Seeing Lo hurry back down into the village followed by many Twi’lek warriors, Dominik turned his focus to the firefight. The darkness shrouded most of what he would’ve been able to see, but the Master Jedi could tell their enemy was emerging from the trees. Time seemed to slow suddenly as his ears picked up the faint whirring of a machine warming up, the sound coming from further within the treeline. There was a loud boom before Dominik noticed a large projectile shooting up in the air, illuminated by the glowing moonlight from Ryloth’s moons. Two more loud booms and two more projectiles followed in its wake. Dominik’s eyes followed the first, reading its arc, watching as it started dropping, falling through the air, directly at them. “Everybody over the edge, now!” He hollered. The man reached out, taking many of the Twi’leks in his grasp through the Force and helping them safely over the edge. Then he reached out towards the wall he had moved earlier. Dominik put his saber at his waist, using both hands and slowly lifting up the piece of rock into the air. He then thrusted it up, towards the projectile before he started to dive over the edge as well.

The wall made contact with the projectile, prematurely setting it off above the surface. There was an explosion of gas and fire as the Master made it over the edge. The gas started to sink, flowing over the cliff’s edge and starting to fill the area of the village. The other two projectiles made their mark, one hitting the center of the village and delivering more gas into the village. The other hit the far cliffs edge, covering even more area with gas as it started to sink and spread across the ground.

Lo’s feet dug in as she slid into a halt. Her eyes widened and watched the projectile land into the center of the village, the impact hurting her ears and causing her to jump. As the thick greenish gas began to spread throughout the buildings. Twi’leks, in their panic, began to bolt from their hiding place to escape. Seeing the fear, Lo didn’t know what to do. Her mind tried to scramble for a solution. 

A few of the younger ones crumbled into the ground, passed out from the effect. 

“Master!” Lo shouted as she tried to help whoever she could. 

Dominik, recovering from the concussion of sound at the explosion of the first projectile, quickly took to searching for his Padawan as the gas began to spread through the area. As he ran out into the more open plaza of the village, speeders started darting through the gas and blaster fire started going every which way. The Master Jedi drew his saber, deflecting the bolts that came too close to him, all the while covering his mouth and nose with his free arm. 

“Lo! Sar!” Dominik yelled, his eyes squinting as he tried to see through that gas that fogged the area.

Lo’s eyes darted about, her breath shallow and fast. She watched as gas began to surround her when tried to find her master in the chaos. Unable to escape, she leaned down to check on the fallen victims. She feared they had died from something lethal. Her fingers pressed into their throat and noticed the faint pulse. Relief replaced her worry as she went to the next one. She inhaled catching the bitter scent before a heady sensation began to swell in her focus. As the effects started to take hold, her figure lowered and Lo quickly realize what was happening. 

“DON’T BREATHE IT IN!” Lo shouted before her world went black. 

A tall, dark figure towered over Lo as the young Padawan collapsed. Through the sealed mask he wore no one would see his face, just as it was with the rest of the enemy that was attacking. He kneeled down, taking Lo’s cheek in his clawed hand, turning her head slightly before his eyes spotted the lightsaber on her hip. 

“A Jedi Padawan? Now where is your Master little one?” Came a deep, melodious voice. His words almost purred as he spoke, observing the Padawan closely. 

The slaver was thrown back suddenly, a strong push from the Force pinning him against a wall that was just a few feet from the fallen Lo. The man collapsed immediately as the hold on him was released. Dominik ran up to his Padawan, looking her over for a moment, one arm covering his nose and mouth while the other moved to scoop her up to carry her. From within the thick gas came a long, electrified whip that shot out and wrapped itself around Dominik’s arm that was trying to scoop up Lo. The man gritted his teeth as electricity was forced into his body. Another whip emerged from the fog, taking his other arm in its hold, forcing that arm away from his face, making him breath in the gas. 

“It’s nice of you to join us, Jedi.”

From the gas emerged a masked Zygerrian, Dominik noticing the facial and structural features of the creatures head. The Zygerrian people were easily identifiable by their feline appearance, but many in the galaxy knew the race as the founders of the Zygerrian slave empire. For thousands of years their people thrived by providing slave labor to the galaxy. And now, they were targeting the Twi’leks for their next wave of slave labor. 

More Zygerrians emerged from the gas, one holding each of the whips that kept his wrist in place, and many others with their blasters aimed at Dominik. The Jedi Master and the Zygerrian man glared at each other in a contest, but Dom soon started to fall victim to the gas that filled his lungs. The man's eyes moved to his motionless Padawan before darkness took him as well. He fell forward onto the dirt, his eyes closing and mind falling victim to a dark void.