go on.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Her destination was a large planet in a busy system, but it was easy to find a ship making a direct run. After landing at the same spaceport, Fiach set out to find her lost comrade.

But before she could leave the hangar, an official strode out to meet her.

“Jedi business?”

So much for working undercover! “Yes,” she replied with a smile and a bow.

“Of course. But first you must fill out registry information. All foreigners must do so. You will have to go to the Municipal Building, Sector A, Level 43, Room 4329ß. After you fill out the information, you may proceed.”

“But that will take too much time!” Fiach objected. “I need to make swift progress – a life is at stake.”

The blank face that stood in front of her told the young Jedi she was wasting her time in trying to argue.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Fiach followed signs to a soaring building and trailed directions through a series of gleaming corridors. There were stairs, escalators and moving walkways to traverse and she made progress, albeit slowly.

To Fiach’s relief, she finally arrived at the designated room and stepped through a doorway into a partially completed area. Small gravsleds with construction materials littered the room, and through the open grid-work of the ceiling Fiach saw ducts and wires.

“The Registry office is overcrowded. We had to build a new office for the overflow,” a woman behind a makeshift desk said.

“There are no terminals,” Fiach said, stepping over a bucket full of rivets.

“We’ll still register you,” the official assured her. “Just a little slower. Just go to the interview, third door on your left, I must go. I have an emergency to attend.”

“Wait,” Fiach said.

“Sorry, must go,” the official said. “I’m being signalled. Emergency!” She turned and almost ran down the hall.

Fiach’s growing wariness turned to concern. She felt a disturbance in the Force that alarmed her. Prepared for anything now, her hand instinctively hovered over her lightsaber hilt.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Cautiously, she opened the door as instructed. Instead of a private room, she found herself in a partially built office space. There were beams overhead and a durasteel frame. Only two walls had been constructed.

She just had time to see a shadow flicker, nothing more. Fiach stepped back, lightsaber activated, as a familiar face suddenly flew from a beam overhead straight toward her.
 

Fiach Dubh

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It wasJasih Praxt and if anything he was faster than before. Fiach knew she could not move as quickly as him – despite speed and agility usually being her own assets in these circumstances. She knew she would not be able to defeat him with quickness.

Cleverness. Acrobatics. Cunning. Flexibility. He had everything Fiach had been taught was important in battle. He certainly held the advantage. But fortunately surprise was no longer counted amongst his weaponry.

In this partially enclosed space, she was too vulnerable. She must get out in the open. Fiach drove the Darksider back with a furious flurry of moves, forcing him to concentrate on defending himself.

Then, when he was slightly off balance, she vaulted to the top of the unfinished wall. Balancing for a moment, she leaped down into the construction site beyond.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Here there were obstacles - gravsleds, drills, large piles of metal poles, blocks of stone, a durasteel skeleton of the exterior walls of the building and a deep, muddy pit. She could use them for defence and attack.

A moment later, the Darksider was beside her and so she leaped down further. He too jumped down, landing lightly, already readying his saber for another attack.

His lips curled back from his teeth. “I’ve been waiting for this,” he said.

He was ready. Every sense was alert, every particle of his being focused on the battle ahead. He had to be.

But by now, so was Fiach.

The perfect attack begins with your attention. Every pebble can be an obstacle or an opportunity. Hone your focus. Add speed, timing, strategy, surprise. Do not forget the Force is with you.

Fiach leaped to her opponent’s left side. She used a technique called ‘false attack.’ She knew she would not win with this strategy, but she did not mean to. She wanted to draw him forward toward her.

Her lightsaber whirled and blurred as she moved, deflecting blows that were aimed at her and she gave herself to the Force to ensure she could keep up.
 

Fiach Dubh

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The ground was treacherous with mud and debris, but she used the Force to aid every step. Fiach leaped on a pyramid of stone blocks and used the momentum to flip in mid-air and come at his left.

But instead of stepping backward, he stepped forward, an unexpected move for anyone but the Darksider.

Good. Fiach had expected it, planned for it. The long duel of months ago had been analysed and replayed many times. If there was one thing Soresu was good for, it was analysing your opponent’s strengths, weaknesses and patterns. She twisted in mid-air, adding momentum to her leap. She landed behind him. Now his back was to a sinkhole filled with mud and water. There was no telling if it was shallow or metres deep.

She drove him relentlessly backward. She saw his lip curl with anger as he sent his saber flying again, sending straight at Fiach. She slashed downward and deflected it – although it came within millimetres of burning her flesh.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Suddenly the blaster was in his hand. She had only caught a blur of movement as he reached for it. But again, she was ready, her lightsaber spinning in a continuous arc to deflect the fire. The Force surged in her, making every movement sure.

But she could not concentrate on everything at once. She lost her connection to the ground. Chips of stone lay around the muddy surface, and they were slippery. Her foot slid and she lost her balance. She caught herself before she fell but her loss of concentration cost her.

