Kyra Vos
Kyra (pronounced k-I-ra) was found by Jedi later in her life that what was normal. She was born on the prison planet Kiffex and raised a wild child. Though several of the other prisoners protected her from the more violent prisoners, she was raised without a mother or father. Little was known about her parents other then the clan they belonged to, as the evidence was plain enough by the yellow stripe under Kyra's eyes. She quickly learned to use her small size and speed to get the better of the meaner prisoners, and was taught how to hack the guard's computer system as well as construct makeshift weapons. Even from a young age she showed a strong connection with the force, knowing when to cut and run and when to stand her ground. She had very limited telekinetic control, able to do little more then tweak ears or throw pebbles, but it was enough to make some of the other prisoners afraid of her. A guard, recognizing the signs of the force, sent a message to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. A week later a shuttle arrive with jedi Master Luradi, who immersed herself into the prison life as a new inmate. She watched the seven year old Kyra run free without a care in the world, using her wildly fluctuating force powers to scrape out of every dangerous incident. It seemed the young girl sought dangerous situations, sought to test herself against others. Before the girl could hurt herself, Master Luradi revealed just who she was and what Kyra was going.
Kyra leapt at the chance to get out of the prison, because while free to run anywhere she wanted, she had never been beyond the durasteel walls of the complex. And on the ship back to Coruscant, Kyra revealed she had known someone was coming to get her. She didn't understand the feeling, only that she had little to fear of remaning prisoner #RD125411 for her entire life. Master Luradi told her this had been her incredibly strong connection with the force guiding her, protecting her from dangerous situations, but not to depend solely on the force for every situation.
The meeting with the Jedi Council doesn't go as smoothly as Kyra expected. They acknowledged her strength in the force, but claimed that the habits she had learned while growing up on Kiffex would interfere with her training. She refused to back down however, and challenged them to prove it. Of course the only way to do this was to start training her, but the masters were not so easily tricked. They sent her to the temple on Ossus, and she took to her training with a zeal. Several times she had to disciplined to trying to learn too much too fast, which they claimed was a way to begin walking down the Dark Side. Kyra chafed at these rules at first, but as the years passed she learned patience and discipline, and discovered that by slowing down she was able to find peace in herself. She dealt with long buried feelings of isolation and loneliness from her youngest years without her mother, bringing them to the surface and understanding the danger they posed. She found new family with her fellow students and teachers, and these painful feelings faded into sad memories, no longer to be hidden but a source of strength.
She was chosen as a padawan apprentice at eleven years old by a human Jedi master by the name of Jarek Theros. Master Theros recognized the strength in Kyra's abilities, and immediately began to train her in the use of her lightsaber. When other padawans were being taught about focus and patience, Kyra was sweating in the sparring area with her Master, their blades clashing for what seemed like hours on end. The fighting itself became a meditation for Kyra, and she learned to empty her mind during battle, to allow the Force to flow through her without interruption, to guide her movements and give her strength.
While the war raged between the Alliance and the Empire, the Jedi steadfastly refused to take part, taking the stance of nuetrality that had originated from the founder of the new Jedi Order, Grand Master Luke Skywalker. Master Theros brought Kyra to the sites of already ended battles, explaining to her the rage and anger that sparked such wars.
Then they traveled to Corellia to welcome the birth of his grandniece soon after Kyra's 14th birthday. It had been over ten years since Mster Theros had visited his family, so they planned to make it an extended visit. Here Kyra was exposed the lives of average, normal people. The kind of people that she was in training to protect. She wandered the hills and farms that covered the planet, drinking in the peace that surrounded her.
Then the Sith allies of the Empire led an assault on the Jedi Temples of Coruscant and Ossus. Little had anyone known, but the Sith had been building their forces in secret for hundreds of years. They struck with such speed and ferocity that the Jedi were quickly overwhelmed, their temple on Coruscant razed and Ossus gutted and burned, then left to the jungle. Theros and Kyra were both overwhelmed by the deaths of so many of their freinds, and three days later went into hiding with the news of Darth Krayt's ascendency to the Imperial Throne.
Kyra, now known as Larana, became a ship mechanic apprentice under Theros, now called Jungo. Kyra died her red hair purple and used makeup to cover the distinctive yellow stripe on her face. They worked primarily planetside, fixing farm equipment and speeders alike. In secret Kyra continued her jedi training under Theros, their new temple consisting of a series of caves ten miles from their town. Deep within those dark catacombs Kyra trained harder then ever in saber and telekinetic techniques.
