Beyond - Legends Star Wars: Purity (post-ROTJ AU)

Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler

Sticks and Stones​

​

The Wanderer had been sitting on Yavin IV for only a few hours when the crew had to mount up for another mission. In the past week, after returning from Pydyr, they had gone to visit half a dozen other Force-using groups, making sure they were ready to face the Purists if it came down to it.

Damien looked up as Owen entered the main hold. The look on Owen’s face was an odd mixture of distress, anger, and concealed laughter. Damien frowned.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Just got word that the Purists succeeded in wiping out their first Force-user group,” Owen replied.

“Oh, no,” Damien muttered. “That’s horrible. Wait…then why do you look like you’re about to bust a gut?”

“Because the group was a fairly new cult formed by a group of fanatic dark-siders who want to restart a group that’s been dead for centuries.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing they were stopped, then. But I still don’t understand why it’s so much funny as it is relieving.”

“Because,” Owen said. “That ancient cult? It was called the ‘Order of the Terrible Glare.’”

“The Order of the–” Damien got that far before he began laughing uncontrollably.

Owen laughed now, too. The two of them laughed together, a rare moment of humor in the midst of a months-long crisis that had sapped much of the happiness and energy out of the Rangers.

But all too soon, the moment was over. Ben, Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka walked into the room and Ben whistled.

“We’ve got an op,” he said. “Owen’s old boss, Talon Karrde, called. There’s a group he wants us to check out.”

Owen and Damien sobered quickly, wiping tears out of their eyes. On the wall terminal, Ben called up an image of a planet.

“This planet is unnamed, but it’s in the Kathol Rift,” he said. “It’s inhabited by a group called the Aing-Tii. They’re Force-users who can…well, they manipulate the Force differently than the Jedi do, at a more microscopic level, but they’re still pretty powerful. Karrde’s worried because there’s been some unusual ship activity near the Kathol Rift.”

“Let’s check it out, then,” Jaina said. “So you say these Aing-Tii use the Force on a more microscopic level. What’s that mean?”

“They can actually teleport objects with their minds,” Ben said. “They can transfer the molecules from one place to another. Also, because of the way they do it, they can teach it even to those with almost no connection with the Force. Karrde’s old boss, Jorj Car’das, learned it, and he’s about as Force-sensitive as a rock.”

Damien scratched his chin. “So can’t they just hop out of there if the Purists attack?”

“They could,” Ben replied, “but they’re not in contact with the galaxy at large, and they’re a very welcoming people. They built Car’das a house when he visited them. If the Purists come down, the Aing-Tii will probably accept them with open arms.”

“And they’ll be slaughtered,” Owen said grimly.

That didn’t sound good to Damien. He got up out of his seat. Suddenly, the destruction of the Order of the Terrible Glare didn’t seem so funny.

“Let’s move,” he said.

* * *

The Aing-Tii monk Tadar’Ro looked up in the sky as the shuttles began to descend. He kept his hand on his vor’cha stun stick. He was always cautious when new visitors came to his world, but he would be welcoming enough once they proved themselves harmless.

Behind him, a few other Aing-Tii waited behind stone pillars, either to assist Tadar’Ro in fighting the outsiders or to welcome them. The Aing-Tii village was on a rocky island in the middle of the ocean, but the rocks were topped with grassy fields, making for a pleasant home. Tadar’Ro wouldn’t want to leave it, so he hoped these people meant no harm.

The shuttles touched down and the hatches began to open. Tadar’Ro stepped forward and took his hand off his stun stick. It wouldn’t do to greet them with a threat.

The beings in the shuttle debarked. The leader was a blue-skinned humanoid with black hair and red eyes; behind him were two lizard-like aliens. Rounding out the group were four white-armored beings with anonymous helmets with wide black visors.

“Greetings,” Tadar’Ro said, his green tongues shooting out toward the blue-skinned man. “Welcome to our world. I am Tadar’Ro.”

The alien narrowed his eyes in distaste. “Keep your tongues to yourself.”

Tadar’Ro pulled his tongues back in. He did not take offense; he knew that many beings found that particular Aing-Tii manner of greeting disturbing. The four white-armored beings moved forward. Tadar’Ro noticed that the other shuttles had also begun to release similarly-outfitted beings.

“What is your purpose here?” Tadar’Ro asked.

The blue-skinned alien’s eyes narrowed even further. “Pest control.”

Tadar’Ro, alarmed, lunged forward, his stun stick in his hands in an instant. He struck two of the white-armored beings; his vor’cha stun stick sent energy crackling through their armor and disabled them. The other two reached for blasters. Tadar’Ro disabled them, too. The other two Aing-Tii had moved in now.

“Kill them all,” the blue-skinned alien said calmly.

The two lizard-like aliens stepped forward, brandishing axe-like weapons. The other white-armored soldiers began to raise blasters.

“Fall back,” Tadar’Ro urged. “Run!”

He turned and moved as quickly as he could, his two companions on his heels. They had to clear the village, now. It appeared their little island paradise would have to be evacuated, after all.

* * *

The Wanderer came out of hyperspace in the Kathol Rift. Ben gunned the ship’s engines, flying to the Aing-Tii homeworld as quickly as possible. The Kathol Rift was difficult to maneuver; it might take longer than he would’ve liked to get there.

It took three harrowing hours to maneuver the rift, but they finally came out over the planet. Ben looked on in sudden fear; there was a Chiss warship orbiting the planet.

“Kark,” he growled. “We’re too late.”

“Maybe not,” Damien replied. “We just need to move quickly.”

“Right.” Ben shot toward the warship. “Hold on!”

As they passed the warship, Jacen and Jaina deployed in their X-wings, dropping out of the Wanderer’s bay. Under normal circumstances, Ben wouldn’t have counted on two X-wings being able to handle a warship. But Jacen and Jaina…well, they could handle it.

The Wanderer continued down to the planet. Ben saw the ion trails that indicated at least three shuttles passing through atmosphere. They’d likely be dealing with a small group of ground forces, then, but they’d likely be formidable.

Ben passed over the island where Talon Karrde had said the Aing-Tii lived. Indeed, he saw three shuttles sitting on the ground, but there were no life-forms to be seen at first glance. Ben aimed the Wanderer’s cannons at the three shuttles and blew them to bits.

“There,” he said. “Now we just have to get rid of the Purists on the planet and the Aing-Tii are safe.”

He set the Wanderer down and moved to the back. Damien, Tenel Ka, and Owen met him at the hatch, armed and ready for combat.

“The Aing-Tii might be on the run already,” Ben said. “We have to move fast.”

He didn’t mention the possibility that they were already dead. He wouldn’t allow the possibility to enter his head.

* * *

Jaina dropped a torpedo on the Chiss warship’s bridge. The vessel’s shields went down, but they mostly absorbed the blast, and the bridge viewport remained intact. Jaina swung her X-wing around in a broad loop, intending to come around from behind.

“They’re launching TIE Defenders,” Jacen said.

“We’ll take them,” Jaina replied.

She pulled up alongside her brother. Six TIE Defenders soared out of the hangar, gunning for the Jedi siblings.

“Six on two,” Jaina mused. “Not good odds…for them.”

She could hear the grin in Jacen’s voice. “Don’t get cocky, sis.”

Jaina was just relieved he didn’t rebuke her; a few weeks ago, he probably would’ve given her a lecture about how killing wasn’t something to be made light of. And while he was right, space combat had never really felt like killing to her. It was too impersonal.

As the TIE Defenders swept toward them, Jaina fired her last torpedo into the middle of the squadron. The Defenders rolled away from the blast. The two vessels closest to it were thrown away wildly, their shields collapsing. The rest recovered quickly and opened fire on the twins.

Jacen fired dead-center at the nearest Defender, blowing out its entire cockpit. Jaina stutter-fired her blasters and shredded the port wing on the Defender she’d targeted.

Two more fully-functioning Defenders remained.

Jaina turned and blasted at another Defender. It rolled and shot away from Jaina as fast as it could. Jaina dogged it, peppering its rear with blaster-fire. Then Jacen flew up from under it and fired, tearing it apart.

The last Defender fired a trio of torpedoes. Jaina jinked, allowing one of the torpedoes to shoot by under her port s-foils. But the glowing blue ball spun back around.

“It’s got a heat tracer,” Jacen growled. “It’s locked onto your engines!”

“Finish off the Defender,” Jaina replied. “Let me worry about the torpedo.”

The other two torpedoes hadn’t gotten a chance to lock onto a heat signature; they just flew off into space and detonated when they exceeded their maximum range. But the torpedo on Jaina’s tail continued to follow her.

“Come on…come on,” she muttered.

She swung toward one of the limping Defenders that had been hit by her first torpedo. It would take a lot of precision flying to pull this off. Her astromech, Squeaker, began to chatter nervously.

“Hold on, buddy,” she said.

She swung around the Defender with meters to spare, and the torpedo rammed into the TIE, destroying it. Jaina spun back around to her brother. The last Defender was on his tail, firing its laser cannons constantly. Jacen rolled his fighter, but the Defender pilot stayed on him.

Jaina came up behind the Defender and sprayed it with blasterfire. In seconds, it exploded into a nebula of light. Jaina checked her sensors. There were still two surviving Defenders–the remaining one she’d damaged with her torpedo, and the one whose wing she’d shredded. Now, they limped back toward the warship.

“Let them be,” Jacen said. “They can’t do any good anymore.”

Jaina nodded. “What about the warship? It can still send reinforcements to the ground.”

“We should keep at a distance,” Jacen replied. “Wait here to see what happens. If the warship tries to drop more shuttles, we can take them out. Or, if Ben and the others need help on the ground, we can head down with minimal trouble.”

“Sounds good to me. We wait, then.”

* * *

Tadar’Ro ushered more Aing-Tii onto their rocklike vessels. The ships were armed, so they could defend themselves, but their greatest strength was the ability of the Aing-Tii to shift them in space, moving them much faster than a hyperspace jump. They could almost instantaneously be at a new world, and these attackers couldn’t follow them.

“Hurry!” Tadar’Ro said. “We must be swift.”

The white-armored soldiers, led by the blue-skinned alien and the two reptoids, were pushing through the village now, kicking down doors and looking for Aing-Tii. So far, they had not found any; Tadar’Ro had already ordered that part of the village evacuated.

They were getting closer to the caves where the ships were docked, though, and soon, they would be upon them. Tadar’Ro rested a hand on his stun stick. Aing-Tii hides were thick, and could take multiple blaster shots before the Aing-Tii died. Tadar’Ro would remain behind with a few other select fighters, if necessary, and hold off the soldiers as long as possible.

More Aing-Tii scrambled aboard the vessels. Each time one was filled, it sealed its rocky hull, which was strong enough to be completely impervious to the blaster rifles of the attackers. They would be unable to pierce the ships and the Aing-Tii would be safe.

“Hey! There are caves over here!” called one white-clad soldier.

Tadar’Ro closed his eyes. So it was time. All the Aing-Tii were not yet aboard the ships; it would be up to him to protect them. He pulled out his stun stick and headed for the cave entrance. Without asking, four more Aing-Tii came with him. There were only eight of the white soldiers, as well as the three aliens. It would perhaps be possible to defeat them all with only one or two Aing-Tii dying.

As Tadar’Ro exited the cave to stand in the sunlight, the white-armored soldiers saw him and raised their rifles. Tadar’Ro rested his weight on his long tail. As the soldiers put fingers to triggers, he pushed off with all the considerable might in his tail…blaster bolts peppered the ground where Tadar’Ro had stood moments before, but Tadar’Ro was already soaring through the air, his stun stick held high.

He rammed his stun stick into the chest of the closest white soldier. Then, spinning, he landed a blow on another. These, he got for free because they were still firing at where he had been standing previously. But now, the others realized what had happened and turned to face him.

However, the other Aing-Tii were already among the soldiers, their vor’cha stun sticks crackling. The element of surprise was of great use, but all too soon that advantage was gone. For the four soldiers who had been stunned when the shuttles had first landed were now awake, and they had rejoined the group.

They opened fire. Two Aing-Tii took blaster barrages to their armored sides, and kept on fighting, but soon succumbed to the fire. The other two rushed the four soldiers, but now the two reptoid aliens rushed into the fray, their axe weapons cutting at Aing-Tii flesh. They cut the right arm from one of the Aing-Tii, and crippled the other by removing his tail.

Tadar’Ro felt despair fill him. His allies were dying around him and there was little that he could do for them. Now six white-armored soldiers remained standing, and he could not take them all, plus the reptoids and the blue-skinned leader, by himself. And the white soldiers, now unhindered by the other Aing-Tii, turned their rifles to Tadar’Ro…

There were sudden flashes of color, and Tadar’Ro felt surges of energy in the Force. Four beings leapt amidst the soldiers, and Tadar’Ro had hope. He had never met these beings, but by their sense and their weaponry, he knew who they must be.

He raised his stun stick and resumed his attack on the two soldiers nearest him. The Aing-Tii were saved now, for the Jedi had arrived.

* * *

​

Damien’s lightsaber flashed as he cut down one of the white-armored Purists. The Rangers hadn’t encountered these guys before; he wondered who they were. He slashed again, cutting the next Purist’s rifle in half.

The Chiss group commander scowled and reached for his blaster. Ben and Tenel Ka leapt at the two Eickaries standing over the injured Aing-Tii, while Owen took down the last two white-clad Purist soldiers.

That left the Chiss commander for Damien.

The commander fired on Damien; the Jedi flicked his wrist and the bolt reflected into the ground, causing soil to fly everywhere. The Chiss fired again. Damien stepped to the side, the bolt passed by harmlessly, and he lunged forward. The commander tried to take a step back, but Damien raised his lightsaber to cut him down.

Before he could, the commander grunted in surprise and electricity crackled over his body. As he collapsed, the Aing-Tii standing behind him lowered his weapon. Damien raised an eyebrow.

“Nice work,” he said.

The weapon, some kind of short stun baton, was clearly quite effective; it had passed through the troopers’ body armor like it wasn’t there and disabled every one of them, and it had put the Chiss out like it was rancor tranquilizer.

“Nice weapon,” he added.

The Aing-Tii bowed his head. “Thank you, Master Jedi. I am Tadar’Ro, humble guardian of my people.”

“I am Damien Farrell,” he replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sorry it’s under such dire circumstances.”

“As am I,” Tadar’Ro said. “I wish two of my people had not lost their lives to ensure this moment.”

Damien glanced over at the bodies, and then at his allies. Ben and Tenel Ka had finished off the Eickaries, and Owen had beaten the other two soldiers into submission.

“I’m sorry for the losses,” he said.

“Come inside the caves,” Tadar’Ro said. “We should talk.”

Damien gestured for Tenel Ka, Ben, and Owen to follow. The four of them walked into the cave, where many Aing-Tii were loading on to some kind of rock-faced vessels. Judging by the number of ships, Damien guessed that quite a few of them were already filled to capacity with Aing-Tii.

“I thank you for coming to help us,” Tadar’Ro said. “I have heard tales of the Jedi from other humans, like Jorj Car’das.”

“You’re welcome,” Damien said. “I would like to introduce my companions, Ben and Owen Skywalker and Tenel Ka Djo. My other friends, Jacen and Jaina Solo, remain in space to ensure that no more attackers follow these.”

“It is good to meet you all. But I must ask: why do these people attack us?”

“Because you use the Force,” Damien replied. “These people, they’re called Purists. They hate anybody who is connected to the Force.”

“Oh, dear,” Tadar’Ro said softly. “That is most distressing.”

Damien nodded. “I know. We’ve been battling them for months now. After what I’ve seen here today…it’s time to end this. Your people should be safe now, but others won’t be. We need to end the Purist threat once and for all.”

“I wish you well in that,” Tadar’Ro said. “As for us, we will relocate…though it’s a shame. This island is beautiful.”

“Maybe you’ll find a place like it,” Damien offered hopefully. “I know you don’t contact the outside galaxy by normal means, but if you do have ways to communicate, please contact us if you need help.”

“We do have access to comm systems,” Tadar’Ro said. “We merely do not use them much. But be assured, we will use them if these Purists come back.”

“Good.” Damien bowed his head. “May the Force be with you, Tadar’Ro.”

“And you, Damien.”

Ben, Owen, and Tenel Ka, all who seemed surprised by the normally quiet Damien suddenly taking the lead in the conversation, merely bowed politely and headed for the entrance. Damien followed, but Tadar’Ro placed a hand on his arm.

“Here,” he said. “You commented on the vor’cha stun stick. Perhaps this one will be of assistance to you in your mission.”

Damien looked down at the short baton Tadar’Ro had extended toward him. After a moment, he took the stick and clipped it to his belt.

“Thank you, Tadar’Ro.”

He turned and followed his friends out of the cave and they headed back toward the Wanderer.

Damien hoped that wherever the Aing-Tii ended up next, they were safe from the Purists. As he passed the bodies of the white-armored soldiers, he knelt next to one and pulled off its helmet. To his surprise, the face underneath was human.

“Looks like Radique’s cell has met up with another group,” he said grimly.

