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The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L,many more) Updated 10/10/08!
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Spike2002
Title: FF-UK RSA
Arena Manager
Registered:
Feb '02
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Date Posted:
7/12 7:49am
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
- Date Edited:
7/13 12:56pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Spike2002
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I won't even bother making a number 
I like the fact that the EOTH clone their soldiers to bolster their numbers. Wonder how many Spaarti cylinders Thrawn siphoned away from Wayland to send to his forces in the Unknown Regions.
Nice to see Thrawn and Karrde face-to-face again. Here's hoping that Thrawn and Car'das will be reunited again, too. I'm assuming Karrde is being sent to go talk to him (also wondering if the Aing-Tii will get involved in this too).
The Annihilators sound great. Would like to see how they do against an AT-AT walker
And Han's cracks and comments were great.  Especially telling the Raithian guard to go get a girlfriend.
Great stuff, YK 
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"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." - Arthur C. Clarke  I agree with halibut  Master to Louis_Skywalker  Proud Recipient of the Golden Elegos™ 
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SilSolo
Registered:
Mar '04
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Date Posted:
7/12 9:13pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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So it's Karrde and Thrawn, face to face. nice
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Diamond_Revelation
Registered:
Feb '03
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Date Posted:
7/13 7:10am
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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Hum
I do feel a little bit sorry for Rodan he really didn't get what he expected from his current job!!
I loved the action with Jaina, Jag and Han, Leia and Lando - the banter is great!
Looking forward to the next chapter!
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YodaKenobi
Title: TFN EU Staff
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
7/13 4:16pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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Wedge: First!
"Good job" 
Why, what's wrong with them now, Yob'ika?
So much'a, I don't know'a where to start'ika
Yeah, I've heard of him. Saw him in some interview about MGS4 that my brother was watching. Also heard that Kojima (sp?) was doing some work on the Metal Gear movie.
Cool. I wonder if it will just be the story from Metal Gear Solid or something completely new? It will probably be awful, but I'll still watch it
Finally popped in MGS4 last night, btw, and graphics are freakin' dazzling  I've never seen anything like it.
</Obi-wan> That's good. You've taken your first step into a larger world.
I can just feel myself growing 
SWEET!11!!!1!one! *Gets ready to play Imperial March*
I'll grab John Williams 
Almost sounds like he was "invited" aboard the ship, not invited.
lol. Nah, he actually was, and that's what's scaring him
Karrde, imagine how the Jedi are feeling.
It's always funny when enemies become allies.
Plus, that's not a cruel joke. LotF is a cruel joke.
Is that still canon? *holds head*
*Strikes up the orchestra*
Ah, you got your own conductor
I love that video.
If Karrde thinks something is up, there probably is...
We should have a definitive answer about Thrawn and his illness within the next ten chapters or so.
I know! I'll have this doctor take a look at Thrawn.
If he shows up we'll know it will be something really exotic
I think he gets it from his grandfather. Not so sure if that's a good thing...
Probably a lot of Han there too. Anakin Solo has always reminded me a bit of a combination of Luke and Han.
Yeah, sounds like that guy really needs to get some.
Why does Han insist on taunting people who can beat the bejesus out of him?
Crude, but effective. I kinda like it actually.
Han's been heavily drugged, took him awhile to figure out what was going on
I'm sure Threepio will be more than happen to oblige you, Han.
Without a doubt 
Good, sounds like fun.
We'll be back here in a few chapters
Thanks for reading and replying
Sil: second
Nicely done
zonzo: You guys were so freaking lucky I wasn't paying attention.
Obi-Wan would have something to tell you about "luck" 
Anyway, this is great!
Thanks!
I can't say Thrawn's plan was the best, but if it works, it works!
Well, we haven't actually seen what Thrawn's plan is yet. And unforunately, it's going to be one of those things you won't be able to truly appreciate until this fic is about over Thrawn is looking at the big picture...
Thanks for reading and replying 
Magnuskn: This is a wonderful chapter. Can´t really say more about it, perfection needs no further clarification.
Aww, thanks  I'm glad you liked it so much.
Edit: This, btw., is the cover for the upcoming KOTOR Campaign Guide for Star Wars: Saga Edition. I know that Darth Malig is modeled on Revan, so maybe someone can use the image.
That is so cool  Thanks a lot, could very well use that on the next cover. Malig's got to break out a lightsaber eventually, doesn't he?
Thanks again, and thanks for reading!
Cyn: Ah...I see that Mr. Threep is still in the thick of things...the Raithans have absolutely no chance.
Heh. Perhaps Threepio is an integral part of Thrawn's plan?
And I don't mean killing the Raithians with annoyance
And Jaina and Jag look to be just in time to pull Anakin's backside out of the fire... or maybe not, knowing you.
Going to be difficult to do from their vantage, but they can at least lessen the horde surrounding him a bit.
Can't wait for that over eager Ensign Happy Fists to get whats coming to him...
Leia actually just shoved her lightsaber through the back of his skull, sorry if that was confusing. It was from Han's perspective and he's still a little loopy at the moment.
But if you meant Admiral Vox, the man who was directing the torture, we'll be getting to him soon.
Nice update!
Thanks, and thanks for reading
megacrafter: why is it i'm eternally cursed to get sixth?
It's your lot in life?
maa, anyways good chapter, a little uninteresting, but necessary.
Sorry about that, hopefully the next one will be more exciting
i wonder what Thrawn wants with the raider and Jorj Car'das?
It will all make sense when this fic is over... I hope 
interesting bit with Jag and the droids.
