Proposal

Marai

I awoke, but I didn’t move or open my eyes. Being hit by a stunner is a lot like being falling down laying in your own vomit drunk. I know because I have experienced the aftermath of both. The first thing I noticed was I was not laying in a pool or pile of anything a human body will eject when hit by a stunner. So someone had taken the time to get me cleaned up. My clothing was what I had been wearing when it hit, which bespoke of someone who not only cleaned me up, but took the time to clean my clothes.

If the average constable hits you with one, he’d just hose you down, probably about the time you woke up so you could experience it. Pay you back for being so much trouble.

So my first reaction to Goto’s hospitality was that he was polite.

“I know you are awake. My droid’s systems can detect this. I know you must have a terrible headache, so there is water pain killers and anti nausea medications on the table to your right on the end table.”

I opened an eye slowly. The head ache comes from two things, the depletion of elements in your brain by having every neuron fire simultaneously, and the effect light has on an optic nerve that is set for pure black night. I avoided the effect, reaching over, and taking the four pills. They were either standard med kit supplies, or pretty good fakes. I was betting that he wasn't going to poison me, he didn’t seem the type.

The pain faded rapidly.

“I am sorry to have to be so forceful, but my time is too short to be polite. Will you please follow the G0 unit to my conference room?”

I followed. “G0?”

“Yes. All of my defensive units are of the G0 design. The one in front of you for instance is G0T0.” He said it G zero T zero. The droid led me into a small amphitheater. It turned, and a hologram of a man appeared. He was a bit taller than I am, but still short.

“After hearing of your exploits, I expected someone... taller. Has the pain reached a manageable level?”

“Yes, thank you for asking.”

“I have found that a reputation for being polite terrifies the criminal mind. To speak politely of having someone killed frightens them like small children. I am Goto, one of the heads of the non-sanctioned trading organization both here in the Y’TOub system, but also Republic and Sith controlled space. I have spent a great deal of time and money on having one of you here, so I am afraid I must be blunt.

“Are you a Jedi.”

“I was.”

“Good. As I have said, money and time I can ill afford has been spent to bring you here and i must not waste any more. If our meeting fails to come to a satisfactory conclusion, I will have to take steps.”

“Why are you threatening me?”

“I am not threatening you, my dear woman. The steps I must take are to liquidate all of my holdings, and find some world I can hope will remain stable in the carnage which I foresee. Whether you agree to help me or not, I will leave you unharmed.

“I meant no injury to your organization and when I originally ordered the bounty put out, I had no idea that so many of their number would merely shoot to kill, and whimper about it afterward. I did what I could to mitigate it, but from here there is not a lot I can do. I wanted to speak to one of you because I need your help.”

“You could have just sent someone to ask.”

“Are you really that naive? I sent such a messenger to the Planet Katarr but he was caught in the ensuing massacre. I did not know if he had delivered my message, or the reply. By the time I knew what had happened and was able to make a second attempt, all of the Jedi that remained had gone to ground.”

“How many were still alive when that happened?”

“One hundred seventy, including forty children.” The man’s face grew pensive. “I am not in the habit of asking for things. My occupation can cause people to simply expect that their wishes will be granted. Even with the incident at Peragus which you were party to, you have proven extremely adept at concealing you location and destinations.

“There is something I need protected until it can be repaired. The Republic. It is... broken.

“The disaster on Peragus has set in motion events which are spiraling beyond my ability to affect them. Not to sound melodramatic, I believe that incident has irrevocably damaged the Galaxy. This confluence of events has occupied much of my attention of late. While i have searched, there seem to be no logical and rational way to resolve this situation.”

“You chased the Jedi all over the galaxy, caused the deaths of gods alone knows how many-”

"Thirty-two. A large number of them were among the children I spoke of earlier. It seems that even when young, a Jedi is a terrifying opponent. I regret those deaths, and when the first child had died, I ordered that only adult Jedi be taken. But that did not save 19 young people from never achieving their potential.”

I was appalled. Even knowing that 13 of those people had been adults did not remove the horror. The younglings... “You ordered the murder of thirty-two people, including children, just to try to talk to one of us so you could ask us to save the galaxy?”

“I regret their deaths, but I stand by my decision. What do the deaths even of children matter when I am speaking of the entire Republic! I did not have time to do this more quietly. Desperate measure were called for. In one month the Republic will enter an irretrievable collapse. It will not be through war or secession, but because the people of that body will decide that they do not have the infrastructure to continue to maintain it.

“It has been postulated, and I concur, that while the Republic technically won the Jedi Civil War, the Sith survived it with more infrastructure intact. So by definition they actually won the war. The Sith have never been extremely stable politically, and their infrastructure proves this. The Republic spent vast sums of money, material and lives in defeating that menace, but winning left them in a state near collapse.

“At that point a single leader might have been able to divert this disaster. But too many in the Senate have been tainted by their own inefficiency so glaringly exposed. The one person that might have held the collapse away was the one shining example of Revan. But instead she left known space. Instead of a rallying figurehead all could follow, there was a void none could fill.”

I considered his words. He was right that if Revan had returned, rehabilitated and a hero, she could have staved off this disaster. But there was no one? Except my good right arm. I heard her whisper. “I once swore an oath to aid the Republic if it meant my life. I still feel that oath is valid. What must I do?”

Any normal human would have cheered, wept, even smiled. His face stayed bland. “There is something moving in the galaxy that is beyond my instruments ability to detect or predict. I believe it to be a legacy of the Sith but I am unable to determine it’s source or home base.

“Whatever it is, it strikes without warning, and it’s targets are the very Jedi I have been seeking. I have killed 32, it has killed over fifty. It is not doing this in a manner that you would call surgical. When it strikes sometimes entire worlds die. Katarr, a world of the Miraluka race in the mid rim was one such. It slaughtered an entire world. It did so because I believe there was a meeting there of several Jedi.

“There is no discernable pattern to it’s depredations and that very lack of pattern is frustrating to me. I was able finally to understand that it was the Jedi themselves that were somehow the target of these attacks. The only other possibility is that the targets have been in and of themselves strategic to that enemy, but how I have yet to understand. As an example, it would be as if you stuck a pin in a man’s foot because the placement would be lethal in the long run, rather than merely shooting him in the head.

Half of the remaining Jedi killed. The thought terrified me. It looked as if the claims by others, that I was the last of the Jedi, was being made true. “I do not want to see the order destroyed.”

“You misunderstand me. I am indifferent to which side wins. If the Sith do the collapse will continue, but the Republic will survive several decades longer. If this outside force is destroyed, the same will occur.

“It is simply that by removing this conflict between warring sects of the same religion, the galaxy may be able to heal itself. I do not care which wins. Only that the end of the conflict be of a lasting nature so that the galaxy can catch it’s breath as it were. all of these constant crises have become, quite honestly, boring.”

“Why should someone in your position care if the Republic survives?”

“I am in my own way, a patriot. Although I was unable to serve in either the Mandalorian Wars or the Jedi Civil War, I must set aside any scruples I have against violence and serve now. I am ready willing and able to do so now.

“The problem is, that there is no clear side to join in this struggle. If I join the Senate as it now sits, I will only exacerbate the problem. I would offer my services to the Jedi or the Sith, but both sides are adept at hiding, the Sith from their innate teachings, and the Jedi from their native ability. It is... frustrating.

“It is like a Dejarik board where neither player can see the other nor see all the pieces, even their own. It is not a fair game. Not equitable by any standard."

“Then maybe you should try Pazaak.”

“Frankly, Pazaak has always bored me. Too many that play seem to think the way to win is to cheat, and even the best cheat fails if you watch carefully enough.”

“Then try military simulations. Having no knowledge of the pieces controlled by other officers on your own side and the enemy’s disposition makes you think outside the box.”

“I had not considered that. I will have to get some of the programs. However I prefer the simplicity of galactic economics.”

“I will fight to save the Republic, so my answer is yes. I will help you in whatever way I can.”

“Excellent.” Again that curious lack of emotion. “It is after all in your best interests to assist me. There is no margin of error when I state that this invisible Sith presence is highly adept at finding and eliminating your fellow members. Unlike me they are not looking for conversion, or asking for assistance. They are murdering you fellow, and will not stop until all of you are dead. When that has occurred, nothing will stop them from extending their influence to every portion of the explored galaxy.

“Then if you let me go, I will be about it.”

“Ah, there we are at cross purposes. If I set you free, you immediately go back to the course you have set since Peragus, and quite frankly, you have a penchant for wholesale destruction. At present the galactic order is fragile, and setting a Nerf loose in the galactic china shop is not the best way to keep it intact.

When I have ascertained the best place, you and I will travel there together so that I may restrain your proclivities. After all, I am a business man and destroying the galaxy to save it will put no money in my pocket.”

An alarm klaxon began to wail, and I looked up. “A problem?”

He paused, looking into the distance as if considering. “We had been pursuing one of Vogga the Hutt’s ships. We captured it just a few moments ago, but now there is weapons fire at the docking bay. From what I can see using my monitors it is not Vogga that I have grabbed. Your allies have proven quite adept at interfering with my operations, and they are even now boarding my ship.

“You will remain here. I must see to defending my ship.”

*****

Handmaiden

When the droid tried to drill through the hatch, we opened it, and immediately opened fire. We had found enough suits for everyone and the high levels of anesthetic gas we registered showed that it was good we had. Mandalore Atton and Bao-Dur set up their weapons, and held the perimeter. They would cover out escape route.

Visas stopped, her head turning. “Curious. I detect only one living being.” She pointed toward the bow with her sword. “That way.”

“But Goto had a Mon Calamari ship! Mira protested.

“Or perhaps his talk of a stealth device was just talk. Perhaps his stealth is misdirection. You are looking for a Mon Calamari and instead you have this. What better way to hide then distract you enemies.”

“That...” She snarled. “All right big guy, you’re going down!"

We faced opposition but it was all droids. Thanks to Bao-Dur Mandalore and Mira, we had an ample supply of ion grenades, and they went down in droves. The Aratech 41s were as tough as they were described, but they tended to be off for a second or more when suffering from an electromagnetic pulse, and that was all someone with a lightsaber needed. A case had been blown open, and I saw what appeared to be a light saber sticking from it. I threw it to Visas, and she seemed to come to life. She had saved my life, we had spilled bloody together. I did not trust her but my sister did. It was good enough to caller her sister of battle in my mind.

Mira was proving herself of worth. She ran ahead of us, and she seemed to feel every trap and bomb that had been placed. She would slip up, disarm them, and toss them in her pouch.

There was a corridor full of droids and turrets, yet she showed off what she knew. She had been here several times, and checked out the defenses every time she had. Programs were dumped into the system, and we spent a few moments watching as the turrets spun, blasting the droids to scrap, then we walked through unscathed.

I cut through the door, and Marai turned to look at me with the impassive face. “Took you long enough.” She said.

“We had to wash our hair.” Visas said.

“Then we had to blow dry it.” Mira said.

“Then we had to check our makeup-” I began.

“Knock it off.” She enfolded me in a hug, picking my greater mass up from the floor. She went to Visas, and did the same. I have never seen such a look of joy on anyone’s face. Then she turned to Mira.

“You hug me and I’ll...”

“You’ll what?”

Mira looked away, flushing. “I’ll just have to hug you back.”

Marai hugged her, and both laughed.

Then she was all business. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Not yet!” Mira dodged running.

“Wait, Mira!” We gave chase. She had ducked right into a group of droids leaping through them like a broken field runner, and they had turned intending to attack her when the three of us fell upon them. We finally caught up with her as she was slicing into the door control for the bridge. It popped open, and she ran in before we could stop her.

The bridge was spacious, and no one was there. Mira had gone to the primary communications console, and popped it open. She put a chip in, then pressed a button. “In your face Goto! Now we get out of here.”

The alarms had not stopped, in fact they had redoubled. The ship lurched, and we staggered. “What was that?”

“My revenge for my bounty!” Mira shouted. “I just told everyone in the system where he was!”

The G0 droid was following, and I wondered why. But there was too much happening to worry. We dove through the hatch, and Atton cut us loose, dropping toward Nar Shaddaa. Above us, five ships had attached themselves like limpets. One was a tiny Twi-leki courier. Two were the blocky ships favored by the Gand. The others were Duros light freighters. They were still attached when the fusion engines blew, and destroyed all of them.

