Former Jedi Knight and general from the Mandalorian wars, now known as "Exile" ran as fast
as her legs could muster through the Khoonda hanger port.

   With the combined efforts of herself and Jedi Master, Vrook Lamar, they discovered that
the mercenary, Azkul, was planning to attack Khoonda. Within the hour. Vrook ran off with  
lightsaber in hand, hoping to by as much time as he could. In the meantime, Exile has been
helping with the evacuations and recruiting anyone who looked like they could shoot a blaster.
Now all she had left was to get her crew up and ready for the oncoming battle. She charged
up the entrance ramp of her ship, but stopped dead cold at the top.  

   Nobody was in sight, and it was surprisingly quiet.

   Instead of hearing the sounds of Atton and the Disiple bickering, or Bao-Dur working on
the Hawk, or even the rhythmic patterns of battle that the Handmaiden practiced daily, there
was nothing.

   No, there was something. An distant voice calling to her. It was a female's. Light, and
barely loud enough to hear over the slight wind outside. She closed her eyes in order to
hear.

   Jedi...

   Exile felt herself being pulled in, like a dirt fish on a hook. Her mind centered around
the voice, listening for any whisper.

   Come to me, Jedi...

   She felt her legs begin to move, but instead of fighting it, she went with it. She needed
to find where this voice came from, hoping to find her friends with it.

   Her legs stopped, and Exile opened her eyes. She was in the doorway of the west cabins
chamber. And instead of her crew, she found only a single person. A woman, in her mid-twenties,
wearing a black dress with most of her face concealed by a veil. She sat on her knee's, near
the other side of the cabin, with her back to the Exile.

   "Who are you?" Exile asked, reaching for her vibro-sword.

   No answer. The only indication of a response was the young woman's head raising up. Exile
pulled her sword out of the holder on her back, and readied it infront of her, keeping the
blade pointed at the mystery woman.

   "I'll ask again," she said, taking in a quick breath. "Who are you, and what have you done
with my crew?"

   Exile stepped forward, and the woman stood and turned to face her. She was an average
build, with a decent chest. Her face was masked by the veil, with her mouth being the only
skin the Exile could see. But it wasn't her body that Exile was worried about. It was her
hand, and what was in it. A shaft of metal, a cylinder of some kind.

   A lightsaber.

   Exile's eyes shot wide open in shock, but she forced it away. She had to stay focused. No
matter what, her opponent could not see her fear. But she was not apparently quick enough to
mask her shock, because the young woman's gray skinned mouth was curved into a twisted smile.

   A red blade sprang from the hilt, and she kept the energy blade casually at her side, like
it was a stick, instead of a deadly weapon.

   Then, she stepped forward, which caused Exile to flinch. Another. Then another. She
was halfway between where she started and the Exile. Then without warning, she launched
herself forward, raising her saber to infront of her and laughing a terrible shriek as she
lept.

   It caught Exile completely by surprise. She barely had time to get her own weapon up in
time to catch the ruby blade. The sound of grinding metal filler her ears, as she realized
the sound was coming from her sword.    

   The lightsaber was melting through her blade blade, quickly.

   Exile pushed the mysterious woman and her lightsaber away with all she had. But it was
too late. Her sword broke off at the cut point, and after a quick bounce, the broken half
landed next to the bunks. She looked down at the remains of her sword. There was little blade
left, with the end of it still glowing bright orange.

   She looked up at the woman to see the smile had not dissapeared, but was bigger, and
more disturbing than ever.

   The woman stepped forward with saber pointed at Exile. Exile's reflexes kicked in from her
practices with Atton, and her free hand reached down and pulled her hold-out blaster out of
it's holster strapped to her thigh.

   Bringing the blaster up, Exile shot out bolts as quickly as the small trigger would allow,
but all the shots were blocked.

   Taking a quick moment to recalculate, Exile leveled the blaster and shot two precise shots,
one at the woman's head, the other at her feet.  She blocked the first with ease, but had to
dip down slightly to catch the second bolt. The woman lifted her gaze up from her feet to Exile,
to see that she had chucked the remainder of her sword at her.

   It was a desperate move, and a relatively easy one to dodge. The woman moved her right
leg behind her and turned, letting the remnant sword pass harmlessly by.

   She turned back to Exile and caught a blue blaster bolt in her right shoulder. She let out
a cry of pain, but was silenced for a moment after a second bolt went into her left thigh,
then the scream resumed.

