STAR WARS: Fugitive

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Okay, this will not be completely impossible, thought Thera. Finding herself surrounded by a large, crowded mix of Humans and Duros, she stretched out her feelings in the Force to try to measure how collectively hostile they were. She had followed a nimble Duros into the warehouse, finding it mostly empty, but then something yanked her into a large clearing inside, where she now stood, the center of hostile attention.

“Well, if it isn’t Thera Tykos,” shouted a Human, “or is it Darth Thera by now?”

Thera didn’t know the man, except for his name, Zerrod Goran, but she could recall having to defeat him before in order to be recruited by the Sith. He was force-sensitive, she remembered, creative, but sloppy.

“Do you remember me?” he grinned at her. “I’m ready for you this time,” he said, calmly, daring and taunting. “I hear your brother’s back in town, too. He’s not real happy with you right now.”

Jev is here! she thought. That cannot be right, she wondered. She felt the Force rush through her as random shouts began, and then she was knocked from her feet to the ground by a flying fifty gallon drum. Realizing the effectiveness of the distraction with his words, she rolled along with the drum, directing it out of the way with the Force.

Thera came to a stop, and someone immediately pulled her hair while a couple of Duros grabbed each of her legs, and two Humans her arms, pulling on them as if intent on pulling her apart, and someone wrested away her lightsabers telekinetically. She struggled to use the pain in her joints the way her brother had taught her, and began to feel strength return to her. She twisted her body violently forcing each hold on her to readjust. Seizing the moment, she grabbed limbs of the Humans with both hands, reaching for pressure points. She managed to find one, weakening the assailant almost instantly. She shrieked and used the Force to hurl the assailant into the Duros pulling her hair. The other three, sensing her growing advantage with her struggling, began to run keeping their three points of her body outstretched, dragging her toward Zerrod, who seemed to be their leader.

The shouting continued as he came into view, and she managed to notice him holding a vibrosword smiling real big at her. She closed her eyes and balled her fist. Her free arm burned with pain from friction against the ground as she used it to elevate her head as she was being dragged. Stretching out her feelings, the energy of everything around her in the Force began to materialize in her mind. She felt Zerrod as he leapt high through the air at her.

Thera opened her eyes, tightened her abdominal muscles, and tensed her body knowing her assailants would hold her tighter while her free arm shot out toward Zerrod, closing above her to strike, and sent a nudge with the Force to shunt his attack safely away. She managed to shift her center of gravity as she moved, the change in the angle of her body surprising the two Duros holding her legs. They looked back to see what changed, only to feel Thera’s shins against their jaws in the next instant, forcing them to free her entirely. The two Duros, knocked off balance only slightly, quickly regained fighting stances. Thera spun on her back kicking her legs and swept the feet out from under the Human left holding her other arm captive.

Sensing determination in the crowd of thugs around her, Thera leapt high into the air, arcing over Zerrod, placing him between her and the rest of the combatants. She landed atop a large, metal crate that began moving. She managed to maintain her balance but noticed several smaller objects – boxes, droid parts, and random tools – sailing toward her telekinetically from many different directions, but targeted at varying elevations. They expect me to jump, she managed to realize, seeing many of the objects cutting off any useful trajectory.