Ben tightened his jaw. “It’s starting to come together. We’ve protected, warned, and saved every other major Force-using group in the galaxy. Now it’s going to come down to the Purists and the Jedi.”

Damien nodded. “Yeah. All hands on deck.”

“Let’s get Jaina and Jacen and get back to Yavin IV. I sense that these next few weeks will be…very trying.”

* * *

Jacen saw the shuttles debarking from the Chiss warship and activated his thrusters. Jaina was right beside him. Jacen locked onto the shuttle and prepared to fire a torpedo. Unlike Jaina, he hadn’t used the last of his arsenal yet.

“The warship’s shields are still down,” Jaina said. “After we tag that shuttle, we can probably do some serious damage to the warship; make it pull out for good.”

“We can help with that,” Ben said.

Jacen glanced at his scanners. The Wanderer was rushing up from the planet. He grinned. The Wanderer was almost a match for the Chiss warship’s weaponry, even without support from two starfighters.

“Let’s hit the hangars,” Jacen said. “It’ll keep them from launching any more shuttles, and they’ll be forced to retreat.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ben replied.

Jacen and Jaina opened fire on the shuttle, tearing it to shreds in moments. It was not meant to be a combat vessel. Then, Jacen fired his torpedoes into the hangar. They were matched by a barrage from the Wanderer’s torpedo launchers and quad cannons. The Chiss cruiser rocked as its hangars began to collapse.

Jacen swung his X-wing around and headed back for the Wanderer. He and Jaina docked with it just before it leapt to hyperspace. They climbed out of their fighters and met in the main hold. The others gathered there, as well. Damien was casually twirling what looked like a slightly oversized stun baton.

“What’s that?” Jaina asked.

“A vor’cha stun stick,” Damien said. “The Aing-Tii weapon-of-choice. It sends out volts of electricity that pass straight through armor.”

“Impressive,” Jacen said. “So everything’s all right with them?”

Ben nodded. “It seems like they’re going to relocate. They’re just going to teleport their ships to a new place where they’ll be safe.”

The six Rangers sat down at the dinner table in one corner of the lounge. Jacen felt that a milestone had just been reached, somehow.

“There were human soldiers with the Purists down there,” Ben said.

“So the groups we faced earlier have come together with Radique’s,” Jacen said. “Great.”

“It probably means they’ve got an endgame plan in mind,” Jaina replied. “We need to figure it out, so we can be ready for it.”

“It seems obvious,” Tenel Ka noted. “The Jedi Praxeum.”

Owen nodded. “Yeah. Take out the Jedi, and the major protection for the Force-users in the galaxy dies out. They’ll be able to go back and whoop on the Jensaarai, the Zeison Sha, and all the rest in short order.”

“They’ll have to mass all their forces for an offensive like that,” Jaina said. “It wouldn’t be easy. But if it’s going to happen, it occurs to me that it might be better if we just straight-up hit them first, wipe out their fleet before the attack can happen.”

“We can worry about this later,” Ben said. “For now, I’d like to just be content with the fact that we’ve done our job…for now.”

Damien nodded. “Yeah. Works for me.”

As the others got up and moved for their rooms, Jacen stayed behind and considered. He knew they’d all connected to one of the groups in some profound way. The Jensaarai had given Ben a set of armor; the Matukai had been impressed with Owen’s combat prowess and given him a tunic worn by their apprentices; Jaina had shown an affinity for razordisc fighting with the Zeison Sha; Tenel Ka had learned to create White Current illusions from the Fallanassi; Damien had the vor’cha stun stick. Even Jacen himself had identified with the Jal Shey, as one of their Mentors had given him a meditation band.

He toyed idly with that wristband as he thought about it. Did it mean anything? It was not a coincidence, he was sure of that. Perhaps these six groups would mean something in the long run? The other groups they’d checked on in the past weeks–like the Baran Do on Dorin–had been grateful to the whole group of Rangers, but only these six had identified specifically with one member of the group.

Jacen nodded to himself. Yes, this had to mean something. It definitely merited more consideration. He rose from his seat and walked toward his own bedroom, content that he was on the verge of some discovery, even if he wasn’t quite sure what it was yet.

* * *

​

Zekk moaned in pain as the two white-armored guards threw him back into his cell. He’d just endured a two-hour torture session. He had burn scars all across his back, his fingers felt like frozen logs, and his face was bruised and bloodied.

And even after over a week of such treatment, he had refused to give the Purists any answers. They could torture him forever, and he would still never tell them what they wanted to know. He wouldn’t even consider it.

He just lay on the floor of his dark-as-night cell and thought. He focused on meditating to heal his wounds. He was too injured to use the Force enough to fight his way out of here, he knew; it would take too much of a toll on his body and he’d probably be killed in the attempt.

His mind strayed to Alema Rar. He wondered where she’d been taken; he hadn’t seen her since the two of them had been stunned on Nar Shaddaa and taken into captivity. He wasn’t even sure he was on the same planet as her, anymore, but he was certain he wasn’t on Nar Shaddaa. He had felt the hyperspace reversion of the vessel he’d been taken in, remembered being stunned as they took him to a shuttle and then awakening in this cell.

Zekk thought about his torturer. To his great distress, he knew the man. He was a corrupt little weasel named Atton Repness, and he was ex-Republic military.

Repness had been kicked out of the military when, while working for Starfighter Corps, he’d been caught blackmailing his trainees into getting him items on the side so he could ship them off to the black market. He’d gone to prison, served his time, and disappeared.

Only now, he was apparently working for the Purists. Repness had been brutal in his torture, methodically using different techniques to make sure Zekk never got “accustomed” to how he was being tortured.

Zekk winced as a spike of pain shot up his jaw. He distinctly remembered the drill-like device that Repness had shoved into his mouth and aimed up at his gums…

He tried to roll over onto his side, but he just groaned in pain and slumped back down on his stomach, unable to move.

Repness wanted to know about the Jedi Praxeum. He said he’d take anything: number of students, Masters, Knights, whatever; defense strength; mode and availability of communication with the rest of the galaxy…

Tell me anything, Repness said. Tell me the number of bricks used to construct the east wall of one of the dormitories. Tell me and I’ll stop…

Instead, he had only stopped because Zekk had passed out. That was happening a lot, and Zekk was certain it wasn’t good for him. Any other prisoner probably would’ve told Repness something by now.

Yes, there is, in fact, a human student at the Praxeum, Zekk thought wryly. He wondered if that would’ve been enough information for Repness to stop.

He heard footsteps approaching him from the other side of the cell and he sighed in relief. The other being knelt beside Zekk, rolled him over onto his back, and lay his head in her lap. He opened his eyes and looked up at her.

She had dark brown hair and gray eyes, and aristocratic but pretty features. She had been here, she told him, as long as he had. She’d been taken because she, too, was a Force-user, even though she’d never been trained as a Jedi.

“Shh,” she said. “It’ll be all right. Somebody will come and rescue us. You won’t have to endure this for much longer.”

“I…hope so,” Zekk managed.

But even saying that sent him into a coughing fit; his throat was hoarse from screaming so much. His cellmate ran her hands through his hair, gently caressing him in a manner that made him, for a moment, not think about his pain.

Finally, Zekk closed his eyes and began to drift off. At least in sleep, he would be able to forget his pain for a short while.

One thing was for sure, he thought. If it wasn’t for his cellmate, Savara Raine, he would have been dead days ago.

 

Edit: Holy double post, Batman!

 

The Order of the Terrible Glare! Ha ha lol.

 

Ah, enjoyed the various confrontations & rescues. Especially Ben meeting up with Gaile again and then discovering his interest had indeed moved on to Seha. When things settle, it'll be Seha he looks to connect with again. on the encounter with Akanah and her group. Fascinated by the Aing Ti.

Woot, I can feel it! Those six groups will be pivotal! Savara Raine... a gorgeous exotic name. Glad Zekk has an ally.

You can really feel everyone is learning a valued lesson through all the different situations, as well.

 

Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler

Get Them Back​

​

The Wanderer set down on Yavin IV in the middle of the night. Most of the Jedi were asleep, but a few guards remained a wake, keeping a vigilant watch. The Rangers had gotten a few hours’ sleep on the way back from the Kathol Rift, but they had been under-rested for the past month, at least, so they staggered straight into the Academy and found their respective beds, dozing off to sleep still in their clothes.

The night passed with no unusual activity. In the morning, Ben Skywalker awoke to a knock at his door. He grunted and rolled out of bed. He realized he had slept two hours longer than he normally did. But all in all, he had to admit that it felt pretty good. He walked over to the door and opened it.

“Ben,” said Kenth Hamner. “Good to see you.”

Ben smiled groggily. “Good to see you too, Master Hamner.”

Kenth had been away from the Praxeum with more and more frequency in the recent weeks. He’d been on Coruscant, working with Ben’s parents, and also coordinating missions for other Jedi. Ben missed working with Hamner as often as he had when the Rangers had fist gotten their start.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“It’s Zekk,” Hamner said.

Ben’s smile straightened. “Give me ten minutes.”

He quickly stripped off his dirty clothes, showered, and was dressed in fresh Jedi robes in seven minutes. He rushed to the planning room as quickly as he could. The rest of the Rangers were already inside. Ben noted an especially worried look on Jaina’s face; she and Zekk had been best friends since before they were even Jedi.

“What’s this about?” Ben asked.

“I have been sending our Jedi throughout the galaxy to find other Jedi,” Hamner said. “Mostly it’s a matter of recall; we want the Jedi to be brought back here so the Purists can’t catch them alone. We don’t want to repeat Jaden Korr’s situation on Melida/Daan. I sent Zekk to retrieve Alema Rar from Nar Shaddaa.”

Damien scowled. “Alema? She’s been MIA since Geonosis, and I’m talking mentally.”

Ben frowned. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen Alema around since he’d returned to the Praxeum.

“Maybe you’d better fill me in,” he said.

“Well, Alema’s sister Numa and her Master Daeshara’cor were both killed in Darth Ruin’s attack on the Praxeum,” Hamner said.

Ben remembered. He’d been another victim of that attack almost two years ago; he’d only been saved because Ruin needed a test dummy for Darth Plagueis’ techniques of reviving the dead.

“When Ruin was killed, we’d hoped Alema would come out of her despair,” Hamner said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. Alema left the Praxeum and began taking out her rage on slavers and crime bosses, always killing them without hesitation or mercy. She was labeled a Dark Jedi by the Council.”

“So why was Zekk sent to get her?”

“We were hoping her time away would cool her head,” Hamner replied. “But if it hadn’t, it was still better for her to be here, in custody, than out there where the Purists could hurt her, or she could hurt anybody else.”

“What happened?” Jaina asked.

“We don’t know,” Hamner replied. “Zekk reported in when he arrived on Nar Shaddaa that he knew Alema was there, but he hadn’t located her yet. We don’t even know if he found her. But that was over a week ago.”

Ben closed his eyes and exhaled. That was not good. Alema could’ve killed Zekk, or he could’ve been attacked by the Purists…or he just might not have found her yet. Still, it was odd that he hadn’t reported in yet.

“We’ll check it out,” Ben said.

Damien wrapped his arm around Jaina’s shoulders comfortingly. Ben knew Jaina felt protective of Zekk, and maybe even a little guilty–before she’d fallen in love with Damien, she and Zekk had been in a relationship briefly. It had ended before she and Damien had started theirs, though, so as far as Ben was concerned she didn’t have anything to be sorry for.

And he knew Zekk. The man was a good fighter, and he’d proven it on Ratattak, helping the Rangers push the “Unknown Regions Liberation Front” back. He could handle himself. And he was emotionally stable, too. He held no ill will toward Jaina, and he still considered her one of his best friends.

That didn’t mean Jaina would feel any less guilty if he turned up dead, though. Ben was resolved not to let that happen.

* * *

Alema Rar moaned as her body was rotated in the energy cuffs that held her suspended above the floor. She’d been held in this miserable dump for over a week now, and she was getting sick of it. Nobody ever visited her, except for the droids who brought her meals and stayed with her only long enough for her to finish them so they could put her back in her shackles.

She had tried to fight the droids, once. However, she found that her Force powers had been cut off; there must have been an ysalamiri somewhere close by. The droids had easily stunned her and put her back in the energy cuffs.

Why weren’t they even questioning her? It didn’t make any sense. They must be keeping her alive for one reason.

“Hello,” she called to the air. “To the person who is sitting, bored out of their minds, watching me on a security cam: can somebody at least put me out of my misery?”

There was no response. She scowled. Locating the nearest security cam, she stuck out her tongue at it as she rotated.

“Stupid,” she growled.

Of course, she had no idea whether or not the cams could actually pick up sound. The person watching the feed might just see her moving her mouth like a madwoman, but not hear what she was saying.

“I’m going to start singing!” she threatened. She waited. “Okay, then. I’m going to sing!”

Nothing.

She began to sing, in an extremely high-pitched, off-key voice, “It’s all just a dream, isn’t it? This thing we call loooooove. A marvelous scheeeeeeeeme, isn’t it? This thing we call looooove. It’s all just an illuuuuuuusion, a trick of the heart. A pleasant deluuuuuuuusion, when two are apaaaaaaart–”

The door slid open, and Alema stopped singing. Two white-armored beings with wide, full-face black visors stormed in and trained blaster rifles on her. She scowled.

“What am I going to do?” she demanded. “I’m shackled up. Is my singing so bad you’re going to shoot me?”

“They’re here for my benefit,” a voice said.

Alema tried to glance at the door, which was hard because her rotation currently had her facing in the opposite direction. A man walked through the door, hands clasped behind his back, and sneered.

“Although your singing does leave something to be desired. That used to be one of my favorite songs.”

“Whatever. So what are you going to do with me?”

“Nothing, right now,” the man said. “I’m only here visiting you because you wanted to see someone. Really, my orders are just to keep you sitting here until my superiors find some use for you.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “And your superiors are…?”

“That’s for them to tell,” he replied. “Now, if there’s nothing more, I suppose we’ll just leave you. And please, sing to your heart’s content; we’re going to mute the security cams’ audio inputs.”

He turned and began to walk for the door, followed by the two guards. Alema was annoyed at being dismissed so casually.

“I don’t want to sing anymore,” she said petulantly. “It’s not fun when nobody listens.”

* * *

Nar Shaddaa, Jacen mused, was a place of depravity and immorality where even the purest intentions were soon lost…or just buried under piles of drugs, money, and slavery. In either case, he really didn’t enjoy being on the Smuggler’s Moon for any longer than he had to.

The Rangers walked on a skybridge above a huge canyon that had hundreds of docking bays built into either wall. They’d traced the transmitter in Zekk’s X-wing and found it; they were heading that way to check it out, now. It had probably been impounded if he’d been missing for a week.

“Excuse me,” Ben called as they approached the dock. “Hey!”

The dockmaster, a gray-skinned Toydarian, looked up, his wings flapping in annoyance. He fluttered over to the Rangers.

“What-a can I do for ya, eh?” he asked.

“There was an X-wing docked here recently,” Ben said. “Can you tell me which berthing it’s in now?”

“That ship’s-a been-a removed,” the Toydarian replied. “The owner, he-a went off with that-a look on his face, the one-a that says he’s on a mission. He didn’t come back, so I assume he failed. Here on Nar Shaddaa, that means-a he died.”

Jacen sighed. He wasn’t surprised, but it would make things a lot more difficult. Ben tightened his lips.

“Which direction did he go?” Ben asked.

“That-a way,” the Toydarian said. “Toward-a the Red Light Sector. Bad side o’ town, if you know what I mean, eh?”

Ben nodded. “Thank you for your time.”

He gave the Toydarian a credit chip and led the Rangers off in that direction. Jacen figured that even with a specific sector in mind, finding Zekk or Alema, let alone both, would be like finding a needle in a very big haystack.

* * *

The Red Light Sector really was a bad side of town, Owen mused. There was a cantina on every street, a drug merchant on every corner, and a prostitute every few meters. It made it hard to find Zekk when scantily-clad women and drug-selling, toothless men were shoving themselves at the group.

The more Owen thought about it, the more he realized that it would probably be easier to track them if they found out where Alema had intended to go. She was probably here to get rid of another criminal, as she had been–but in this sector, practically everybody was a potential target.

Alema was a slave, Owen thought. Perhaps we should be looking for a slave-owner–but I bet that everybody who owns a business down here owns a slave.

But Alema had been a sex slave. Who was most likely to own sex slaves down here? He pulled out a datapad and looked at popular hangout locations. He found one and grimaced. His fists clenched angrily.

“Hey, guys,” he said. “There’s a bikini bar down here whose performers are all enslaved. That sound like one of Alema’s targets?”

Ben turned to face him. “Sounds right to me. With her past, she may want to strike at the people who she considers to blame for it.”

Tenel Ka scrunched her nose in distaste. “I don’t want to go into a strip club.”

“It’s not a strip club,” Owen replied. “It’s a bikini bar.”

“What’s the difference?” Jaina demanded. “It’s still disgusting.”

“Well, like the name suggests,” Owen said, “in bikini bars, the most scantily the workers can dress is in bikinis. No nudity.”