*****

Marai

Everyone was celebrating. Except for Mira. She had the glum look of someone who expected she would be the one who had to clean up afterward.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Goto is dead, the bounty is lifted.

“Yeah he’s dead, and you guys don’t realize what a world of hurt that’s going to put on Nar Shaddaa.” I must have looked confused because she sighed. “All right, when you came here, you didn’t put up with a lot of government flak, right? No customs inspections, no regulations you had to read, no cops walking their beats, right?”

“When Nar Shaddaa was first colonized the Hutt didn’t care a lick for unimportant things like social services. You got sick, you hoped there was a doctor nearby. You got old you died. If you were robbed, oh well. Things worked to their satisfaction, and as long as there were no major complaints they let it be. Hutt don’t fix things that aren’t broken, not even to tweak them if it still works after a fashion. The Hutt families had their managers, the managers stole, but not so much that the Hutt missed a meal, they overworked people, but not enough that anyone really could complain.”

“But there were thugs everywhere.”

“Of course there were! Because less than a decade after the colony was formed the mobs moved in. Black Sky, The Brotherhood, the Twi-lek Sanforisi, the Gran Krachnidai, the Exchange. They moved in like leeches on a swimmer.

“But the mobs wanted stability as much as the Hutt did, so they didn’t fight nasty mob wars except for the rare ones like when Davik Kang ran off with a couple hundred thousand credits and half of the Exchange big wigs got blown to hell. Wars hurt business, and they didn’t want anything to hurt business.” She was looking at me as if hoping I understood. But I still must have looked confused.

“Unlike the Hutt, the Mob lives here. Their families are here, their homes are here. So they did what the Hutt did not. There are courts, you just go see the local boss, and he acts as judge. We have cops, they are the men working for the mobs, and they make sure it stays quiet and the best way to keep the people quiet is to give them as much of what they need as you can. When your com system breaks down you don’t call the Hutt, you call the local overseer for the mob. Schools hospitals orphanages, hell, even day care! Because a woman can’t go out and bust her hump for a mob boss if she has to watch squalling brats. For all intents and purposes, the Mobs are the government on Nar Shaddaa!”

I suddenly understood. “How bad will it be?”

“I don’t know, but it will be very bad. Goto handled something like a million square klicks, and his overseers are going to be jockeying for position since Visquis ate it too. The Y’Toub system is going to be in confusion for a year or more. I’d estimate more like a decade.”

The G0 droid floated closer. “My. If I had known you had such an efficient brain in that pretty little head, I would have groomed you for a high position in my organization.” Goto’s voice said sardonically.

We leaped to our feet. The droid merely floated there, watching us.

“Do not be alarmed. I said I wanted to oversee your movements. As the destruction of my ship has shown, you are a walking talking fission reactor with no fail safes, Marai Devos. Something must act as a cadmium inhibitor rod or everything will be destroyed as you save the galaxy. As much as you want to save it, you must realize that if business collapses, so does the Republic, so please listen to me when I talk. I will be busy rebuilding my infrastructure, so I cannot go with you personally. However I am giving this droid to you.

“He has access to me at all times, so I will be here albeit vicariously.”

“You know, everyone down there thinks Goto is dead.” Mira murmured.

“Yes they do.”

“How much you want to bet he’ll keep his moves small, watch his overseers. When someone moves too far out of line, he takes them down because as much as all of us hated him, he always was efficient. He didn’t torture too many.”

“Actually I have no aversion to torture. It is merely that interrogation using pain is usually inefficient and rather messy. If all you desire is one answer to one question, it is the most efficient method to gain that answer, but beyond that it is merely a sick willingness to cause pain because of your own pleasure.

“Those that use torture as their first option have no sense of style or balance. A man who has stiffen his sinews expecting torture is overthrown by kind words and a judicious use of chemical intoxicants. Kindness I have discovered works more efficiently in a large percentage of cases. For the others, torture is still an option, but still not the first.”

“Where to?” Atton’s voice came over the speaker. “That damn Jedi isn;t here obviously.”

“You’d never make a bounty hunter, Atton.“ Mira caroled. “Remember when we met up? Zez-Kai Ell had hired me. He said ‘tell them, if they can find a plan, assist them if it is not too dangerous‘. He didn’t know how ticked I was at Goto or he would have told me to stay ground side. But his last message was for you, Marai. “I will meet you in the library.”

“Back to Nar Shaddaa.” I ordered. “My only question is the same one Goto had. How did you find me?”

“That has weighed on my mind.” Goto commented from the corner.

“Ask that tin can of yours.”

I looked around. Then I stood, walking through the ship until I found T3. “Have you been sneaking into other data-banks again?” I asked with a big smile. He gave me a low whimper.

“No I’m not mad. Just tell me.” It took a long time. “So let me get this straight. You found someone who would pretend he’d stolen or bought you, and had him sell you to Vogga. They sent you to his warehouse and you sliced his system and got what they needed. Does that sum it up?”

He gave another low whimpering whistle. I leaned forward, and kissed him on the head. His photoreceptors flashed, and his head spun like a top.

“Who used to treat you like that?” I asked. His head snapped to a stop, and he burbled.

“No it’s just that when I was in the war, I saw a droid someone treated like a favorite child. You act a lot like that one. Any kindness sets you into contortions. If you were a puppy, you’d be on your belly tail whipping like a fan blade.” I rubbed his head, and the flexible neck bent as if he were a puppy or kitten pushing against the hand.

“Well we’ll have plenty of time on the trip so I am going to give you an oil bath, and polish you until you shine.” He whistled. “Yes, really.”

“Really woman, if you have unnatural desires for a droid, you should either get a room or charge admission.”

I stared at the round ball as it moved away again.

Mira’s tale

Mira

I led the way toward my room. I’d have to relocate all of my stuff after this meeting. To many people hated me, and most of them were those petty overseers Goto had on staff. When you want someone dead, but won’t admit why, it really throws a hydro-spanner in your plans when I bring them in alive, you know?

“Tell me about yourself.” Marai asked. We were walking alone, because she was the only one who really had to meet the guy.

“What’s to tell?”

“First, you aren’t native to Nar Shaddaa.”

“What makes you think that?” I was immediately on the defensive.

“Your accent. You have a trace of something overlaid with the Nar Shaddaa clipped speech. You spent at least five years some where with a lazy slow way of talking, almost a drawl. You spent about five more among the Mandalorians, because you have that snappy crisp way of speaking. Then about ten here. That means your home world is in the Outer rim, in the zone occupied during the Mandalorian wars.”

“Keen Jedi senses?” I asked sharply.

“No. I spent years being a bodyguard and two as the equivalent of a cop. I was chief of security on a ship that last year.”

“Well you’re right, okay? I ended up here just like a lot of refugees.”

“What about family?”

“Family? What family?”

“So you have no family. What happened to them?”

“You ought to know. The war happened. The Mandalorians occupied our planet. I grew up with a Mandalorian overseer as the boss. I had family almost up to the end.”

“They died?”

“They didn’t just die, they were blown to radioactive ash. They lived on Has-pertain. You might not have even heard of it if the war happened. We had nothing but mines and croplands, and the Mandalorians needed both. So they occupied us.”

“That must have been terrible.”

“You’d think so, but as bad as the Republic painted them, the Mandalorians weren’t that bad. They didn’t hold slaves, or rape every woman in sight. They just expected you to work, and were kinda nasty when you didn’t. If the count was short, they would come in and investigate. If you were hoarding, they would shoot you, but if it was something you couldn’t control, they adjusted for it. It was harsh but fair.

If it had been one of those mega-corporations out of the Republic it would have been worse. The one that originally settled the planet expected us to work, and if we died it didn’t matter. They set quotas for the farmers and if you didn‘t meet it, they penalized you. Try surviving on a planet you can‘t leave because you were fired as incompetent. Try keeping a family alive. I heard more people died from starvation under the Corp than ever did under the Mandalorians.”

“I have heard of Has-pertain.”

“Of course you have.” I replied, voice dripping with scorn. “We were important enough that we had to be defended. The Mandalorians station half a million troops there, and everything they could scrape together to protect it. But the glorious Republic had to cut off their supplies. My family was sitting on one huge bull's-eye until the end.” I hissed. “Malak and Karath were assigned that mission. You and Revan wouldn't get your hands dirty, but they didn’t mind. There was this one moon in the outer system, and they shifted it out of orbit, then rode cover for it. One minute, there was a planet and my family. The next, dinosaur killer time. The six people I though most important in the world gone in an instant. 13 million civilians to kill half a million Mandalorians and cut their supply lines.” I clapped sardonically. “Oh well done!’

“I am sorry about your loss.”

“Would it matter if you had known me then? I was seven. Would the suffering of one child held you from it?”

“Our reports were wrong. We’d been told that the civilians had been removed.” She protested softly.

“Well you know the old saying, Military intelligence is an oxymoron.”

“But you lived.”

“Yeah, because I was a mean little kid. The overseer saw me fight three bigger kids, and he offered my family a position in the military if I wanted it.” I caught her look. “Again, all hype. There were no slaves and masters under the Mandalorians. There were commanders, soldiers, and civilians. If you were a civilian, you did what you were told. There were no ‘conscripted’ legions of ‘brainwashed’ kids going off to fight. If you didn’t want to train, they left you alone. They do it with their own, why should we be treated any different?

“You know why I went? Because as many tons of grain as my father reaped, we were starving. Your Republic blockade cut them off from supplies, and the only people getting decent rations were the troops. I was hungry, and the idea of a full belly really tripped all my buttons.

“I trained, and they made me a pioneer, what your side called combat engineers. Everyone thinks it’s boring. Building bridges or dikes but you’re in uniform. But we were in the front lines most of the time. Clearing old minefields of ours, clearing yours. But try it when some idiot with a tribarrel blaster is punching rounds five centimeters above your head, and they can’t advance until you do your job. I was a whiz with mines. I could almost feel them. I had work right up until Malachor.”

I stopped, looking down one of the massive canyons Nar Shaddaa had. “Everyone I might have considered family was killed in that one. All thanks to you and your merry band of homicidal maniacs. I was 10 years old, and I was on a frigate that caught the edge of that damn Shadow Mass Generator. If it hadn’t been for shuttles that had survived the Republic frigate Viridian we’d be floating there still. Fifty of us out of a crew of 1500.”

“Viridian.” She said. “Before she died, that was my command.”

“So I have you to thank for my rescue. Don’t expect me to say it in this lifetime. The first thing they did was interrogate all of us. If we were Mandalorian born, or ‘infected’ with the Mandalorian view, we were sent off to POW camps. The rest of us were dumped on nearby worlds to get us out of the way. I was just one kid in a flood of refugees afterward. Everyone wants to write about the wars, the great battle, the massive casualties. It’s what happens afterward no one talks about. I got stuffed in a container ship bound for Nar Shaddaa, and the instant I hit dirt I ran for it. Signed up with the Bounty Hunters guild, and here I am.”

“Vossk said you were the only true bounty hunter left.”

“Is he still alive? I liked him. He appreciated my restraint.”

“He said that a decent bounty hunter only kills when there is no option.”

“I agreed with him. But it went further back than that. When my training sergeant told me my family was dead, part of me died with them. I was a soulless machine from that point on. They thought I was just getting into it, but I made a vow that day. I promised my dead family that unless I could find no alternative, the Galaxy couldn’t handle one more death. That to kill one person, was to reach out, and put out a star.” I reached out, and pinched my fingers over one of the stars in the sky. “I wasn’t going to add to that.”

“But you became a bounty hunter.”

“I’m good at it.” I shrugged. “Better than piece work in a Mob factory or laying on my back. I was always good at finding people when I was a kid. No one ever asked me to play hide and seek. But a good bounty hunter can always find a way to take some guy down without blowing them away.”

“I would think finding someone of Nar Shaddaa would be difficult. Until this happened, we didn’t hold any hope of finding Zez-Kai Ell.”

“You guys would have starved as bounty hunters. As a kid I could find the others, so I just used the same skills. When you accept a contract you get a holo, or at least a rough description. You study what you can find out about him and once you have a handle on him, you start walking.”

“Walking?”