There she received her first vision while in deep meditation. She had been visited by her previously unknown ancestor Jedi Master Quinlan Vos.
"Know that you are of my blood, and your path through life will be fraught with danger. Trust in the force and your own abilities, and never forget that no matter how deep the darkness, the light will rise."
A year later, just before her 20th birthday, her cover was blown. The Galactic Alliance had planned a raid of the shipyards in orbit, and Kyra was caught right in the middle of the fire fight between them and the Storm Troopers. Sent there by Master Theros to pick up supplies, Kyra was walking down a hall with an armfull of bacta containers when blaster bolts went flying past her.
Ahead of her a wave of Storm Troopers had come running around the corner, guns at the ready. They began firing at people behind her, not caring that she stood in the way. Several other people in the hall were cut down instantly, but Kyra's Jedi reactions kicked in and her yellow lightsaber snapped to life as she began deflecting the bolts. Behind her she heard calls from men yelling at her to move back, to join them in their fight.
Her cover blown, Kyra had no choice but to join the men, who turned out to be Alliance agents. Together they fought their way out to the docks, suffering nurmerous wounds. More and more storm troopers rushed to the battle, and they were soon pinned down behind stacks of durasteel waiting to be turned into armor plating. Soon all of the soldiers had died, and the Storm Troopers decided to end the fight against the Jedi with a well placed thermal detonator.
Seeing it coming, Kyra had used the force to send it back to them, then ran from cover. Her ship was nearby, and she used a burst of force induced speed to make it. The hangar defense system had kicked in at this time, and she barely made it out of there. Outside, a Star Destroyer was waiting, along with a wave of TIE fighters. She panicked, and with less then a minute left, Kyra had once choice; hyperspace. In the seconds that she had, she sent out a simple coded message planet side to let her Master known what had happened.
When the computer signaled it had mapped the jump to lightspeed, Kyra had punched it, not seeing the destination. Blaster bolts slammed into the back of her ship as the hyperdrive had engaged, blasting through the shields quickly. As the stars blurred to lines in the viewports, alarms began blasting through the ship, and Kyra was forced to repair what she could in the middle of flight. Despite her skill, system after system began to crash, and she was forced to drop out of hyperspace to prevent the ship from exploding.
To her horror Bastion loomed up less then a parsec away to port side, surrounded by a fleet of Star Destroyers and not one but two Super Star Destroyers. She had computed another jump to hyperspace, but the drive was fried. With air leaking out of the ship and a system cascade under way, had no choice but to turn for the planet. Already a detroyer was turning towards her, and moments later control was yanked away from her as a tractor beam locked on.
Knowing she had one chance, Kyra allowed the destroyer to pull her in until she was inside their shield, then opened fire on the tractor generator. Moments later the ship was free, and she pointed it straight down at the planet and shoved all remaining power to the engines. The ship screamed through the atmosphere, trailing parts and flames and threatening to come apart. Once she had cleared the clouds, Kyra had jumped into the single escape pod, praying it still worked.
It seemed luck was with her that day, and the pod launched. Moments later the ship had exploded, sending out a shockwave that spun the pod once before thrusters kicked back in. Less then a mile from the surface, Kyra knew she could get planetside before ships could grab her. Five thousand feet up the landing jets fired, slowing her descent. She had looked out the view ports and saw a city coming up fast, and decided a gamble was the best bet right now. Knowing the pod would be surrounded the moment it landed, Kyra had activated her lightsaber and cut a hole big enough in the side that she could crawl out.
She had looked out the hole and realized the pods automated system had aimed for the spaceport, where rescue crews would be in place. She had seen a large group of Storm Troopers gathering in a loose circle around where the pod would land, and acted. Still a hundred feet up, she had launched herself out of the pod, using the force to send her flying over the troopers and landing behind them. Her blade had snapped to life, and immediately she was put on the defensive as numerous blaster bolts came flying at her. She was forced back several steps as the troopers tried to circle her again, but she had unleashed a tremendous force wave that toppled the soldier's in front of her.
Before she could run however, a voice had called out to the troopers, commanding them to back off. A figure had pushed it's way through the crowd, black cloak billowing out to reveal blood red armor. A white lightsaber snapped to life, and the Imperial Knight entered the impromptu arena. "Care to test your skills against me, Jedi?" the man had asked before launching himself at her. Their blades snapped together a dozen times in a few seconds, and their fight became a dance almost too fast to watch. Only Kyra's unusually intense saber training the past years allowed her to keep up with the Knight, but he was slowly pushing her back. She was losing this fight.