The Mandalorian Jedi

Chapter 1: An Unknown Foundling

Screams filled the hallways outside the room where many younglings stood, waiting for a master to tell them what was going on. The sound of blasters being fired silenced the screaming of Jedi being murdered. The younglings huddled away from the door, knowing that there was some kind of danger that was after them.

With a sudden, loud noise, the body of a Jedi padawan was thrown into the room. The corpse was covered in blaster holes. One of the small younglings screamed in terror, frightened for her life. A youngling turned toward the other that had screamed. "It's okay, we'll be alright. One of the master's will come save us." She comforted.

"How do you know that, Gaiah?" The youngling asked, "The clones are killing all of us." As the youngling said this, two Clone troopers stepped over the body of the dead Padawan and entered the room.

"They... have to." She responded. The clones opened fire on the younglings, killing them.

~

Gaiah quickly sat up from her bed. Gasping for air, she quickly feeled her right eye, brushing her fingertips over the deep scar that permanently blinded that eye six standard years ago.

She slowly calmed her breathing and looked at her surroundings: a shared room between her adoptive father and herself. She was at home on Lira San, not in the temple on Coruscant anymore. She was on the opposite side of the galaxy from Coruscant.

"You're okay," she whispered to herself, "You're safe now."

"Who're ya talkin' to, ad'ika?" Her adoptive father, Akaanir, asked in a tired voice. He decided to get up from his bed and turn the lights on since it was now morning. Akaanir was a Mandalorian who had taken in Gaiah shortly after Order 66. His muscular build, battle scars, and blonde hair made it obvious he was Mandalorian.

Gaiah shook her head, dismissing the memory. "Naas." She replied in Mando'a. When Akaanir had taken her in, he had made sure to teach her how to speak Mando'a and had taught her the way of the Mand'alor, thus making her his foundling and adopting her as his own, making her Mandalorian as well.

Akaanir stared at her for a moment. "Did it happen again?" He asked, knowing that she was still struggling with the events even after all this time.

She paused and ran her fingers through her dyed, fading, dark blue hair. "Yeah." She said simply.

The Mandalorian rummaged through what could barely be called a kitchen. He then threw a canteen of water at Gaiah. She caught it instinctively and took the cap off where she chugged the entire thing.

"Ba'gedet'ye." Akaanir responded in Mando'a, watching her drink all of the water. "You get to fetch water this time."

"Fair enough." She replied. She got up out of bed and exited the hut they lived in. The heat of Lira San hit her lightly tanned skin, and she stared up at the sky. There weren't any clouds today.

Lira San was a remote planet located in the galaxy's Wild Space region. Hidden behind a treacherous nebula formed from an imploded star cluster, it was the original homeworld of the Lasat species. Though many Lasat dwelled on Lasan, millions of Lasat remained on Lira San, but their existence was forgotten by the people of Lasan, who knew of Lira San only through an ancient prophecy.

Barely anyone knew of Lira San anymore due to the extermination of the Lasat species on Lasan by the Galactic Empire. Shortly after the extermination of the Jedi, Akaanir and Gaiah needed a place to stay to hide from the Empire, and Gaiah just so happened to know a planet that few knew of: Lira San. She had learned of this planet from the late Jedi Master, Jaro Tapal, a Lasat.

Gaiah breathed in the fresh air outside the hut and focused on clearing her mind. She heard footsteps behind her and spun around to see Akaanir standing in front of her with a long spear made of beskar. He tossed it to her.