“This is a little hard to explain, but Nar Shaddaa is like a forest or jungle. There’s a natural ebb and flow of movement that is constant. Like an ocean it's got it’s own currents and eddies. The ways it moves naturally.”

“Oddly enough I do understand.”

“Good. I lose most people about there. But your target is a rock thrown into the river, a predator or something that doesn’t belong. It causes ripples and eddies that don’t belong. So I just follow them until I spot them, then it’s just watch, learn, then take them down. Simple.”

“Kreia taught me how to listen.” She saw my confused look. “It’s a skill Jedi can learn. You can’t fix a problem unless you can feel the problem. So you listen to the people, to the world around you. Maybe you can teach me to hunt, and I can teach you to listen.”

“Well I’m not sure I want to learn anything from a Jedi, but maybe I’ll give you a chance.”

“I look forward to it.”

WWI is a difficult war to lay the blame on. Was it the assassin's fault for killing the Archduke? Was it Austria-Hungary's fault for declaring war on Serbia? Was it Germany's fault for causing such resentment from the French in 1870? Or was it the Second Empire's fault for causing that war? Or the fault of everyone for the arms races and nationalism? Very difficult to decide what really caused the Great War, though it was foolish for the Allies to make Germany accept responsibility for the whole thing.

Versailles was an all French Hanging party. The Germans could have quite easily gone for another two years, because the only thing causing their collapse was the influx of 2 million American troops.The Germans listened to Wilson's 14 points, and assumed that we were being honest. They surrendered because Wilson had promised there would be no vengeance taking.

But Wilson was sick when he arrived in 1919, and did little or nothing to interfere. England wanted to strip away all of the foreign colonies, Italy wanted chunks Europe, but France wanted it all.

The Germans were not even consulted during the drafting of the treaty. When they arrived, they had it shoved in their face and were told to sign.

Read that treaty some time. The French had lost 5 billion dollars worth of resources in reparations in 1870, the Germans were told they had to pay back 25 Billion for WW1. There were codicils that allowed the French to occupy the Rhineland the first time the Germans defaulted, and the only thing that kept Europe from collapsing sooner into the Great Depression was those payments. On top of that bearer bonds were issued, one set of 10 billion dollars at 5 percent interest (The average bank at the time gave you less than one percent) with the authorization for another 10 billion at ten percent if it was not paid off by 1929. The only thing that saved Germany from being a debtor nation today was that we didn't heap even more on them after WWII! The Nazis had repudiated the debt, and everyone expected them to finish paying it even with the nation in ruins.

They finally did pay it off. The last payment on debt and interest was paid in 1987. If the Nazis had not stopped paying, they would have been paying it off in 1956.

But the reason France could claim such horrific damages was article 256 which laid the entire blame on the Germans.

Is it any wonder the Germans went into WWII with such a fury at Europe?

Versailles was an all French Hanging party. The Germans could have quite easily gone for another two years, because the only thing causing their collapse was the influx of 2 million American troops.The Germans listened to Wilson's 14 points, and assumed that we were being honest. They surrendered because Wilson had promised there would be no vengeance taking.

They might have even been able to win. When Lenin accepted the treaty the Germans proposed, they had no need to keep such a huge chunk of their army in the east. And there were all the new resources they got from the lands the Russians yielded. If half the German army could hold off all the Allies in the west for several years, I'd bet that twice as many Germans fighting just as many Allies could have won the war.

The Germans were not even consulted during the drafting of the treaty. When they arrived, they had it shoved in their face and were told to sign.

That sums it up. The second World War could have been avoided if the treaty wasn't so harsh. The loss of all colonies, a good chunk of the land they had before the war, no air force, an army of 100,000 men, and a navy of 15,000. That was sheer madness. The League might as well have put them under their direct control with terms like those.

Is it any wonder the Germans went into WWII with such a fury at Europe?

Absolutely not. When workers are carting their salaries home in wheelbarrows because their country's currency is so worthless, that tells you the country is not fit for paying off ridiculous debts.

Well, while I really find this discussion on the WWs fascinating, it probably should be moved to PMs or a WW thread in Ahto or the Senate Chambers at this point to keep the thread on topic. Thanks, Jae

Edit: Emperor D started a thread in Ahto. I pruned some of the off-topic posts. Thanks for moving it! :) --Jae

Good chapter, by the way. I'll be glad to see a reason for why Mira sticks around.

I have to agree, and I was going to suggest that Jae. Please move it or create one there if you can.

An american reporter who crossed the lines illegally in November of 1918 interviewed Luddendorf and he said it was the American troops that had broken his back.

Until it's moved, or restarted in the new venue, nuff said

Meeting

Marai

The door of the safe room opened, and Zez-Kai Ell looked up from the book-reader he held.

“Here’s you delivery.” Mira said. “I’ll just wait outside.”

“So you returned from exile.” He said. “It was not unexpected. Kavar thought you might, if only to walk the old battlefields again. But of all the places in the Galaxy, I would have never expected you to come to Nar Shaddaa.

“But you were always difficult to read. As if you played your cards too close to your chest. All of those that knew you before spoke of it. Adept at hiding even when sitting in a room of friends. That was true when you were linked to the force, but it was doubly true after it was lost to you.”

“Why did Kavar think I might return?” I asked.

“He wouldn't explain. It was just a gut feeling he had. Perhaps serving during part of that war made it easier to understand you. But he felt that you were the key to the threat we wee facing. That somehow by understanding you, we would grasp what it was. None of us agreed at the time, and so many have been lost since as you no doubt know.”

“Over eighty of the survivors..”

“How do you know?”

“I had the discussion with Goto that you refused. Not willingly, but he had a telling argument. The Republic will die in the next few months if we do not save it.”

“Then it is already doomed. We are too few to affect it.”

“That was the Council’s last argument before we went to war. But we succeeded.”

“Yes, and caused an even worse calamity afterward!” He glared at me. “Do you still think we were wrong to banish you?”

“I never questioned the Council’s decision. You all agreed to cast me aside, and I accepted that judgment. I accept it now.”

“There were those that thought we should have ended your life even before you fled the temple that day.”

“If you had come with lightsaber drawn and wanted my life, I would have given it gladly. That is what none of you seemed to understand. I had sworn to follow the council’s orders, and except for the one time, I never swayed from that oath.”

He looked at me. “After Malachor V we were not that sure. You ordered the weapon built.”

“That is true. I ordered the shadow mass generator built. I had it placed aboard the Ravager. It was supposed to be a weapon of last resort. All of our war council knew that if it was used, no one would be alive in the system afterward. The fact that the few thousands survived amazed even me.” I looked at him. Do you know why we even planned to use it? I had read our own estimates of what the last five planets including Mandalore would cost. We were looking at four and a half billion more civilian lives if we had to invade because every one of them, man woman child old and young would have fought us. Think of the sin of obliterating five more planets! None of us wanted that!

“But if there was no home fleet remaining, their own honor would have demanded that the Mandalore expiate his sins. It would have come to a trial by combat, him facing our champion. Revan expected me to be there to fight him. But when I was sent home, she took that onus on herself.

“But you used it!”

“Just to set the record straight, none of you ever asked me the most important question. ‘who gave the order’. It wasn’t me. I was in a coma I did not come out of until after the fact. Revan would not have, we were winning! More than two thirds of our losses there were unnecessary. No one else among the high command had the authority or even the ability to activate it.”

“But it was used!”

“Afterward I worked it out. There was one man in the chain of command who could have pushed that button. The man who had it physically in front of him. Admiral Quintain.”

“But Quintain had been dishonored, sent home two years earlier!”

“That is true. But when we built the device, we needed something larger than any ship ever built to carry it. Quintain was in BuShips, and he used those connections to the Republic Senate and the High Council of the Navy to get himself placed in command. when Ravager left she was half crewed and not even completed because all she had to do was come to Malachor, be in the center of our formation surrounded by the rest of us, and if the enemy killed us, fire the weapon. That was something well within his capability, and the Senate demanded it as the price of building the device and Ravager.

“So-”

“Yes. Quintain had to prove himself a hero and he blew our formation to hell, along with all but about fifty of the Jedi that had gone into the battle. and over a million of our men.” I hissed in anger.

“Do you think I wanted to be remembered as the person that had that hell machine there? If the enemy had been winning, it would have decimated them, and the fleet we had in reserve under Admiral Dodonna would have swept in and mopped up. That was our fallback plan. Revan was still alive by pure luck, as was I. Dodonna didn’t have to take Mandalore, what was left of Revan’s fleet was adequate for the job. But she didn’t get a lot of pleasure out of it. I went home, and if you had executed me for being responsible I would have bent, extended my neck, and waited for the blade to fall. Because I had no life after that day.”

He sighed. “So much we didn't understand. Why did you hunt me? Are you here to take your revenge?”

“No. I came because Atris needed to find you all. To call you all to Dantooine. I came because I was all she had available to send.”

“She’s alive? I thought she had gone to Katarr and died with the others. She was the librarian in charge of the Coruscant temple. If she lived the records did as well. That is good.”

“But why did the Jedi scatter?”

He gave me a sad smile. “When the Jedi Civil War ended, something or someone began to hunt us. Somehow we were found, and if more than a few Jedi were anywhere, we were more readily found. Master Vandar had us scatter, because that way we could try to draw out this new enemy, and confront them openly. All of us chose worlds ravaged by war, where the very death screams in the force would conceal us, or like myself to Nar Shaddaa where one Jedi is merely a touch of color in a vast ocean of water, and easily hidden. It was all part of the plan Kavar laid out for us.

“He felt that if the enemy could not find us, they might assume that we were all dead. They would come from the shadows, and we would see what we faced.

“And we knew that gathering together to confront them before that time would merely lend us and whatever world we used to slaughter. But after Katarr, there were too few remaining. Those that still live wander alone, and afar. I have not heard from any of them in a long time.”

“Atris had a list, and locations, at least of the Council that exiled me. You here, Kavar on Onderon, Vash on Korriban, Vrook on Dantooine. Atris is still on Telos last I heard.”

“All but two of the masters remaining.” He murmured. “Vandar is in the Outer Rim somewhere last I heard. Revan... No one knows where she is.”

“So you didn't even have all of the facts, but you cut me off from the force anyway.”

“We did not cut you off!” He looked at me surprised. “It might have appeared that way, but what caused your loss was something we did not understand. You had been lost to the force every since Malachor. We did not know why, and in haste and fear, we reacted. Naming you exile was just what we could do. Perhaps the others know what caused it and what caused you to regain the force, but I do not. I did not speak my full heart during that Council meeting. Choosing Nar Shaddaa as my prison was my own form of self imposed exile. All of us had lost Padawan to Malachor. Mine did not die, he became our enemy under Revan. I was not the only master who lived to see our students fall.”

“But we did what we felt we had been taught to do. Could none of you realize that?” I asked plaintively. “When I went to war, it wasn’t for glory, or hatred or bloodlust. People we were sworn to protect were dying, and even though we had been taught our lives meant nothing if we could save other lives, the council held us back.

“That is the reason for my anger before the Council. None of you had faced that choice. Kavar had run after that first battle, and Vash had fought against Exar Kun, and none of you remembered what it is like being pulled one way by your teachings, and the other by cooler heads. If you had given us something beyond a flat edict, we might not have gone at all.”

“I do not blame our students for that decision, even though a lot of masters did. It would be like training a hawk then expecting it to sit on your fist rather than fulfill it’s purpose.” He shook his head sadly. “Perhaps the Council was wrong, perhaps the order itself had grown arrogant and complaisant. It was said during that meeting after you had left that we had the authority, but what is the old military saying? Rank has it’s privileges and it balances with Rank has it’s Responsibilities. Never once in all that did anyone accept responsibility for Ulic, for Exar Jun, for Revan, for Malak... For you. Each was considered an aberration that would never happen if we chose better students.

“Yet of the 50 that survived Malachor, only you returned home. Only you were willing to face our judgment. And rather than trying to understand we punished you for all of their sins. Our one chance to find out what had gone wrong, to try to set it right, gone in one burst of righteous indignation. And now that decision had returned to haunt we that survive.” He sighed again.