“And that makes it better how?” Tenel Ka asked. “The owner is still forcing these slaves to prance about in unseemly, inappropriate garb solely for the pleasure of the clientele.”

Owen shrugged. “I’m not defending it; I’m just noting the difference.”

“Maybe we can find the owner outside of the club,” Ben replied. “If he heard about the crazy Dark Jedi who’s been targeting people like him, maybe he decided to take precautions.”

Owen nodded. “That makes sense. But how are we going to find him?”

“Got his name?” Ben asked.

“Yeah, right here: Ankon Torv.”

“See if you can find Torv’s home. We’ll pay him a little visit.”

Owen entered the search parameters into his datapad. He quickly got the results, but they weren’t all that helpful. He actually lived in a flat above the bar. He showed the group the ‘pad.

“Back to square one,” Jaina said.

“Strip club it is,” Tenel Ka said sourly.

“Bikini bar,” Owen corrected.

“Whatever.”

* * *

The windowless bar, called the Whirling Wisties, was the center building of a cul-de-sac. It was guarded by a pair of security droids with stun rifles, probably to keep criminals from doing anything unseemly to the dancers–unless, of course, the owner approved.

The six of them filed into the bar. There was a small lobby area where the customers had to wait to be signed in at a podium. The rest of the bar was blocked off by a curtain, and only heavy, headache-inducing music filtered through.

“How can I help you?” asked a waitress.

As Owen walked up to tell her what they wanted, Jaina shot Damien a glare.

“You’d better not as much as look at one of those women,” she warned.

“If I look at any of those women,” he replied, “it’ll be with pity. They don’t deserve what they go through here.”

Jaina nodded. “I know.”

“Mr. Torv is here,” the waitress at the podium said. “He’s upstairs in his home. Would you like me to buzz him?”

“No,” Owen replied. “We’ll make it a surprise.”

He moved around past her and pushed through the curtain. After a moment, Ben, Tenel Ka, and Jacen followed. Jaina scowled and came after them, with Damien behind her. As she passed through the curtain, Jaina was hit with a solid wave of immorality and iniquity. Walking through here felt like, in the Force, walking through syrup.

Jaina looked at the women around her. They walked around provocatively wearing scarce costumes, and they had sultry expressions on their faces, but their eyes looked dead–dragged down by years of having to offer themselves to the galaxy’s lowest common denominators on the moral scale.

“This is repulsive,” Tenel Ka growled. “I’d like to kill every man in this room right now. Barring present company, of course.”

Ben chuckled. “I understand the sentiment completely, Tenel Ka.”

“Oh, somebody’s going to have sense knocked into them,” Owen promised.

Jaina wondered at the grimness in Owen’s voice. What was he planning on doing? They filed up the stairs at the back of the bar and up to Torv’s apartment. Owen knocked on the door. After a moment, it slid open and a Houk stepped out.

“What?” the alien demanded.

“We’re here to speak to Ankon Torv,” Owen said.

“Who’s we?”

“None of your business,” Owen replied. “Just let us in.”

The Houk reached for his blaster. “Don’ think so!”

Owen’s hand shot out and grabbed the back of the Houk’s head. He dragged it straight down into his knee. The Houk staggered back in surprise. Owen followed the blow up with a kick to the chest. The Houk fell flat on his back.

“Let’s go,” Owen said.

The other five Rangers exchanged surprised glances. What had gotten into Owen? They followed him into the flat.

“What is the meaning of this?” Torv demanded.

Owen stormed across the room, grabbed Torv by the collar, and shoved him into the wall. The man grunted in surprise.

“Do you know anything about Alema Rar?” he asked.

“That crazy Dark Jedi schutta?” the man replied. “I heard she intended to come after me a while ago, but she never showed up.”

“You know why she didn’t show up?”

Torv shrugged–or tried to. Owen was still holding him up against the wall. Jaina watched the man’s face, trying to figure out if he knew anything.

“I tried to prevent her from arriving,” Torv admitted. “I leaked info that she was coming; I figured she’s ticked off enough bosses that one of them would come after her. I don’t know which one did her in.”

Owen pulled him back and then slammed him into the wall again. Torv grunted and Owen got right in his face.

“You have to know something,” he snarled. “You’re one of the most influential people in this sector. Start talking!”

“All right, all right!” Torv said. “Listen, you may be able to use the district security cams to find Rar. If she was ever here, she’d have been picked up by them.”

“Where can we access them from?”

“Right here,” Torv replied. “I have them fed straight into my datapad.”

“Good.” Owen turned. “One of you download that feed.”

Still stunned by Owen’s attitude, Jaina simply obeyed. She grabbed the ‘pad and hooked it up to her own. Quickly, she transferred all of the holocam logs into her own ‘pad. Meanwhile, Owen shoved Torv’s face down onto the table.

“All right,” Owen said. “Now listen.”

He grabbed Torv’s wrist and jerked it around backwards, twisting it. Torv shrieked in surprise. Owen twisted harder.

“Now listen to me, scumbag,” Owen whispered. “You’re going to deactivate the slave chips in every single one of those women. You’re going to let them go. And if I so much as hear that you’ve looked at buying another slave, I’m going to come back and drop you from the tallest building on Nar Shaddaa. Clear?”

“I–”

Owen twisted harder. “Clear?”

“Aaagh! Clear!” Torv cried. “Clear!”

Owen released him and he quickly took his datapad back from Jaina and shut down the slave chips. Owen patted Torv on the cheek. Torv flinched.

“Good man,” Owen said.

The group headed back downstairs, every one of them stunned at Owen’s sudden outburst. When they reached the bar, Owen fired his blaster into the air three times and then used the Force to amplify his voice.

“Hey! All the slaves in here have been freed. Get out and don’t come back. And any of you other folks so much as try to stop them from leaving, you answer to me.”

To emphasize his threat, Owen twirled his blaster around his finger. Then he shoved his blaster back into its holster.

“Have a good night,” he said.

As Owen strode out of the bar onto the street, the others stared in awe. Jaina shook her head.

What had just happened?

* * *

​

Alema finished counting the number of ceiling tiles and groaned loudly in annoyance. How long was she supposed to stay here?

She called, “Hey! I’m a dancer, you know. If somebody frees me, I’m sure we could work out a free performance!”

Nothing. She supposed her captor had made good on his threat and shut off the audio. But that meant she was really trapped in here. She struggled with the energy bonds, but couldn’t even move her wrists.

She growled. If she could access the Force, she could easily get out of here, but there were some stupid ysalamiri somewhere nearby blocking her. It was frustrating.

“Somebody let me out!” she urged. “Please?”

She sighed and went back to waiting in silence.

* * *

“Here,” Jaina said. “Look!”

Owen crossed his arms and paced impatiently as Jaina went through the security feed. He didn’t know what had come over him in Torv’s office. He remembered back when he’d been working for Talon Karrde, many of Karrde’s meetings with other crime bosses had taken place in similar establishments.

He’d once asked Karrde about the women. Karrde had responded that although he didn’t approve of slavery, there was nothing he could do about their “predicament.” Owen had been horrified at Karrde’s marginalization of the tortures the women had to go through. He promised himself that if he could ever do anything to help people like those women, he would.

He supposed that all those feelings had just come back when he’d gone into the bar. But what he’d done to Torv had been the right thing, he felt.

“There’s Zekk,” Jaina exclaimed.

The others gathered around her. Owen leaned in, too. They watched as Zekk and Alema fought briefly, and then stun bolts came out of nowhere and disabled them. Two people came up and dragged Alema and Zekk away–in different directions.

“They’re working together,” Jacen said, “but they took them to different places. That definitely indicates to me that they’re Purists. Criminals would’ve gone for Alema but left Zekk where he was lying after they stunned him.”

Ben nodded. “I agree.”

“Hey,” Jaina said. “Look. The one who stunned Zekk…”

The being turned so they could see a frontal shot. He was wearing Mandalorian armor. Jaina tensed up.

“I know how we can find Zekk,” she said. “You guys find Alema.”

She turned and ran from the others before they could protest. Damien frowned and then followed her. Confident in their friends’ abilities, the rest of them turned to look back at the ‘pad.

“The guy who grabbed Alema headed for the bar,” Ben said.

“Torv lied,” Owen said with a scowl.

They traced the man and Alema all the way back to the bar. They transferred their view to the feed inside the cantina, and watched as the man took Alema up to the tenth floor. Owen looked up.

“That’s where we’re going,” he said.

* * *

Ben kicked down the door to the tenth-level entry. Two white-armored soldiers raised rifles, and Ben deflected their blaster bolts back at them. They stood in a hallway with two doors, one on the right and one on the left.

“Feel that?” Ben asked. “Ysalamiri bubble.”

Jacen nodded. “Tenel Ka and I will go left, you and Owen go right.”

Ben turned to the other door and rammed his lightsaber into the lock. Owen raised his blaster and waited. The door slid open, and Owen–more used to operating without the Force–moved in first.

Ben followed. The room was empty save for a large energy projector in the middle, which held Alema aloft, her arms spread. She frowned as she saw them.

“Skywalkers,” she said. “Out of all the people I expected to see just then, you weren’t among them.”

Owen shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

He fired his blaster into the projector, shutting down the stasis field. Alema dropped to the floor. Cautiously, Ben pointed his lightsaber at her.

“You’re coming back to Yavin IV,” he said.

Alema pouted. “All right, whatever.”

The Force returned suddenly. Ben turned to face the door. Jacen and Tenel Ka walked in, leading a forty-something man in a white uniform.

“Found the ysalamiri,” Jacen said. “And look what else.”

“Who’s this?” Owen asked.

“He’s the guy who kept me captive,” Alema said. “He said he worked for somebody.”

Ben looked at the man. “So I take it you’re a Purist, then. Where have your people taken Zekk?”

The man’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not telling you anything, scum. Your friend is out of your reach.”

“Who do you work for?” Owen asked. “Who’s your direct superior?”

“You won’t get anything out of me.” He straightened. “For purity!”

He flicked his wrist, and a dagger slid out of his sleeve. He lunged at Owen. Instinctively, Ben’s brother jerked up his blaster and fired three times into the man’s chest. The man dropped to the ground, dead.

“Great,” Ben muttered. “Just great. Let’s get Alema back to Yavin IV. Hopefully by then Jaina and Damien will have a lead on Zekk.”

* * *

Zekk winced and tried to roll his shoulder. The Purists had moved on to a different kind of torture, using a stretching machine to dislocate his limbs one by one. Zekk had barely managed to reset the limbs once he’d returned to the cell, with his cellmate’s help.

“You must be getting tired of being tortured,” Savara Raine said wryly.

“Got that right,” Zekk muttered. “I wish someone would come rescue us, already. I could use the Force to get us out if I wasn’t so hurt…”

“I’m sorry,” Savara said. “I feel like I’m useless. If only I could use the Force like you, I would fight beside you.”

“If we get out of here alive, I’ll teach you,” Zekk promised.

Savara smiled. Zekk had learned a lot about the girl in the days since he’d been thrown in the cell with her. Apparently, her father was some kind of aristocrat on some faraway world, and Savara had been on a vacation when the Purists had found and grabbed her. Her Force sensitivity had only revealed itself in the fact that the girl was exceptionally–almost inhumanly–athletic, and had played several rigorous sports on her homeworld.

She had been frightened when she’d first arrived, but the more Zekk talked to her, the more confident she became. It was almost like by meeting him, she’d begun to hope that rescue was actually possible.

Zekk hoped she was right.

“We won’t be stuck here forever,” he said.

“I know.” She smiled at him. “We’ll be out of here in no time.”

“Yeah. But when we leave, we’re going to grab Atton Repness and make him tell us about the Purists.”

“Sounds good to me,” Savara replied.

Zekk took her hand in his. He was in a lot of pain, but somehow Savara made him feel a lot better than he had in a long time.

 

Well well well. How interesting.

 

Oh, that was all kinds of awesome! Owen is uber!cool! He's Mara's son all right. Nice with Zekk/Savara too. Friendship and perhaps something else is sparking.

 

Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler

Ori’vod​

​

The cell door slid open, and Zekk moved to the center of the room, standing in front of Savara Raine. Atton Repness entered the cell, hands behind his back and a sneer on his smug features. He gestured to two white-armored guards, and they rushed forward to grab Zekk’s arms.

“No!” Savara said. “Let him go!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Repness said. “He has information I need, and although he has been stubborn so far, he cannot hold out forever.”

Zekk shrugged, wincing at the pain in his shoulder as he did. His whole body had been wracked with pain–he’d been stabbed, shocked, stretched, burned, frozen, and all other manners of torture.

“I won’t tell you anything, Repness,” he said.

“It’s become clear to me that I can’t do anything to you that will make you talk,” Repness said. “So we’ll try something else. Take the girl.”

One of the guards turned to Savara and grabbed her. She struggled, grunting in despair and anger.

“No!” Zekk said. “Stop!”

“We’ll stop,” Repness said, “when you tell me what I want to know. Bring them both.”

Zekk struggled with the guard as he was dragged from the cell. He was still too weak to fight this guy. In other circumstances, he’d have easily overpowered the guard, even without the Force.

But now, all he could do was go along and hope that help would arrive before Savara was seriously hurt…or Zekk had to reveal something crucial.

* * *

Jaina and Damien dropped their X-wings out of hyperspace. Below them, then brown-and-green globe of Mandalore hung like an unlovely jewel.

Damien wondered why they were there. When Jaina had seen that Mandalorian take Zekk in on the holorecording, she’d just turned and left without any kind of explanation. He had a theory, but he couldn’t be sure. He wasn’t sure what was going on in Jaina’s head.

Zekk had been her friend for a long time, Damien knew. The two of them had met as young teenagers and had been friends all through their time at the Jedi Academy. They’d even dated for a time. He wondered if Jaina’s determination had something to do with that. He didn’t believe she had feelings for Zekk still, but he knew she loved him in a brotherly kind of way.

Maybe that was it. Maybe she was just refusing to lose a friend as close as Zekk was.

“This is Jaina Solo, requesting permission to land in Keldabe Spaceport,” Jaina said over the comlink.

A moment passed. “What is your business in Keldabe, Solo?”

“I need to speak to an old friend.”

There was a harsh laugh. “I doubt you have any friends on Mandalore, Jedi.”

Damien grimaced. The truth was that the spaceport controller was probably right. Mandalorians and Jedi didn’t get along very well even at the best of times.

“That’s my business,” Jaina replied. “Can we land or not?”

“Fine. It’s your funeral, aruetii.”

Jaina and Damien slashed through the atmosphere, over blasted deserts and into the more lush areas of the planet. The city of Keldabe soon came into view, and they set their X-wings down in the spaceport. Damien hopped out and made sure his blaster was displayed prominently and his lightsaber tucked into a jacket pocket.

He and Jaina strode out of the spaceport and headed down the street. Damien wondered how Jaina knew where she was going.

“Care to explain where we’re going?” he asked.

“Like I said: to see an old friend,” Jaina replied.

Damien considered for a moment. “Fett?”

Jaina nodded. “Fett.”

She walked down a few more streets until they came to a tapcaf. Damien looked above the door at the name of the joint–the Oyu’baat. Judging by the fact that the building was actually made from wood, he guessed that the place was older than dirt.

The two of them walked inside, and Damien instantly sensed every eye in the room turn to them. He kept his hand cautiously near his blaster but didn’t touch it. He knew doing so would be an invite for the Mandos to open fire. Jaina nodded at a table in the corner, where two Mandalorians sat.

“Let me do all the talking,” she said softly.

“No problem.”

Damien wondered how she had known Fett would be here. He followed her to the table. As they approached, the table’s second inhabitant, a female in dark blue armor, tapped her forehead gently against Fett’s and then left. Jaina sat down across from the man, and Damien sat beside her.

“Hello, Fett,” Jaina said. “I see you haven’t moved since the last time we talked.”

Fett chuckled. “So I’m a man of habit. I like people to know where to find me.” He jerked his head at Damien. “Good to see you’ve got this one back. The long-haired one was nice, but he didn’t fit with you.”

Jaina stiffened. “Actually, Zekk is the reason we’re here.”

Damien frowned. When had Jaina come to Mandalore with Zekk?

“Last time you were here, you needed help rescuing this one,” Fett said, gesturing at Damien. “Now you need help with the other one? You’ve got man problems, Solo.”

Ah. So she and Zekk had come here while Damien had been a prisoner of the Sith. It made sense.

“Not exactly,” Jaina said. “Zekk was kidnapped, yes, but we’re not here to ask you to help us rescue him. Not directly, anyway.” She pulled out her datapad and played the footage of Zekk’s capture. “Do you know this guy?”

Fett frowned and leaned in. “Yeah. Yeah, I do know him, actually.”

“Who is he?”

“Name’s Farus Saxon. Actually, he was part of the team with me when I attacked you in Mos Espa.”

Ah. Damien remembered Saxon–he and Ben had captured and interrogated him after the fight. He’d thought the man would still be rotting in a Republic prison.

“Do you know where we can find him?” Jaina asked.

“I might be able to find him,” Fett replied. “But why would I? He’s a friend.”