He moved to her right and charged, firing as he went. Fiach slid on the slippery stones, struggling to regain her footing as she deflected the furious round of fire, twisting her body.

For the first time, she was seriously worried. He was out-matched and she knew it. And she could not meet the dual challenge of the saber and the blaster. And she could not get close enough to disarm him.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Doubt is your greatest enemy. How many times had she heard that in class? Yet she knew deep within that this doubt was justified. With a saber as well as a blaster, he could keep her running while he remained still. Sooner or later she would tire. Her opponent knew this territory well and he had set the trap. And she had walked right into it.

All of these things roared through Fiach’s mind even as she regained her footing and faked a pass, forcing him to retreat a few steps. But she knew it was a temporary victory.

The hardest decision, a Jedi Master had told her once, is to walk away. She had not understood that at the time. Until now. It went against everything she’d learned about battle, everything she was as a Jedi. Or did it? The missing Jedi was her first concern. The Darksider was not part of her mission. Which meant there was no reason to fight.

Behind the Darksider, tall girders framed a wall of the building.

She needed a few seconds, that was all.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Concentrating all her will, she reached out a hand toward a fusion-cutter lying on the ground. She felt the Force move, and the fusion-cutter slid along the mud and then flew with sudden momentum straight toward the Darksider.

Surprised, he slashed at it with his saber. Fiach felt the power in her legs as she leaped straight over his head toward the girder above. She landed, slipping just a bit from the mud on her boots. But she knew she would regain her balance. She bent her legs and leaped again, this time to a higher girder.

Far below, the blaster fired. It could not find its mark as she leaped to the next high girder. From here, she leapfrogged her way down, out of his reach at the far side of the site.

His howl of rage rang in her ears as she raced away.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Fiach imagined many Padawans could not understand leaving the scene of a battle. They could not imagine a situation in which they would give up. But then they had not been in as many battles as Fiach. They wer more used to the training rooms at the Temple. When they had lost, they had bowed to their opponent with grace.

What they did not yet realise, was that even for the best Jedi, there were battles that could not be won. Training and experience had taught Fiach that. As skilled a fighter as you were, surprises in battle came often. You could train for them, but you could not predict them. Sometimes you just had to cut your losses.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Unsure how much of the trap was actual local red-tape versus the Darksider’s machinations, Fiach did not wait around to find out. Instead she headed back to the space-port and decided that, with no other leads, asking questions was the best bet.

And oddly enough, it paid off. It seems two men arrived and quickly sold a ship that matched the description of the one Fiach saw. And, as luck would have it, they then sought a ride to another part of the planet.

The pilot she was speaking to only paid attention because the man that did all of the talking kept quarrelling about how much he was prepared to pay.

“I told them to take an air taxi. Saw them heading toward the taxi platform.”

“Could you take me there?” Fiach asked, “Their destination, not the taxi rank.”

“All right. It’s only a little out of my way,” the pilot said. “If it’s Jedi business, then I can always help.”
 

Fiach Dubh

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As she boarded the transport and took off, Fiach wondered if this was another trap? But she sensed no hidden agenda and so trusted the Force to keep out of harm’s way. Before long, the pilot slowed the engines and began landing procedures.

Fiach exited the craft and was hit with a blast of hot wind.

She struck out over the dunes. Fiach saw no sign of any settlement, and wondered if she’d been dropped off in the right spot. But up ahead, she suddenly caught the glint of metal. It was an air taxi.

She ran ahead, the sand sucking at her footsteps. The vehicle was settled into the sand, but did not appear to have crashed. As she got closer, Fiach saw a bundle of clothing in the front seat.

Her heartbeat tripped. It was not a bundle of clothes. It was a pilot. He’d been strangled.
 

Fiach Dubh

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Barely breathing, Fiach walked closer to search the rest of the ship. She braced herself for the sight of the Jedi’s lifeless body.

But the air taxi was empty except for the pilot. She anxiously scanned the area around her. Nothing was visible, but there had to be somewhere to have travelled all this way for. Unless it was a ship? She rejected this thought, it made no sense to come all this way – there had to be another solution.

The wind meant there were no footsteps, but Fiach knew there was more than one way to follow someone. Closing her eyes, she sensed with the Force. Each Jedi had a unique signature in the Force and Fiach sensed Kenna’s. It was faint, but it was there.

She followed it and soon rounded a dune that led to a canyon. She continued along the trail until she reached a sheer rock wall that circled the canyon. When she got to a sharp turning, she stopped.

As she turned the corner, she faced into a howling wind. Pellets of sand peppered any exposed skin. She pulled her hood tightly around her face and kept one hand on the wall so that she would not get lost. He could only see a metre or two ahead.

Then she dropped to her knees, somehow instinctively – as if it were some echo of a past action. As her fingers trailed along the rock, she felt a small opening carved into the canyon.
 
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