“Perhaps I am right. Perhaps we had become so set in our ways that any protest was seen as rebellion. So many left to join our enemies because that is what they saw. But I was already dead. I could not sit in council and condemn when I wasn’t even sure why they had left us. So I resigned from the Council and came here. But by then there were many who left and will never return. There is a reason the Republic no longer trusts us, and I wish we could change that but it is the truth.

“But it is time I stopped rusticating. The enemy stands revealed, and I must stand with the Jedi. I am no longer Jedi. Once we are dead and gone, the Republic will heave a sigh or relief, but they will not mourn us.”

“But that is not true!” I looked at him. “On Peragus, men stood to protect me, even though I would be considered author of all their woes. On Citadel Station, on Dxun, even here on Nar Shaddaa, I felt that yearning for what we stood for. Wishing that someone would step up, and stand between them and the evils of life. We must stand for something, or the Galaxy has no rhyme nor reason.” I shook my head. “What of Revan? She was redeemed. Cannot the entire order be rehabilitated?”

“It gives none of us comfort that Revan was redeemed. She had no choice in the matter. We took a woman whose mind had been wiped clean, made her anew, then threw her into the meat grinder instead of leaping into it ourselves. The last act of a bunch of cowardly old men and women. “ He stood. “I will go to Dantooine as she has asked. I will stand and fight. But I will never bear the name Jedi again.

“So if you have others to notify, please do. I have many of my own sins to consider before I go.”


Opening your mind

Mira

She came out looking like she’d lost the last friend in her world. She didn't talk until we had gotten back to the refugee sector. I was walking around that huge pit on deck nine when she stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

She walked to the edge, then turned, facing me. “Why did you avoid this place?”

“What do you mean? I walk by it an average of once every other day. Have for years.”

“Not this place.” She waved at the sullen buildings around us. “I meant this place.” She pointed at the street at her feet.

“I did not!”

“When we went to meet Master Zez-Kai Ell you made a point to avoid this very spot. Now on our return, you do it again.”

I stared at the street at her feet. Something about it felt, I don’t know, wrong. “So what? Just habit.”

“Remember when I told you of my listening. Come here, take my hand. I want to show you what listening is.”

“Could we try somewhere else?” I could hear a note of panic in my voice. There was nothing there. Nothing that could cause such an unreasoning terror. Yet she stood there as calm as if she lived here. I wanted to run away screaming.

“If you would listen, this is where it must be.” She stretched out her hand.

I found myself walking toward her as if someone was controlling my feet. My hand was out, less than a centimeter separated us. “I... I’m afraid.”

“I know you are. But the first step from the womb is facing your fears. You can walk away. I will not force you, or drag you here. If you come it will be your own choice.”

Our fingers touched, and played with each other idly. Nothing. I moved closer, and they interlocked, palm to palm. I felt emboldened. “So what? How do I listen? With my ears?” I asked sarcastically.

“With your eyes closed.”

“Sure, no biggie.” I closed my eyes Nothing. Just the usual rush of people moving past, vehicles flying over.

“Now think of a simple kindness. Like a stone it echoes in it’s ripples when thrown into the pond.”

I could see a flash of light in the darkness and ripples flowed away from it in perfect rings.

“To those of us who touch it, this is the force. Not an electrical plug that we stick a cord into, but a living breathing thing that life and emotions create and nurture.”

The rings were coming faster and faster. Suddenly I heard Nar Shaddaa. Not a person, not what I was used to. It was like being thrown into the ocean when you can’t swim. Turning on your brother’s music system without checking the volume, and having the reverb blow your ear drums on the other side of you head. Like sitting down and finding that you’d sat on an ant nest, or kicked a ground bee hive, and they are swarming around you.

But it was not a danger or painful. It was like having a puppy the size of the galaxy that has seen you for the first time, and tail wagging comes over and wants you to play, and somehow I knew that if I had held a stick, the entire planet would have leaped after it in an attempt to fetch it. It had all the unbounded exuberance and love a puppy possesses, but there were thread of pain in it. This puppy had been abandoned. It knew that mankind hated it, yet still it was willing to extend that love onto the one that held out a hand and let it choose.

I found myself leaned against the rail gasping. I still held her hand, but part of me wanted to leap into that abyss. Knowing that if I wished, it would buoy me up like an ocean where you merely float. Or allow me to fall to my death, because it was what I chose. It was heaven and hell. I wanted to let it go, and never leave it. It was your mother’s hug when you are sad. It was the Sergeant’s palm when you did it wrong. I could have wrapped myself in it like a blanket and died at that very instant content.

“Mira, open your eyes.”

“No.” The stubborn little kid was back inside me. I can feel them all... Every person that had ever lived and died on this rock was there, and I could feel them. The good... The evil, I felt them all! I tried to lock the door it had come through, but the hinges were gone, the door in scattered fragments. It was in the house, and nothing was going to chase it back out again.

“You are feeling what every Jedi feels when he touches the heart and soul of a world.” She whispered. “To know the pulse of the place, the taste of it on your tongue. To know that by touching just the right place you can stop or start an avalanche, and either save or slaughter millions. This is why we have such power but use it so sparingly. It is the reason we are the guardians of the Republic because we care is those millions live or die.”

“Then you’re saying I am a Jedi.” I laughed, not a healthy this is fun, but the manic laughter of someone skating on the edges of hell. “If this had happened yesterday, I would have had to turn myself in for the bounty.” I shook my head, tears running down my face. “But I’d be a tough catch. And getting away with the money afterward would have been a problem.”

She laughed softly, and it eased that manic lunacy that threatened to sweep me away. “I have found that being a Jedi means you are always short of pocket change. It sort of goes with the teachings.”

“Doesn’t really matter.” I said softly. “The money has always been just a way to keep score. But I can’t handle life like this. I need to get a handle on it or I’m in a psych ward by noon!”

There was a long pause. I found that I had opened my eyes and was looking at her. She was no longer just a nice looking older woman with a killer body. She was a flame of potential even I could not stand to look at. “If you stay on Nar Shaddaa, I cannot help you. Perhaps you can catch Master Zez-Kai Ell.”

“No way!” I was on my feet, hands clenched in her robes. “You brought this out, you made me see, if anyone is going to teach me, it’s going to be you if I have to pound your head into the pavement to get that idea through!”

“All I have done is shown you the door. Going through it must be your own choice. There are those that would drag you down a path as one did to Visas, but I will never force you to do or learn anything.”

“Your so gods dammed self assured all the time! You may walk around like a Nerf in a china shop, but you let yourself be guided by things I can’t begin to understand, and it feels right. I want to be like you. To stop being afraid of everything around me. I want someone in my life that doesn’t think of me as something to do on a slow afternoon. I want to hunt those that hurt others because while my putting out the stars is bad, there are those that do it without even caring!

“I never let go when my family died, when my unit died, when friends hell my entire planet died! I want to let that all go, and have the ability to close off that echo with only the regret you feel when it is something you can never have again! Please teach me how to do that!”

“I don't know if I can.” She said softly. “I can only lead you on the path as I have walked it. Lead you to where I am. The rest is up to you.”

“If you had promised me the moon I would have called you a liar. But what you can teach me... It looks pretty good from where I’m standing.”

“Then we had better go and pack your books. This may take a while.” She stopped, head turning. I closed my eyes, and there was something, like a storm cloud in the distance, but no where on the planet. “We had better go, They need me on Dxun.”

Desperate race

Marai.

I did not know why I felt compelled to race back to Dxun. we had over a week before Kavar had told me to come back. Yet suddenly it was imperative for us to be there. As before we settled in. Mira moved into our family as if she were the naughty niece that had been sent to stay with you. The Handmaiden and Visas had come to some sort of accord, and there no longer acrimony between them. Bao-Dur was happy with more machines to fix, and Atton, well he was still Atton, just a little more ready to smile. I spent a few hours giving T3 that oil bath and polishing I had promised, and Bao-Dur grumbled that I was stealing his thunder, but I could see his grin of fond delight as he watched.

Between the three of us we despaired of ever teaching Mira how to fight with a lightsaber. I finally had her put on some phototropic cloth that fluoresced if you hit it directly with a light beam, and made her practice with a flash lamp. After seeing the carving she would have done if she’d had a light saber, she suddenly got the idea that she was swinging a ‘blade’ with no weight. Once that idea was there, she improved dramatically. She spent time with me, learning to meditate, with the Handmaiden learning to fight hand to hand and with blade, with Visas learning to extend her senses. It is said that a good teacher learns from even the worst student. She was not by any means the worst student but all of us learned from her.

I spoke with G0T0 and was astonished at the machine’s capability. It could disrupt enemy droids, switching targeting information so that the enemy was their own people. It could intimidate just by flowing into a room; was programmed for standard interrogation and was capable of torture if that was your only alternative. It had a camouflage field as good as the Mandalorians had, and it’s ability to fly high enough that it could pass by as if it were a cloud gave it added capability.

We were surprised and amused when T3 came up with the last parts we needed for that antique HK47 droid. It went active, and I stood back as it did a self diagnostic.

“Assessment” It seems I have been afflicted with an almost total dismemberment! I can feel every crack in my motivators. My central control cluster seems to have been used for target practice too.”

“What were you doing in the storage hold?” I asked.

“Answer: I do not know, master. It is curious that I am here, though for some reason it does appear familiar.

“Extrapolation: Considering my capabilities perhaps someone was in the process of repairing me.”

“Any idea when that was?” I asked. This one needed more than a polish job. It needed sanding and rosin to even get it to where polish might help.

“Answer: To quote the human adage, it seems you would know better that I. My memory circuits have suffered a serious setback. Vast portions of it have been either erased or sequestered quite intentionally.

“Reflection: For some reason this fact does not disturb me. I postulate that at one time or another, removing sections of my memory was something I accepted as a matter of course. Still the loss of my higher combat functions and my assassination capabilities is distressing.”

“But you're okay.”

He looked at me. The voice was sarcastic. “Sarcastic answer: If they had removed your ability to use your arms and legs, I am sure you might be ‘okay’. I for one am very irritated by this. Also someone has removed my discretionary programming. It is not my habit to say that I even have combat functions or assassination protocols. For that matter, i should have been able to stop myself from saying that I can lie! Okay is not in my list of adjectives I would apply to myself.”

“There’s a new series out, maybe we can blow another one to hell, and get you back on track.”

“Irritated reply: Do not try to sell me such an obvious fabrication. I am HK 47. The last of the line of Systech cybernetics. Model HK1 through myself were forwarded to the Republic fleet to work with the humans in exterminating the Mandalorians.” It’s head turned as Mandalore walked by. “Though I see there is still work to do.” It turned back to me. “Soft soap: But I was the last of the series. I am like a painting by a dead artist. No more of my kind can exist.”

“Well I hate to tell you, but someone is making knockoffs. I know of at least four series that followed you. Including an entire series just of the 47s.”

“Statement: Humor is wasted upon a droid, Master. My designers said at the time they could not think of any improvements, and since the run was merely 47 units long, from HK1 to 47, you must be attempting to forcibly extend my lower limb.”

“Forcibly extend... Oh, no, I am not pulling your leg. So far we’ve run into half a dozen HK50 models.”

The bullet head glared at me, then it walked over to the console built into the table. A cord was withdrawn, and it accessed our memory banks. Then it disconnected and clumped back over.

“Outraged conclusion: Master you are correct! There are several thousand cheap copies of my system out there! This has caused me quite a bit of irritation and embarrassment. The fact that according to your own records show that you dealt with three of them simultaneously by yourself shows the lack of their programming. I myself never had a problem dealing with a lone meatbag Jedi by myself! To need three shows a lack of capability quite at odds with the legacy I should have.

“Shrewd estimate. “Since the parts necessary for my rejuvenation will come from them, it seems that our paths lead in the same direction master. Oh Gods how I hate that term.”

“What? Meatbag?”

“Answer. No, master. Damn I have said it again.”

“Listen, can you accept input?”

“Faster than any human could put it in, master.”

“First, my name is Marai. You will call me that in lieu of Master. Second. I don’t care how many of our enemies you call meatbag, but you will not use that term for anyone who is aboard this ship.”

“Very well ‘you-are-not-a-meatbag‘ Marai.”

I sighed. “Work on it.”

*****

G0T0 came to me. “Odd, your intuition has directed you to one of ther systems that I would have labeled as instrumental in halting the Republic’s collapse.” He told me.