Annihilators sound, um , nice.
I meant to add a link as a reminder, but we saw Annihilations back in chapter 49 of Exodus, when Leia and Han took one of them on on foot.
I think that's like my favorite chapter from Exodus actually
Thanks for reading and replying!
SilverWolf: Seventh!!
A lucky number
I loved all of Han/Lando/Leia banter. It was so funny!!
Glad you liked that. I always enjoy Han's banter with anyone, especially Leia
I is very worried about Anakin.
I am too, and not just because of his current predicament...
I loved this whole update!!
Thank you and thanks for reading Glad you enjoyed it.
Oh and thanks for letting me use the quote. You are the best!!
Aw No need for thanks, I'm honored you want to
GrandMasterKatarn: Loved the Karrde&Shada/Thrawn scene.
Thanks, I was looking forward to writing those two again, given the history.
Loved the Jaina/Jag rescue team.
Might not be much of a rescue team, but we'll see They're supposed to be lending ground support, but I guess they kind of are now.
Now, I have one question: What happened to KYLE KATARN????????????
Kyle is with Mara and they are on their way to the Raider's bridge We will be seeing them by Chapter 9, which is the climax of the Battle of Telex 
Thanks for reading and your reply
Draconarius: Ninth... this is getting kinda pointless now, isn't it?
Nah, let's keep it going
Excellent update. I know that whatever Thrawn is planning, it is going to be bold, audacious, and work beautifully, but I must wonder just why the Raider is so damn important.
I'll tell you that part of it is that in the 5 months they've been fighting the Raithians in Chiss space, they have yet to capture a Raithian warship in tact. We'll be getting into how and why that's the case, and all the other reasons Thrawn wants the Raider soon...
And what's with those Annihilators? Enteched AT-ATs on steroids... can't be good. They sound as though they're very hard to kill.
They are. Leia had a pretty epic battle with one in chapter 49 of Exodus. I meant to post that linke earlier for people who might have forgotten their introduction, it might give you a better idea what they're like.
Can't wait for the next one.
Thanks, I think it will be a good one.
Thanks for reading
Spike: I won't even bother making a number
Meh, your First streak is still unmatched
I like the fact that the EOTH clone their soldiers to bolster their numbers. Wonder how many Spaarti cylinders Thrawn siphoned away from Wayland to send to his forces in the Unknown Regions.
I'm not sure it's Spaarti cylinders being used. I don't think the Soontir Fel clones we saw all over the place in VotF were made by Spaarti cylinders, were they? I think they were just good old fashioned clones.
Nice to see Thrawn and Karrde face-to-face again. Here's hoping that Thrawn and Car'das will be reunited again, too. I'm assuming Karrde is being sent to go talk to him (also wondering if the Aing-Tii will get involved in this too).
You're probably right about Karrde's mission, and we will be seeing it and getting his PoV throughout this fic. Thrawn and Car'das is a little reunion I'd like to write but I can't promise it's going to happen.
As for the Aing-Tii, they are extremely reclusive and strict isolationists... but we'll be seeing them for sure
The Annihilators sound great. Would like to see how they do against an AT-AT walker
We just might be seeing that in the next fic
We actually saw the Annihilator's back in chapter 49 of Exodus but we didn't know their name yet, as it was from Han and Leia's PoV.
And Han's cracks and comments were great. Especially telling the Raithian guard to go get a girlfriend.
Glad you liked that Han doesn't know when to quit.
Great stuff, YK
Thanks and thanks for reading
Sil: So it's Karrde and Thrawn, face to face. nice
Yep, a meeting about 25 years in the making
Thanks for reading and replying
Diamond: Hum
I do feel a little bit sorry for Rodan he really didn't get what he expected from his current job!!
He was definitely put in a tough position. He made the wrong decision for sure and it has led to some great evil, but I do sympathize with him here too. Unforunately he allowed himself to become angry and bitter enough over losing that first election that it clouded his judgement and he was more focused on revenge than doing the right thing.
I loved the action with Jaina, Jag and Han, Leia and Lando - the banter is great!
Thanks We'll be seeing more of all of the above soon.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
Should be up on Friday
Thanks so much for reading and replying
Thanks again, everyone 
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FORCEBlLADE
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
7/13 9:35pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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Ahh Leia, always reliable. in my opinion Jag's gotta' see some of the advantages of a droid companion.
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"Once you start down the dark path, forever will itdominate your destiny." :Yoda "JEDI CONFLICT" http://boards.theforce.net/Beyond_the_Saga/b10477/17951268/?13
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DarthBellumSolo
Registered:
Mar '08
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Date Posted:
7/14 7:10am
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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The interesting chapter.  Raithian Annihilators remind yuuzhan vong creatures.
I adore Jag!
Hehe, Thrawn to name the red-eyed maniac... I Die of laughter. It is thought fine up.
Here that is interesting to me - when we shall see Tahiri, Jysella, Alema and Callista which have gone over on the Dark Side? To me they are very curious. Well and certainly, I look forward to new chapters about Jacen and how Anakin too will come over to the Dark Side...
Bel
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Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus - my love! Heir to Skywalker - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28592350/p1/?0 All roads conduct in the Dark side! I grieve on Darth Caedus and I mourn over it... 
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L0B0
Registered:
Jan '08
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Date Posted:
7/14 9:25am
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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Thanx for the PM. I am still following, but I have decided to read this entire storyline from the beginning. I ought to be caught up within a week or so, and then I will start replying directly to this thread again.
