The execution of Order 66 resulted in 10,000 members of the Jedi Order being reduced to
less than 200 within a single day, most of whom
came to be hunted in the years that followed.
Perishing within the initial purge may have come as a blessing, as many survivors came
to live in constant fear of being captured and tortured;
others came to be filled with despair as they watched those suffering around them yet not
being able to help, and a few simply lost all hope
and turned on their teachings by joining the Empire as dark side agents.
This psychological trauma of the survivors was perhaps best shown through the Jedi youngling
clan Soaring Hawkbat, with one of their members ultimately succumbing to the dark side
following the horrors they all experienced.
Prior to Order 66, the Soaring Hawkbat clan was stationed at a Jedi training school on
one of the moons of Bogden 3.
Near the end of the Clone Wars, Jedi Masters K’Kruhk and Sian Jeisel
arrived at the training school on a damaged shuttle alongside a group of Clone Troopers.
They were greeted by an exhilarated group of younglings, most of whom had never seen
Clones before and were fascinated by hearing their stories of the war.
While repairs were being made to the shuttle, the Clones and Jedi took
part in a feast within the academy.
It was here, in the middle of what seemed to be a peaceful
moment for the Jedi generals that just returned from the warfront, when Order 66 was issued.
In an instant, the Clones went from showing off their armor to the younglings to targeting
them with blaster fire, gunning them down as they
ran for their lives.
Jedi Master K’Kruhk leapt into action alongside Jeisel and the academy’s
instructor, defending the remaining younglings as
they ran to safety.
A handful of younglings were able to flee to the half-repaired shuttle
alongside padawan Chase Piru, with K’Kruhk following them.
All the other Jedi within the academy perished, with Jeisel sacrificing
herself by blowing up the Clones with their own
grenades.
As the shuttle lifted off, K’Kruhk was shaken to the core over what had just occurred, unable
to comfort the frightened younglings or Padawan,
with survival being the only thing on his mind.
Eventually, the survivors crash landed on an isolated moon and made camp, attempting
to heal over the wounds of betrayal and seeing their
friends perish right before them.
This peaceful existence was soon disrupted two months later,
when a pirate ship crash landed nearby.
The pirates were able to quickly locate the camp
and soon discovered it was inhabited by Jedi younglings.
Knowing of the bounty placed on captured Jedi survivors by the Empire, the pirates
kidnapped the younglings and began taking them back to their own ship.
Having been out hunting during the pirates’ intrusion, K’Kruhk
was forced to hatch a quick plan of rescuing them
before they got off world.
As night fell, K’Kruhk located the pirates and announced to them to peacefully surrender.
They of course refused, opening fire at his location.
As blaster fire rained in his direction, K’Kruhk
disappeared into the night and began firing arrows at his attackers, taking them out one
by one as they panicked to get to cover.
Eventually, the pirates threatened to execute their prisoners if
the Jedi Master continued his attacks.
K’Kruhk ceased immediately and did as they demanded,
appearing to surrender as he approached them from the dark.
However, the pirates made a fatal mistake by attempting to kill him again,
as once they opened fire, the inner beast within
K’Kruhk was unleashed, with him cutting them all down without mercy or compromise;
all the while the younglings watched in horror as
the Jedi Master they looked up to went on a bloody
killing spree.
Once it was all over, K’Kruhk came to instantly regret his actions, later admitting to Padawan
Chase that he lost control of his emotions and that the pirates did not deserve to die
in the brutal fashion that they had.
In his attempt to save them, he may have scarred them for life and set an
awful example for them, one that went against everything they were taught as Jedi learners.
Taking the pirates’ semi-functional ship, K’Kruhk and the others took off and traveled
to the planet Arkinnea, before crash landing once
more.
This time however, they were greeted by the planets’ local militia, who sent them off
to a refugee camp organized by the Galactic Empire.
At the refugee camp, they met another Jedi Master named Zao, who survived Order 66 due
to him refusing to participate in the Clone Wars.
Zao came to warn them that he had sensed danger at the camp they were staying at and
they needed to leave by nightfall.
Trusting his instincts, the Jedi escaped the refugee camp
and vanished into the jungles, later stealing a
hover wagon to aid in their journey.
As they further traveled to a more remote region of the world, K’Kruhk recounted his
experiences of both Order 66 and his massacre of the pirates to Zao, who came to comfort
his fellow Master by saying he did what was necessary
under the circumstances he was in.
They then took note of one of the younglings, a
girl named Sidirri, sensing how she had recently closed herself off from the rest of the group
and her emotions were unreadable.
The next day, the group made its way up a hill, with the younglings racing one another
to the top.
As they ran up the hill, they started to scream, causing K’Kruhk to rush up ahead to see
if they were in danger.
When he caught up with them, he witnessed the horror before them all.
On the other side of the hill, was a mass grave
of refugees from the same camp they had escaped from.
Despite the refugees being promised by the Empire to getting resettled on Arkinnea’s
open fields, the planet’s militia overseeing
their relocation went against the Imperials’ orders and
sought revenge on the off-worlders.
Arkinnea was attacked by the Separatists during the Clone
Wars, and since many of the refugees were former citizens coming from devastated Separatist
worlds, the militia had zero interest in having them live on their planet.
As the younglings tried to understand how anyone could do this, Zao explained to them
how this was an act of revenge by the militia, an emotional
reaction by those hurt by the war and refused
to let go of their own pain, with them lashing out towards those they believed responsible
rather than healing and moving on.