“Oh?”

“Yes. They are, the recovery efforts on Telos, the stabilization of Dantooine, and the political resolution on Onderon. If all of these are successful, the unification of a religious base would guarantee the Republic’s survival.”

“Explain. Start with Telos.”

“The system of Telos is instrumental in giving the Republic some hope for the future. The success or failure of that project is instrumental in determining economic forecasts for the future. However the destruction of Telos as a supply of fuel had caused the odds of that project being successful to zero.”

“I didn’t mean for Peragus to get blown away.” I protested.

“Of course not.” He replied sarcastically. Your presence there caused the Sith attack, and your attempt to escape cause the destruction. If you had simply surrendered then Peragus would still be there busily supplying fuel.”

“I didn’t see that as an option.”

“We can only hope that you do not decide that the Galaxy itself must die to save you from another attack. Perhaps a neutral observer must ask himself at what point your continued survival is more important than the Galaxy itself. After all, is the death of only 50 percent of the people where you next stop an agreeable option?” It floated, then went on.

“Onderon is important because it’s wildlife and plant life is highly aggressive. The moon Dxun could supply all of the necessary transplantable life to bring any or all of the 20 worlds back to life. Unfortunately, there is a Sith attempt to control that planet, and if the Republic survives, there is no reason the Sith would supply those needs. So the choice is, will you support the Queen who has linked her political and physical survival to the Republic? Of General Vaklu who had hitched his political star to the Sith? Note that a number of Outer Rim worlds not at present members of the Republic, seventeen to be precise, will either walk away or embrace the Republic viewpoint in this equation.”

“Dantooine is important because it is a resupply nexus to the Republic on the Outer Rim. If the Sith capture it, they will control all of the resources that come in from the Outer Rim, and the loss, while seeming minor to the Republic as it stands now would signal the death knell of any commerce inbound from the Outer reaches of the Galaxy. Why should a planet stand with the Republic if the Republic itself does not care if they are within or without it?”

“Isn’t there anything you could do to assist in this?”

He turned. “The destruction of my base of operations, the turmoil you have inflicted on my operations is so great that monetarily that is you went to work for me the instant the yacht had been destroyed, as a faithful overseer, you would not live long enough to pay me back for all of what you have cost me.

“However if greed is linked in, I am willing to assist. I will reward you monetarily for every system you stabilize.”

“I wasn’t thinking of money, Goto. At least, not in money that I would touch and spend.”

“Oh?” I detected a touch of confusion. I turned, and it retreated from the smile I gave it.

“You have diverted the cargos of what, fifty of Vogga’s ships?”

“Seventy-four.” He replied.

“How many are fuel tankers, still loaded with fuel?”

“Seventeen. The prices are jumping, and I had been holding it-”

“For every system I stabilize, you will give me a third of that fuel.”

The droid spun on his axis. “That does not make sense. The fuel is worth a great deal, true, but-”

“That one third per system will be sent to Telos. The fuel given to them.”

It froze in orbit. “I see. By making me give it to Telos, you hope that I will succeed where you cannot on the third planet?”

“By my estimate, each tanker will extend their deadline for a month. Six will give them approximately half a year’s worth of fuel, and I am willing to bet you twice as much fuel that I can stabilize all three in the next three weeks.”

The droid hummed. “You know the odds of one person successfully doing all I have set out? Do you want odds?”

“No. I’ll take flat rate. I succeed on Onderon, six tankers. On Dantooine, six more. If I succeed on all, you owe me not five more, but 22 more, because I have won the bet.”

The droid watched me. “Even though my better nature says I should not, but the gambler in me says to go for it. I will agree.”

*****

We were a day out of Dxun when I found myself in a nightmare. I was working on a device. It wasn’t me doing it, I knew. It was a man and his hands-

It was Bao-Dur. I could see him making a final connection. He heard a step, and turned. It was me, a decade younger. I looked past him. “Our child.” I said, then looked at him with an impish grin. “Whatever shall; we name him?”

I could feel his own humor driven with horror. “Must we even name something we hope will never be born?” He asked.

The image of me came over, hands set against the machine. “If we only fought one war, I would say yes. Let the chips fall where they may. But we're fighting the Mandalorians, and on the second front those idiots in the Navy and their Senate backers who want their chosen puppet in charge.

“Then we have the third front of those damn stupid liberal peaceniks that seem to think it’s all a misunderstanding and everyone knows it’s our fault that this war happened. If we only ceded the planets the Mandalorians occupied, they would be happy, and the liberal could spend all that appropriations money on gardens for the terminally stupid or something just as important.” I sounded even more exasperated than I remembered. “The same idiots that convinced the Mandalorians to call for a cease fire, and as soon as they had rearmed, they had broken it. How many men on both sides died because we gave them six months to recoup?”

Before He could answer Quintain pranced in. I had always seen the bastard as a caricature, but Bao-Dur‘s memories made him look like something from a comedy based on that war.

He strode up, looked at the device, then reached out “OOOOO What does this do?” He asked stupidly as he hit the big red button-

I snapped upright, covered in sweat. I climbed out of bed, and went to the cargo hold where Bao-Dur often worked. He was sitting at the workbench, the remote spread in a sheaf of parts before him. He looked as if he were praying, but after a moment I saw a tear fall to his clenched fists. Agony flowed from him as if I could feel his pain, and since I had been the cause of it, perhaps that is what I felt.

“Bao-Dur?” He snapped upright, wiped the tears from his eyes.

“General! I couldn’t sleep so I figured I could do some quick upgrades-”

“Bao-Dur. Don’t lie to me.” I knelt beside him. He looked at me, and the pain in his eyes made me want to weep with him.

“I was dreaming of Malachor, General. The flash of failed fusion ignition, the blast as hyper accelerated plasma lashed out. The ships...” He began to cry again. “The last stand of the Republic you called it, and I believed you. Win or lose, the Mandalorians had to be shattered beyond repair.” He stared at his hands.

“I made it with these two hands. I knew that you were right. When they came at us like starved wolves, attacking three times their number, I knew you were right. They had nothing left. We did, but they would have retreated if we let them. If they slaughtered us there was two more years of war we faced. Dying with them in one Pyrric blast would have ended it. Beyond Malachor they had nothing left. Even if we died, if we killed them... or took them to hell with us, the war would have been over.

“I remember before the battle. You hated putting all that power in Quintain’s hands. You wanted it to be clean. If we were going to die, let it be our own hands that decided. My hand at your command on the button. But they didn’t leave us that, did they? When the order came you turned, I felt your eyes, felt the fury in your heart when you cut our systems, leaving the fates of three million and more in the hands of someone we wouldn't have trusted to walk a hound. And you were right. three million men, all of them condemned to death because of that bastard!” He clenched his fists, slamming down on the table. I caught them, and he stared at me with hopeless eyes.

“Only you were lucky. You were in a coma when it happened. So I got to witness it for you.” I suddenly saw within his thoughts:

The left flank had broken. Revan had looped out and was coming back like a hammer from the outer system. Bao-Dur like so many others had been in an escape pod, barely surviving Viridian.

Sanso had done her bit, using the shadow of Malachor V to trap any that tried to escape and a forlorn hope made up of over half their remaining fleet had plunged in to attack her, to smash her so that they could try to flee. Less that a hundred ships remained of the enemy. Bao-Dur had felt elation. They were losing, it was only-

Then there had been that flash of light. Malachor V had convulsed, slamming into it’s core as gravity tried to ignite it as a star. Bao-Dur had closed his eyes, looked away, then unbidden he had looked back. The new star burned for perhaps a tenth of a second, then it had exploded outward as the pressure of that fusion fire overrode the gravity of the planet. He had seen the forefront approached as if it were a tsunami of fire, his pod had been battered and broken. Pure luck had saved him from death. But of three fifths of our battle line, of four fifth’s of the enemy battle line, nothing remained but dead ships and wreckage.

“It's worst when the echo hits.” He whispered against my shoulder. When you realize that three million people would still be alive, except for you. My nightmares come from there.”

“My decision. You may have figured out how to make it, but I was the one that pushed.” My own voice cracked and I was crying with him. “If I had kept my mouth shut-”

He enfolded me in a bear hug, and i felt my ribs creaked as he squeezed. “No. Never say that! You did what you had to do to make Malachor V the last battle. If you had your way you would have died there with all of your friends. I know that. You wanted to be the one to push the button, because there would have been no one you cared about alive if you did. You could have restrained yourself.” I felt his tears on my neck, and I hugged him as hard as he hugged me.

“I haven't cried in years. Ever since you came back into my life, suddenly it’s not as hard to deal with any more. All that anger, that hatred of them and myself. It’s begun floating away. I no longer hate myself.”

“What of me?”

“Never General! Even in my darkest moods, you were never to blame! You didn't want to use it. You begged for them to leave it in your hands. If the Council and the Senate hadn't demanded control most of those people would be alive today. You did what you had to do, and you got the blame for every idiot in the chain of command who reacted instead of acting.

“But I can’t get past the fact that it was this mind, these hands, that made it.”

“If Ulic Qel-Droma was forgiven for making war upon the Order and the Republic, why should a man that only try to save it be condemned?” I asked.

“They might forgive me. But I have blood on my hands. The blood of more that I even want to count. How do I begin forgiving myself?”

“Let it go.” I snapped shaking him. “The past is done, the dead are dead, and nothing you do to yourself will change that. Let the past go and embrace the future.”

“I need to atone.”

“You already started doing that! It was you that designed the Ithorian force fields. It was you that tried to stop Czerka. You have been atoning since Malachor V. But only you can finally say it is enough.” I pulled his head up, looked into those eyes. “I can forgive you, because you have spent your life paying it all back. Let it go.”

We spent an hour in each other’s arms, crying. I had no innocence to lose when I arrived at Malachor. I had lost my soul and my purpose there. Some beneficent Deity had returned it with the Force, And I was not going to lose it again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE Make a mental note of what you have read. does Quintain sound like a cartoon character you remember? Go to the PS below.


For anyone who recognized DeeDee from Dexter's lab without looking it up, you get a whatever prize!

Yay, another chapter. I'm glad you explained my Mira decided to go with Marai. It always seemed odd in the game when she would join your party with no explanation.

Edit: By the way, is Quintan your take on Darth Nihilus?

Yay, another chapter. I'm glad you explained my Mira decided to go with Marai. It always seemed odd in the game when she would join your party with no explanation.

Edit: By the way, is Quintan your take on Darth Nihilus?


Oddly enough yes. Was I that obvious?

Oddly enough yes. Was I that obvious?

He had the same ship Nihilus did, and it's stated a few times in the game that he died, was reborn, and trapped on Malachor V.

Interlude

Atris

“There is still no sign of the ship?”

“No, Mistress. Not since they left Nar Shaddaa.” The Handmaiden replied. We do not know where they are bound or why.”

“The freighter. It all comes back to that damn freighter, I don’t know why. I thought the droid might have the answer but I was wrong.”

“Perhaps we looked in the wrong section of it’s memory, Mistress.” The girl admitted. “We downloaded everything you asked for, but there were sections we did not get to. But we have searched the data and have not found what you seek.”

“Then perhaps you should have faith that your sister will come to her sense and return to us with that information.” I replied tartly.

“We all hope that Mistress, but she and her four companions are nowhere to be found.”

I tensed, then turned slowly, eyes searching the girl’s face. “Four?”

“Yes mistress. The Exile, the Iridonian, the Echani trained pilot, and the old woman.”

“The old woman?”

The girl looked surprised. “Yes, Mistress. There was an old woman with them.”

I turned away, and I felt a sudden chill. How could anyone have been able to come here and not even be noticed? “I do not seem to... recall her.”

“She was confined as were the others until after your meeting with the Exile, Mistress. During the brief time they spent here afterward, you were in meditation and we saw no reason to disturb you.”

I looked down. Yes. Meditating, listening to those voices, seeking what I sought in vain. Only one woman knew that answer, and she was not to be found.

“Mistress? Is something wrong?”

“I am... tired.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “I sometimes feel as if everything will collapse around us like a house made of cards. Something is out there, just on the edge of perception, and I feel it waiting, biding it’s time. I fear that all of our preparations will collapse before our enemy even arrives.”