“We’re friends, too.”

“But he’s a fellow Mandalorian. Why should I give him up because a Jedi asks me to? I can’t betray a brother.”

“He’s working for a group called the Purists,” Jaina said. “They want to wipe all Force-users from the galaxy. They’ve got Zekk.”

“Well, I’m sorry.” Fett sighed. “But you’ve got to understand, Solo, I can’t betray my honor by giving him up.”

“Please, Fett,” Jaina insisted. “Zekk and I have been friends since we were children; if we can’t find Saxon, then our chances of finding Zekk go down dramatically. He could die.”

Fett blew out a breath. “He’s your ori’vod.”

“Excuse me?”

“Zekk. He’s your ori’vod. It means…well, it has a lot of meaning. Best mate, favorite brother, special friend…take your pick.”

Jaina nodded. “That’s right.”

Damien watched Fett closely. The man was clearly conflicted; he wanted to help Jaina out of respect for what they’d gone through in the past, but he also didn’t want to betray his clan honor by giving up one of his own. Damien understood, and he couldn’t blame Fett, even if he really wanted to.

“All right,” Fett said. “Let’s make a deal: I tell you where Saxon is, you never show your faces around here again. I like you, Solo; you’re a good fighter and an exceptional pilot. But if people see me fraternizing with Jedi all the time, they’ll start talking.”

“I understand,” Jaina replied.

“Saxon stays on his ship most days. It’s in Bay 42-L at the spaceport.”

“Thank you, Fett.” Jaina nodded. “I hope we meet again someday.”

“Ret’urcye mhi, Jedi.”

Damien nodded his own thanks to Fett and then stood. A moment later, the blue-clad woman returned and sat beside Fett again. The two of them left the cantina together.

“Let’s go talk to Saxon,” Jaina said.

* * *

Ben stepped out onto Yavin IV and inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of fresh air. Alema Rar stepped out behind him, looking around cautiously. Masters Kam Solusar and Cilghal looked up from the students they were teaching and headed toward them. Alema tensed.

“Relax,” Ben said. “They’ll probably want to keep you under guard. Don’t resist; you have been acting very un-Jedi-like lately.”

Alema sighed. “All right,” she groused.

Solusar nodded to Ben as Cilghal took Alema gently by the arm and led her toward the Temple.

“Thank you for bringing her home,” Solusar said. “It’s well past time.”

“You’re welcome. I’m afraid we can’t stay, though; Zekk’s still missing. Damien and Jaina are running down some lead, so we’re going to meet up with them.”

“I hope you find the boy before it’s too late,” Solusar replied. “Zekk’s a good Jedi.”

“Yeah.” Ben shook Solusar’s hand. “Stay vigilant, Master. The Purists are likely to target the Jedi Order itself very soon; keep a lookout.”

Solusar nodded. “Master Hamner had to return to Coruscant, but he’ll be back soon. I’ll update him on the situation when he gets back.”

“All right. I’d better get going. Goodbye, Master Solusar.”

“Goodbye, Ben. May the Force be with you.”

“And you.”

Ben strode back up into the Wanderer and into the cockpit. Owen, Jacen, and Tenel Ka were still there, and the ship was already prepped for takeoff.

“Let’s go,” he said. “Clock’s ticking; Zekk might not have a lot of time left.”

“Where are we supposed to meet Jaina and Damien?” asked Owen.

“Not sure yet,” Ben replied. “Let’s get into orbit and then we’ll contact them.”

* * *

Jaina finished slicing into the control panel on the door to Farus Saxon’s private hangar. The door slid silently open with a hiss, and Jaina grinned in satisfaction. Sometimes, having skills like that came in handy–it was a lot more subtle than cutting the door apart with her lightsaber.

Saxon’s ship was an old XS stock light freighter that had been old when the Clone Wars were just a rumor, but it had been amped up with all kinds of weaponry and defenses. Its ramp was down, indicating that Saxon was probably aboard. Jaina pulled her blaster, and Damien did the same.

They moved toward the ship, and Jaina reached out tentatively with the Force to sense Saxon. He was definitely aboard the ship, she thought, and he was at rest, so he didn’t suspect that the two Jedi were coming. At least Fett hadn’t sold them out, then.

She cautiously walked up the ramp, her blaster trained in front of her. She entered the ship’s main corridor and went left. She passed a medbay, bedroom, and cargo hold before reaching a lounge area. There, Saxon sat on a stool, cleaning a blaster rifle. Jaina walked up behind him and pressed her blaster to his head.

“Okay, Saxon,” she said. “I–”

Before she could continue, the Mando whirled around, knocking her blaster from her hand. Jaina jerked back in surprise and ducked under a tight punch that would’ve knocked her teeth out. From her crouched position, she attacked with a fierce uppercut that caught Saxon in the chin. He stumbled, but responded with a blow to Jaina’s gut. She wheezed.

“Hold it!” Damien snapped.

Saxon looked up into the barrel of Damien’s blaster. The expression on the Mando’s face was that of a caged animal. Jaina, taking advantage of her position, swept his legs out from under him. He grunted as he hit the ground. Jaina Force-pulled her blaster back to her hand and pointed it at his face.

“As I was saying,” she said. “I need information.”

Saxon scowled. “I recognize you. You’re Jaina Solo.”

“What am I, minced nerf meat?” Damien asked.

“You stunned one of my friends and took him somewhere,” Jaina said. “I’m not leaving until you tell me where.”

“You’re talking about the Jedi on Nar Shaddaa, yeah?” Saxon asked.

Jaina nodded. “Yeah. So spill.”

“Why should I tell you? Hunter-employer confedintiality, and all that.”

“Well, the person who employed you was probably working for a terrorist organization that has been striking at Jedi and other Force-sensitives around the galaxy. I tend to take that kind of thing personally.”

Saxon hesitated, and Jaina could tell he was thinking it through? Was it really worth it to not tell her?

“Listen to me,” she said carefully. “Once this whole conspiracy comes to light, if you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll make extra sure you’re arrested for taking part in it. You’ll be thrown in the deepest asteroid prison in the galaxy with no chance at bail.”

“All right, all right! I took the Jedi to Denon.”

Denon again? Jaina frowned. They had just faced the Purists on Denon not so long ago, saving two Jal Shey from them. What was so special about that planet?

“Where on Denon?”

“Some kind of fortress,” he said. “The coordinates are in my navicomputer.”

“Thank you,” Jaina replied. “Was that so hard?”

She went to the cockpit, downloaded the location, and then headed out with Damien. She half-expected Saxon to come out of the ship shooting at them, but he didn’t. Jaina was relieved. He must’ve taken her threat seriously.

“We’ve got a location,” she said. “Let’s go.”

She and Damien returned to their X-wings and flew up to orbit. There, Jaina opened a channel to the Wanderer.

“Ben, it’s Jaina. You read?”

“We’ve got you, Jaina. Did you find anything out?”

“Yes. Zekk is being held on Denon. I’ll transmit you the coordinates now.”

“Roger that,” Ben replied. “We’ll meet you in orbit over Denon; you can dock with us and we’ll go in together.”

“All right. See you then.”

* * *

Zekk struggled with the guards as they hooked Savara up to a torture device. The two soldiers kept his arms clamped firmly, however. Finally, he stopped struggling. One bright side about the situation was that he was able to begin rebuilding his strength.

“Now, Zekk,” said Repness. “Shall we talk?”

Zekk glared at him but said nothing. Repness shrugged and motioned to the soldier at the control panel. The man flipped a switch, and the machine began filling Savara’s body with volts of electricity. She shrieked. Zekk reached out with the Force and reinforced her strength with his own.

After a moment, Repness gestured for the torturer to stop. He walked over to Savara and took her chin between his fingers.

“Such a pretty face,” he said. “It’d be a shame to ruin it. You can spare her all this, Zekk; just talk to me. Tell me about the Jedi Academy.”

Zekk scowled. He sent Savara more strength in the Force. But he felt his own will crumbling; he couldn’t bear to see someone else taking torture because of his own stubbornness. Maybe it would be better to just tell Repness what he wanted to know–he doubted that Repness had very long left to live, anyway.

“Don’t…tell him anything,” Savara replied. “You…can’t.”

Repness rolled his eyes and gestured to the torturer. More electricity passed through the girl’s body, and she grimaced. Repness looked to Zekk again and narrowed his eyes.

“Talk. This will continue until you do.”

“All right!” Zekk said. “Just stop it!”

“No, Zekk,” Savara pleaded.

“The Jedi Academy recently had a new wing of dormitories added on,” Zekk said. “We had too many students to hold in our current facilities.”

Repness nodded. “There, see. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now: why did you have such an influx of students so suddenly?”

Zekk gave the man a stony glare. Repness shrugged and once again gave a command to the torturer. Savara gasped as more volts crackled across her body. Zekk tightened his lips. What more could he do? He supplied Savara with more strength through the Force, but he wasn’t even back to full strength yet; he could only reassure her so much.

“Why?” Repness demanded. “Where did all those students come from?”

“I don’t know!” Zekk snapped.

“You’re lying.”

The torture continued, and Savara began to cry softly. It tore Zekk’s soul apart; he was causing this.

“They came from Jacen Solo’s academy in the Unknown Regions!” Zekk said. “Now stop this!”

Repness nodded. “Very well; that’s enough for now. Return them to their cells. We will continue this later.”

Zekk felt bad for telling Repness as much as he had, but he couldn’t just sit by and watch Savara be hurt. It was an impossible situation. The guards dragged the two of them back to their cell and threw them inside.

“Now…I see why you’re so weak…every time you come back in here,” Savara said.

Zekk knelt by her. “I’m so sorry, Savara. I’m sorry, I should’ve talked from the start.”

“No, Zekk…you shouldn’t have even said what you did. I’m…not worth it.”

He brushed her hair back away from her face, as she had done to him so many times after he’d endured torture.

“I don’t regret it,” he said softly. “Repness still doesn’t know enough to do any kind of damage to the Praxeum. It’ll be all right.”

Savara’s shoulders shook with light sobs. Zekk tried to heal her with the Force, but that had never been his specialty.

“You’ll be all right,” he said. “They won’t get away with this.”

* * *

Soon after the Wanderer reverted from hyperspace, Jaina and Damien docked with them. Owen then piloted the vessel down toward the location of the Purist base. As he scanned the building, he grimaced.

The Purist base had once been a Republic military base; it had been abandoned when a new base had been built several kilometers away. From the look of things, the Purists had rebuilt all of the dismantled defenses, and the place looked more like a fortress than a command center.

“We’re going to have to go in hot,” Owen said. “Tweeter, take the controls.”

The droid chirped affirmatively and Owen hopped out of his seat. He moved back to the rear hold. The others were already gathered there, wearing their combat jumpsuits. “Going in hot” meant that Tweeter would open the hold, and then the Rangers would jump out, using the Force to control their descent.

“Let’s hope Tweeter can manage to pick us up once we’re out of here,” Jaina said.

“He will,” Ben replied. “We just need to give him a window.”

Anti-air cannons opened up on the Wanderer. Tweeter instantly began evasive maneuvers and a moment later, he opened the hold doors. Owen felt his gut flip a little. He’d done aerial insertions before, when he’d worked for the Red Sabers as a mercenary, but he’d always had a jetpack. Now, there was nothing to stop him from splatting unpleasantly into the ground except his own power of the Force.

Here we go, he thought.

He reached out mentally to the others, and they formed a Force meld. Drawing from one another’s power, it would be easier for all of them to make the landing safely. Owen did a last-minute check on his equipment: blaster pistols, combat batons, short vibroblade, and two frag grenades. He nodded, satisfied.

As one, the six Rangers leapt from the hold. Owen felt his stomach leave with the ship, and for an instant it was like he was suspended midair. And then, he dropped. He whooped in exhilaration as he fell.

At the last minute, he slowed himself with the Force, coming to a landing with a soft thump. The others landed around him and instantly pulled their lightsabers from their belts. Owen whipped out one blaster.

“I can sense Zekk,” Jaina said.

She projected Zekk’s presence to the others, and Owen thought he might be several levels below ground. They’d have to find a tubolift and take it all the way down to that level. They moved forward to the nearest door and entered the base.

Owen, at the front of the group, walked in cautiously. They were in a narrow, brightly-lit corridor with minimal cover, so a shootout would likely turn into a bloodbath. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any guards in the area. He led them down the corridor and made a left turn.

At the end of this hall, there was a turbolift. Unfortunately, it was guarded by two white-armored Purist soldiers.

“You!” one of the soldiers snapped. “Drop your weapons n–”

He was cut off mid-sentence as Owen fired his blaster, cutting down the guard. His fellow raised his rifle and opened fire on the Jedi. Owen rolled aside, and Ben and Jaina ignited their lightsabers and deflected the bolts back at the guard.

Owen ran over to them, kicked their rifles away from their bodies in case they were still alive, and then opened the turbolift door.

“Going down,” he said

They stepped into the turbolift and hit the subbasement button. As the ‘lift descened, Owen reached out with the Force, checking for enemy soldier numbers and positions.

“I think the floor Zekk’s on is heavily-guarded,” he said. “Figures.”

“We’ll have to do this the hard way, then,” Damien replied.

The turbolift slowed and finally stopped, and then the doors slid open. Owen barely had time to throw himself to the ground as a hail of blasterfire shot into the turbolift. All five of his companions ignited their lightsabers and masterfully deflected the bolts. Owen, from his spot on the ground, raised his blaster and cut down a pair of Purist guards.

When the enemies were all dead, the Rangers exited the turbolift. Owen glanced at Jaina, who was closing her eyes in concentration.

“Anything?” he asked.

Jaina nodded. “Go right. Zekk’s that way.”

Owen headed that direction. A squad of Purists came around the corner, spotted them, and opened fire. Owen ducked back behind the turbolift door, using it as cover, and snapped off a few shots. The others waded in with their lightsabers and finished off the squad.

They walked down the corridor toward Zekk. Owen sensed that all the other cells down here were empty; they must not have caught any other Force-sensitives. Or this is just where they bring the really powerful ones, he mused.

As they proceeded, they had to deal with several more squads of Purists. Eventually, they reached Zekk’s cell. Jaina rammed her lightsaber into the lock, and the door slid open silently. The Rangers walked in.

Zekk was crouching on the floor next to a young woman with dark hair. She looked like she’d been recently traumatized. Zekk was running a hand across her shoulders comfortingly. He looked up.

“You found me,” he said with a grin. “Can’t believe it; you found me! We’ve got to get out of here.”

Ben nodded. “That’s the plan.”

Tenel Ka stepped forward and helped the young woman stand. Zekk hugged Jaina and then Jacen, and then shook hands with all the others.

“Thank you all,” he said. “We probably would’ve been here until we died if you hadn’t come.”

“We’re not out of this yet,” Jacen said. “We’ve got to get those AA guns shut down so the Wanderer can loop back around.”

“Leave that to me,” Owen said. “Get Zekk and the girl to a landing platform. Ben, come with me.”

Owen’s brother nodded, and the two of them quickly rushed back to the turbolift. As it shot upward, Owen handed Ben one of his two grenades.

“You take one of the cannons, I’ll take the other,” he said.

“Sounds good,” Ben replied.

As soon as the ‘lift reached the top, they rushed out onto the roof. Several guards caught sight of them and opened fire; Ben’s lightsaber made short work of them. The brothers split off, Owen heading left and Ben right.

Owen snapped off a shot that cut down the guard near the anti-air gun. Then, he armed his grenade and placed it near the AA gun’s power cells. He turned and leapt off the roof toward the landing platform below just as the grenade exploded. He hit the ground in a roll and came up on his feet.

A moment later, the other AA gun blew, too. The Wanderer shot back toward the base. Owen grinned as klaxons began to go off all around them.

In moments, when the others had arrived, they boarded the ship and were gone before the Purists could even think through the chaos around them.

* * *

Atton Repness stormed into the detention block, his fists clenched. Bodies were strewn about, marked with lightsaber and blaster burns. How? How had they found him?

He walked quickly down the hall toward the cell. As he’d suspected, both prisoners were gone. Repness punched the nearest wall, releasing his anger.

This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

* * *

Zekk sat in the Wanderer’s main hold and explained to the others what had happened since his capture. None of them seemed to blame him for releasing what information he had; they would have done the same thing in that situation, they said. He was relieved.

“So, you wish to be trained as a Jedi, Savara?” Tenel Ka asked.

Savara nodded. “I don’t ever want to be that helpless again. Zekk…he resisted so much, he was so strong. I want to be like that. I don’t want anyone to be able to hurt me, or use me to hurt someone, ever again.”

“You’ll be trained,” Ben promised. “I sense the Force potential in you; you could be a great Jedi one day.”

“Thank you,” Savara said. “But for right now…is there anywhere I could lie down? I’m very tired.”

Tenel Ka stood and led Savara to a room. Zekk tore his gaze away from the dark-haired girl and looked at his friends.

“What now?” he asked.

“Now,” Ben said, “we get you back to Yavin IV. You need rest and recovery. We’re going to begin making plans to either defend the Praxeum or attack the Purists, depending on which happens first. It’s time to end this; we’re taking the fight to Radique.”

