The morning dawned red, which excited the villagers. Serena Laran finished tying her long red hair back and pulled her robe on over her long tunic as she tried to listen to the chatter outside the door. Feeling anxious, she tugged at her obi, trying to settle her emotions. A Jedi feels... nothing. Or, at least, doesn't feel worried. The Jedi Knight tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

A white helmeted trooper poked his head in. "Ready miss?"

She drew her lightsaber to her with the Force, and clipped it to a ring hidden cleverly on her wide cloth belt. "Certainly Captain Kata. We have a lot of work to do today."

"Yes." He backed away and held the door for her. Serena ducked under the lintel and looked up at the blood red sunrise. Villagers were clustered in groups around the hut that housed her. As the Republic's emmissary to the Outer Rim world, Serena stood tall, but she felt unsure of herself. At twenty-four she had matured beyond feeling like an awkward teenager, but all these people were depending on her.

She had a simple mission - to survey the damage wrought by a space battle over the planet, and supervise the doling out of relief supplies. The Republic had lent a squad of Clonetroopers to assist her. The area affected was small, but the people there had been devestated. They all looked to her to save them - but she was only one girl.

Back ramrod straight, she held herself with almost a regal bearing, cool green eyes betraying nothing of her feelings. "What is it they are saying, Captain?"

The trooper didn't move. "Red dawn. They fear it means more death."

Serena mentally sighed, motioning over the translator droid that had been assigned to her. "Tell them that the war is over here. I heard last night that General Kenobi himself was searching out General Greivous. There will be no more battles in the skies over this planet. The Republic is very close to victory."

Five hours later the villagers were distributing a crate of emergency foodstuffs as Captain Kata and Serena trekked into the forest in search of an even more remote village rumored to have been completely wiped out by a strange sickness that came out of dust. It sounded like a ship's reactor might have fallen into the middle of it, and the Jedi couldn't leave without making sure the rumor wasn't true. And, if it were true, she would have to make things right.

Captain Kata held a branch back so it wouldn't fly into her face, and Serena climbed up the hill slightly behind him. "We should be there soon - Jorna said it wasn't more than a three hour hike."

"If it is the site of a reactor breach, the dust cloud should have been visible when we arrived." Kata turned his expressionless mask towards the Jedi.

She chuckled a bit, pulling a leaf from her ponytail. "So, my good captain, you doubt the story the villagers told us?"

The trooper might have shrugged, but with all the armor it was hard to tell. "A sickness may have many causes, Jedi."

"Indeed. Which is why we are traveling to see exactly what it is we're dealing with." They topped the ridge, and looked down into a densely forested valley. "There..." Serena pointed toward the far western side where a thin trickle of dark smoke drifted lazily into the air.

"I see it. Doesn't look like enough for a whole village."

"Could be hidden in the trees. It looks dense there." Serena swiveled around, looking back the way they'd come. The horizon was layered with smog, the consequence of a Trade Federation Droid Control Ship crashing into a mountainside. It was also the reason for the bright colors in the sunrise. "Don't you think so, Captain?"

The Jedi Knight looked forward again, studying the trickle of smoke in the distance. "Certainly doesn't look like a reactor meltdown. Captain Kata? Shall we?" She smiled, looking over at the trooper who had his back half turned to her. For a moment it looked like he was recieving a message, and then he turned towards her.

He shot her high in the chest, the smell of burnt linen scorching her nostrils as her robe smoldered around the hole the blaster bolt made in her skin. The Jedi Knight gasped in a ragged breath of fire as her eyes widened in shock. Captain Kata leveled his blaster rifle at her again, black and white gloved hands tightening on the trigger. The Force gave her no warning, and she could feel no malice in his thoughts or actions. She felt a numbness spreading from the initial fire and pain of the wound. Her arms and legs didn't seem to work, and she wobbled as her good arm brushed ineptly against her lightsaber.

Serena fell off the ridge, tumbling down the steep incline into the valley, Kata's second shot booming in her ears. Elsewhere, the Emperor cackled as Order 66 was executed with extreme prejudice.