Son of a Clone Trooper - I < Mandalorians

No wonder Jedi start their training at conception.  This using The Force stuff is challenging.  Some things seem to come pretty naturally.  Moving stuff, pushing stuff, pulling stuff, other general concepts from the telekinetic gambit are all fairly easy.  However, some of the things I had managed in the past like lightning and mind tricks, well, those are quite challenging.  I tried to mind trick a small animal into chasing its own tail and the little bugger bit me on the leg.  The lightning was another monster altogether, but I think I figured it out.  When that critter bit me I instinctively cooked him with that most wonderful fingertip lightning.  He was tasty too, I might add.  It seems that when I am acting on impulse with raw emotion, that I am able to conjure it up.  I am still having a hard time controlling it, but I can now get lesser versions of my accidental lightning on a fairly consistent basis by channeling my emotions.  It’s not the face melting power of the inadvertent stuff, but man is it fun.  Starting a camp fire is quite easy now, and hunting for food becomes cooking food at the same time.

On another note, Mandalorians are some seriously tough people.  I was off practicing with my lightsaber near a lake.  I thought I was fairly secluded when all of a sudden I got a feeling and swung my lightsaber just in time to deflect a blaster bolt.  It seems that the local mercenaries aren’t too fond of Jedi.  It also seems that they are Mandalorians.  I wasn’t about to sit around and let that guy take pot shots at me, so I charged at him.  I figured closing the gap and tearing him up with a lightsaber would be the best thing.  I was so very wrong.  He pulled out a Cortosis weave vibroblade which promptly disrupted the plasma flow of my lightsaber and rendered it all but useless on first strike.  He then punched me...... HARD!  Man did that hurt!  Sitting in the dirt I used The Force to chuck a rock at his head.  It hit pretty hard but barely seemed to faze him.  I did it again, and, and again and the guy just kept coming.  So I used my power to push him directly.  Handily that did work and he went flying into a tree.  Then he got up again, and drew his blaster, taking a shot.  I ducked and rolled behind a bolder right about the time my lightsaber sparked back to life.  I jumped up and went to throw him back into a tree again.  I extended my hand and pow!  Lightning arced out and made contact with him.

Now at that point I figured the altercation was over.  Again, I was mistaken.  He got up, still smoldering and charged me.  If it weren’t for the fact that I was in imminent danger, I would have probably stood in awe at his intensity and sheer durability.  But since it seemed he had my worst intentions in mind, I decide to beat a hasty retreat.  It was clear to me that my skills were not sufficient to deal with him.  I hit him with another force push and ran.  I had no idea he was a Mandalorian until I heard something about Mandalore being shouted from behind me.  Oh, and apparently The Force allows me to run very quickly as well.  That will come in handy if I run into those guys again.  Though, they are likely to be hunting me at this point.  Perhaps I can seek refuge in that cave if they find me here.

In the meantime, I will just keep practicing on my skills.  I really don’t feel like heading to a new planet.  I rather like it here, and it’s quite isolated.  Still, I will have to count on leaving if I can’t deal with the mercenaries, or if the Empire escalates their presence here.  I will figure an escape route and decide which system to go to next if I have to flee this one.  There are many to choose from.  Lower population would be good, but perhaps hiding in plain sight might be smarter.  Someplace like Nar Shadaa might work.  It doesn’t matter much though.  I just need to make sure I have a good escape plan in place so I had better stop diddling around on here and get to planning.