   Exile channeled as much Force-energy as she could into the palm of her now free hand, and
unleashed it in the form of a Force-push. The telekinetic fist slammed into the woman, making her
loose grip of her lightsaber as she was flung backward.

   She hit the opposite wall with a loud thud, and when she fell back to the floor, Exile could
see a large, body sized dent in the metal of the wall. Exile held her breath as the young woman
stayed motionless on the floor, and exhaled as she began to move and groan. Exile thought
that she might have a concussion, by the way that she moved and her apparent inability to
speak correctly, but dismissed it as she wearily raised her arm with open hand towards her
lightsaber.

   The hilt shook a few times before beginning to roll back to it's owner. Exile reached out
with the Force and grabbed the broken blade next to the bunks and sent it flying towards the
saber. The sharp edge of the blade chopped down, slicing the hilt down the middle. The two
halfs stopped just out of the woman's reach.

   Defeat sunk into the woman, as she lowered her arm and rolled herself onto her back. Exile
waited a moment, then stepped forward, keeping her hold-out blaster in hand with index finger
hovering over the trigger. She bent down to examine the remains of the lightsaber. It was good
and destroyed, she doubted that it would ever work again, but she wasn't going to take the
risk. She picked up the two half's and pocketed them. Then turned her attention to the woman.
She was still breathing, though air came by shallow gasps.

   "Who are you?" Exile asked.

   The woman looked as though she could barely think, let alone talk. She began to groan as
she rolled her head from side to side.

   "What is your name?"

   The rolling stopped. She gathered a breath before speaking. "Visas.." she whispered.

   Then, she let out a sigh and her head rolled to the side again, but this time, stayed still.
Exile was relived to see her chest rising and falling. She was still alive, just unconscious.
    
   Exile moved to her right side and scooped the woman up in her arms and stood. But she
found herself drawing on the Force just to hold up the woman. And that worried her, for she
still had to lead a battle soon. Perhaps it was time to use one of her emergency stim's she'd
bought on Telos. But for now, all she had to do was get this "Visas" to the med bay.




   Exile thought she would have had to heal Visas on her own, but as soon as she layed her
down on the bed, people began to flood in. She found herself actually telling people to get
out or wait in the hallway. When she asked why didn't anyone hear the battle, they all replied
that they didn't even know a battle was happening, that they didn't hear anything. Exile
assumed that Visas had cast some sort of Sith spell to keep them from hearing the battle.

   She watched on as Disiple used his medical skills to patch up Visas. She was completely
bare, save for the wrapping's around her breasts and other sensitive area's. Her body was
cascaded in scars of torture and pain. Her skin was chalk-white, like her mouth. Disciple
applied liquid bacta to the blaster wounds on both her shoulder and thigh, waited a moment,
then wrapped bandage wrap around the gel.

   With that done, he scooted his chair up to front of the bed and reached out to grab the
veil  so he could inspect her head wound. He was gental as he lifted her head with one hand
and pulled off the veil with the other.

   "Oh my." he gasped. Her eye sockets were empty, as she appeared to stare blankly up at
the ceiling.

   "She's a Miraluka." Atton said, leaning in the corner.

   "I didn't think there was any left, in this part of the galaxy anyway." Disciple  said like a thought said aloud.

   "There was a coloney a few years back on a planet between here and Onderon."

   "Was?" Exile asked.

   "Yeah, one day, it was just gone. The entire planet became lifeless."

   Exile ran a hand through her hair. "Looks like at least one escaped."

   After Disciple wrapped Visas's head with the last of the Bacta wrap, he stood from his
chair and wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead. "She's stabilized, but the concussion will
leave her out of it for a while."

   She sighed in relief. "Alright. Strap her down."

   "Why?"

   "Because Khoonda need's us, and probably the Hawk too. And we don't want her getting knocked
around the bay and getting another concussion."

   Though he looked unconvinced, but  Disciple began to pull the leather straps out from the bottom
of the bed and wrap them around her body. Exile turned around and walked out, but stopped at
the doorway when Atton spoke.

   "Are you doing this for her safety, or ours?"

   Exile bowed her head down, and stared at the floor for a moment. "Both." She answered.

   She stepped out of the med-bay, and was welcomed by the rest of her friends standing outside
in the hallway. All their faces suggested that they all wanted to ask so many questions,
but none did.