“Good. This has gone on far too long.” Zekk frowned. “I wonder how Repness ended up working for Radique.”

Ben scratched his chin. “That’s a good question. Why would a disgraced Republic officer go over to work for terrorists? He was a scumbag before, but he was just greedy, not sociopathic. Something’s up here.”

“Whatever it is,” Jaina said confidently, “we’ll figure it out.”

She hugged Zekk and then turned to leave. Damien patted him on the shoulder and then followed. Zekk leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He heard Ben and Jacen leaving, too.

Soon, he was asleep.

 

Wonder how many more chapters until the attack?

 

Terrific rescue! More puzzling stuff about motives and alliances. I.e., why those without grudges against the Jedi per se are aligning with the Purists at all.

Jaina was wonderfully determined and more great teamwork.

I am glad that Savara got away too.

 

Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler

Striking Back, Part 1​

​

Qazir Radique walked onto the bridge of his new command ship, the Cleanser, and looked around at his crew. They were efficient, determined, fast–everything the crew of the Preemptive Strike had been, and more. Since he’d lost the vessel to the Jedi, he had been forced to pull back his offensive and rebuild his fleet.

Since then, his forces had been halted time and again by those same blasted Jedi. They had prevented him from wiping out the Jensaarai, the Zeison Sha, and the Aing-Tii, and they had rescued captured Jal Shey and Matukai practicers, as well. Radique’s forces had become so thin that they’d had to call in reinforcements from other cells of Purists. The white-armored soldiers had been promised as efficient problem-solvers, but so far Radique wasn’t impressed.

Least impressive of all was their commander, Atton Repness. The man had contacted Radique just days ago, saying that two prisoners, one of them a Jedi Knight, had been freed–again by those same blasted Jedi. Radique was beginning to hold a personal grudge against that group.

“Status?” he asked one of his ensigns.

“All is proceeding well,” the other Chiss said. “The entire fleet is almost gathered; we will soon have enough force for our strike.”

“Good.” Radique nodded. “And Repness?”

“His forces are beginning to arrive. They’re mostly older vessels, by this galaxy’s standards; some of them go back fifty years to the ‘Clone Wars.’ But Repness said to reassure you that the vessels are effective despite age, and they will be most useful in the assault.”

“I should hope so.” Radique sneered. “So far, Repness has not contributed much.”

The ensign didn’t respond to this, nor was he expected to. Radique clasped his hands behind his back and looked out the viewport at the fleet. The number of vessels gathered so far was not what Radique would’ve liked, but the crews would operate them well.

Radique was sick of the Jedi Order as a whole. He had set out to cleanse the galaxy of Force-users, and they just would not lie down and accept their fate. The other groups would fall quickly, he was sure, once the Jedi were out of the way. Already, they had eliminated more than one dark side-oriented group, and more were soon to come. But the Jedi were protecting the other groups that followed their “light side.”

Once they were gone, it would be a domino effect. The Jedi Order’s destruction would be the catalyst for the fall of all Force-using cults in the galaxy.

Then, Radique and the other Purists could go around and finish off, one by one, the untrained Force users, too. None could be spared.

Not one soul.

* * *

​

Damien happily breathed in a breath of fresh air as he finished his two-mile jog. He came out of the woods into the clearing outside the main building of the Jedi Praxeum. He watched as Kam and Tionne Solusar taught a class of students about the Force. Damien missed his days at the Praxeum; he’d been gone so much lately.

He wasn’t dissatisfied with his life; he would be more than happy to finish off the Purists once and for all so it could go back to normal, though.

Well. Not quite normal. He fished in his pocket for the engagement ring he’d bought the last time he’d visited Coruscant. He couldn’t wait to give it to her. He loved Jaina with all his heart, and he knew she loved him, too.

Before, his only concern had been Zekk. The other man, while a good friend to Damien, had been competition. He had always loved Jaina, and even after Jaina had assured Zekk that her feelings for him were platonic, to Damien the other man had always seemed to long for more than friendship with her.

But it didn’t look like Zekk would be a problem anymore.

Damien smiled as he saw the man across the clearing, teaching Savara Raine how to levitate a small rock. Since Zekk’s escape from the Purists, he and Savara had become good friends, and Damien suspected there would soon be something more between them. It was good for him, Damien thought, to get over Jaina.

He strolled over to the two. Zekk smiled as he saw Damien–something he’d almost never done before. Sure, he’d liked Damien well enough, but they’d never exactly been friends. Zekk and Savara’s blossoming relationship seemed to have changed that.

“How’s it going, Damien?” Zekk asked.

“It’s a lovely morning, Zekk,” Damien replied. “And how are you?”

“I’m doing great.”

Savara smiled at Damien. “Hello, Damien.”

“Hey, Savara. How are you adjusting to life in the Academy?”

“Pretty well, with Zekk’s help. I contacted my father and told him where I was; he was a bit concerned, but I’m an adult now, and he’s accepted my choice.”

“That’s good.” Damien gave them both a smile. “Well, I’ve got to get going. It was good talking to you both.”

He walked away. Despite all the bad happening in the galaxy, it seemed like maybe things were taking a turn for the better for once. As Damien approached the Great Temple, Ben walked out toward him.

“Hey,” he said. “We need to have a strategic meeting. Be in the planning room in one hour.”

Damien nodded. “Will do.”

Before he could enter the Temple, he heard the roar of starship engines. He and Ben turned to face the sky. Twelve claw-shaped TIE Fighters soared overhead and then looped around, heading for the Praxeum. Damien and Ben both grinned as they recognized the fighters.

The clawcraft settled in the clearing. Damien and Ben rushed toward the ships, and some of the other Jedi in the clearing followed. The lead fighter’s hatch opened, and Jagged Fel climbed out and stood in front of them.

“Hello, Ben. Damien,” he said.

Ben nodded. “Jag, it’s good to see you. What’s going on?”

“I’ve managed to recruit enough pilots to get Vanguard back up to a full squadron, and we’ve been refueled and rearmed. We’re ready to continue the search for Qazir Radique.”

“Perfect timing,” Ben replied. “Because we were actually getting ready to make a plan for taking him out.”

“Fortuitous,” Jag said. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Give me an hour,” Ben said. “I’ll gather all the people I think need to be present, and then we’ll begin.”

Damien headed into the Praxeum and quickly showered and changed clothes. In no time, he was in the planning room, ready to get this thing finished, once and for all. He kept the ring in his pocket, eager for the moment he’d be able to give it to Jaina.

* * *

Ben and Owen met up in private twenty minutes before the meeting. The two of them had been strategizing already, since before they’d set out to rescue Alema Rar and Zekk. They’d already formed a plan of their own, but it was one that no one else would know about, for the time being.

“Is everything set?” Ben asked.

Owen nodded. “I’ve made all the necessary calls; they’re ready at a moment’s notice. We’ll send out a short-burst signal once the meeting is over, and they’ll meet us at the location of Radique’s fleet.”

“Good,” Ben replied. “We can’t tell anyone, though. The more people know, the more likely that it’ll get leaked, even accidentally, to Radique.”

“I won’t tell anyone. We’d better get down there; they’ll be expecting us soon.”

Ben and Owen walked down to the war room. There were too many people present to gather in their normal planning room; it would’ve been too crowded to move. Instead, they met in the vast room where the Rebel Alliance Command had watched the battle to destroy the Death Star take place.

Ben took a quick head count mentally. Jagged Fel and his Vanguard Squadron were all here, as were Damien, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Jacen. Kenth Hamner was present, as he had been for most of this conflict. Zekk and Savara had come, too, as had several of the other Jedi Knights who had been affected by the Purists–Jaden Korr, Tahiri Veila, Aren Lical, and Jysella Horn.

Lastly, several members of the Jedi Council were in attendance: Streen, Kyp Durron, Kyle Katarn, and Cilghal. As Ben stepped up to the holoterminal in the center of the room, he pressed a button, and life-sized holograms of his parents, Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, appeared.

“This is quite a gathering,” Luke said. “I’m very impressed with all six of you. You’ve done quite the job, fending off these Purists. I only wish I could be there with you to participate in this myself.”

“Thank you,” Ben said with a smile.

“You have the floor, Ben,” Kenth Hamner said. “This is your mission; it has been from the start.”

Ben started to clasp his hands behind his back, felt uncomfortable, and instead chose to lean forward against the holoterminal.

“We’ve formulated a plan to deal with Radique,” Ben said. “But first, we need to find him. Commander Fel, do you have any information in that regard?”

Jag nodded. “My scouts have located Radique in a system not too far away, actually. He’s gathering his fleet in the remains of the Alderaan system.”

“That son of a raitch!” Jaina snarled. “How could he?”

Damien put his hand on her shoulder. There was a brief, tense silence, and Ben knew that everyone in the room felt the same outrage Jaina had voiced.

“His fleet doesn’t only consist of Unknown Regions vessels,” Jag said. “It seems he has gathered forces from within the known galaxy, as well.”

“Probably has something to do with Atton Repness,” Zekk noted.

“And these white-armored troops we’ve been facing,” Owen added. “We haven’t been able to figure out where they’ve come from yet.”

“As of now, he has a considerable fleet, and it’s growing,” Jag said. “If we’re going to do this, I recommend we do it soon, or we won’t be able to at all.”

Ben nodded. “Dad, are there any strings you can pull with the Republic military?”

Luke smiled. “Probably not with the government, but I’ve still got some friends in the military, like Wedge Antilles. We can work something up.”

“That could be dangerous,” Hamner noted. “If Fyor Rodan finds out, he could use it as ammunition against you in the Senate.”

“Let him try,” Mara snarled.

“We can do it covertly,” Luke said. “Rodan shouldn’t ever find out.”

“Okay.” Ben looked at Kyp Durron. “You commanded a squadron of Jedi fighters last time we faced Rodan. You up for it again?”

“Yes,” Kyp said.

“I’ll command a squadron, too,” Kyle Katarn said. “You’ll need all the help you can get.”

“Good.” Ben glanced at his father again. “If we can get Wraith Squadron, then it’ll be four starfighter squadrons, counting Jag’s Vanguard Squadron, plus the six of us. Still not great odds, but we can work with them.”

He didn’t say that his and Owen’s extra backup plan would also contribute.

“We can get you more than the Wraiths,” Luke promised, “I’m just not sure what yet.”

“Okay.”

“So what’s the attack plan?” Kenth asked.

“Last time we tried to take Radique out in person,” Owen said, “he just blew up his own ship and escaped. We can’t try that again.”

“No,” Ben agreed. “So we’re going to do something else. We’re going to board the next-largest enemy vessel, take control of it, and use it to attack Radique’s flank. His ship will be destroyed before he can react.”

“While they do that,” Jaina said, “it’ll be up to us to cover them from enemy fighters. I’m staying in my X-wing; I’ll be of more use there than I will be inside the ship.”

“This could work,” Jag said. “It’ll have to be done very quickly, though, before any of the Purists have a chance to overcome the surprise.”

“It will have to be perfect timing,” Ben said with a nod. “But I think we can pull it off.”

“Then do it,” Luke said. “Even though Mara and I won’t be there, our thoughts are with you. We believe in you all. You can do this.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Ben said. “You don’t know how much that means to us.”

“May the Force be with you all,” Luke said.

“Good luck,” Mara added.

The two holograms disappeared. Ben turned to face the others.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this. We’ll leave at dawn; get a good night’s rest and be ready for combat by tomorrow.”

As the others dispersed, Ben stepped over to Owen. Owen nodded to him and pulled out his comlink. He pressed a quick pattern into the ‘link, sending a click-click rhythm out over the comm waves across the galaxy to a few specific recipients.

“It’s done,” Owen said.

“Good. See you in the morning, brother.”

Ben turned and headed for his bedroom. It was time to prepare for combat…and this time, it would be a bit different.

* * *

Across the galaxy, the previously agreed-upon pattern was transmitted to a few special comlinks. At each location, the recipient quickly burst into action.

On Susevfi, Seha Dorvald rolled out of bed, pulled on her clothes, and ran out of her room to awaken her aunt.

On Bespin, Brant Jennings and Maxid Pothe stopped their sparring, gathered their gear, and prepared to depart.

On Yanibar, Vinsek Ty placed a hand on his daughter’s memorial stone and then stood, solemnly, to make preparations.

Somewhere in the Kathol Rift, Tadar’Ro nodded to his fellow Aing-Tii and they began boarding a few select vessels.

In an undisclosed location, Talon Karrde scratched his beard as the comlink began to click. He turned to Aves, his second-in-command, and gave a single nod.

These separate forces began to gather. They would set out separately, meet up together, and fight the Purists to their last breath.

* * *

Tenel Ka stepped out of the Jedi Praxeum the next morning, clad in her lizard-skin garments. She was hopeful. Perhaps this would be one of the last conflicts with the Purists they would have to engage in. Though Tenel Ka was a warrior, and not just in heritage, she also grew weary of the constant fight.

Ben had approached her just before she’d gone to bed and asked her to perform a specific task during the fight. Tenel Ka wasn’t sure about how well she’d be able to perform it, but she knew she could do it for a little while, at least.

“Hey,” Jacen said.

Tenel Ka turned. She noticed the Jal Shey meditation band on his wrist, and smiled. She knew he hadn’t been sleeping at all last night; he’d probably been meditating every moment since the meeting ended. But she knew he was probably just as refreshed as someone who’d had a full night’s rest.

“Hey, yourself,” Tenel Ka replied.

The exchange had become something of a tradition between the two of them. She loved the time she spent with him, and she wished there was more of it to be had. Soon, maybe, there would be.

“It’s almost time,” Jacen said.

She nodded. “So it is.”

“You know,” he said, “odds are we’re going to lose some people today. I want to hope that we’ll come out of this mostly unscathed, though…”

“We will,” Tenel Ka said.

She knew Jacen didn’t know about Ben and Owen’s “backup” plan, but in her mind it would ensure far fewer deaths in the long run–on the Jedi’s side, anyway.

“I’ll be staying on the Wanderer during the fight,” she said.

Jacen frowned. “What?”

“It’s…necessary.”

“Then I’ll stay with you.”

“No. They will need your help on the boarding mission. But what I’ll be doing is just as important. You need to go.”

“I don’t want to leave you during that kind of fight.”

“I know. But you must.”

Jacen sighed. “Okay. But promise me you’ll be safe.”

“I will. Tweeter will be piloting the ship and if we’re ever in danger, he’ll be under orders to leave the vicinity of the fleet immediately.”

“Okay.” Jacen hugged her. “I love you.”

“And I, you.”

They looked up as others began to exit the Praxeum. Jaina and Damien were first; Damien had his vor’cha stun stick in addition to his lightsaber, and despite her statement that she’d be in her X-wing during the battle, Jaina had her discblade clipped beside her lightsaber.

The other Jedi began to come out, too. Most of them were clad in orange flight suits, and they immediately began to board their X-wings. Kyp and Kyle, the squadron commanders, started check-ins. The Chiss, led by Jag Fel, walked out next and mounted their clawcraft.

Lastly came Ben and Owen. They were a sight, Tenel Ka mused. Owen wore a green tunic, which had been given to him by the Matukai, and over it was durasteel combat armor. He was armed with a pair of combat batons, two blaster pistols, a blaster rifle, a vibroblade, and a pair of grenades. And Ben…Ben only carried his lightsaber, but he wore the set of armor that had been given to him by the Jensaarai. He looked the very image of the classic knight, ready to go out and fight evil.

Tenel Ka smiled. “It looks like we’re ready to go.”

* * *

As the sun began to rise, many Jedi gathered in the clearing outside the Praxeum to view the departure. Twelve clawcraft, twenty-nine X-wings, and one Gozanti cruiser soared toward the orange-yellow sky.

Owen held the yoke of his X-wing tightly as he flew toward the sky. This was it. Most likely, in a few hours or less, the conflict between the Purists and the Jedi would be, if not resolved, then at least close to it.

Everything was riding on them. If they failed, then the Force-sensitives in the galaxy would fall, one by one. There was no failing here–they had to win.

Owen remembered his parents’ statement of faith in their skills. To have them believe in him like that certainly went a long way to reassuring him.

“All fighters, prepare to make the jump to lightspeed,” Ben said. “Four, three, two…mark.”

Owen pulled the hyperspace lever, and the stars turned to blue lines. There was no turning back now; they were on their way.

* * *

​

The attack on Yavin IV was to begin soon.

Success was at hand, Radique felt. The fleet he had amassed could not be stopped; even with the older vessels that Repness had brought, they far outgunned anything the Jedi could muster up.

“Sir, communication from Repness,” said his ensign.

“Put him through,” Radique said.

He turned and headed for a communications salon at the back of the bridge. Repness’ visage filled one of the screens. The man was supremely smug looking, Radique decided. He was far too confident in his own abilities.

“Commander,” Repness said.

Radique nodded. “Repness.”

“My forces are still pulling in, sir,” he said. “It won’t be long now. But sir, I’ve been contacted with new orders from up high. We’re to hold off on the attack on Yavin IV for a few more hours.”

Radique frowned. “Why?”