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Check your Six! ---> http://www.talonintelligencesquadron.com/index.htm * Mando'ad draar digu... * Self Appointed FADA Acolyte
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iamobiwan1970
Registered:
Aug '05
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Date Posted:
7/14 6:14pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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I've always had a fondness for Karrde! I think his thoughts greatly summarize the feelings of many right now who have lost their place in the galaxy:
But somehow, it had all come crashing down, and Karrde felt lower than when he'd first began. He was one of the most wanted beings in the galaxy, forced into hiding from the Alliance and their charges of treason. The siege on Ossus and the subsequent diversion at Corellia had cost him in lives— good beings who had served him loyally and died in a cause they'd never really signed up for— while being cut off from the galaxy meant his other resources were drying up as well.
Thrawn is always impressive. Sadly, I've not read the trilogy. It's on my to do list someday. so many books, so little time!
"Move the Creshock and half of your fleet into the atmosphere and keep those Raithian ships occupied," Thrawn said, studying a hologrid of Telex and the assault around the planet. "I'll order our CEDF friends to make a stand along the penetration points to see if we can choke the invasion off in the mean time."
I had no doubt Anakin was fine!
whirling in a mob of metallic armor, was a beam of blue light
kid’s nuts, but we already knew that! I take it Jag's fancy craft is the most modern version of Anakin Skywalker's Azure Angel?
when the Annihilator reared back to aim its belly launcher, Jag didn't hesitate, thumbing his fighter's secondary firing switches rapidly and watching as four blinding propellant trails billowed away from his viewport. The tails of scorching red proton torpedoes curved in a low arc and collided with the living walker in a series of nova-like bursts that tore the creature in half and sprayed limbs and chitin in a hail of raining detritus.
great imagery as Jag shows his bad ass self! Cool!
C-3PO waddled in, his hands waving in the air as he moved to stand next to Leia.
"And here I thought the torture was over," Han groaned, holding his head.
The humor never ends, and I never tire of C3PO either! I love tough Jedi Leia!
Great chapter! I hope to see some of Kyp in action. Is he storming this ship too?
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TelannaTani
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
7/15 12:59pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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I think that is the first time I have EVER read a post from you and ended with a...
"What? That's IT?"
Nice filler chapter. God to see everyone's alive and well. The crazy Jedi-clone, eh? That's going to be interesting.
Can't wait for more.
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John 8:31-32
Callsign: "Voz"
Padawan to BigFatty
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YodaKenobi
Title: TFN EU Staff
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
7/15 4:00pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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FORCEBlLADE: Ahh Leia, always reliable.
She's becoming a great Jedi, I think.
in my opinion Jag's gotta' see some of the advantages of a droid companion.
I think it's going to take some more convincing for Jag Especially after seeing that Annihilator which is at least part droid
Thanks so much for reading and replying
Bellum: The interesting chapter. Raithian Annihilators remind yuuzhan vong creatures.
Interesting There's a clue in them, I think...
I adore Jag!
Glad you liked that
Hehe, Thrawn to name the red-eyed maniac... I Die of laughter. It is thought fine up.
Hehe. Han has interesting thoughts on the Grand Admiral
Here that is interesting to me - when we shall see Tahiri, Jysella, Alema and Callista which have gone over on the Dark Side?
I don't think I've said anything about Tahiri going over to the Dark Side
As for when we will see them: Very, very, very soon
To me they are very curious. Well and certainly, I look forward to new chapters about Jacen and how Anakin too will come over to the Dark Side...
More of that soon as well
Thanks so much for reading and replying
L0B0: Thanx for the PM. I am still following, but I have decided to read this entire storyline from the beginning. I ought to be caught up within a week or so, and then I will start replying directly to this thread again.
Cool Good luck, that's a lot of reading to do.
I hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing from you
iamobiwan: I've always had a fondness for Karrde! I think his thoughts greatly summarize the feelings of many right now who have lost their place in the galaxy:
Yeah, I think you're right. A lot of people have been totally displaced by this. Things will probably never be the same.
Thrawn is always impressive. Sadly, I've not read the trilogy. It's on my to do list someday. so many books, so little time!
It's one of the best book series, IMO, almost universally loved. I won't ruin them for you, but basically Karrde lies to Thrawn and hides some things from him in the first book and then spends the rest of the series running as Thrawn hunts him down
I had no doubt Anakin was fine!
He's got a nice big character shield Plus we've seen him doing other things in the preview
kid’s nuts, but we already knew that! I take it Jag's fancy craft is the most modern version of Anakin Skywalker's Azure Angel?
More like this, actually.
great imagery as Jag shows his bad ass self! Cool!
Yeah. I really liked the idea of him having a showdown with one of these things.
The humor never ends, and I never tire of C3PO either!
No doubt that's what he's there for.
I love tough Jedi Leia!
Thanks, I like her this way too.
Great chapter! I hope to see some of Kyp in action. Is he storming this ship too?
Yep, Kyp and Wrev are with a few war droids taking out the ship's communications. We'll be seeing him in chapter 9
Thanks so much for reading and replying
Telanna: I think that is the first time I have EVER read a post from you and ended with a...
"What? That's IT?"
I'm kind of disappointed with it too. Hopefully the next one will be better.
Nice filler chapter. God to see everyone's alive and well.
Thanks
The crazy Jedi-clone, eh? That's going to be interesting.
Who do you mean?
Can't wait for more.
Should be up on friday
Thanks so much for reading and replying
New post on Friday. Look for more of Jacen on Coruscant and finding out what's going on, as well as a long awaited new PoV
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GrandMasterKatarn
Registered:
Feb '08
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Date Posted:
7/16 7:02pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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Is it Kyle? Is the new PoV Kyle? Please let it be Kyle! 
