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                                                                     Lucien took a peek around the corner, and when no one was looking he darted down the hallway and into a small waiting room. Citizens of Dantooine looked up from whatever they were occupying themselves with while they waited to be seen by a doctor. Lucien walked casually through the hospital finding a solitary place to take the wraps off of his head. There was a small wound on the back of his head but it had closed up nicely. Lucien made it outside the hospital before they locked it down to begin their search for him. He saw a spaceport about a kilometer away, and he began making his way there. It took him no time to maneuver through the small town to the spaceport that was essentially the biggest building there. He ducked inside noticing a few Republic looking officials that seemed to be on alert. He made his way into the first hangar he could find, and began an attempt to slice the lock. He heard a familiar gruff voice behind him, “I thought you might come here.” Lucien turned and saw Kovolt and his padawan blocking his only viable exit.

                                                                     Lucien imagined he looked like a caged animal. He spoke low, “I guess you’re angry with me for dragging you into that fight back there.” Kovolt laughed, “You know the people have been begging Miila and I to find the Mandalorian raiders camp for quite some time, we couldn’t locate them. You took us right to them; I suppose I should thank you for that. We caught that thug Bralen, because of you.”  Lucien stood, dead still yielding no tells of whether he would fight or run. The Jedi were certain that he would do one or the other, Kovolt wasn’t too threatened by the young man however his apprentice wasn’t too sure, her hand remained very close to her lightsaber. “I know Kovolt, but I haven’t had the pleasure of your acquaintance young lady. I am Lucien Kane, and you are?” Lucien smiled, Kovolt smirked so slightly Lucien barely caught it, he knew what Lucien’s plan was, but he was testing his padawan. Kovolt encouraged the situation, “Come on Miila introduce yourself.” Lucien was a little puzzled; he hadn’t expected Kovolt to help him out with his little mind game. Miila spoke with certainty, “I am Miila Skao, are you going to come quietly or do we have to do this the hard way?” Lucien smiled, it was now or never, he dashed towards the padawan with ferocious speed. She pulled her lightsaber faster than Lucien had hoped she would, she was already bringing her green blade to bear by the time Lucien got within arm’s reach. He managed to get a hand on her saber and the real battle was on.

                                                                     Her first line of defense was a swift kick to the shins, but Lucien had spent years conditioning his entire body so he was able to take the blows. He twisted and turned the hilt every way he could to try and free it from her grasp, but she refused to be disarmed. It was as if she had something to prove to her master, but Lucien’s life depended on this escape. He dropped all his weight backwards and placed his foot in Miila’s solar plexus; he kicked her over his head and managed to maintain control of her lightsaber. Lucien fumbled with the metallic hilt and found the activator, but when he activated it the gyroscopic effect of the blade rendered the weapon nearly useless to him. He couldn’t get a handle on the weapon. It was so counterintuitive to a sword, and Lucien estimated that if he had never touched a sword in his life he might have been able to use the lightsaber effectively. Kovolt was stepping in to intervene activating his own blue lightsaber. Lucien rolled away from the Master to try and get a feel for the new weapon; he swung it a few times and managed to pull off a flourish.

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                                                                     Lucien defended valiantly and even managed to cut the man’s left arm. It was a shallow cut, but a small victory for the young Mandalorian boy. The raid leader looked at the cut on his arm and grinned, “So you must be a Mandalorian, no one else wields a bes’kad in the traditional manner. For that matter few in the galaxy have beskar who aren’t Mando’ade.” Lucien snarled, “So, what’s it to you?” The raider looked at him sideways as he circled around the boy, “So why are you trying to kill your own people? Join us, and we can rule this backwater planet.” Lucien laughed despite his nervousness, and he looked to the Jedi who were still defending against a few of the raiders. “You aren’t real Mandalorians, you left your heritage when you decided to become nothing more than common thugs. You’re no crusader.”

                                                                    

                                                                     Lucien’s voice was resolute and all fear was gone from the young boy. The raider’s humor was gone, “You pathetic little brat, the Crusaders are all dead, they died out during the Mandalorian wars, what is left is the need to survive and thrive in a galaxy that hates us. The Jedi hunt us, and you boy will never grow up to see the truth!” The large man attacked Lucien with all his might. Lucien had been taught as a child that using strength was great, but strength could fail so rely on wits. Lucien suspected this brute of a man had never received such wisdom in his life. As the man brought his blade to bear where Lucien’s head should have been, Lucien closed his eyes and ducked the blow. He tucked himself into a roll and slashed out to the side as he moved away from the strong blow. Lucien’s blade managed to sink into the Mandalorian raider’s Achilles tendon. The man howled out in pain and fell to the ground. Lucien stood and proceeded to finish his kill when he felt his body leave the ground. Lucien turned to see the Jedi’s outstretched hand, the last thing he would see before his head slammed into a rock.

