Knight Errant: Escape 4

Knight Errant: Escape 4 is the fourth issue in the Escape story arc miniseries of the Star Wars: Knight Errant comic series written by John Jackson Miller.
==Publisher's summary==
Caught in a battle between three Sith armies, Jedi Kerra Holt does her utmost to prevent them from finding a powerful Sith relic. Her mission to find her lost family brought the war onto this world, and as she reaches the end of her search for her parents, she realizes the extent of the danger that could be brought to the galaxy if the relic falls into Sith hands! Has Kerra let her personal gain override the needs of thousands of innocents?
==Plot summary==
The Jedi Knight Kerra Holt's quest to find her long-lost family leads her to the Odionate, the domain of the Sith Lord Odion. Despite her success in infiltrating Odion's Novitiate corps, she is captured by Odion on the barren planet Skarpos. Having recovered an ancient Sith artifact known as the Helm of Ieldis, Odion and his captive Kerra rejoin General Beld Yulan and his forces, who have set up base on the top of the Morbollon Mesa. Despite acquiring Ieldis' vaunted artifact, Odion was unable to activate it which led Kerra to taunt him. During their subsequent conversation, Odion revealed that he had been fully aware of Kerra's presence since she had entered the Odionate. However, he left her alone because he believed that Kerra and her family were predestined to lead him to the Helm. Odion revealed that he had acquired information about her parents' research on the Helm during a raid on the University of Sanbra. The invasion of Aquilaris Minor in 1042 BBY was merely a cover to capture her parents and the other researchers involved in the Ieldis study for Project Pandemonium.
By then, Yulan and his team of soldiers had finished their excavation of the temple chamber. They had recovered some camping remains and two human skeletons; one of which had a locket containing an image of Kerra's parents. Realizing that her parents had died, Kerra descended into a state of grief which immediately activated the dark side powers of the Helm. Odion immediately unleashed the Helm's powers on two of the rival Sith Lord Malakite's Mutate soldiers and their dragon steeds, who had stumbled on Odion's entourage. Odion used the Helm's powers to drive them into a homicidal frenzy. Satisfied with this test demonstration, Odion unleashed the Helm on the three massed armies beneath the mesa. As a result, Malakite and Daiman's forces quickly collapsed as all the combatants began killing each other. In the ensuing massacre, Daiman and Malakite barely escaped with their lives. Meanwhile, Odion's entourage evacuated Skarpos on an Odionate planetary gunship.
Despite Odion's victory, the Helm also wiped out his entire garrison on Skarpos, leading General Yulan to raise concerns about the high losses. Odion dismissed Yulan's concerns, arguing that their deaths were inevitable and that the Helm saved them a lot of work. Kerra was subsequently taken to a detention cell while Odion set the warship Gravedigger for an unknown course. Despite his initial hostility towards Kerra, Beld Yulan had come to grudgingly respect Kerra for risking her life to find her parents. During the meeting Kerra also revealed that she was also looking for her lost younger brother or sister, whom she believed was incarcerated in one of the Odionate cloisters. Yulan then explained the main reason for his visit; a holorecorder had been recovered from the wrecked mesa chamber. Odion had viewed it privately and had ordered Yulan to bring it to Kerra in person.
It turned that the holorecording was a message from Kerra's late parents to Vannar Treece or any other Jedi involved in the University of Sanbra on the Ieldis study. Four years after the Massacre of Aquilaris, her parents had finally recovered the Helm of Ieldis on Skarpos. The Holts had intended to bring the Helm to the Jedi and the Galactic Republic for safekeeping but were unable to since the planet was besieged by warring Sith factions. By that stage, the Holts had run out of food and there was a permanent Sith presence outside the Morbollon Mesa. To prevent the Sith from finding the Helm, the couple made the fateful decision to blow themselves and the chamber up, in a last ditched attempt to deny the Sith access to the Helm.
Following the end of the transmission, Yulan expressed his inability to understand why Kerra's parents had willingly sacrificed their lives for everyone else. Kerra disagreed but without showing any malice, argued that her parents' sacrifice had made perfect sense. For her, their sacrifice signified that if death could have a meaning, then life must have a meaning as well. Shortly after their meeting, the Gravedigger landed on Vanahame. Kerra asked if Odion had wanted more anguish to feed on, adding that Yulan could tell Odion it did not work. Yulan replied that Odion may have just wanted her to understand the Helm's potential. Upon realizing they had landed on Vanahame, Kerra reached the conclusion that he came to the Cloister to harness the misery and sadness of the thousands of inmates within the planet-sized orphanage. By using the Helm to tap into these negative emotions, Odion's powers would be unlimited.
==Appearances==
==Collections==
*Star Wars: Knight Errant Volume 3: Escape
*Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 5
==Notes and references==
==External links==
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