“Have faith in your skills, Mistress. We do.”

I wanted to scream at her, but she was merely saying she thought I could hold it all together. “I will meditate for a time. Perhaps that will clear my mind.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Dxun

Marai

We came out at Onderon, and things had changed drastically. Republic ships were fleeing like a school of fish before a predator. The Onderon naval vessels were firing on each other!

We dived out of the debacle, and approached the Mandalorian camp. We were hailed, and I saw Kelborn looking at us in astonishment.

“Talk about quick! We just sent the signal an hour ago-”

“What signal?” Mandalore demanded.

“Someone named Kavar contacted us on the Queen’s frequency just under three hours ago. He was trying to find her.” He nodded toward me. I leaned forward.

“Report.”

“He said that the Queen had arranged safe passage for you, and seemed upset that you had left. We had your ship code, and I sent the message, but then...” He paused, then looked back up, face grim. “I don't know now if that offer is still good. Things have gone to hell down there in the last hour.”

“Explain.”

“This morning, almost two hours ago, General Vaklu met with the Council and had the Queen declared a traitor. The Council in his name ordered her to surrender herself, and she has refused. That started a full scale shooting war between different units of the army, and that mess you see in orbit is only the closest part.

There is a full scale civil war going on down there, and it won’t end until either Vaklu or the Queen is dead.”

I shook my head. G0T0’s prediction was spot on. “What help can Queen Talia muster?”

“In that part of the city not a lot. Vaklu has packed that area, 80 to 90 percent of the troops on checkpoints are his. Maybe a thousand men. The Royal guard has always been small. They muster less than four hundred. The Palace is a natural fortress and it had defenses in depth, but I do not know if her men can man all of them, and anything they do not man will be easily overrun. The Iron Eagle has complete air superiority and over two thousand troops that tried to fly to the Queen’s assistance are dead. Add to that Vaklu’s allies are the Sith and they’re driving the beasts that have been driven mad by the fighting before them. Both Bralor and I agree. I seriously doubt she will survive until nightfall.”

“I think I will have something to say about that.” I snarled. I must get down there.”

“Are you mad? One Jedi, even two, you’ll last as long as a bottle of Tihaar at a funeral!”

“You have little understanding of what the force can do, warrior.” Kreia snapped. “There is a jedi Master within that palace. Even five thousand troops will find him something to reckon with.

“But I feel something more ominous. Tell me of the visitors.”

“What? How...” Kelborn looked stunned. “One of the ships that had been in the queue broke formation and landed here Yesterday. A large cargo shuttle left here less than two hours before Vaklu’s announcement. All we had were the passive sensors of the shuttle, and it read a medium sized transport.” He brought up a map. “They landed here, about five kilometers away. That’s all we know.”

“You enemy settles in that close, and that is all you see?” She looked at the map. “Look for the patterns, my child.”

I leaned forward. The map told me little, except for an odd squiggling mark. “What is that?” I reached out, and touched the light symbol.

“A tomb of some-”

I didn’t hear what else he said. I saw Mira, Visas, my battle sister. They faced men in black robes, lightsabers in their hands. Visas stood to the fore, and I knew she spoke. Then suddenly the battle was joined.

I snapped back. “A Sith Lord’s tomb.” I hissed. “All of the power of the dark side from such a place, what could it do?”

“Weaken those opposing them, help those attuned to it by strengthening their arms.” Kreia said.

“Drive the beasts mad. Damn, that is what the problem has been! The Sith have been directing that energy at the city!” I slammed a fist on the table. “They must be stopped.”

“Dividing our forces is not wise.”

“Wise or not we must.” I snapped. If they finish whatever they are doing, Talia loses. If we go to Talia’s aid, they will finish uninterrupted, and Talia dies. Think Mandalore! I drove a wedge between a Beast rider and her mount. What would the people say if the Queen was denied by hers?”

“But you cannot be in two place at once.”

“Yes.” I closed my eyes. It was harder than any decision I made during the war. Should I act to stop the vision I had seen to save the women of my crew? The only ones who had a chance since this was the Force we dealt with?

I turned. “Visas, I wish you to lead.”

“But-” The Handmaiden stopped as I raised a hand.

“These are men who use the force. They could wipe the Mandalore and his men from the map with ease, or delay them. You Visas will know which are which.”

“I serve as you command.”

“My sister, you must go, for of all, you are the best warrior. You must help your little sisters come home safe.”

“Little sisters?” Mira asked. “You trying to get away from me?”

“No my dear.” I reached out, and rubbed her cheek. “The danger we go into will be a thousand times worse, and I know how you feel about killing. If you merely defend, the others can handle the fighting. Will you go?”

“And if I don’t you’ll take away my desserts?”

“No, I will ask you again.”

“You would too.” She shrugged. “Besides, I haven’t gotten the hang of a light saber yet.”

“In the middle of a battle is not the time.”

“All right. Maybe I can at least run them around so the others can kick butt.”

“We have an attack skimmer. I can send you three and my best squad.” Kelborn said.

“We have other transport to prepare.” Mandalore said. Take them.”

“My sister, a word.” The Handmaiden said.

“I will hear all you say.” Visas said softly. “Must you pretend that I cannot?”
I sighed. “Mandalore, please get whatever you planned ready. You three with me.”

We walked into the day. “All right, who first?”

“My friend your sister must speak first.” Visas said softly. “Else all will be confusion.”

“I worry for my friend your student.” The Handmaiden said. “She was just taken from the clutches of such beings. Must she chance being taken again? If she were to fall...”

“I shall not fall.” Visas said calmly. I looked at her. “I would not fail the one who has given me my life back in that way. Better to die. But there is an option.” She turned to Mira. “Little one, do you have what you call a come-along designed for Jedi?”

“Well I thought of one, and what is this ‘little one’ crap? I’m almost four years older than you!”

“I was speaking of height.” Visas said deadpan.

“If I wasn’t going to have to cover your butt, I’d place kick it to Onderon!” Mira snarled.” She went through her row of weapons, and pulled one out. “Special design trigger. If you try to remove it, the charge goes off, and nothing but a blast door will survive it.” She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“Attach it. In the center of my back where I cannot reach.” Visas turned, and the shorter woman slapped it to her, the sticky chemical bonding to her flesh. Visas moved her arms. “I have fought with wounds that bound me more.” She turned to face me. “I promise I shall not fall. But if I fail in that, my life is already forfeit at your command.”

“No, Damnit. Your will not fall.” I rasped.

“Then we must go.”

I stood there damning myself. I had always hated sending others to their death alone. I wished them well, and went back in.

“Well you will love this.” Mandalore said. “Show them, Zuka.”

“We found a special cache right after you left. A lot of equipment was deployed here that never got used. Too bulky, that kind of thing.” He led us across the compound to a huge hanger. He grinned, and pulled the switch. The doors opened, and I stared in amazement at the behemoth that waited for us. The last time I’d seen one of these was watching them drop on us on Baramina.

“Mark III Basilisk.” Zuka said proudly. “The cache was hermetically sealed. This one must have been in for repairs, because a lot of systems were down. But it’s as clean as the day the sealed it. I have it up and running, though it isn’t up to full capability. Weapons are off line along with a few other systems, but the engine is smooth, and her shields are intact.”

“What other systems are down?”

“Navigation and targeting. It has to be flown manually. But we can rip out the targeting computer and the missiles, and make room for three inside instead of riding it. Still state of the art in ablative armor and shields. Not even their corvettes will do much to it, and it’s less than an hour and a half to the ground.”

I chuckled. “I never thought I’d be flying one!”

“You don’t. When it comes to maneuvering, it’s a brick. But the auto land sequence looks sound.”

“Looks?”

“Well the only way to know is to test it, and unfortunately, once this is in the air, everyone will be paying attention if you know what I mean.”

I sighed. “All right walk me through this.”

“No.” We turned, Davrel was there. He was out of his Mandalorian armor, dressed as a mercenary. He came over, snapping a salute at Zuka, then at me. “I dreamed of this. I’m going with you.”

“Davrel, this isn’t your fight.” I pointed out. “You should be with your comrades.”

“I will be.” His face broke. “They destroyed all the others, this is the only one left. I... please.”

“Are you checked out?” Zuka snapped.

“Yes, sir.”

“How?”

“That old simulator tape you threw out. ‘No one will ever need this anyway’. Well I wanted it, and I want this.”

“But you’ll be riding inside.” I pressed.

“So? At least I’ll be with it.”

I looked into that face. Everything he’d wanted to do had ended thanks to Revan and I. If he wanted to be the last Mandalorian to ever fly one, I wasn’t going to complain.

“Mount up. That just leaves-”

“Space for me.” Kreia walked up. “Not the most comfortable ride, but I must admit, it will be very ostentatious.”

I sighed. All right then. Let’s go.”


Descent

Mira

It took me back, and not in a good way. The three of us were surrounded by half a dozen Mando-a, the skimmer one of the old Halfia models. The anti gravs were always a bit out of tune, and I wanted to plug my ears. The men sat there, stolid and silent. Somehow I knew in a few moments the little Fire-cat as Valak had always called me was going to do the creepy-crawl into someone’s defenses. There was a stone building out there, and we dropped in about half a klick away.

“Be careful.” The Mando-a sergeant Xarga said. “Probably mines ahead.”

“Probably Sith Waragas.” I said. ”If it’s a standard deployment they’ll be the standard two-three-five-two.” I said.

He looked at me. “Seems you know what you’re doing.”

“Valak always thought so.”

“Sergeant Valak?” He asked.

“Know him?”

“Meanest DI we ever had. Would have been an officer if he hadn’t had a problem with drink. How is he?”

“He bought it right before Malachor.”

“Into the shadows.” Xarga replied calmly. “You want to lead off then?”

It was hard, and dangerous. We had to move fast, but we couldn’t just jog through the jungle like idiots. First we’d probably run into ambush, second, mines, third, those damn animals.

The worst part about it was it had been ten years since that skinny little girl had done this, and the woman she had become had fallen right back into position as if I had done nothing else. Like a pre-programmed droid that pops out of it’s box and goes to work. I stopped, then dropped to a crouch. I looked back at Xarga, and signalled. Three men... off to our right. distance about fifteen meters.

He sent back 'positioning'? I replied, 'Single holes'. All of this passed as fast as you can talk, but completely silent. He tapped a man behind him, then two more. Again a flurry of signals. The men turned on their camo fields, and moved into the trees to our right. I waited. I found my blaster rifle coming up, my eyes scanning the trees. This wasn’t me, it was that damn kid. But even she had not wanted to kill anyone.

There was a rustling of branches, then the three men stepped into view and the senior man signalled all clear. I moved forward again, and they fell back into position. There were mines ahead, and I crawled forward. Clearing mines is nerve wracking but you can’t let it drive you buggy from tension. The way to move through a field is like dancing. The partner chose the dance and the steps, and you have to follow through with him, hoping you don’t step on his foot. That gets you killed. So you have to be relaxed enough to go with the flow and tense knowing that treading on his ‘foot’ will kill you at the same time.

Waragas, just like I thought. The Sith always went for a bigger bang than the Mandalorians. I picked it up, sliding it into my pouch. A little forward, no, that one was rigged to that one, so if you lift one, you blow the other. I crept between the two, stretched, and found the studs on both. Press them at the same time or-

There was a click, and I felt that damn rush. I was still alive. I picked up both.
We hurried as fast as we could. We came to a small canyon, and I signalled everyone to halt, then I crawled forward slowly. I hadn’t seen one of those since training, they were already obsolete when I went into the field. But the Sith never throw anything away.

Type two motion triggered claymore. A big flat panel the size of a suitcase with a flat array on top of it aimed down the canyon we were in. One step in the six meter zone it’s sensors monitored, and four thousand 5 millimeter balls would rip through the people on that trail for a hundred meters back. I reached up, finger’s sliding across. No, that was the dummy trigger. Whoever had placed this was too smart for his own good. All right smart guy, if the dummy is here, most would check here, so I will check...

I found the link to the small flat sensor array. I clipped it. Then I dismounted the fuse. Only then did I really relax.

There was a clearing, and a damn turret sensor! I could see the first turret less than five meters away, well within it’s at rest sensor envelope. I could bugger one, but not both. That I couldn’t bugger from here.