   None, save for Bao-Dur. "General?"

   "Yes?"

   "What is that?" he said, pointing at her pocket.

   She looked down and saw that the destroyed lightsaber was sticking out of her pocket. "Oh,
that is, was, her lightsaber."

   He extended his open hand out toward her. "May I?"

  "Umm, sure."  She pulled the two halfs out of her pocket and placed them in Bao-Dur's waiting hand. For
a moment, he looked at the two parts with only what could be called a "mechanic's eye", then
he turned and headed for the garage without word. Exile jogged to catch up, but when she
reached the garage, found that he was already huttled over the workbench with hydro-spanner
in hand.

   Exile walked up behind his back. "Umm, Bao-Dur?"

   "Yes, general?" he asked, keeping his attention on the workbench.

   "What are you doing with that?"

   "Just following a hunch."

   After removing the outer shells, Bao-Dur digged through the various crumpled wires and
parts spread out on the bench. A bright smile came to him as he found what he was looking
for. He pulled something out of the various wires, something Exile could not see, turned to
face her and held the item up for her to see.

   It was a small, circular piece of machinery, with a shaft no longer then her index finger
sprouting from the bottom. "What is it?" she asked and she reached out and grabbed it out of
his hand.

   "That," he answered. "is an Emitter Matrix"

   Exile almost jumped for joy. They have spent weeks searching for this last part, but
nobody had one, not the supply shops, not the antique stores, not even that mercenary outside
the Enclave, Daralla. And despite the dark events of the past month, Exile was still able to
smile.

   "Dose that mean..."

   "Yes, general." he said, raching out and laying his hand on her shoulder. "You can build
your lightsaber."

   He took his hand off her shoulder and gestured her towards the workbench. She stepped over
to the table and layed the part down on it's illuminated surface. Then she reached down and
pulled out a drawer, which contained the rest of the parts needed, along with spools of wire,
and metal for the outside casing.

   She layed out the parts along side the emitter matrix, then reached into the smallest
pocket on her belt, and pulled out the lightsaber crystal she found in the crystal cave. Exile
placed the crystal off to the side, as she knew it would be the last thing to go in. She
inhaled a deep breath as she looked down at the assortment of parts and wires before her,
then let it out in a loud sigh. She gripped the hydro-spanner with a sweaty palm, as excitement
and adrenaline coursed through her vains. Her heart was beating so loud that Bao-Dur could
hear it. But at the same time, common sence told her that this was wrong.

   She stepped away from the table, and handed the hydro-spanner to Bao-Dur. "Will you?"

   "But, general, it's your lightsaber. You should be the one to build it."

   "I'll probably fry something, maybe me. And going into battle, I prefer to be less then
crispy."

   He looked down at the spanner, then back up to her. "Don't worry, I'll watch."

   He nodded. "Alright, general. Let's begin."



   Bao-Dur worked surprisingly fast. It had taken him less then twenty minutes to complete
the wiring, and another ten to fit it all in the hilt. Creating a lightsaber was complex,
yet it came so easily to Bao-Dur. Exile could barely keep up with his quick moving hands, but
still took mental notes on everything she saw.

   It was over a month ago that she decided to build a lightsaber, and now she had it, right
there in her hands.

   She pushed down on the activator stud located on the front of the hilt, and watched as the
silver blade came to life for the first time.  It was mesmeric. She couldn't take her eyes
off the blade that was before her. Hearing the musical hum brought back memories, some good,
some bad.

   Only the sound of her comnlink chirping, could knock her out of the trance. She let out a
silent sigh and extinguished the blade, then pulled out her comnlink and brought it up to
her lips, then pressed down the receiver button.

   "I'm here."

   "You've got three minutes." It was Vrook, and it sounded like hell in the backround. blaster
bolts, lightsaber swings, and screaming. "And then they'll be all over you."

   "Got it." She shut the device off and put it, and her lightsaber on her belt.

   "Get this bucket-of-bolts off the ground now Atton!" she yelled.

   She turned to Bao-Dur. "Get on the turrent."

   "Yes, general."

   "And remember, the people of Dantooine hate the Jedi for destroying their land, so don't
hurt it any more then you have to."

   He nodded, understanding fully. "I won't."

   "As for everyone else!" she yelled out. "Get out, and ready yourselves for battle!"