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Revan+Bane+Exile = Kyle Katarn
"Expletive: Damn it, master, I am an assassination droid... not a dictionary!" - HK-47
"My first apprentice was a female Twi'lek named Jaden Korr" - Kyle Katarn
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TelannaTani
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
7/17 8:25am
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
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Oh, I wasn't disappointed with the content, just the length. I'm used to your long chapters. That was a necessary one, setting us up for the action coming up. It was good, just short - for you.
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John 8:31-32
Callsign: "Voz"
Padawan to BigFatty
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YodaKenobi
Title: TFN EU Staff
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
7/17 6:09pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/11
- Date Edited:
7/18 4:18pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
YodaKenobi
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GrandMasterKatarn: Is it Kyle? Is the new PoV Kyle? Please let it be Kyle!
Now I'm afraid you'll be disappointed
We'll see Kyle in a couple chapters though
Telanna: Oh, I wasn't disappointed with the content, just the length.
Well, I was kind of disappointed with it
I'm used to your long chapters. That was a necessary one, setting us up for the action coming up. It was good, just short - for you.
I think the next one will be about the normal length
BTW, you mentioned a crazy Jedi clone in your last reply— are you confusing Joruus C'baoth with Jorj Car'das? Car'das is a former smuggler who we last saw in VotF when he had taken up life with the Aing-Tii monks. He might have the largest data library in the galaxy.
New post tomorrow
I forgot to mention that this one closes up something big that's been hanging since the end of The Living Force, and actually has a ton to do with that story for those remember it. Hope you guys like it
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YodaKenobi
Title: TFN EU Staff
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
7/18 4:17pm
Subject:
RE: The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M, H/L, many more) Updated 7/18
- Date Edited:
8/8 10:19pm (3 edits total)
Edited By:
YodaKenobi
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Chapter 7: The Place of the Dead
Looking out the airspeeder's transparisteel windshield at the cityscape's fingers caressing the distant horizon, it was hard to believe that Coruscant had been liberated only three and a half years earlier from the Yuuzhan Vong, and the actual process of reconstruction had launched even later. It wasn't yet the Coruscant the New Republic had lost to the invading warriors, or the jewel the Old Republic had so cherished before the Empire crowned it "Imperial City," but most traces of the world the Yuuzhan Vong had shaped into Yuuzhan'tar had vanished from this height.
In its earliest days, the reconstruction effort had consisted of only the Yuuzhan Vong World Brain and Jacen. They'd formed a bond on the seedship when the great creature was a simple dhuryam, as Jacen and the other slaves nurtured it into what it would become. It was a bond that helped end the war itself, and one that led the restoration of Coruscant.
First the World Brain used massive dovin basals with the help of rogue Yuuzhan Vong shapers like Nen Yim to move the galactic capital back into its original orbit, farther from the system's primary than Yuuzhan'tar had needed to be to sustain its high temperatures. The speed of Coruscant's rotation was increased, while the three surviving moons of the planet were similarly pulled back into their former orbits around the planet by the dovin basals and the gravity wells they created.
The evidence could be seen in the sky, where Yuuzhan'tar's "Rainbow Bridge" of cooled magma, rubble, and star dust that had been created when the tidal stresses of the dovin basals had demolished Coruscant's largest satellite, creating a dazzling array of prismatic light that danced through the clouds and glistened over the planet's face, was no more. In place of the hardened magma bridge and streams of braided colors was the skyline Jacen remembered from his childhood, with streaks of white clouds spattered across an air-scrubbed blue sky, and a distant sun shimmering high above the city in a pool of gold.
Once Coruscant and its moons had been returned to their proper homes in the universe, the more difficult process of repairing the world itself began. The World Brain went about poisoning what it had created, turning the once sweltering jungle that had grown across the planet into a dried wasteland. Yuuzhan Vong fauna withered and faded beneath the broken slabs of duracrete rubble it had overgrown, while the shapers developed a compound that ate through the dense constructs and disease-like growths of yorik coral that had infested every corner of the city.
And that's when the backbreaking work of actually trying to rebuild Coruscant began.
Billions of workers from every world in the Alliance journeyed to the galaxy's fractured capital in an effort to help transform the ruins into something they could once again be proud of, to show that their enemies might have been able to knock down the great constructs, but they would always rebuild. It was a statement of perseverance. Almost every species in the Alliance that could survive in Coruscant's oxygen-rich atmosphere was represented, and even some that could not found ways to contribute, by wearing breathing apparatuses or pressure suits, or by assisting the reconstruction from off-world.
In a galaxy that was struggling with a thousand different skirmishes in the wake of the Yuuzhan Vong's destruction, the effort was a symbol of unity, the bright spot in the galaxy that warmed the chests of each of the GA's citizens with pride and filled them with a commodity that had been in short supply since Coruscant fell: hope.
The workers cleared the countless tons of rubble and recycled what materials they could, and hewed what alien wilderness remained that the World Brain could not purge by more conventional means. Everyone was surprised to find much of the planet's undercity in several districts to be largely intact, giving the gathering of architects a starting point with which to work. Towers that could be preserved were, while those that were no longer structurally sound were ground down to permacrete and new foundations were laid.
After three years, their progress was nothing short of astounding. Mountains were demolished and in their place rose the elegant skytowers that dwarfed anything the Yuuzhan Vong could ever have grown. Coral and stone-lined chasms became the seemingly bottomless skylanes between buildings; most oceans were drained and paved to make new foundations.