“Not sure, sir, but those are the orders.”

“I’d like to speak with command directly.”

Repness shrugged. “Sorry, sir. Command is indisposed; they gave me the direct order to give to you, and that’s that.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Radique growled. “We’re ready now; the Jedi cannot be prepared for us. We must strike now, so that we can take them by surprise!”

“Afraid that’s not going to happen, sir.” Repness shrugged. “Anyway, I’ve also been ordered to take my vessels a short hyperjump away. I guess command doesn’t think it’s a good idea to have us all bunched together like this.”

“Then they should give the go-ahead for the attack! This is extremely illogical.”

“Sorry, sir. But I’m just following orders.”

The hologram disappeared. Radique snarled incoherently and stormed back to the bridge. Indeed, Repness’ ships were already jumping out of system. What the blazes was going on here? Why had command changed its mind so suddenly?

Something was very wrong here.

“Prepare for battle,” Radique announced to the bridge at large. “Prepare all the ships.”

“Sir?” the ensign asked.

“I have a feeling,” Radique said. “I want us to be ready for anything. I don’t know if Repness has betrayed us, or it’s something else, but I know something isn’t right.”

“Yes, sir!”

“And one more thing: get me command. I want to verify this order myself.”

* * *

As Jaina’s X-wing dropped from hyperspace, she quickly scanned the system. They were far enough from the remains of Alderaan that Radique’s fleet wouldn’t be picking them up yet. They just had to wait here for reinforcements.

They arrived soon–twelve more X-wings. Wraith Squadron. But to Jaina’s surprise, not only were they not alone, but they had some very hefty backup.

“This is Captain Tubrimi of the Retaliation,” came a gurgling voice. “I am to surrender my command to Jedi Ben Skywalker.”

Jaina grinned. Retaliation had been her father’s warship before he’d retired. Tubrimi had been his second-in-command; the Mon Calamari must’ve received a promotion upon Han Solo’s retirement. Uncle Luke must’ve thought he could still trust Tubrimi to send him as backup in this particular situation.

“This is Skywalker,” Ben said. “Thanks for joining the party, Captain. That Destroyer of yours should go a long way to winning this battle.”

“You’re welcome, Skywalker,” Tubrimi replied. “Just tell us where we’re needed.”

The fleet headed toward the ruins of Alderaan. Slowly, Radique’s ships came into sight. There were at least ten warships, Jaina saw, and although none of them were as large as the Star Destroyer Retaliation, it would still be a messy fight.

“All wings, report in,” Ben said.

* * *

“Sir, enemy vessels in-system!” Radique’s ensign called.

Radique spun toward the viewport. A Republic Star Destroyer, flanked by forty or more X-wings and twelve Chiss clawcraft, came directly at Radique’s fleet. He clenched his fists in anger, but suddenly it all made sense.

Repness was planning an ambush. He’d taken his fleet away so that the Jedi forces would only see Radique’s ships. Once the battle was in full sway, Repness would jump in and destroy them from behind. It was a smart plan, if not necessary. Radique could clearly see his forcers were more than a match for the Jedi’s.

“Launch all TIE Defender squadrons,” Radique said. “I want those X-wings demolished. Order White Death, Purifier, and Annihilator to focus their fire on the fighters, as well. The rest of the ships are to open fire on that Star Destroyer.”

“Yes, sir!” the ensign replied.

Quickly, the bridge crew followed orders. The Cleanser’s turbolasers began to blast at the Republic Destroyer. The Destroyer began to return fire, and the X-wings and clawcraft swept in.

The battle had begun.

* * *

Ben saw in the first seconds of the conflict that Radique’s forces were way stronger than had been expected. Worse, they hadn’t been caught off-guard. But despite that, he felt that they could win the battle.

As the last of the pilots reported their readiness, they broke up into squadron’s. Kyp’s and Kyle’s squadrons covered the right and left flanks, respectively, while Vanguard and Wraith Squadrons moved in to engage the TIE Defenders now spilling out at them. And the five fighters belonging to the Rangers arced toward the warship immediately starboard of Radique’s command ship. Meanwhile, the Wanderer stuck in the shadow of the Retaliation.

“Here we go,” Ben said. “Lock s-foils in attack position!”

A squadron of Defenders from Radique’s command ship came out at the Rangers. Ben linked up mentally with the others and took evasive maneuvers. He fired at one Defender, catching it in its starboard flank and lowering its shields. Damien filled the gap, blowing the TIE to cinders.

Jacen and Jaina took another Defender out, and Owen managed to pick off another. That reduced their twelve opponents to nine.

Before they had to worry about them, however, Vanguard Squadron slashed by, ripping the Defenders apart with green laser bolts.

“You’re clear,” Jag said. “Get into that cruiser now!”

“Thanks,” Ben replied.

As he, Jacen, Damien, and Owen headed for the warship, Jaina curved off to join up with Kyp’s squadron. Ben sent her a Force nudge wishing her luck, and then he had to focus on the battle.

He launched all of his torpedoes at the side of the cruiser, figuring that he wouldn’t be using them for anything else. They detonated against the shields, bringing them down and opening a gap for them to fly into the hangar.

The four X-wings swooped in. Ben lowered his landing skids, coming to a screeching halt. He popped his canopy and hopped out of his fighter, lightsaber igniting. To his surprise, blasterfire met him before he even cleared his seat. Luckily, it cratered harmlessly against his Jensaarai armor.

As his feet touched the hangar floor, he brought his lightsaber up in a defensive stance. Chiss and Eickarie soldiers, along with other unfamiliar aliens, surrounded Ben, their blasters trained on him.

He grinned humorlessly. Stage one was complete; stage two was about to begin.

 

Super Things are definitely coming to the crucial point as Radique's forces may be stronger/bigger but seem to be disunited. Glad the Retaliation is helping out.

 

This is a nice contrast the all the battles in the last three books.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler, JediMatteus

Striking Back, Part 2​

​

There was a long moment in which Ben wondered if time had stopped. The Chiss, Eickarie, and other alien soldiers kept their rifles trained on him, unwavering. Ben’s lightsaber hummed in the otherwise silent hangar, a sound that was immensely reassuring to him.

Then, they all opened fire at once. Ben was a blur, sweeping his lightsaber in wide circles to deflect the blaster bolts back at their shooters. The front ranks began to drop instantly, struck by the very bolts they’d fired. The back ranks began to take steps backward, still firing but trying to stay out of range of Ben’s reflected bolts.

But there were simply too many bodies; every bolt that Ben reflected found one. Some were only wounded, hit in the arm or leg; others died instantly as the bolts impacted against their chest or head.

Ben’s defenses were amplified when, a moment later, Jacen, Damien, and Owen arrived. Jacen and Damien stepped in to stand beside Ben, their green and viridian lightsabers blocking bolts right along with Ben’s blue blade. Owen dropped down to one knee and opened fire with his blaster.

In moments, the alien forces were in full-on retreat, running for the turbolift. Owen took out several more, shooting them from behind. Those who did escape didn’t bother to use the ‘lift; they turned and ran down the corridors deeper to this level of the ship.

“Let them go,” Ben said. “We’ve got bigger goals.”

Owen nodded. “Let’s get to the bridge.”

As they walked toward the turbolift, Ben reached down to his wrist comlink and tapped the transmit button. His private ‘link to Tenel Ka chirped in confirmation that she’d received his message. Good.

All was going according to plan.

* * *

Qazir Radique was not worried, even as one whole squadron of starfighters was destroyed. He had many more where they came from, and his warships would be there to back them up. As he watched, two X-wings were destroyed.

“Sir,” said Radique’s ensign, “it seems four X-wings tried to get into White Death’s hangar.”

“And?”

“And…sir, it appears that all five were destroyed before they could get inside the shields, sir.”

Radique smirked. “Good. Very good.”

A Chiss clawcraft exploded as two TIE Defenders harried it from behind. Radique hoped, though he doubted very much, that it was Jagged Fel. The boy had been almost as great a thorn in his side as the Jedi had. It would be a pleasure to be rid of him.

Well. When this battle was over, that would be a reality.

“Tighten up formation,” Radique said. “I want that Star Destroyer gone.”

* * *

Tenel Ka let out a tired breath as she finished casting the White Current illusion. If it had worked correctly, then enemy sensors would lead them to believe that Ben, Jacen, Damien, and Owen’s X-wings had been destroyed before they could board their targeted ship. That would keep them from focusing on that vessel until it was too late.

Her comlink chirped as Ben sent her a signal. She sent the confirming return signal and closed her eyes. As tiring as that illusion had been, this one would be much harder. She had to focus.

She began sweating, and her breath came in ragged gasps. But finally, she was fairly sure her illusion had worked.

She looked out the viewport. Indeed, four more Retaliations now filled the previously-empty space nearby. To the Purists, it would appear that the ships had just dropped out of hyperspace. Even those aboard the Retaliation would not realize what they were seeing at first, and sensors would do no good because White Current illusions would fool even them.

For a few very, very crucial moments, Radique’s ships would be firing at empty space where they believed were four Republic Star Destroyers.

All according to plan.

* * *

Jaina gasped in surprise as four Star Destroyers dropped out of hyperspace and opened fire on Radique’s fleet. What the kark? Where had they come from?

“Whoa!” Myn Donos, Wraith Leader, exclaimed.

“What–” choked Kyp Durron.

Jaina spun her X-wing around and blasted apart a TIE Defender. Radique’s ships reacted to the surprise quickly; they instantly began firing on the four other Star Destroyers. Jaina had no idea Uncle Luke had this much pull with the Republic military!

Then, a thought occurred to her. Quickly, she used the technique Ben had taught her to pierce White Current illusions. Sure enough, the Destroyers disappeared as quickly as they had first appeared.

She grinned. Now that was a gambit. She’d almost forgotten that Tenel Ka had been taught to use the White Current. Ben had asked her to create a fake fleet for Radique to fight. The result would be that there would be much less fire coming at the actual ships.

Jaina couldn’t risk telling the other Jedi or Republic pilots that these ships were illusions, though, in case Radique was monitoring their comms. She’d just have to let them believe there were actually other Republic ships in-system. They’d pick up on it soon enough, of course; their transmissions would not be returned. But they would be smart enough to stay quiet.

“Focus, guys,” she said. “Help’s here. It’s time to blow these guys back to the Unknown Regions they came from.”

* * *

Radique nearly choked on his own tongue as four more Republic Destroyers dropped into the system. This wasn’t possible! His Republic contacts had assured him–

No matter. He would deal with this situation now, and have words with his contacts when it was over. Radique still had more ships.

“Order the cruisers to divide their fire among the Destroyers,” he said. “There are five now, so two cruisers should attack each Destroyer.”

“Yes, sir,” the ensign said.

* * *

Damien swept his viridian lightsaber in a tight arc and cut down an Eickarie warrior. The turbolift had stopped halfway to the bridge and now refused to go any higher; they must have locked it down. They would have to proceed to the bridge using the stairs.

That was, if they could find stairs. Currently, they were on the same floor the ‘lift had stopped on, fighting through rank after rank of alien soldiers.

A huge blue insectoid alien lunged at Damien. He ducked under the blow, slashed back, and cut the alien in half.

“Stairs this way!” Owen called. “Hurry!”

He stood at a door, half inside, snapping off shots at alien troops with his rifle. Damien cut down one more alien and then ran to Owen’s position. Ben and Jacen followed close behind. As soon as they were all inside the stairwell, they began running upward.

It would be a long run, Damien knew. The ship had at least a hundred levels, and they had been stopped about halfway. That meant they probably had fifty floors to run up, and there would no doubt be…interruptions along the way.

Damien sucked in a deep breath. He had a feeling he wouldn’t get very many in the next hour or so.

* * *

Jagged Fel had no idea what was going on around here, but the arrival of the Republic vessels made no sense. Why hadn’t Tubrimi informed them that there would be more Destroyers coming? It wasn’t wise to surprise a fighting force during a space battle.

“Vanguards, pull in,” he said. “We’ve got a squadron of Defenders in our space; we need to kick them out.”

The Defenders came at the Vanguards. They fired ion cannons, the one weapon that the Defenders had that clawcraft didn’t. Ion cannons ignored shields and just shut fighters down completely. Jag didn’t intend to get hit by one.

He spun to avoid the ion blasts, and he quickly filled the nearest Defender’s cockpit with laserfire. The Defender exploded, sending fragments everywhere. Not all of the Vanguards could avoid the ion bolts, though; three of them were taken full-on by the blasts and destroyed within moments.

Jag sighed. He could see this would be another costly battle for him.

“Vanguard Leader, this is Wraith Leader,” said Myn Donos. “Pull your squadron in this direction; we’ll take out those Defenders for you.”

“Copy, Wraith Leader.”

Jag headed in Donos’ direction, and his pilots followed. The Defenders pursued, blasting them with their lasers from behind. Wraith Squadron slashed across the Defenders’ formation and peppered them with red lines of fire; half the Defenders were destroyed instantly. The others fought back, destroying two X-wings. One of the pilots managed to eject; the other wasn’t so lucky.

Jag spared another glance at his sensors. They were definitely telling him that there were now five Republic Star Destroyers. But what interested him was that all of the damage being done to the enemy vessels seemed to be coming from either the fighters or the Retaliation. Yet his eyes, and even his scanners, told him that the other four Destroyers were firing their cannons. Why weren’t they doing any damage?

He had a sudden idea as to why this was, and it disturbed him. He opened a private channel to the Wanderer.

“Tenel Ka, it’s Jag.”

“Yes, Jagged, what is it?”

“This is a private channel, just you and me. Are you creating those Destroyers?”

“I am.”

Jag swore in Cheunh. This was all an illusion? If Radique realized it, he’d order all his ships to target the Retaliation again, and things would become much stickier.

“Ben ordered this, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Tenel Ka replied.

Jag grunted incoherently. Of course he had. Ben Skywalker had to be certifiably crazy, Jag was sure of it.

“Thanks, Tenel Ka,” he said. “Just…keep it up as long as you can, I guess.”

“I will.”

Jag returned to the open ‘link and prepared to transmit orders. They had to take advantage of this illusion for as long as they could.

“Vanguards,” he said, “let’s take out one of those cruisers. Form up on me.”

* * *

Owen rounded another flight of stairs and bashed a Chiss across the chin with the butt of his rifle. He panted wearily and walked past the crumpled form of the Chiss. So far, they’d climbed twenty-five flights of stairs and had to fight two different squads of Purists.

“This is nuts!” he exclaimed.

He fired his rifle on full auto as a team of Eickaries came down the stairs toward them. They fell as Owen’s blaster bolts cut them down. Owen had to jump to avoid tripping on the bodies. Owen got to the next landing and sucked in a breath.

“Only…twenty-five more…to go,” he gasped.

Ben, who was also sweating and panting, grinned at Owen’s comment. Jacen and Damien came up behind them, their lightsabers held down at their sides loosely.

“Let’s keep going then,” Jacen said.

He didn’t seem nearly as tired as Owen. He must’ve been drawing very heavily on the Force to keep him going. Owen stepped toward the next flight…and turned and threw himself the other was as his danger sense flared.

The stairwell above them exploded. Rubble came crashing down around them. The four men curled up to avoid being crushed by the rubble. When the dust settled, they looked around. At least three flights of stairs above them had been completely taken out.

“Looks like we’re finding a different way up,” Damien muttered.

Owen considered. “But how? Can’t use the turbolifts, can’t use the stairs…”

“I’ve got it,” Ben said, still grinning.

Even though Owen was in on Ben’s plan, he still found it a little unsettling how much time Ben was spending grinning. He gave his brother a concerned look, but Ben just grinned back even bigger.

Owen was really worried, now.

* * *

Jaina fired a torpedo at the engine cluster on one of the cruisers. The engines exploded, starting a chain reaction along the whole vessel.

She shot away from the cruiser as it began to explode. So far, that was the second of Radique’s ships they’d taken down. However, Vanguard Squadron was down to just over half of its numbers, and the Wraiths had lost four pilots. In addition, Jaina had felt two Jedi’s deaths in the Force.

“This is insane,” said Trey Courser. “Has anyone else noticed that only one of those Star Destroyers is doing any damage? What’s going on?”

Shut up, Jaina thought at him, but she didn’t say anything. Radique had to be picking up on this already, too, and if he was monitoring transmissions he’d just had it confirmed.

“We’re losing the advantage here,” Kyp said.

There was an explosion as another Jedi’s X-wing exploded, but this Jedi managed to eject from his fighter before he was killed. His wingmen–Jacob Nion and Zekk–peeled off and began cutting down nearby fighters to defend him.

Jaina watched as Radique’s vessels began to turn their fire onto the fighters. Great. The Chiss must’ve figured it out.

Jaina grunted as a turbolaser bolt cracked against her aft shields. She spun to avoid being hit again. Her droid, Squeaker, beeped in alarm.

“We’re okay, we’re okay,” she said. “We’re fine.”

She spun back around and opened fire on the nearest Defender. The ship exploded, and the pilot ejected. Jaina was suddenly barraged again by turbolaser blasts.

“I think we might be in trouble,” she allowed.

