STAR WARS: Shadows

Chapter I

Erin woke into a daze, his head was ringing. His eyes were open but his vision clouded. He rubbed at his eyes to no effect. For a moment he envisioned his life blind but just as if the Force heard his panic his sight began to return gradually. The ringing however was still muffling sound.

Erin began to take in his surroundings. Around him seem to be a mist of dust and ash. Shapes ran around him and as the seconds past they all started to become more clear and what he saw confused him further. Jedi trying to gather themselves just like him being shot down dead from somewhere he couldn't see. His sight hadn't fully recovered but at that moment he dropped to the floor and rolled towards debris, blaster fire missing him barely and hide behind a rather large piece. "What is going on?!" He thought. Mere minutes ago he had be walking towards the Temple gardens then the next second he had heard screaming and blaster fire and then... a flash. They were under attack. The Separatists must have invaded Coruscant. But so soon... so soon after their failed attempt to kidnap the Chancellor and the invasion of the planet? If that even was the case how had they breached the temple? Just as he allowed himself to speculate the situation he felt intense heat on his left thigh. His robe, tattered and damaged was on fire. Instead of trying to put it out he simply tore the robe from his body, leaving him in his undergarments. "The force shall be my armour" he thought calmly to himself in his masters voice. He had slipped up, this was an emergency situation. What was the point in speculating? He had wasted time and in these types of situations every second counted. If his Master had taught him anything about handling a crisis it was to act on instinct and trust in the force (which to her were one in the same). He needed to take each situation as it came and not waste thoughts on speculation, he needed to focus.

He could hear blaster fire and the sound of advancing enemies getting closer, it didn't sound like droids though. A hoard of droids sounds like clanking, these
Footsteps were humanoids in heavy armour or suits. He bent down and thumbled in his robe for his Lightsaber. Finding it in the smoking robes he grabbed the wooden hilt and pulled it out but did not ignite it. Instead he peered over the debris he was hiding behind slightly, realising it was a piece of temple column.

A group of Republic clones troopers were advancing on the position. They were sending fire into the mist that was slowly dissipating, gunning down unsuspecting Jedi. Erin was horrified, what was he seeing? The clones and the Jedi had fought side by side In a War they had both be thrown into. He decided it was Irrelevant at this moment in time. These Clones right here in front of him were slaying defenceless opponents and he needed to do something. Just at that moment he heard a Saber ignite to his right, his head snapped to see a young Paduwan deflecting blasts. Erin fixated in watching her and thought she was rather good. She had good footing, kept her eyes ahead and moved like she was in water, so graceful with her  blue Sabre. After a successful twenty seconds a shot from a clone broke through her defences and hit her in the face sending her straight to the floor, dead. Erin took a second to centre himself and began to rise from behind his hiding place. Just as his body began to rise a hand pulled him back down and dragged him away. 

He scrambled trying to release himself from the grip of the stranger, but they were strong and continued to pull him away from the fire fight. His hearing was slowly returning and he began to realise a full scale siege must be happening within the Temple right now. As he was pulled further away from the skirmish he began to see more Debris, dead Jedi and Clones sprawled across the Temple floor. Suddenly the stranger pulled him round and propped him up against a column still intact and he instantly recognised her face.

"Darla!" He said coughing immediately after.

"Erin, we need to get off Coruscant!" She told him

"Don't talk!" She barked at him just as he began to open his mouth. Erin had known Darla since he had been a Paduwan learner. She was from Ryloth and like so many Twi'leks before her she had been born a slave. Because of her rare skin condition that gave her purple skin golden sparkles she was seen as a prize for slavers. She was freed when Mace Windu found her on a freighter belonging to Jabba the Hutt (whom he had been investigating) being transported to the Crime Lord. Windu had sensed a strong Force presence within the five year old girl and had liberated her from the clutches of the Jabba's Bounty Hunters. He took her back to the Jedi Temple and began training her for a short time and found her to be a skilled fighter.