Craters turned into courtyards, valleys into vistas. Decaying door membranes were replaced by alloy panels, while their nerve-bundle triggers became electronic toggle pads. Bioluminescent lichen vanished, and now the night was lit by phosphor signs and glowpanels.
There were no shaper's grashals, amphistaff groves, coralskipper farms, or slash-vine wrapped jungles with wicked ferns— only ferrocrete superstructures, transparisteel towers, tapered alloy spires of gray, silver, and chrome, and crowded plaza-topped ziggurats. One couldn't help but watch the sunlight dancing across the faces of the beautiful constructs and be impressed.
Jacen Solo would have been more impressed if he didn't have the emitter plate of a lightsaber jammed firmly in his ribs.
"You're making a mistake," he said
Kirana Ti just scowled at him, pushing her lightsaber harder against his side. With only a little pressure on the weapon's activation plate, white-hot pain would scorch through Jacen's chest cavity before the tip of the incandescent blade emerged from his sternum.
"We know what we are doing, Jacen Solo." The former Dathomiri Witch's voice was drenched in disdain. "You've become a threat to us all. Save your breath for explaining yourself when we take you back before the Jedi."
He let his gaze linger on the Jedi Master's hard stare only a moment before turning to his left to see if he could find more support there, but instead saw a similar look in Octa Ramis' eyes above the muzzle of the blaster pistol she kept pointed at him. The fog that had clouded Jacen's mind since the surprise attack in the Well of the World Brain had finally started to clear, and he didn't think they'd been traveling in the airspeeder more than a few minutes. Still, he was surprised not to hear the sirens of Coruscant's security forces after such an explosion— the two Jedi had obviously planned their kidnapping attempt thoroughly and made a clean escape.
He turned his gaze forward to the front seat of the airspeeder where two beings he recognized as Booster Terrik's employees sat— the pilot, a nervous Gotal named Na'rul Thun and the other a rough-looking Nikto whose name Jacen couldn't place. The other smugglers he'd seen at the Well must have fled in another speeder. Thun was flying erratically, nearly side swiping a blue Incom ZX-26 as he weaved around the vehicle in the dense stream of knotted traffic, and twitched each time one of the three ysalamiri crawling around the cockpit traveled across his shoulders.
It was surprising that the two Jedi Masters were willing to sacrifice their own ability to touch the Force with the flaxen-furred lizards present just to ensure that Jacen could not call on the great energy either or sense their initial attack, but he supposed since they were still armed and his hands were secured in a pair of binders in front of him, it had probably been a wise trade-off.
"You don't understand," Jacen pleaded. "I didn't come here alone. You're putting yourselves in grave danger."
"So sweet of you to worry about us," Octa Ramis said, tightening her grip on the blaster she had pointed in his direction. "But we took care of your little escort of Raithian soldiers before we even hit you with that concussion grenade. They'll be waking up in a few hours, probably with a worse headache than you must have right now."
Jacen shook his head. "I wasn't talking about them."
"You'll have to excuse us if we don't believe you. I seem to remember you lying to your parents in that holotransmission you sent us a few months ago in order to lead us all into a trap on Denon."
It was clear from the bitterness in Octa's voice that the Chandrila native had been personally affected by his deceit, and Jacen reasoned that she must have been on the team that came to Denon in order to rescue him, his Uncle Luke, and the other captured Jedi Council members.
"Did my parents know about this? That you planned to attack me?"
"No, none of the other Jedi do. This was Thrawn's idea. He—"
"Octa," Kirana Ti admonished, casting her warrior's glare at the other woman. "Enough."
Realizing she'd said more than she should have, the younger Jedi Master sunk back against the speeder's door, her gaze and her blaster still trained on Jacen while her mouth tightened as though she suspected she was the victim of some trick.
Thrawn, Jacen thought, relieved that at least his family hadn't turned against him to the point where they were actively trying to hurt him. Jaina's announcement more than seven months earlier that the legendary Chiss strategist was still alive was at least one piece of information he had not shared with his new master. He'd seen that Darth Malig was capable of incredibly noble and selfless actions, but he'd also witnessed some of the Dark Lord's bone-chilling manipulations, and until Jacen was certain that Malig was committed to achieving their goals without hurting the Jedi, he couldn't trust him with the news of Thrawn, knowing the Grand Admiral was providing a haven for his family and friends in Chiss Space.
"Please," Jacen began, trying desperately to convey the direness of their situation. "You need to release me. I don't want to see either of you hurt, and if you continue this way... I won't be able to help you."
"Can you shut him up?" Na'rul Thun yelled from the front seat, his amber eyes flicking to the rear viewscreen. "He's giving me the creeps."
"Yes, I think we've heard enough," Kirana Ti replied, turning her eyes back to Jacen. "I don't want to have Octa stun you— with your injuries, you might not wake up. But if you can't keep quiet the rest of the way, that's what I'll do."
Jacen looked down at his torso. His black uniform was torn where the hot chunks of shrapnel had sprayed across his midsection and left forearm. His injuries probably weren't life threatening, but he was losing blood and his body was working hard to recover— getting hit by a stun bolt could shut down some of his vital systems and he was fairly sure he'd have an increased-risk of the blast causing heart palpitations in his current condition.
If only he could make Kirana Ti and Octa understand.
Jacen wanted to save them. He wanted to save everyone.
He wasn't a traitor— if anything, it was the Jedi who were unknowingly betraying the galaxy and the Force they'd sworn to serve.