* * *

Ben stepped out into the corridor in front of his three companions. Jacen frowned, uncertain as to what his cousin was doing. He was a bit confused about Ben’s attitude this whole mission–he’d been unusually confident and energetic the whole time.

“Hey, you!” Ben said. “Ugly!”

Ben waved his arms wildly, trying to get the attention of a squad of Eickaries at the end of the corridor. The Eickaries looked up in surprise and raised their rifles at Ben. They came in close. Jacen, Damien, and Owen stepped out into the corridor along with Ben.

The Eickaries slowed, but continued advancing. As they came close, Ben still didn’t make a move to attack them. They cautiously surrounded the group and disarmed them.

“You are…surrendering?” rasped one Eickarie.

Ben shrugged amicably. “Take me to your leader.”

Jacen resisted a smile at that one. The Eickaries surrounded the four men and led them to the nearest turbolift. One raised a comlink to his lips.

“This is Squad Aurek-Seven,” he said. “We have the Jedi. Unlock the lifts.”

Shortly, the turbolift arrive on the floor and slid open. The Eickaries ushered the Jedi into the ‘lift and keyed in the command to go to the bridge.

When they finally arrived on the bridge, the Eickaries ushered them inside. The captain of the ship was one of the rainbow-skinned humanoids that Jacen had occasionally seen among Radique’s forces. Jacen prepared to Force-pull his lightsaber to his hand; now that they were on the bridge, all that remained was to fight their way free and turn the weapons on Radique’s ship.

Then they encountered their first problem.

Twenty cortosis-lined battle droids marched into the bridge, their blaster rifles trained on Jacen and his companions. As soon as they tried to Force-pull their lightsabers, they would be torn to shreds by the droids’ quick reflexes.

Looks like your plan just took a deviation, Ben.

Jacen wondered why his cousin was still grinning so broadly.

* * *

Radique was now confident of success. There was something unusual about the four other Star Destroyers; they were doing no damage at all. They showed up on the ship’s sensors, so they must surely be there, but they were irrelevant. The nine remaining vessels in Radique’s fleet focused their fire on the one Destroyer that was actually doing damage.

The enemy fighters weren’t faring so well, either. The Defender squadrons had been cut down to six out of the original ten, but that still provided for seventy-two TIEs to face down the ever-diminishing Jedi forces.

The only thing Radique couldn’t figure out was why Repness hadn’t jumped into the system yet. It didn’t make sense.

It didn’t matter, though. Victory was still within his grasp.

* * *

Ben was getting a bit concerned, but not overly so, and what concern he did feel, he didn’t let show. He kept his affable grin on his face as the rainbow-faced commander stepped toward them.

“So you saw sense and surrendered,” the alien said. “It’s odd. Our sensors indicated that your ships were destroyed. I wonder how you got aboard this vessel.”

Ben remained silent, still smiling. The commander didn’t look in the least disconcerted; no doubt he was confident that his twenty combat droids could easily handle the four Rangers. He was wrong, of course.

“No matter,” the commander continued. “It would be wise to order your fleet to stand down. You will all die, anyways.”

Ben’s smiled remained. “No, I don’t think so.”

In the Force, he reached out beyond the system. Now.

* * *

Seha Dorvald perked up as she received Ben’s nudge. She turned to Tadar’Ro and nodded. The Aing-Tii closed his eyes, as did the others on the bridge of the Aing-Tii vessel.

Seha felt her ears pop a bit as the vessel teleported from its position all the way to the Aldera system in the blink of an eye. Suddenly they, and the ten other Aing-Tii ships that had accompanied them, were right alongside the Retaliation, bombarding Radique’s fleet.

Seha looked at Tadar’Ro. “Get us aboard that ship.”

There was another pop, and suddenly Seha was standing on the bridge of an alien vessel, right next to Ben. And so were Vinsek Ty, Brant Jennings, Maxid Pothe, Bole Rostu, Alexa Dorn, and a dozen other Jensaarai and Zeison Sha.

“What–?” a rainbow-skinned alien gasped.

Then they all broke out into action.

* * *

Jaina half-expected the odd rock-shaped ships that appeared out of nowhere to be illusions, too, but when they opened fire, they did some real damage to Radique’s ships. Then, they were joined a moment later by a fleet of smuggler’s ships that dropped out of hyperspace.

Jaina grinned. Talon Karrde! She whooped for joy and heard several other cheers, too. She barraged a TIE Defender with blasterfire and destroyed it.

The tide of the battle turned in moments. The rock-like vessels–Aing-Tii, Jaina assumed–destroyed two warships in as many minutes, and Karrde’s fleet harassed a few more while the Retaliation blasted another to dust.

Jaina had no idea what had just happened, but she was glad that it had.

* * *

“Where are you?” Radique demanded.

The image of Atton Repness was grainy–the ship’s holo-tranceiver had taken damage. But Radique could still see the man’s smug expression.

“I’m holding back, as ordered,” Repness replied.

“We need you here! We’re being slaughtered!”

“I’m sorry, but I have orders.” Repness tilted his head. “The loss of your fleet will be a crushing blow to the Purists, or so it will seem. But we will be ready to strike back. Cheer up, Qazir. You’ll be a martyr.”

Radique noticed that Repness had stopped calling him “commander.” The man had written Radique off as dead, and he was going to fill his position. This had been his plan all along. Radique slammed his fists against the console.

“You traitor!”

“Sorry, Qazir. It’s over. Goodbye.”

Radique snarled as the hologram dissipated. He stormed back to the bridge. His crew was working furiously to keep up some semblance of defense.

It was over, Radique saw. There was only one option left.

“Jump to hyperspace,” he said. “Leave the other ships here; we have to escape! We–”

“Sir,” said his ensign. “Look.”

The White Death had swiveled to face the Cleanser. Now, its forward batteries opened fire. Radique’s eyes widened as missiles soared toward the bridge viewport.

* * *

Ben hacked furiously at the last of the Eickaries. The Zeison Sha, using their discblades, had easily dismantled the cortosis droids. With that problem solved, they easily finished off all of the bridge crew.

The four Rangers quickly hopped into the necessary command stations and opened fire on Radique’s flagship. The bridge of the flagship erupted quickly. Then there were several incredibly bright explosions. When space cleared, the flagship had been turned to dust.

There was complete silence for a moment. Then, the bridge erupted into cheers. Ben found himself hugging Seha Dorvald excitedly. Whoops filled the comm waves, too, as pilots roared in excitement.

“We did it!” Seha exclaimed.

“Yeah, we did!” Ben replied joyfully.

“Hate to break it up, guys,” Owen said, “but we need to get off this bridge and destroy this vessel, too.”

“Tadar’Ro can handle that,” Brant Jennings said.

A moment later, Ben and the others were standing on the Aing-Tii vessel. The Retaliation and all the other warships destroyed the last of the Purist vessels. Ben breathed a sigh of relief. It was all over.

* * *

They returned to Yavin IV in the middle of the night. Although the Aing-Tii could’ve easily returned the Jensaarai, Zeison Sha, and Matukai to their homes, they declined the offer in favor of staying at the Jedi Academy for the night. The Aing-Tii departed for the Kathol Rift.

The Jedi provided quarters for the other Force users, as well as the remnants of Vanguard Squadron. The exhausted heroes fell into their beds and were asleep before heads hit pillows.

The next morning, Jaina stood on the Temple rooftop, looking down at the field below. Jag’s squadron was getting ready to depart. As Jag mounted his fighter, he caught sight of Jaina and raised his hand in a wave. Jaina waved back. With the squadron’s mission accomplished, they had no reason to delay their return to the Chiss Ascendancy.

However, the other Force-users did stay. Jaina saw them below now, teaching one another different techniques. Ben, Jacen, and Tenel Ka were among them, teaching and learning. Jaina turned around as she sensed Damien approaching.

“Hey,” she said.

He smiled. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” she replied. “I took a cut to the head during the fight but it was minor. How about you?”

“Unscathed,” Damien said. “Your brother and cousins are insane, you know that?”

She laughed. “I know.”

“But that’s okay. I’m about to do something insane, too.”

“What?”

He dropped to one knee and pulled a ring from his pocket. Jaina’s heart rate accelerated past lightspeed. She brought her hands up to her mouth, shocked and overjoyed.

“Jaina Solo, will you marry me?” he asked.

She knocked him to the stone floor of the Temple rooftop and landed right on top of him, grinning.

“Of course I will.”

* * *

Atton Repness settled back in his seat and surveyed the wreckage of Qazir Radique’s fleet. The vessels had been wiped out to the last one, many of them not even leaving wreckage. It was a pity, really.

Not that Repness cared. Sure, Radique had been a useful tool, but Repness’ superiors had never placed all their faith in him being able to succeed in his crusade. The Purist movement was far more than just Radique.

“Sir,” said one of his officers, “we’ve been given orders. We’re to pull back to Denon and wait there for further instructions.”

Repness nodded curtly. “Do it.”

He turned back to the viewport, looking out at the remains of the fleet again. He smiled to himself. He’d never really liked Radique, anyway. But the loss of his fleet would be felt in other places.

Still, it really didn’t matter. They would easily be able to deal with the Jedi without the Unknown Regions forces.

“It’s almost time,” Repness said. “Soon, we can reveal ourselves to the galaxy at large, and then we can truly begin wiping out the wretched Force-users that pervade society.”

The troops around him solemnly slammed their fists against their breastplates in salute to the statement. Repness allowed his smile to break out into a full grin.

Soon, he’d be on top. Then he’d show the fools who’d gotten him kicked out of the Republic military.

Let’s see, he thought, how they feel about Supreme Commander Atton Repness.

 

Aw, well just smoking' hot action, topped off with a SQUEE! and an for good measure. Your stuff is just unfailingly good on all counts.

 

Have to say, it bothers me that most of the jedi are fine with assassinating Radique. Owen isnt a jedi of course, but the rest....

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

I understand. It's something I wasn't sure how to write comfortably, because the guy had to be eliminated obviously, but normally Jedi wouldn't condone such things.

 

I think Luke's attitude in rebel dawn was perfect. He did not got to kill lord nyax, but decided to stand in his way and stop him from killing anyone else. Sounds semantical, but i loved his perspective.

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Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler, JediMatteus

What Death Can’t Part​

​

Nervously, Jaina Solo played with her engagement ring as she scampered around her quarters in the Jedi Praxeum. She felt like she still had a million things to do before the wedding, and it was in two days!

She was thrilled to be marrying Damien. She hadn’t stopped thinking about it since he had proposed eight weeks ago. She’d sent out holomessages inviting family and friends to Yavin IV for the ceremony. She’d contacted Uncle Luke and asked him to perform the ceremony, and as a backup she’d asked Kam Solusar to do it if Luke couldn’t make it.

She’d traveled all the way to Coruscant to pick out a wedding dress. She’d also had her formal Jedi robes pressed as she planned to wear them as she and Damien entered the reception area. Then she’d had her hair fixed…

So many people had been arriving lately. Almost all of Wraith and Rogue Squadrons were present, as were Seha Dorvald, Wedge Antilles, Jagged Fel, and even Talon Karrde and some of his organization. Her parents and Chewbacca had even come back from their “vacation” to attend. Luke and Mara were en route, too.

“Jaina,” said Tenel Ka. “Jaina, relax!”

Jaina froze and looked at her friend. “Relax? I’m getting married in two days, and we haven’t gotten the clearing or the reception room decorated, we don’t have the food shipped in, the rehearsal is tomorrow…”

“And all of it will get done,” Tenel Ka said. “Slow down. You’ve got an army of Jedi here to get things ready. It will get done.”

Jaina exhaled deeply. “Okay. You’re right.”

She thought. Valin Horn was responsible for food, and his sister Jysella was decorating the reception room, Lowbacca was making sure the trees were neatly trimmed back away from the clearing where the ceremony was to take place–it would all get done.

“Come with me,” Tenel Ka said abruptly.

“What? Where are we–?”

Tenel Ka grabbed her wrist and led her down the hall. “We’re going to take a break, and you’re going to get your mind off things.”

Jaina sighed. “Okay. But only for a little while.”

Tenel Ka led her to a lounge where the other Rangers, as well as several of Jaina and Damien’s other friends, had gathered. Zekk, Tahiri, Aren, and Raynar were already there, along with Savara Raine and Seha.

“Hey, sis,” Jacen said. “You look like you could use some R-and-R.”

“I can relax after the wedding,” Jaina said.

Jacen patted the seat beside him. “Sit down. You’re not going to do the groom any favors if you have your hair turn white from stress before the wedding day.”

Jaina chuckled and sat down. Tenel Ka sat down on the other side of her. In the middle of the table were several breakfast pastries. Jaina, realizing how hungry she was, grabbed one and popped it in her mouth. She looked across the table at Damien. Somehow, he looked far less stressed than she did.

“Can’t believe you two are getting married,” Ben said. “It’s crazy.”

“Yeah.” Jacen frowned. “Hey. Do you guys remember when we first met?”

“That…” Jaina said. “That wasn’t such a good day.”

“You know, the events of that day are still a bit fuzzy to me,” Ben said. He glanced at Jacen. “And I still don’t know the whole story on your part.”

Owen glanced at his chrono. “Well, we’ve got time now…”

Jacen sighed. “All right. It’s not a story I really like to tell; there are some uncomfortable memories involved.”

“Well, we all know how that day started,” Ben said.

“Right,” Jaina said. “We were in the training room, sparring. I was winning, as usual.”

“Hey now,” Ben warned.

“I was!” Jaina insisted with a laugh. “Anyway, we were training, and then Uncle Luke came in to tell us something…”

Eight years earlier…

Ben Skywalker blocked an attack from his cousin Jaina and took a step back toward the edge of the training platform. Jaina’s yellow blade weaved a deadly basket that forced Ben to spin his blade in a defensive arc that almost disarmed him. He threw himself to the ground and rolled to his feet behind Jaina.

She turned and blocked a strike aimed at her shoulder. Ben struck again, and Jaina easily parried it and stepped in to crosscut at Ben’s side. Ben blocked the blow by holding his blade vertically, but it caused him to stumble back.

Jaina continued on, driving Ben back toward the other edge of the platform, now. Ben took a few shallow breaths and tried to use the Force to balance himself, but Jaina was coming on too strong. In a few moments, Ben knew, he’d be done for.

He wasn’t going to go down without a fight, though. He rammed his blade at Jaina’s navel and, as she pushed her blade down to block, he spun aside and slashed at her shoulder. She had to throw herself flat on the ground to avoid being seriously wounded by the strike.

“Hold,” said Ben’s father.

Ben looked up. Luke was just entering the training room, and he’d given the command to the room at large, not just Ben and Jaina. Jacen and Tenel Ka, Zekk and Lowbacca, and Raynar and Tahiri also ceased their practice duels. Kam Solusar, who’d been supervising the fights, turned to Luke.

“Master Skywalker,” he said. “What brings you here today?”

“I have someone to introduce to you,” Luke replied.

Ben glanced behind him. Mara followed him in, along with thirteen-year-old Owen, and a young, dark-skinned man in nondescript clothing.

“Everyone,” Luke said, “this is Damien Farrell. He’s coming to be a new student here.”

Ben hopped down to the ground and walked up to Damien. He shook hands with the young man, and the other young Jedi followed suit.

“Nice to meet you,” Ben said. “I’m Ben. These are my friends–Jaina, Jacen, Tenel Ka, Zekk, Lowbacca, Raynar, and Tahiri.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Damien replied. “I can’t believe I’m here. I had no idea that I could be a Jedi.”

“Most people don’t,” Luke said. “In any case, we’re all glad to have you here, Damien.”

“Yeah,” Jaina said. “It’ll be nice to have new blood around.”

“Too many people here already, if you ask me,” Owen grumbled.

“Owen!” Mara snapped. “That’s not appropriate.”

Owen scowled. “Sorry.”

“I’m going to take Damien to my office and get him oriented,” Luke said. “I’ll bring him back here later; I’m sure you all would like to show him around.”

“Sure,” Jacen said with a nod.

“I’ll let you get back to your training now. Come on, Damien.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker.”

Luke, Mara, Owen, and Damien exited the room, and the eight Jedi students resumed their exercises.

Ben thought it really would be exciting to have another student their age around. He was always glad to make new friends. Who knew? Damien could end up being one of those friends that lasted a lifetime.

* * *

After two days at the Jedi Praxeum, Damien still pinched himself occasionally to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming. He was actually training to be a Jedi! As a sixteen-year-old, he was a few years younger than most of the other young Jedi that Master Skywalker had introduced him to, but they didn’t seem to care. They included him in their group as if they’d been friends for a lifetime.

Jaina and the others gathered in the training room to spar. She invited Damien to go along with them, even though he hadn’t gotten into the dueling part of his training yet. It was best to learn on the job, she had told him.

“Who’s he going to duel?” Jacen asked. “I mean, no offense, but most of us have been doing this a long time. We’ll annihilate the poor guy.”

“Raynar,” Jaina replied. “He’s the youngest of us and he’s still relatively inexperienced. He and Damien should be, if not equals, then at least able to compete fairly.”

