Silis was following a large Imperial force. Apparently they were following a single target, most likely a Jedi or two. They were having obvious trouble catching them, and if he did, there would probably be a large reward for him. The Trandoshan liked large rewards. Besides, even if he didn't catch the big prize, there was the possibility of decent supplies to scavenge after the battle.<|im_end|>
It had been months since the fall of the Jedi Temple on Ossus, and Jaria Kathson had finally started to feel safe. She had been away on assignment with Master Krona when the attack had occurred, but both of them had felt the great disturbance in the Force as so many of their friends had died at the hands of the new Sith Empire. They had fled to the out-of-the-way system of Alus to try and hide until they could find other Jedi that had escaped. The Force had guided them to Alus 4, where the inheritance had quickly took them in and hid them in a village miles from the main spaceport. There, the two of them had found peace and quiet to wait for the Force to tell them what to do next.
Jaria liked Alus 4. The sun was almost the same color as her home world of Klameda, which made the seasons and temperature close enough to make her think of home. Her home world hadn't looked the way she had remembered it as a child, thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong War over a hundred years ago, making the Klamedians have to live in domes to survive the toxic environment. Through the decades, the Klamedian scientists had restored the hair on their head, eyebrows, and eyelashes, but still hadn't found a way to make any of the rest start to grow in their race. After the success of the Ossus Project, Klameda was one of the new planets asking for Vong terraforming, and the people of Klameda were hopeful that the new terraforming would bring it back to its former beauty. It had worked at first, and Jaria enjoyed the renewed planet before she left for the Jedi Academy. But after the terraforming had gone horribly wrong, the Klamedian people had to return to their domes to survive the new Vong treachery, and soon after cut off relations with the new Republic. That was the last Jaria had heard from her family.
The morning was beautiful, so Jaria didn't mind when her master had sent her out to meditate before breakfast. The last two days, she had been getting feelings that something wasn't right, but her master had thought she was letting her emotions control her again. That was her biggest problem with her Jedi training - her emotions. When she was happy or at peace, they worked fine, but when she felt fear or anger, her Force talent would manifest in odd ways. So, when she showed agitation, her master would send her away to calm herself.
Having finished her meditation, Jaria walked back from the field she had mediated in. She had some fresh flowers she had picked for the kitchen and a smile on her pretty young face. Humming as she walked, she waved and said hello to some of the people in the village as she made her way toward the villa she shared with her master. It wasn't a large villa, but it was a nice place to live. Rounding a corner, she saw the villa ahead, the sun catching in her light blue eyes, making them sparkle. She looked down at the flowers and smelled them, hoping her master would like them.
But as her light blue eyes looked up, she felt something hit her like a fist. It wasn't physical, but a tremor in the Force. Horror gripped her heart as she started to run towards the villa, screaming for her master. But before she was halfway to the front door, what had made the tremor in the Force made itself real as a large blaster bolt slammed into the top of the villa. The next thing that Jaira knew was her body flying backwards as the villa exploded in flame and bits of duracrete. Jaria felt a burning pain in her thigh, but before she could scream, she landed hard on the stone road in front of the now-ruined villa. The last thing Jari heard before the darkness of unconsciousness took her was the screams of wounded villagers and the scream of TIE fighters.<|im_end|>