                                                                     Lucien woke up on the nicest cot he’d ever seen, his head was wrapped, and he was in a medical robe. All his weapons had been removed from his possession and his flightsuit was in shreds next to his bed. He was furious, but if he had learned anything it was to wait and gauge the situation before acting. He wasn’t good at that though, he sat up and waited for his eyes to focus. His head was pounding, but he wasn’t dead. A medic walked into the room clearly surprised that Lucien was awake, she checked her datapad before speaking, “Umm, well my didn’t you recover fast? Master Kovolt said you took quite the blow to the head, he said you’d probably be unconscious for a few days.”  Lucien attempted a smile, “Uh thanks, do you know how long I’ve been out?” The medic checked the datapad again, “Well you’ve only been here for about two hours, so maybe about four hours.” She smiled again and stepped out of the room.  Lucien waved at her on her way out, and once she was gone he quickly began shutting down the medical monitors that would be very annoying should he try to escape.  He started removing the medical pads that connected his vitals to the monitors.

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                                                                     The Jedi was clearly unconvinced, “This looks like a Mandalorian attack.” Lucien’s blood boiled, “I guess; -- I wouldn’t know.” Lucien kept his answers short, and the Jedi probed further. “Well that’s a mighty nice sword you have over there, looks like Mandalorian iron. Haven’t had any dealings with them lately have you?” Lucien scowled, “Look, I’m not looking for trouble from a Jedi; I just want to find the bastards responsible for this, and make them pay for what they’ve done.”  The Jedi seemed astonished, “Wait a minute; you are the pilot of the escape pod that landed a few months back. I tracked the trajectory back to a Mandalorian vessel that was destroyed by pirates.” The Jedi made a motion for Lucien to stop, but Lucien was already moving.

                                                                    

                                                                     He jumped in the speeder and took off like lightning, the Jedi gave pursuit faster than Lucien intended.  Lucien took the speeder down the path he saw the Mandalorian raiders take, there were a few forks in the trails, and Lucien blindly chose trails, he didn’t know if he was going to make it to their camp or if he was just trying to lose his Jedi tail. He was running out of time, and his speeder didn’t have the speed capability that the Jedi’s speeder had.  Lucien’s blind trail following had paid off, he stopped his speeder right in the middle of the Mandalorian raider’s camp. Lucien’s anger was bolstered, and his adrenaline prepared his body for combat. Lucien jumped out and immediately began shooting at Mandalorian warriors who quickly returned the favor.  Lucien took cover and managed to see the looks on the faces of the two Jedi who arrived at the scene. Lucien must have looked savage with his red eyes flashing behind his blazing blaster pistols, the Jedi were immediately brought under fire as well, but they seemed to be able to handle themselves pretty well. Their blades of energy flickered to life and began dealing death out to the lost warriors of this planet. Lucien shouted at the Mandalorians he was fighting “You disgrace Mandalore, you disgrace our name!”  He savagely fought, but he was young, and the Mandalorians quickly destroyed the cover Lucien hid behind.

                                                                    

                                                                     Lucien ran and dove over a stack of supply crates; he rolled once he hit the ground on the other side and brought his blasters back to bear. The Mandalorians had no stake to this particular campsite, so they were grabbing what loot they could and getting out of the small battle zone Lucien had created.  The Jedi were dealing with the last of the Mandalorian raiders, but not the leader, who was a big man even by Mandalorian standards. The leader had decided to take out the little troublemaker who started the fight. Lucien was almost caught off guard as the giant of a man came up behind Lucien’s position.  Lucien turned just in time to put his hands up for the massive blow the man dealt. Lucien’s arms cushioned the blow a little, but not much, Lucien went flying through the stack of crates he had been using for cover. The leader drew his bes’kad and slowly walked over to where Lucien was laying. Lucien drew his own bes’kad and rolled free of the area the man was striking. Lucien could have sworn the blow shook the ground, but he didn’t have time to think about that. He was back on his feet, and trying to defend against the large man’s flurry of strikes. Lucien was exceptional with the bes’kad, but he was no match for a fully grown Mandalorian warrior.

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He was about three kilometers away from the homestead working in the south field when he started to feel uneasy. This feeling had always been a precursor something horrible happening. The first time he had felt it was when he was 4 and a kinrath had made its way into his room. His father had shot the kinrath, but he never forgot that feeling he had. He had also felt the same uneasy feeling right before the last mission he had with his parents. His mother and father simply thought Lucien was being paranoid; Lucien should have pushed the issue more.  Now they were dead, and he was going to be forced to deal with something really bad really soon. Lucien started running back towards the homestead; he could hear the whine of military grade speeders roaring in the distance. It wasn’t nearly as unsettling as when the speeders stopped he could tell that the speeders stopped at Llorian’s home.  Lucien ran harder; he could hear the muffled sounds of things breaking, and he saw blaster bolts being fired into the sky. He wouldn’t make it in time, but that knowledge didn’t stop him from trying.