For years, Jacen had been convinced that the Jedi Order was on the wrong path, that the Force was much larger and more complex than any of them could truly comprehend, and that dividing it up in terms of Light and Dark was a misguided perspective— the Force was one.
Light or Dark, it was the same energy.
It was Vergere who'd introduced him to this precept, not far from where they were on Coruscant, when the pair had been trekking through Yuuzhan'tar's terraformed surface together for weeks. The former Jedi had taught him many lessons in that time, declaring him dead when he was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and calling herself, "His guide through the Lands of the Dead."
He soon found out what that meant, what it was to be dead. She displayed compassion and indifference, healed him and brutalized him. She showed him pain, and death, and unspeakable destruction, and she showed him that it was his destiny to decide what to do about it— to become the Gardener.
And when she'd driven him to the brink of the Dark Side, and he electrocuted her and a cadre of Vong warriors in the ruins of the old Temple with his dark rage, she revealed the Jedi's dirty little secret about the Force.
It was a devastating blow— not because he couldn't fathom it, but because somewhere deep inside him, past the shields of denial he tried to raise to deflect it— he knew that she was right.
Somehow, he'd always known.
After the war, he'd spent the better part of three years in isolation on Zonama Sekot, trying to discover the truth, meditating in the tempasi and becoming one with the living planet in a way he doubted few had ever been capable. But it would take the threat of another war to drive him from his hermitage and lead him stumbling across his answer.
It came when he met Darth Malig.
The Dark Lord of the Sith had manipulated Jacen into a battle with his apprentice, General Rénin, after the Raithian leader nearly killed Callista. Jacen was forced to intervene, and suffered a near fatal lightsaber blow to his shoulder and chest, leaving him with no choice but to unleash a power he'd sworn not to touch until he was sure it could not corrupt him.
When the storm of Force-lightning had finished crackling from his fingertips and Rénin lay dead in a heap of scorched flesh, it was Malig who saved his life. He was the greatest healer Jacen had ever seen, bringing Callista back from the brink of death and repairing the damage Rénin's blade had done to Jacen's shoulder with powers the young Jedi could not comprehend. Malig would later save Lowbacca's life in much the same way.
Jacen had never seen anything like it, and it went against everything he'd ever been told about the Sith.
Afterwards, Malig told him much about the Force and the Jedi and the Sith's relationship to it, confirming what Vergere had taught him during the Vong War and further opening his eyes to the problems with the Jedi's view. Malig explained that the Jedi's idea of "Balance" was unnatural, keeping the Force contained in a state that was forever destined to boil over into an endless successions of war. The Dark Side was not about evil— it was about the emotions of living beings, that which separates them from droids.
It was nature.
And the Jedi were keeping it from taking its course out of fear.
For Jacen, it was an epiphany, hearing exactly what he had felt was wrong since he was very young but having been unable to put it into words, or even understand it cognitively.
What Malig claimed he wanted to do was "liberate" the Force, to make it whole again. Though he didn't elaborate on exactly what that meant, he did describe for Jacen a vision he'd had many years ago, long before his parents had even been born. Malig said that in this vision, he saw the end, he saw the Force being liberated, and at his side was a being named "Solo."
That it was destiny for Jacen to help him.
The little the Dark Lord told him of who he actually was went to further prove that he and Jacen were linked by fate. According to Malig, he had once been the secret apprentice of Sidious' master, Darth Plagueis— a being that could not only save people from death, but could create life with the Force. Malig claimed that Plagueis did this once, when he created Anakin Skywalker.
Jacen wouldn't have believed it had he not seen Malig's healing powers and a hint of something even greater— when lecturing Jacen in his lab, the Sith Lord destroyed a spider, keeping it in a beaker under pressure until the whole thing exploded. Then, using the power of the Force, Malig brought the little creature's parts back together with just a faint trace of electricity dancing off his index finger and the spider's wounds disappeared— the spider suddenly flopped over, as alive as if nothing had ever happened to it.
Both Jacen and Callista decided they'd seen enough and knew they had to help Darth Malig in his quest. After stopping his uncle's escape attempt from his cell on Denon, an event Jacen feared Malig had arranged as a means of testing him, the Dark Lord made Jacen his new apprentice— Darth Havok.
That was when things had begun to fall apart. Malig asked Jacen to intercept his twin sister and bring Jaina back to him, claiming that Jacen's siblings had an important part to play as well and that it was important that they be on their side. He also asked the new Sith to lure the remaining Jedi into a trap by sending his parents a holotransmission with fake details of his capture. Jacen failed, nearly killing Jaina, only to return and learn of Malig's most troubling manipulation— he and his Hand, Faybol, had made Jacen's brother Anakin believe that Tahiri was dead.
In Jacen's shock, he couldn't possibly understand why his "Master" would do anything so cruel, but Malig quickly explained that it would lead to Anakin's conversion and save his life. That Anakin's anger and lust for revenge would lead him to Malig, and when that happened, he would be able to offer him everything he'd thought lost forever.
It was a revelation about just how cunning Malig was and left Jacen questioning his every interaction with the Sith, wondering if he had manipulated him into fighting his Uncle Luke.
As if to assuage his fears, Malig removed his mask, revealing his identity to Jacen for the first time.
What Jacen saw beneath the black and burgundy mask had both stunned and troubled him, until the reality sunk in and he realized it answered almost every question he had. More than ever, Jacen was convinced that this was his destiny.
But how could he ever hope to explain any of that to the two Jedi Masters stuffed beside him in the rocketing airspeeder with their weapons aimed at him, when Jacen couldn't even convince his own sister?