The Handmaiden touched my arm, then made a motion I took to mean ‘watch’, Then she reached out, and closed her eyes. She concentrated, and the sensor died. I looked, and the turret had gone to rest position. I stood, and sidled forward. A line of them. all dead at the moment.

“How did you do that?” I asked her.

“You feel the inside of the machine, and tell it not to do something.” She replied.

Whatever. There was a small group of men beside a shuttle, and the two women exploded into action. I had never seen a Jedi move in combat before, and it was like watching a ship come out of hyper space. One moment, the Handmaiden was kneeling beside me, the next she almost teleported ten meters away, and were among them. Her saber-staff snapped in a flat arc, and four men were down in pieces even before I stood. Visas had charged toward them, and she rolled beneath a gun barrel and as she came up she sheered it off right in front of the receiver group. The man was down before he even knew he was unarmed.

I ran to them, and motioned toward another set of turrets over by a massive stone ramp. I closed my eyes. I still wasn’t used to this, seeing the world with eyes closed, and knowing what those skeins of light were. I had said killing was like putting out a star. I had never considered that it was like putting out a constellation! There, a turret and another sensor. I reached into the sensor. If I adjusted this...

There was a whine, and my eyes snapped open. The turrets had gone active, and there were half a dozen men there, looking stupidly at them just as they went active. Oh god, I had set it to kill everything!

I reached back out, and deactivated the sensor, but when I opened, all of them were dead. I looked at Visas.

“You made a small mistake, little one. You did not mean to kill.”

“But they were dead anyway.” I whispered. “They were between us and our objective.”

“True. But you should not have to do this.”

I felt tears, but part of me was savagely happy that they were dead, not us.

*****

Handmaiden

We charged up the ramp. There were more men at the top, and among them three who were once Jedi. We dealt with them. Mira had been in shock at what she had done, but had snapped back quickly. I found an undamaged lightsaber, and handed it to her. She hung it from her belt, but I could see the desire to use it warring in her eyes. “Just carry it. It is there if you need.” She nodded.

There was another ramp at the top, the stone doors blown off their mounts. Visas led and we charged in. The path led us down, and I heard a voice before we even saw the man.

“See, anyone touched by our masters can control them.”

“But how?”

The masters took their minds, and give us the ability to speak to them. Do you deny this?”

“No, but-”

We rounded the corner in a dead run. The men were standing with a juvenile Boma between them. They clawed for weapons, but they were down before they could even draw.

“No!” Visas stopped in her stroke above the animal’s head. Mira walked over. “You just want to swim don’t you?” She asked, rubbing the bullet head. It arched against her hand. “That’s right. Now you just go on. We won’t hurt you.”

It waddled off, and was in a flat run before it was out of sight. She turned, looking at our expression. “What?”

“For some it is not that easy.” Visas said. “When we return to the ship, perhaps you can show us how to do that?”

“Any time.”

We were running down the hall when suddenly Mira skidded to a stop. She was ashen, and was pointing at the floor. “Don’t step in that!” she almost screamed.

I saw nothing, but Visas knelt, head turning back and forth. “Dark side energy, raw dark side energy I have never see this before.” She reached out, and Mira grabbed her hand.

“No!” It’s like a trap door spider. It can’t chase you but if you touch it, it will consume you.” She stared at the floor in horror. “It lives to feed, nothing else.”

I had closed my eyes, and now I could see it. As I did, I was suddenly struck by it’s hunger. Mira described the force to us as a puppy wanting attention. This was a hungry thing, and all we would be is food for it.

We moved past carefully. None of us wanted to even think of touching such a lethal mixture of hunger and the force. Mira yelped, and pointed back. It was following us.

We didn’t think, we ran. The bubble followed, but we outdistanced it.
A huge door was ahead, and Mira skidded to a stop. “I think they were trying to keep us from getting in there.” She whispered. She shivered, rubbing her arms. “Look, guys, I can’t get you to change your mind? Go somewhere else?” I merely looked at her. She sighed. “I guess not. Okay, stand back, let me show you what I’m good at.”

We backed away as she took all those mines she had collected, and began setting them in an intricate pattern on the door. She went over to Visas, and took that charge. “Need a little more.” She said absently. Then she stepped back from the door.

“What manner of being is buried here?” I asked. I can feel the darkness, as if the sun never shown on the land where this has been built. The Dark side will be very strong here.”

“It is.” Visas whispered. I looked at her. She smiled sadly. “After so many years under an oppressive hand. don’t you think I would feel this? But I have another hand, one that holds me on it’s palm free to fly. Mira, open the way.”

Mira signalled us back, then down. I was going to ask her why but she dropped on her face, and triggered the charge.

That door that had stood for centuries shattered, the stone flung aside. Mira sat up, racking her weapon’s bolt. “Hey, when I open a door, it stays open.”

We paced forward into horror.

*****

Visas

To me they were merely blots of inky blackness on a chiaroscuro background. Four men, facing a pool of the same evil energy we had faced in the corridor. As We paused, I felt, and turned. The blot that we had passed had moved around us returning to that miasma. The men ignored us, they were chanting in the ancient Sith language, difficult because human throats had not been made to speak it. “Mira, a concussion grenade if you please.”

The woman aimed her wrist launcher, and there was the thunk of a gas propellant charge. The grenade landed among the men, then went off, blowing three of them off their feet. The one that had not been knocked down suddenly found that all of the control they had exercised was dumped on him. The cloud flowed outward. When it retreated, a pile of sticks covered by dried skin fell. He had not even had the chance to scream.

The survivors rolled frantically away, coming to their feet. “Do you know what you have done you fools! If we do not control it, it will devour us all!”

“What do I care?” I asked. “You seek to draw the very evil that once permeated this moon, The agonies of a quarter million beings that has found a home here, and use it to your own ends. Here in the tomb of Freedon Nadd.”

He looked at me appraisingly. “It is not to late. Come, join us, experience the power of the force as only the Dark side can see it!”

“Who was Freedon Nadd?” Mira asked.

“A dark Jedi of four centuries ago. The people of Onderon remember his excesses all too well. That is why they buried him here, away from them.” I replied.

“So you are one of those partially trained fools we have heard about. Trying to stop what will occur like a child with a bucket trying to stop the sea.” He extended his hand. “One with a dark taint already on her soul at that! Come to us. Join us.”

I could feel eyes on me. Both Mira and my friend the Handmaiden watched me closely. But I felt a jolt of elation. I still had that connection to my dark master. Marai had seen it, and accepted that as long as I did, I would never be free. As much as the bleeding hearts of the galaxy tried to free slaves, a slave can only be freed by themselves.

“I have dealt with your kind. A man that sees power as all, something to sip like a beverage, and who cares if the man or even the planet who held it lives or dies? You are a petty little monster aping greatness, and if he could not call me back, what makes you think you can bring me to heel?” I reached out, and one of the skills taught to me by my dark master reached out, and I felt his heart in my hand.

“If I were of your kind, I would crush your heart like a jelly between my fingers.” I released him. “I refuse all such leanings. If die you must, it will be on my blade. A cleaner death than my planet received at his hands.”

“What lies has your new master taught you then fool? That the force is like a bank, and you can only draw from it what you have put in? That the universe cares about those little insects that scurry around us? Preaching love and forbearance while they sink into weakness and hypocrisy?

“The force bends to the will of the user, and you would deny that. Such a waste. A seer who is blind, a warrior out of her depth, and a child unwilling to kill. This will be too easy.”

He leaped, and was past me. I heard Mira scream, but I was faced with another. The third had leaped at the Handmaiden, and light sabers spun and struck like a lightning display.

*****

Mira

I yelped as the man leaped past Visas, and I was bringing up my rifle as he chopped it in half. “Surrender you fool.”

I backed away, drawing the light saber. He sneered. “As if you even know what to do!” He chortled.

He struck at me, and I don’t even know how I stayed alive in the next seconds. I could no more see or help my friends that I could look beyond that glittering deadly net he wove. I ducked, rolling, and somehow I was within the arch, striking upward desperately. He grunted, hands dropping to catch mine, eyes wide as he fell. Then I was up on my feet, charging to Visas’ assistance. The man facing her tried to extend his net but Visas struck beneath his guard, and with a bubbling moan he fell. We both turned. The Hand Maiden and the last man were rolling on the floor, falling toward the black evil pit.

I screamed, trying to leap forward, but Visas stopped me.

They rolled into it, and I screamed again, wailing. Then with a sudden heave, she was spat out, something it didn’t want.

I caught her up, but she wasn't breathing. “Oh no, gods damn it, you will not die!” I screamed at her, slamming my fist on her chest. She convulsed, gasping, then caught my fist on it’s second attack.

“Will you stop pummeling me?” She asked gently. I helped her up, and we looked at the darkness. It had spread, surrounding and devouring the bodies of our enemies. But it kept a circle away from us, as if we were poison.

“Mira, can you drop that ceiling?”

“With what? If I had a tach nuke, maybe.”

There was a clatter down the hall behind us, and we turned as Xarga and a dozen others came running in. “We’ve taken out the other men around here.”

“Do you have a tachnuke?” I asked sharply.

He looked at me. “Don't use them. Too messy. But Bertano there, he loves them.”

I took the weapon. It was an infantry model G-41. Adjustable yield from a microton up to ten kilotons. I charged it, and set it on the floor. “Run!”

We ran. We had reached the end of the entry ramp, and I signalled everyone to keep running. I made the leap to that great ramp down, and fired the charge.

A nuclear weapon is an odd beast. If fired in open atmosphere, it blows up and out, making a fireball which encompasses the ground around it.

Try setting one off in a building made of tons of stone.

There was a flash behind me, and a jet of superheated plasma shot past above our heads, the shock wave slamming us to the ground. For an instant, we had that hell flare above us, then the mass of stone collapsed, and dust sprayed around us.

I rolled to my feet. The building, the stone obelisks that had marked it’s environs, had collapsed. The mountain behind it fell in almost in slow motion, and an avalanche filled the crate.

Xarga stood, dusting himself off. “See if they ever invite you to a party again.” He said. I was bubbling with laughter, and I held my sisters as we walked down the ramp the rest of the way.

“Her style needs improvement.” Visas commented. “But it will come in time.”

“Hey, I won!” I protested.

“That you did.” The Handmaiden said. “But it is like the old saying. The best swordsman in the galaxy fears the worst. Because no one know what the idiot might do.”

“Now I’m an idiot?”

She smiled, ruffling my hair. “No, my sister of battle. Just untrained. Let us go.”

We walked down to that shuttle. Xargas motioned. “Your friend are already on Onderon.” He tapped a control in the shuttle, and it warmed up. “Best be joining them.”

The shuttle leaped into the air. Behind us, we could see the Ebon hawk also airborne. It was running as fast as it could toward the city. We were following.

Oddly enough yes. Was I that obvious?

And here you thought people weren't reading your stories. :D

And here you thought people weren't reading your stories. :D


I know that five or six are reading them. And for all that are thank you.

The evil men do

Marai

There are times in battle where something never imagined occurs. The first I remembered was on that moon behind us. A thousand men of the combined 2nd Marines and 14th scouts had trapped one hundred enemy troops in a valley. There was no way out, and we were preparing to advance when a lone figure in an officer’s armor came into view. He stood there until he was sure we saw him, then he walked toward us slowly. I signalled for the men to stand fast, and walked out to meet him.

He gave me his name, and I gave him mine.

“Commander, you are trapped. It give us no pleasure to murder such brave men. Surrender, I beg you.”

“I have my orders.”

“But your first blade is a fool!” I wanted to scream at him, but it came out softly.

“He is that. But he is our first blade, and my orders were to stand to the last able man.” He looked past me, then back at my face. He had a livid burn on his face where someone had missed killing him by centimeters. “Remember this day, Marai Devos. Today you see how well the Mando-a die.” He saluted, and turned. He stopped. looking away from me. “One last thing, Jedi. Watch over our wounded.”

I returned to our lines, and as he reached the lip of the canyon men straggled out. There were 25 of them, some of them grievously wounded. A number held their stomachs or arms. One man had rigged a crutch out of a damaged heavy blaster. We watched in silence as their commander dressed their lines, speaking to one man or another as if it were a parade ground. Then he took position in their center.