                                                                    

                                                                     Lucien reached the home as black smoke billowed into the sky the house was on fire, and Lucien only managed to get a few pot shots off at the raiders as their speeders tore off into the distance. They likely didn’t even notice anyone was shooting at them, and that made Lucien even angrier.  When they were gone he realized Llorian wasn’t anywhere to be seen, that meant he had to be inside the house. Lucien dashed into the burning home without thought for himself; he didn’t have to go far. Llorian was right inside with a blaster bolt wound to the knee. Lucien grabbed Llorian and carried him out of the house. Llorian coughed from the smoke inhalation, Lucien sat the man up against a boulder and gave him some water.

                                                                    

                                                                     Llorian didn’t look good, Lucien frowned, “Don’t worry old man; I’ll kill them for what they’ve done to you.” Lucien swore to him, and Llorian managed a pained smile. “Don’t seek out revenge my young friend; it will only kill you in the end.” Llorian choked on the words as he said them. The house burned as Llorian’s life force faded away, and Lucien felt helpless. Lucien could have used a bacta solution to heal the old man’s lungs which were ravaged by the fire.  Llorian managed a faint smile as he passed. Lucien closed the man’s eyes and after a few hours of digging, buried the only friend he had left in the world.

                                                                    

                                                                     Llorian had told him not to seek revenge; Lucien wasn’t quite ready to listen to that advice yet. His Bes’kad had been in the house, but Mandalorian Iron would never burn.  Lucien fumed for a day as he waited for the smoldering remains of the house to be safe to sift through. He retrieved his sword after another entire day of searching; his other weapons had been on his person before the fire. Lucien readied himself for the trip he would take to the Mandalorian raider’s camp. As he loaded up Llorian’s speeder, he saw a very official looking speeder pulling up to the destroyed homestead. Lucien recognized its pilot as the same Jedi who was snooping around when Lucien first came to Dantooine, this time he had a young female apprentice with him. She looked to be about his age, and she was pretty for a Jedi Lucien caught himself being distracted and quickly regained his composure.  Lucien started subtly gearing the speeder up for a quick getaway as the Jedi got out of his speeder. The apprentice stayed put as if she had been given a silent order to stay still. The Jedi spoke in a gruff manner, “Excuse me young man, what happened here?” Lucien’s expression was steel, though his stomach felt queasy, “I dunno, looks like thieves.” Lucien said in as unassuming of a tone as he could.

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Llorian chuckled, “I wasn’t planning on letting you stay here for free. Rest up for today, tomorrow you’ll start doing a real man’s work.” The old coot obviously meant farming, Lucien wasn’t thrilled about it, but that would help his healing process. Lucien had always been able to heal quickly, and he anticipated a full recovery within a matter of about three weeks. He might be overestimating his abilities, but at the most it would take six standard weeks. Lucien would take Llorian’s advice and rest for the day. He was pretty sore, and the faster he healed up, the faster he could get off this backwater planet. The day was pretty boring, Llorian brought Lucien food a few times, and he also brought Lucien his Bes’kad and returned his blaster again. Lucien spent most of the day trying to tinker with a broken droid. His technical prowess extended to blaster technology, but he wasn’t much with droids. It didn’t stop him from trying from time to time.

                                                                    

                                                                     Night fell Lucien was restless; there was something about the house that left him feeling so unsettled. Maybe it was the fact Llorian’s family had been killed here. That usually wouldn’t bother Lucien, but knowing that they had been killed in cold blood, by his people really made him mad. Lucien didn’t sleep the whole night, so he decided to go explore around the farm. His night vision was very good for a human, so much so that he hardly ever used the optics other Mandalorians had access to. He could see in the light of the Dantooinian moons that the old man didn’t have much land, but he had enough to make a few credits by selling his crops. As Lucien looked around he noticed the telltale signs of Mandalorian raiders. There was carbon scoring on much of the house, crop fields had gruesome empty paths where speeders had left their marks. The fence surrounding the grounds had been destroyed in several places. Lucien was so angry; this wasn’t how his people were supposed to behave. Mandalorians were supposed to be fierce warriors, but they weren’t supposed to be mindless killers. At least that was what his father had taught him.

                                                                     Lucien wasn’t sure of much, but if the Mandalorian raiders came, he would show them what real honor meant. Lucien retired to his quarters until dawn, and then he got to work.  He was much slower than Llorian, as he did minor jobs like cleaning up debris from the field, and repairing the fences around the farm. Weeks passed by, as Lucien’s injuries healed, almost a mirror of Lucien’s recovery the farm recovered as well, only a month passed before Lucien’s collarbone, and the farm were fully operational.  It was now midday, Lucien wiped the sweat from his brow, and took the shovel he had in his hands to the field.