It broke his heart to remember how Jaina had looked at him in that moment when she'd discovered his new allegiance, that expression of soul-crushing disappointment, and the pain of imagining the rest of his family's feelings was something not even his experience with the Yuuzhan Vong could dull.
They must hate me, Jacen though. Anakin, most of all...
He had to find a way to reach them, to explain everything to them so that he could save them from the coming conflict, but since his failure with Jaina on Togoria, the Dark Lord had been reluctant to send Jacen anywhere near Chiss Space and the Jedi's hiding place, electing instead to keep Jacen near Denon so that they could train and he could protect the Galactic Capital.
More than anything, Jacen longed to reach out to his wife. He hadn't seen Tenel Ka since she told him she was pregnant, and it killed him how much he'd missed. Though their marriage had been arranged after he returned from his hermitage on Zonama Sekot as a way of bringing Hapes into the Alliance officially, the crush he'd had on her throughout their childhood on Yavin IV was rekindled, and they soon fell in love.
Surely Tenel Ka would listen to him? If nothing else, he had to save her and his child.
He had to.
Jacen glanced out the passenger-side window at the blur of gray durasteel and the knots of airspeeder traffic winding in every direction through the fissure-like skylanes between structures. He was again reminded of Vergere guiding him through the jungles of Yuuzhan'tar, the smell of the wild foliage and the welts the needle-like fronds would leave on his skin when he touched them. They were only a few blocks away from where Shimrra's great worldship had been planted into the planet's crust, and to Jacen's surprise, Na'rul was banking towards a wide ferrocrete apartment complex that was several hundred meters above the Yuuzhan Vong's "Place of the Dead."
"Where are you taking me?"
"Quiet," Kirana Ti seethed.
"You said you'd stun him! Now you have to!" Na'rul yelled as though he'd just sensed someone backing out of a sabacc bet, his eyes again visible in the rear viewscreen filled with disbelief.
"Just land."
"Just land," the Gotal repeated it a childish mockery of the Jedi Master's accent. "Okay, but when he kills us all, I'm going to be furious."
The speeder made an angled dive away from traffic and glided into one of the open berths in what appeared to be a private docking bay. "The ship's not here!" Na'rul cried. "Where's Driggs?"
"He'll be here," Octa said. "Just calm down."
"I bet that Hutt-hugger got frightened and took off without us."
"No, this will all go according to plan. He'll be here soon."
"What if something happened to him?"
"Na'rul—"
"We're all going to die!"
"Snap out of it!" Kirana Ti shouted, reaching over to strike the Gotal across the head. "Driggs we'll be here. We just have to wait until we know planetary security isn't following us before we try and leave the atmosphere. They've got patrols out there. Now let's get him inside and wait, okay?"
The doors to the speeder came open while Na'rul grumbled to himself, and Kirana Ti pulled Jacen out, her lightsaber still jammed against his side. "You try anything stupid and I won't hesitate to hit the activator. Clear?"
"Yeah," Jacen agreed, as she and Octa began to push him forward across the permacrete docking bay, following Na'rul and his Nikto partner towards the complex's double-doored entrance, each one wearing an ysalamir.
"Things aren't going as planned, are they?" Jacen said quietly to the two Jedi. "That whole thing about your ship coming later— you were lying to him."
"Just shut up and keep moving."
They whisked him through the whirring alloy doors and Jacen found himself inside a huge, vacant lobby, with marble floors and alabas pillars. He reasoned that the apartment building must have been in the finishing stages of its furnishing, but hadn't begun to rent rooms to tenants yet— a clever spot to pick as the Jedi's safe house while they waited to get him off of Coruscant.
It wasn't long before they made their way through the lobby, took a turbolift up four floors, and arrived at the front of an apartment door that Na'rul was keying open. As Jacen had suspected, when the door hissed open, the apartment on the other side was completely bare.
He opened his mouth to make another plea, to try and reason with them as they pushed him inside, but just then, a device on Octa's belt began blaring. She quickly snapped the black object free and was studying it when Na'rul padded over.
"What's that?"
"The security system we set up in the hangar," she said absently. "Something just landed in the bay, and it's not Driggs..."
"What?"
Kirana Ti turned her attention to Jacen. "What do you know about this?"
"I tried to tell you..."
"Tell us what?"
"Just surrender now, please. I promise, I can protect you if you do—"
"Stow it," the Jedi Master snapped, before looking to Na'rul. "Stay here, we're going to go check it out."
The look of horror on Na'rul's face was almost perfectly mirrored in the Nikto's as the two Jedi moved for the apartment door.
"Now wait just a Jawa-kissing minute here!" Na'rul shouted indignantly. "You're just going to leave us?"
"He's bound and you've got the ysalamiri," Octa replied, looking over her shoulder. "If he tries anything, stun him."
With that, both women stepped out into the corridor and the apartment door slid shut again, sealing Jacen and his two captors inside.
***
Beyond the Outer Rim of Galactic Alliance territory, and past the sectors controlled by the Chiss Ascendancy, there is a realm simply called the Unknown Regions.
And within this realm is a giant swath of space that most people cannot find.
Inside this swath, there is a gas giant with a thick asteroid belt that tumbles around the planet in a glittering corona-mist of shattered rock particles.
And inside this belt, there is an asteroid the size of a Corellian frigate.
And inside this asteroid, is a woman.
She is somewhere inside the labyrinth of catacombs and winding warrens that have been eaten through the insides of the asteroid by its insectoid inhabitants, her hands and feet wrapped tightly in adhesive webs to secure her to the wax-slickened hive wall.