Of all the younglings present, Sidirri had the most emotional
reaction to the scene, revealing her hatred for both the militia and clones, wishing for
them to all die and that K’Kruhk should kill them all
like he did with the pirates.
Upon hearing his greatest regret being encouraged by Sidirri, K’Kruhk attempted to explain
to her how his actions against the pirates were
wrong, but before he could finish, a massive transport arrived over the gravesite they
were over.
The underbelly hangers of the transport opened and out of it hundreds of refugees fell to
their deaths.
All the Jedi could do was watch, as the screams of the people abruptly stopped the
moment they hit the ground.
Immediately after, the militia operating the transport spotted the
group, forcing them to make a run for it.
Hoping to get the soldiers to focus on him, K’Kruhk
separated from the group as they fled into the nearby forests.
Meanwhile, at one of the cities on Arkinnea, the commanding Imperial officer became
suspicious of the militia’s actions and requested reinforcements from a nearby Star
Destroyer.
Back at the forests, K’Kruhk was able to use the Force to grab control of the transport
and cause it to crash into the ground.
As more militia soldiers arrived at the scene, K’Kruhk
disappeared into the wilderness.
There, he continued to take out all the soldiers that came after
him until none were left, finally commandeering one of their speeders and making his way back
to the main group.
On the other side of the forest, the wagon carrying the younglings crashed into a tree
during their rush, causing everyone to get knocked
out except for Zao and Sidirri.
When the Jedi Master noticed her, he sensed unrelenting
fear coming from her.
As he approached, he was knocked back by the Force from her, immediately
realizing the dark side radiating from her.
Enraged, Sidirri declared they had to kill the soldiers coming after them, believing
they had already killed K’Kruhk upon hearing the
explosion from the transport.
Zao approached her again, this time in a comforting manner, asking her to reach out with her
feelings and the Force.
By doing so, Sidirri realized that K’Kruhk was still alive, calming down
and letting go of her initial hatred.
The rest of the younglings and the padawan were able to recover, with them continuing
to traverse through the forest.
They soon encountered a native people, primitives who lived in the
wilderness of Arkinnea.
Using the Force, Zao communicated to them that they meant no harm,
with the natives aiding them in their survival.
The militia was able to eventually catch up with
them.
As they aimed to fire, Zao used the Force to pick up a giant boulder and shielded the
younglings, telling them to escape while he held the soldiers off.
As everyone ran off, Sidirri stayed behind and fell into her rage once
more.
Using the Force, she took control of the boulder and threw it at the soldiers, instantly killing
them all as it crushed them.
Hearing the blaster firing had stopped, the rest of the group returned back to see what
happened, only to find Sidirri surrounded by the natives who were worshiping her over
the power she displayed and Zao at her side fearing
she had crossed into the point of no return towards the dark side.
The remaining militia stopped their pursuit once the Empire’s reinforcements arrived,
with the Imperials discovering the mass murder they
had committed against the refugees and arresting all those responsible.
The commanding officer who initially suspected the militia’s actions, Commander Teron,
had recognized K’Kruhk from the refugee camp
earlier and called out for him when he was alone
near the forests.
K’Kruhk answered his call, meeting Teron in person.
The Imperial Commander had served under the Jedi General in the Clone
Wars and wished to see if he was alright, refusing to believe in the lies the Empire
claimed against the Jedi Order.
The two caught up over the events that transpired in the Galaxy since the end of the war, with
Teron filling in the blanks of what happened to the rest of the Jedi to K’Kruhk who had
been in the dark since it all began.
Realizing his former general and friend was responsible for some of
the last surviving Jedi younglings, Teron offered to assist in their survival by keeping
Imperial eyes off their location and providing them
with supplies with his salary.
K’Kruhk accepted his offer, feeling hope for the future for the
first time since the end of the war.
K’Kruhk eventually caught up with the rest of the group, with them discovering an ancient,
abandoned Jedi outpost, making it their new home.
As they all settled down, K’Kruhk learned of what happened to Sidirri and came to see
her as she was sleeping.
Him and Zao came to realize that as a result of everything that happened,
she was left empty of hope and empathy, an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the dark
side and that it was now their responsibility to
restore those feelings back within her before it was too
late.
Despite their best efforts of healing Sidirri of her trauma, she ran away a year later with
Zao pursuing after her.
The rest of the Jedi remained at the outpost, turning it into a small
community and remaining safe for the decades to come.
On the other hand, Sidirri was never found and the fate of Zao is left unknown.
However, in a comic taking place 17 years later, there was
a dark Jedi that the writers of the comics stated
was supposed to be the grown-up version of Sidirri, though it was never officially confirmed.
Nonetheless, the story of this dark Jedi is brief as she only played a small role in a
larger plot.
She was on a planet where she massacred a group of Stormtroopers, hoping to get the
attention of Darth Vader.
When he arrived and confronted her, she revealed that she had
embraced the dark side and was no longer a Jedi.
She saw a vision of the dark lord overthrowing the Emperor, and that she wished
to become his Sith apprentice.
Although Vader
was briefly tempted in taking her in as his new student, he ultimately refused and struck
her down with a single blow.
While it’s not hundred percent known if this was truly a grownup Sidirri,
the author’s comments as well as her age and appearance lining up, make it very likely
this was the final fate of the Jedi youngling who succumbed
to the dark side.