Leaning out from behind a stack of crates, I shot the head off a passing droid without really bothering to aim.
He wasn’t alone, of course — nine barrels swung around in perfect unison.
But they were slow.
So slow.
Two more shots, then back behind cover.
I could feel the rest of the tin cans closing in slowly.
The Force poured through my body, and with a burst of tension I jumped three meters straight up.
Four blue bolts dropped another handful of them into lifeless heaps of scrap.
Roll, fire, and a red bolt grazed close enough to scorch my mask against my cheek.
Didn’t matter.
More.
I want more!
Forgetting all caution, I charged forward.
Another group of droids appeared in front of me and vanished just as fast, cut down practically point-blank.
An ugly siren wail rolled out over the station.
A blinding searchlight beam found me.
Nothing was going to stop me.
I’d grind anyone who got in my way to powder.
A group of droids rushed toward me.
A bolt flew past, a centimeter from my hand.
Bastards!
A hard running leap and I landed right in the middle of the column.
Stars, they were stupid.
Power boiled inside me, demanding release.
I ripped the blasters out of the nearest droids’ hands with the Force.
One flick of the wrist and their own weapons turned on their former owners.
Some of them didn’t even manage to turn around.
The guns hung in the air around me, sowing death in every direction.
One droid somehow dodged the storm of death surrounding me — a lunge, and my fist punched clean through its chassis.
It hurt, but it felt so good.
I watched blood well up from my split knuckles.
Nothing serious.
I could still move.
Where were the rest of them?
The droids standing farther off turned toward me.
I had to keep jumping side to side.
Holding onto the guns was getting harder by the second, so I grabbed the two nearest ones and gunned down whoever felt like the biggest threat.
A minute later, I was standing alone, surrounded by heaps of scrap metal.
I ran the tally in my head.
Forty-seven.
Not bad, though not a record either.
The siren was still wailing, but I could see the gate slowly grinding open, the shimmer of the shield collapsing.
The outcome was already decided.
Somewhere along the way, without me really noticing, the fight had drifted toward the transport ship that had docked here recently.
I wondered what was inside.
Stepping lightly around the scattered bodies, I made my way to the doors.
At the last second, instinct took over, and I barely dodged a blade.
It was a droid, but not one I’d ever seen before.
It looked far more human than the standard CIS machines.
It rose smoothly, looked me over, and lunged at me with startling speed.
I jumped into the air — you won’t reach me up here.
But a metal leg slammed into my side and sent me flying into the transport’s hull.
Impossible.
Ordinary droids didn’t jump that high.
The danger-sense screamed again — the blade had nearly killed me.
I rolled and got back on my feet.
Not just one enemy anymore — three more machines dropped down off the roofs of the nearby buildings.
Not many sentients could pull off that kind of agility.
They were pinning me down like professionals.
Fine.
Tin cans.
Let’s see who comes out on top.
I threw up my hand and fired at the closest one.
It dodged my pistols with a sharp sideways jerk and answered with a burst from its own blaster.
A jump helped me dodge the volley, but the two flanking machines jumped right along with me.
I dodged one blade and shoved the other away with the Force, then shot it in the chassis as it fell.
What the—?
The machine got back up like nothing had happened, a couple of scorch marks the only sign it’d been hit.
A sword hissed past my chest.
I flinched and realized I’d just made a mistake.
Dodging a blaster shot, I barely avoided the third droid’s blade — it still nearly took off part of my wrist.
Pain throbbed in a knot at the wound.
What kind of blade cut that clean?
Felt like it hit bone.
The pistol dropped from my reflexively loosened fingers.
A desperate leap to the side, but metal fingers found me and threw me to the ground.
I barely managed to pull my head back as a metal fist punched a small dent into the floor exactly where my forehead had been a second earlier.
I managed to throw the droid off me with the Force.
But before I could get up, a faintly vibrating blade was already on me.
My eyes went wide with terror as the blade closed in on my face.
A sticky fear locked me in place, same as that night.
I managed to jerk my head aside just enough.
The mask took the hit, but it split into two even halves that hit the floor with a dull clatter.
Memories of that terrible night flared bright in my mind.
Black shapes.
The night.
Death breathing against my cheek.
A blue dress flashing past.
No, no, no!!!
The Force crushed the droid, turning it into a heap of scrap.
A chunk of metal flew at another one.
It dodged, letting the debris pass overhead — but I’d counted on that.
The lightsaber’s hilt leapt out of the folds of my cloak and into my hand.
One swing, and the body fell in two halves.
I felt shots coming for me — a step to the side and they all went wide.
One of the droids lunged toward me, but the Force slammed it into the concrete.
It wasn’t getting up again.
Another shot came straight at my head.
My hand, saber and all, batted it aside on its own.
Somewhere at the edge of my mind, a thought slid through — that shouldn’t have worked before.
I ran straight at the last one, deflecting a couple more shots along the way.
The droid jumped back.
Not getting away from me.
A throw of the lightsaber forced it to dodge sideways, but I was already there.
A brutal blow drove its head into the concrete.
Through the shattered armor I could see circuitry, wiring — and my own white bone.
An open fracture, probably.
Didn’t matter.
It’d heal.
After everything you put me through.
Rage clouded my vision, and I started beating the body senseless.
Tears ran down my cheeks.
My grip on reality slipped away.
I felt like I was back in that night all over again.
A light breath of wind brushed my cheek.
“Seth.”
A melodic voice, barely audible, like the ring of small bells, sounded somewhere close by.
What!?
I spun around, but there was nothing there.
Just for a second, I thought I saw a faint blue shape slip into the shadows of the nearest building.
What the Hutt is going on?!
I never got the chance to finish the thought.
In the last instant, I heard a metallic scrape.
A sharp pain in my stomach forced my head down.
A dark blade jutted out from under my cloak.
Dark blood ran down the metal sticking out of my body.
A kick to the back sent me sprawling onto the cold floor.
A dark shape loomed over me, blocking the light from the one surviving searchlight.
Two lifeless, unblinking lenses stared straight at me.
There was nothing in that dead gaze.
Just a terrifying emptiness.
Through the pounding of blood in my ears, a mechanical voice reached me.
“Jedi eliminated.”
My consciousness was fading.
Guess this is how I die.
What a stupid way to go.
But that’s not what was on my mind right then.
Behind the droid stood a short female shape.
A blue dress swayed faintly in the night breeze.
My mother’s warm eyes looked down at me — reproach in them, but the same love as always, still there.
The last thing I saw was the droid’s head suddenly bursting apart into a shower of fragments.