To her, she's been hanging there for an eternity, but in reality it has only been a few weeks. It is just four months after Coruscant was liberated from the Yuuzhan Vong— roughly three years before the Jedi will be exiled from the Alliance and Jacen Solo will be taken captive by Kirana Ti and Octa Ramis.
She remembers the liberation, the millions of dead Yuuzhan Vong in ruptured shells of vonduun crab armor and mangled soldiers burning in the pits of the Place of Sacrifice on Coruscant's surface, and she remembers how she got here— she was taken by an alien named Faybol.
On the voyage into this unreachable realm, he has told her very little, but as she hangs suspended for eternity, he visits and tells her many things. He knows much about her, perhaps more than she knows herself, because he tells her she is dead.
Her name is Callista.
And she doesn't mind being dead— when she found Faybol, lost in the wastelands that Coruscant's surface had become, she had been eager to die. The Vong were defeated, and all the hatred and anger she had felt for them, the fuel she had used to train herself to use the Force again in new ways, felt as purposeless as life had been for her without Luke Skywalker.
She'd been ready for it to end.
Faybol tells her that all the members of the sect she'd formed to destroy the Yuuzhan Vong— the New Potentium— are dead too. Because he killed them. He explains to her how he butchered each and every one of them on their ship, the Gray Truth. He tells her that they were weak and poorly trained, and that he did it to take everything away from her.
Dead people don't need allies.
Then, somewhere in the haze of passing time, he introduces her to someone new, someone besides the colony of bugs that scurry and chirp and rub their antennae against her legs and stomach when they brush by her in the tunnel or feed her the glop whose origins she is happily ignorant of. Like Faybol, his face is shrouded behind a strange mask, but he is wrapped in a black cloak.
His name is Malig.
He tells her about the Force and how her vision of it was close to revealing the truth— that the Force is one. And that is part of why they have brought her here. But he questions her about Luke. He asks her about the Skywalkers and wants to know everything she knows about them.
Then he asks her what she wants more than anything in the galaxy and she tells him.
He says he can give it to her.
When Callista expresses doubt and asks why he's so interested, Malig explains to her his vision for the Force and the dream he had of a being named Solo who will help him bring it to pass. He tells her who he is and what he plans to do.
Then he removes his mask.
And Callista knows that she again has a purpose.
***
The speeder bike's repulsors squealed as Callista Ming banked hard from the skylane and came gliding into the open docking bay where a lone speeder was parked. Its drives were still bleeding vapors in ripples of heat and the aroma of cooked fuel and turbojet exhaust was thick in the chamber— she knew that she couldn’t be far behind the vehicle’s passengers.
Callista didn't waste any time, swinging around in the saddle of the bike and hopping off, while freeing the receiver she had tucked in one of the pouches of her utility belt. There was no doubt when she looked at its screen and the pulsing red dot on its radar that she'd found where Jacen had been taken.
Darth Malig had told her this would happen, that he'd seen in the Force that Jacen would be attacked during his visit to Coruscant, but the Dark Lord did not want to warn his apprentice— Callista knew from experience that Malig could be a harsh teacher. Instead, he'd tasked her with making sure Jacen was looked after, and she snuck a fingernail-sized beacon onto his uniform.
It was fortunate she had, because immediately after the attack, she'd lost all trace of the young man in the Force. Her team had been across the skylane in the next building while Jacen was tending to the World Brain in its massive well, but she still wasn't able to get there in time to prevent Jacen's capture.
Whoever had taken him, was good, and if Callista was a gambler, she would have thrown all her credits on their enemies having ysalamiri.
There was no time to wait for her reinforcements, so Callista unhooked another device from her belt and nested the grenade into one of the docked speeder's turbines before stepping away just far enough not to be struck by the plasma burst and raining blades, synthfoam pads, and alloy shards that came raining down across the bay.
Confident that she'd eliminated one of their only escape routes, she proceeded forward, palming the toggle controls on the hangar doors and stepping into the apartment complex's lobby. Immediately she ducked behind the nearest of the thick alabas pillars that lined the long stretch of umber and cream swirled marble floors on both sides, knowing that she would not have the Force to warn her if Jacen's kidnappers were waiting there and ready to attack.
Freeing a small pair of electrobinoculars from the back pouch of her belt, the Sith Acolyte thumbed the device's thermal sensors to life, before peering through them and carefully scoping across the expanse of the lobby for any trace of the undeniable radiation signature of a living being. As she searched, she wondered what else her master's vision of this conflict had shown him.
For three years she had been training under the tutelage of Darth Malig for the day when she would return to the Alliance as the first, unrecognized, salvo of a war that would change the galaxy and the Force forever. Callista had played her part when she came to Denon in the Raithian Stealth Dagger, warning Denon Port Authority, the GFI, and the Skywalkers of the threat waiting to attack in the Unknown Regions, stirring them all up so that they would jump when the Vagaari arrived, and welcome the Raithians with open arms when they came to join the fight against the race of piratical slavers.
It had all been part of Malig's plan.
And when he tasked her with bringing him Jacen Solo and helping to convince him to join the Sith Lord, Callista had played the young man like a Zeltron flute, feeding into his insecurities about the Force, convincing him to take her on as a sort of apprentice in order to show her how to use the Force, all the while teaching him much more— she even prepared herself to play the role of seductress if necessary.
It was Callista who led Jacen into the trap in which he was captured, and she put on a show of a duel against General Rénin to bring out the darkness within Han and Leia Solo's oldest son, so that he would have to choose once and for all what he truly believed a | |