“Then who am I going to practice with?” Tahiri asked.

“I can,” Tenel Ka said. “Once I’m done beating Jacen.”

Jacen scowled. “You can’t beat me, Tenel Ka.”

“Please,” she scoffed. “I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back.”

Before they could begin training, however, there was a suddenly buzzing alarm. Jaina frowned.

“I haven’t heard that alarm in a long time. It means that there has been an unauthorized entry into the Yavin system.”

She turned to head for the door, but at that moment Luke and Kam walked in.

“Everyone, get ready,” Luke said. “We’ve got a Star Destroyer in-system.”

“A Star Destroyer?” Ben asked in surprise. “What’s that doing here?”

“Nothing good,” Luke replied. “We need to prepare to defend the Praxeum. Come on; all of you follow me.”

They followed Luke to the war room below the Temple, where the Rebel Alliance had watched the battle with the Death Star. The Jedi there were bustling about, preparing for the worst.

“Luke,” said Kyle Katarn. “We’re receiving a transmission from the Star Destroyer.”

“Put it through.”

Damien stood back with the others gathered around the holoterminal in the center of the room. As they watched a hologram of a face appeared. There was a collective gasp throughout the room; the face was horrible. It was clearly a mask–it was an alien skull, dyed completely red, with only the eyes remaining vaguely human.

“Skywalker,” the figure growled, “I have returned. It is time for you to atone for the sins you have committed against me.”

Luke stepped forward. “I’m afraid I don’t remember you…and I’m fairly sure I would.”

“How quickly they forget the failures!” the figure said with a throaty laugh. “No matter, then! I will simply show you.”

The figure pulled off his mask. Luke did not physically react, but Damien dimly felt sorrow and shock emanate from him through the Force. The man beneath the mask was surprisingly young, with black hair and blue eyes. But when he smiled wickedly, all youthful innocence fled from his features.

“Kueller,” Luke said softly.

“So you do remember.” He put the mask back on. “I am here to have my revenge, ‘Master.’ Prepare yourself!”

The hologram disappeared, and Luke sagged slightly.

“Who’s Kueller?” Raynar asked.

“He was one of my first students,” Luke said. “He was impatient, because he did not advance as quickly as some of the others, like Kyp Durron. He left the Academy in a rage. Never expected him to come back…”

“Well, he’s back now,” Solusar said, “and he’s going to wipe us out unless we do something.”

Luke nodded. “You’re right, Kam.”

“I’ll get the youngest apprentices to safety,” said Tionne Solusar, Kam’s wife.

“Good,” Luke said. “Take them down to the caves. Even if Kueller bombs the Temple, they will be safe down there.”

“I’ll gather groups of Jedi to fight grounds troops,” Kyle Katarn said.

“I’ll gather a team to fly X-wings,” Luke replied. “Jaina, would you like to fly with me?”

She nodded eagerly. “I’m all for it.”

“Me too,” Jacen said. “I’ll be right there with you, Uncle Luke.”

“Lowbacca, Zekk, and I will stick with Master Katarn,” Ben said. “Damien, stay close to us. You’ll be safer.”

Damien frowned nervously. “I’m not sure about this. Maybe I should go with the younger students.”

Tahiri patted Damien on the back. “You’ll be fine. We’ll supply you with a blaster; you don’t have to use a lightsaber since you’re not experienced with one yet. And we’ll make sure to keep you out of the firing line.”

“Okay.” He still sounded doubtful. “I’ll do my best.”

“We don’t have much time,” Solusar said. “The Destroyer is already above Yavin IV.”

“Let’s move,” Luke said. “And may the Force be with us all.”

* * *

Jacen vaulted into his X-wing and powered it up. Around him, other Jedi–most of them more experienced than he–mounted their own fighters. Jacen wondered where Kueller had gotten a Star Destroyer. He must’ve made contact with a group of Imperial extremists and offered to get rid of their Jedi problem.

Jacen pulled his helmet on and powered up his thrusters. Jedi preparing to fight on the ground ran from the hangar, lightsabers or blasters gripped in their hands. Jacen hoped they would be all right–he couldn’t bear the thought that any of his friends might be killed in the battle.

“All fighters prepare for takeoff,” Luke said.

Jacen lifted his X-wing and angled it toward the hangar doors. Luke, Jaina, and several others pulled out of the hangar ahead of him. Then, Jacen was through and out into the blue skies of Yavin IV. Above them, haloed by the orange gas giant that the moon orbited, the Destroyer launched several landing shuttles, along with a squadron of starfighters.

“Whoever these guys are, they’re poor,” Corran Horn noted. “Those fighters are Uglies.”

Jacen examined them. “Uglies” were amalgamations of more than one fighter–for example, a TIE Interceptor’s wings on an X-wing’s chassis. The fighters tended to have minimal shielding. This part of the job, at least, would be fairly easy.

“Lock s-foils in attack position,” Luke said.

Jacen split his fighter’s wings and instantly began opening fire. A TYE-wing–a TIE fighter ball cockpit with a Y-wing’s engine nacelles–exploded as Jacen’s laser bolts passed through it.

“Engage at will!” Luke commanded.

* * *

Damien clutched his blaster nervously in his hands as one of the landing shuttles set down. It was an old Rebel Alliance DH-17 that had been lying around in the Temple’s armory, but it was clean and fully-charged, so it would suffice.

Beside him, Tahiri and Zekk removed their lightsabers from their belts and snapped them to life. Their cyan and yellow blades hummed in the otherwise-silent forest.

“Prepare for battle,” Kyle Katarn said. “Kids, stick close to at least one Master at all times.”

Damien had no problem with that. He steadied his hands and prepared to fire. The shuttles dropped their landing ramps and troops charged out–sixteen stormtroopers and four Dark Jedi in each vessel. Damien tallied up in his head–sixty-four stormtroopers, sixteen Dark Jedi.

“This is going to be interesting,” Kyle said. “Okay, let’s move.”

His green lightsaber snap-hissed to life and he charged forward. Tahiri and Zekk came after him, and Damien followed them. Kyle attacked a Dark Jedi, and Tahiri and Zekk tag-teamed another. Damien rolled for cover behind a tree and snapped off a shot at a stormtrooper. His blaster bolt caught the trooper on the shoulder, spinning him around. Damien fired again, hitting the trooper in the back.

The other troopers began to open fire, but by then the other Jedi were on top of them. Tenel Ka was a blur of teal light, her saber cutting down three troopers before they had time to react. Lowbacca came on steadily, deflecting blaster bolts with his bronze blade.

The other two Dark Jedi from the first shuttle caught sight of Damien and charged at him. He took a step back and snapped off a shot; the Dark Jedi deflected the bolt into the ground. Just as the first Dark Jedi was about to cut him in half, though, a Jedi Master named Streen hit him with a Force blast that smashed him against a tree. Streen ignited his lightsaber and engaged the other Dark Jedi.

“Get moving, kid!” Streen said.

Damien scrabbled away from the fight and continued firing at the stormtroopers. One of his shots caught a stormtrooper in the throat. He panted as he ducked behind a bush. Okay, he said to himself. Okay, I can do this.

He jumped to his feet and, flicking the blaster’s setting to “full auto,” began spraying the woods with blasterfire.

* * *

​

Jaina cut down an X-ceptor and entered a nosedive down toward the surface. Two TYE-wings were on her tail, peppering her with fire. The TYE-wings were slow and ungainly; she’d be able to outmaneuver them easily.

She cut power to her engines, slowing her descent, and let the TYE-wings shoot past her. As soon as they did, she opened fire on them both. They exploded, sending shrapnel falling to the ground below. Jaina reactivated her engines and swung back up toward the Star Destroyer.

She frowned. There were three less X-wings than there had been before. Where had they gone? She hadn’t felt any deaths in the Force…

“Uncle Luke, what’s going on?” she asked.

“Jacen took his shielding trio inside the Destroyer,” Luke said tightly. “He went to confront Kueller.”

“Why the kark did he do that?” Jaina exclaimed.

“Because he said he was convinced he was the right one for the job,” Luke replied. “He said he felt the Force was leading him to do it.”

“And you didn’t argue?”

“I really didn’t have any control over him,” Luke noted tersely.

“I’m going in after him.”

“Jaina, no. I need your help out here.”

She sighed deeply. “Okay. But he’d better be okay.”

* * *

As Jacen’s X-wing landed, he ignited his lightsaber and jumped out of the ship. His companions, Rosh Penin and Lassin, ignited their own sabers–their blades yellow and orange, respectively. Jacen led the two of them through the hangar toward the turbolift.

“Looks like most of the ship’s crew participated in the ground battle,” Jacen said. “This ship must be seriously under-crewed.”

“Tell me about it,” Rosh said. “Who’s ever heard of a Star Destroyer without even a flight controller in the hangar?”

Jacen waved a hand, using the Force to open the turbolift door. The three Jedi stepped inside, and Jacen hit the command for the bridge. The ‘lift began to rise.

“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” Lassin asked.

Jacen nodded. “I am.”

Soon, the door slid open silently. Jacen stepped out onto the bridge, his lightsaber gripped tightly in his right fist. Its green blade hummed and pulsed slightly, filling the bridge with an eerie light and sound.

“So,” said a deep voice, “it’s only the nephew. A pity. I’d hoped to face Skywalker one-on-one myself.”

Kueller turned from the viewport, looking out over the battle, and strode toward Jacen and his allies. He was once again wearing his death’s-head mask. He reached for his belt and grabbed a claw-shaped lightsaber hilt. It ignited, its bloodshine blade spitting sparks. Kueller waved his other hand, and five Dark Jedi came out of hiding behind Lassin and Rosh.

“But this is good,” Kueller continued. “Now, I can kill Skywalker’s precious family. It will hurt him even more than killing him myself.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Jacen said coolly. “Surrender now, Kueller.”

“I don’t think so, Little Solo.”

Kueller lunged. Jacen brought his lightsaber up and blocked the blow easily. Lassin and Rosh were suddenly surrounded by Dark Jedi opponents, and they were forced to fight for their lives.

Jacen couldn’t worry about that now. He pushed Kueller back, his lightsaber blade flashing as he parried each blow in turn. Kueller, for whatever shortcomings he’d had when he’d attended the Praxeum, had clearly improved. He fought Jacen with a bloodthirsty drive that had the younger Jedi on the defensive in moments.

Jacen spun his lightsaber, knocking Kueller’s aside, and swept his blade at Kueller’s mask, hoping to take it, and his head, off. Kueller’s blade returned, though, and blocked Jacen’s strike.

Then Jacen heard a cry of pain, and felt Lassin’s life leave his body. A surge of sorrow filled Jacen and he attacked Kueller with redoubled effort. Kueller began to back up toward the viewport now. Jacen spared a glance over his shoulder.

Rosh was now facing down the remaining three Dark Jedi by himself. Jacen knew he wouldn’t last long. He kicked Kueller in the gut, spun, and hurled his lightsaber. It cut all three Dark Jedi down and returned to Jacen’s hand.

“Rosh, run!” he snapped. “Get out of here!”

Then he turned back to Kueller, and the duel resumed. Jacen began to sweat. He’d been so sure that the Force was driving him to do this, but now it was all falling apart. Had he been wrong?

The thought made him just hesitant enough for Kueller to take advantage. The bigger man smashed back Jacen’s defenses. Panicked, Jacen tried to recover, but it was too late. Kueller’s red blade stabbed deep into his gut.

“No!” Jacen heard Luke say over the comlink.

He realized that his uncle, and thus probably his sister, must’ve felt his pain through the Force. Wincing, Jacen managed to remain on his feet. He could feel Kueller’s blade inside him, burning flesh and organs.

“It’s over,” Kueller growled.

“I’ve…got you right where I want you,” Jacen gasped out.

“What?”

Kueller, with his blade still buried in Jacen’s gut, couldn’t defend himself anymore. Jacen swept his lightsaber horizontally, and Kueller’s head rolled from his body. The bridge crew–who had watched the battle in silence–scrambled back to their stations. Jacen dropped to his knees in front of Kueller’s body.

He felt somebody’s hands under his arms, and he was dragged away from the viewport. Then, there was a violent explosion, a rocking motion…

And Jacen knew no more.

* * *

He awoke many hours later and found himself in a medbay, a bandage wrapped around his midriff. He grunted and tried to sit up; a hand pressed down on his shoulder to keep him down.

“Easy,” a female voice said. “You’ve taken quite the hit.”

Jacen looked up at her. She had close-cropped blond hair and wore gray robes with some kind of armor underneath. She had a lightsaber clipped to her belt.

“Who…are you?”

“I’m Brisha,” she replied. “I was one of Kueller’s followers–but actually, I was a mole in his organization, trying to stop him from the inside. I saved you from dying when the bridge exploded.”

“The bridge…exploded?”

“Yes. After you were stabbed, your uncle apparently reacted with some grief, and blew up the bridge with a torpedo from his X-wing.”

“Oh.” Jacen exhaled, and winced at the pain it caused. “So…where am I now?”

“Still aboard the Death’s Head. The bridge crew managed to get us to hyperspace just as your uncle fired. We’ve moved command to the backup bridge. The crew is now under my command.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“A secret place,” she said. “You’re special, Jacen Solo. I want you to help me command an Order of Jedi that will make sure darkness like Kueller can never return. But your family must not know about it…yet. Someday you will contact them and show them all you’ve done. But not yet.”

“Me? Lead a Jedi Order?”

“I will help you,” Brisha said. “Come with me. We can change the galaxy for the better, Jacen.”

After a moment, Jacen nodded. “Okay. Why not?”

Present Day

“And then, seven years later, you guys found me on the Unknown World,” Jacen said. “And it turned out that Brisha had been a Sith all along.”

“Yeah.” Ben nodded. “On our side of things, after the Death’s Head jumped to hyperspace, Dad felt guilty about your death and his reaction, so he took a leave of absence from the Order. He put Kam in charge.”

“Damien and I both became Aunt Mara’s apprentices,” Jaina said, “and we began to work together, along with Ben.”

Owen added, “A few years later, I went to work for Talon Karrde.”

“And just think,” Jaina said. “None of us would even be here today if not for that day. Not like this, anyway.”

There was a knock at the entrance, and they looked up to see Luke standing there. Jaina beamed at her uncle and jumped up to hug him.

“Thanks for getting back,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he replied. “We’re all gathered to begin the rehearsal, but we’re waiting on the bride and groom.”

Jaina blushed. “Oh. I guess we got so busy remembering that we lost track of time.”

“It’s never a bad thing to remember,” Luke replied. “The past is important…but it’s not nearly as important as the future.”

The rest of them stood and began to file out of the lounge. Jaina and Luke waited behind until the rest of them were down the hall, and then they began to follow.

“Are you ready?” Luke asked.

“To be married?” Jaina grinned. “Absolutely.”

“Good. It’s a wonderful moment in any person’s life. I’m excited for you.”

“Thanks, Uncle Luke.” She wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “How do you think all of this would’ve worked out if not for that day with Kueller?”

“I don’t know.” Luke considered for a moment. “For a long time, I considered that the darkest moment in our Order’s history. We lost some good Jedi that day. But thinking back, if it hadn’t happened, then Brisha would never have taken Jacen, and in turn he never would’ve discovered her corruption, and she might’ve been able to revive Darth Ruin herself. Then, the Sith forces might’ve been unstoppable.”

“Not to mention,” Jaina added, “that Damien might’ve been assigned to another Master rather than Aunt Mara taking him out of pity because you brought him here and then left…and then he and I might’ve never become as close as we did.”

Luke chuckled. “Are you telling me you’re glad that I left the Academy?”

Jaina laughed with him. “I’m saying…I’m glad you’re back.”

“So am I.” Luke patted her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get to this rehearsal, shall we, so that the actual day can be a bit closer.”

Jaina was absolutely okay with that idea. Less than two days from now, she and Damien would finally be married. And then, maybe, things would change for good.

 

Lovely! Great way to insert a flashback. Seamless and nice to see those earlier events, how things all started. Love Jaina's eagerness.

 

While some readers might roll their eyes and chastise Jacen, this is what i like about him. Never stop asking questions.

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Im sensing romance in the air for zekk

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A wedding! Nice! And seeing how the trilogy before this was set in motion.

 

PILOT - Nothing like a political figure like Rodan using that rescue to his advantage. I do like that the team reformed for the next battle.

PUSHBACK - Raylee is scared and now has crashed her speeder ?? Great investigation on the crash by Jaina and Damien - I like seeing them working together. Wonderful writing - I didn't see Karst being the problem for Raylee.

THERE BE DRAGONS - Great fight scene with Korr - I always love your fight scenes as they are vivid and Rock.

ENSTER - Love the name of the Ship - Wanderer and the team's name of the Five Rangers - both are very fitting. Glad Reina was found - safe. Love the growing romance between Jaina and Damien.

 

Gemma, Nyota's Heart, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler, JediMatteus, I'm gonna try to post the next chapter tomorrow. WARNING: it's three times as long as the usual chapters, which are already pretty lengthy. Do you want me to divide it into segments or just post it all together (if it'll even fit)?