I watched his face through my electro binoculars. He was tired, sad, but at the same time so damn proud I wonder how his heart could stand it. He waved at me, then he screamed.

“Death! Or Glory!”

The cry was taken up, and without issuing a command, they charged as one. We stood knelt or sat there, watching them approach. It was not a neat clean charge. Men staggered and fell, the man with the crutch was acting as if it were a three legged race. They came at us in an inexorable charge and at 30 meters my men, also without an order given, opened fire as one. I saw the face of their leader right up until the moment a charge blew his chest open.

We stopped firing, and I stood. I understood if my men did not. “Medics, guards for them, check these men, then enter the valley.” I ordered. “The first man that kill an injured man I will personally kill with my own hands.

There had been almost 200 wounded in there, they had wanted to make sure we would not assault the only hospital they had, for angry men in the heat of battle don’t worry about if an enemy is standing or not. Even as he died, I blessed Caspian Fett, son of Cassus.

The second time had been at Samar. We had caught thirty enemy ships, and they had to break past us to flee. Suddenly, in the midst of the hell we were creating, we received a parley call. I was aboard Revan’s ship at the time, and as I raged, she merely asked. “Why.”

“Scan sector four, at 31 degrees. signal back.” came the terse reply.

She did so, then ordered a cease fire. I went to a screen, and stared at a sight that would have lit my heart with joy in peacetime. Someone had arranged a solar sailing regatta, and approaching our battle, unable to change course, were a hundred or more solar sailors.

As the fire died, we received another signal. A line had been drawn, above the ecliptic by 20 degrees, well clear of the people in those flimsy craft. We peeled up and away, the enemy moving to the position they had marked. They had not tried for additional advantage, they had merely moved so that only warriors would die this day. We took our position, and as if nothing had happened, the battle began anew.

We won, and dozens of their ships had died before the remainder had fled. But we spent an extra day there to collect every pod. When we finally found out who their senior officer was, we brought him to our mess deck. We saluted him, and his men. We gave him aged Tihaar we had taken on Dxun the year earlier, and our first toast was not to our honored dead, but to those people who would not let war interfere with something important.

I saw it again that day. The two elements of the fleet, loyal to Vaklu, loyal to the queen, had seen our approach. One Basilisk is not an invasion. It is a statement that like the solar sailing race, deserved respect. The fleet elements peeled up and away, and then began killing each other again.

We plunged into the atmosphere. A few fighters shot at us, ground based cannon fired, but the Basilisk is made for such an embrace, and it seemed to lunge eagerly toward the planet. We came out of the heat haze, and then before we had even known it, Davrel slammed us down in the market square.

The hatch blew, and we piled out. Troops loyal to both the queen and Vaklu were staring at us. They remembered that shape so well. “For the Queen!” I screamed, and leaped into the fray.

There were cries of betrayal, that the Queen had allied with the Mandalorians, but the answering roar as the royalists saw my light saber drowned them out. We swept the market clean. Davrel had stopped beside the still smoking nose of his craft. He looked so happy.

An instant later a sniper shot him. I ran to the boy as a dozen Royalists blew that building apart. I lifted his head. He looked at me, then said only two words.

“Thank you.”

Then he was dead.

We swept the market clean, and reached the end of the sky ramp. Captain Bostuco led the charge into the enemy defenses.

*****

Kavar

“Your plans seems to have succeeded, Master Kavar. The enemy has indeed revealed himself.”

I ignored the sarcasm. “Yes. I expected the Sith but not all of these beasts!”

“Then you have forgotten our heritage.” She said. “If my own beast denies me, or the beasts themselves attack me I am not worthy of the crown, so it is said.”

”Your majesty!” The commander of her guard Captain Kadron began. She waved him to silence.

“I know of your loyalty, Captain. It is the simple people that will not hear my words.”

“But we must have hope, your grace.” I said. She rounded on me.

“Your fellow Jedi? The one you have roundly condemned with every other word? Why is her arriving here now a blessing?”

“I grinned. “Because when it comes to war, Vaklu is out of his league.”

*****

We fought up the sky ramp, a narrow bridge five meters wide, and as we reached it’s center, almost a kilometer high. Considering what we faced, only a madman would have used it. It was a pen any idiot could have defended merely by shooting toward the opposite end. But it was the quickest way to our destination.

When Captain Bostuco caught a bolt and died I was in the lead. I led screaming Talia’s name over and over and the shattered remnants of those I led screamed in answer as they followed me. We cut through the men assigned to keep the off duty guardsman in their quarters and when I screamed Talia’s name twice as many echoed it now.

Men peeled off to man the anti fighter guns, and suddenly it was worth the life of any Iron Eagle to fly anything but nape of the earth. Above me i heard a booming roar, and the Ebon Hawk was there, dropping onto the pad ahead of us, guns hammering into the men that had assembled to stop us. It slammed down and Mandalore and fifty men that had been jammed in like sardines charged out.

The men with me paused, then cheered as Mandalore roared ‘For the Queen! Death or Glory!”

We were a wave of men and fury, and Vaklu’s mean could not stand against us. I saw Visas, Mira, the Handmaiden leap from a shuttle, the Sith looking for reinforcements instead met three light saber wielding maniacs screaming the Queen’s name.

It was a rout.

We plunged into the palace, and ahead of us a huge Drexl larva was being forced to attack a massive door. As we charged, the door went down.

I saw Tobin, and he screamed ‘Why won’t you just dieI” at me. Then suddenly the drexl roared, spinning and charged toward us. i though it was an attack, but it slaughtered a dozen men between it and us.

I reared back with my weapon, and suddenly Mira was before me.

“Calm down" she whispered. It looked confused, then grumbled a purr. She took a length of rope they had bound it with, and threw it around it’s neck. “Come on baby. Let’s get out of here.”

I spared no time for the amazing scene. There was a roar of battle in the throne room.

Kavar and the Queen were backed to the throne room. A pile of men were already dead in front of the Master, and more in front of her. She stood, chest heaving in a way to bring cheer to an adolescent man, and screamed at her cousin.

“Hold!” Vaklu roared. There were only four or five men left on his side. “By honor I demand it!“ Everyone backed away from their enemies. He held up a holopad. “I have proof that the Queen has been refused by her mount! She is foresworn as our queen asking the Mandalorians to attack, and the Jedi are proof of Republic duplicity!”

Talia threw her hair back with an insulting gesture. “As long as were are members of the Republic, the Jedi will be our guests as I command. The Mandalorians asked permission to use a base on our moon to reorganize before they returned home, and if you had held this farce a month from now they would have been gone.

“As for my beast, I will mount and ride my beast before the entire council, not in front of some man who brings lies into this room!”

“You've lost!” He screamed. “Even if they prove this is a lie, you will never sit upon the throne again if I live!”

“You admit that you are lying?” She demanded. “What of honor my Cousin, what or your own personal honor? What of the honor you used to demand this truce?”

“If it frees us from the Republic, to hell with my honor!”

“Your grace.” I called softly. I threaded through the people. “Is it not said on Onderon that no one who forswears honor can sully the throne?”

“Yes, why?”

I flipped a flash bang grenade into the air, everyone flinched away as it went off except for me. My blade punched through Vaklu’s chest, and was shut off before he fell. I walked to the Queen, handed her my weapon, and knelt.

“Under your own laws, I place myself before you in judgment.”

She was confused. “What?”

“Under the laws of Onderon, of the Beast Riders, I have murdered a member of the royal family, and violated a truce in so doing. I have committed offenses demanded by honor, and for that only the Queen can judge.” I said aloud. “May I speak?”

“Yes.”

“Your Grace, before these witnesses, General Vaklu did throw aside his honor in an attempt to gain the throne. But if you had slain him, or had him killed, it would have stained the throne with blood. A trial would have spread his lies beyond easy repair.

“I understand his concerns. That the Republic will drain Onderon dry, but the Galaxy needs Onderon too much and this would be a boon to your economy. Telos, other planets need your help desperately, and I took it upon myself to do what would have been damnation for you.

“By killing him, I have ended the rebellion. But I am not of your land, and my crime is against your family.

“I ask you, no, I beg you. Slay me if you must. But the honor he had must be what is remembered. Not that he gave up his honor, and that he spread lies. But that he gave of his life for his people, and in the end was misguided. Do not let him be remembered as a traitor. It would stain not only him, but the children of his own children, and to save them I have done this.” I looked at her face.

“I place my life in the hollow of your hand.” Then I knelt forward, exposing my neck.

“Your grace?” Mandalore walked forward, and he knelt beside me. “I swear to all here that we came because the true queen needed our assistance. If we have committed offense, I will expiate it.” He also bowed low.

She looked down at us, and I heard the lightsaber leap to life. Then it went still again.

“Jedi, rise.” I stood. She handed me the weapon. “My Cousin had his trial. It was the span of his life and only in the end did he falter as you have said. For my late cousin, and his family for three generations, I thank you for what you have done. You have taken the stain from his name along with his blood. Mandalore, rise.”

Mandalore stood. She looked up at him. “Our people have reason to hate you, but when you controlled our lands, you were honest to a fault. To come to our aid without being asked speaks of your own honor, and I am humbled. When your nation is returned to your home, I will welcome your ambassadors, and pledge that we will match Mandalorian honor, or die trying.

She looked to her people. “Enough blood has been shed this day. My cousin died an honorable man, before he could spread his dishonorable taint. He will lie in state, and the truth of his death will be revealed, but not of what he spoke. If you love our world, you will do this.”

*****

Kreia had sidled away as her student was abasing herself. Odd, she had considered pushing the girl to have Vaklu executed, and that would have tainted the Monarchy ever so slightly. Of course it would have also made the Monarchy stronger, something to fear. Talia quite honestly, was not brutal enough to be a good queen. A royal hand is better appreciated by it’s people when blood dripped from it when necessary. She could have hung her cousin years ago, but had not shown that much stomach. Perhaps it was Kavar’s influence.

Colonel Tobin had been struck by one of those massive paws, and had been thrown into one of the stone walls. Patiently Kreia melded those shattered bones back together. She didn’t have leave any of them un-repaired, and that seemed to ease the pain of who she had once been. But pain was still necessary for this one to complete his mission.

She fired a spark of life into the man’s chest, and he gasped, staring around him in shock, then at her.

“We do not have time for discussion, Colonel. General Vaklu sent me with a message. He has been taken, but the war is not yet lost if you move with haste. The Jedi have merely been hiding. They have a secret base on Telos, and all but what stand here are there.

“You must go to this system.” She handed him a pad. “Those that will redress this will be there when you arrive. If they slaughter the Jedi of Telos, the battle will still be won!”

Tobin stood, still confused, aching in every joint. But he held the pad as if it were the last semblance of order. “Out of my way, woman. Onderon will still be free!”

She watched him leave. Pathetic. But the die had been cast. She turned as the men moved from the throne room, seeing her student standing there in conversation with the queen. She could only hope that the girl was ready for it.

Discussion.

Marai

A wise man once said the only thing worse than a battlefield lost, is a battlefield won. Several hundred men had died, and the few remaining of the Iron Brigade were put to work moving the bodies and debris. I found Mira on the first landing pad, the Drexl laying on it’s back as she scratched it’s stomach. It was funny, a short woman rubbing the stomach of something the size of a cargo lifter with 25 centimeter claws, yet with her it was just a puppy. She had a pensive look on her face. “Are you all right? The others told me of the tomb.”

“Did blondie tell you about the evil goop? She gets sucked in, then it spits her out like she tastes bad!”

“I smiled. “They forgot to tell me of that. She did tell me that you killed some men with their own turrets accidentally.”

“Yeah.” She wouldn't look at me. “I’ve killed people before. When there is no other option, you do what has to be done. But I never liked it.”

“But you didn‘t hold back on Dxun.”

“I know, and that bothers me.” She looked at me, and she was crying. “Before I could always back away from it, leave the bounty alive. But since I’ve met you, it’s like a reflex. I don't like it, and I don't know why it suddenly became easy.”

I remembered what the Handmaiden, what Kreia had said. I was their leader, and they were being molded by my example. “Mira, do you think that I like killing people?”

“You were a soldier. Isn’t it pretty much part of the job description?”

“Yes and no. Please, walk with me.”

We walked away. The Drexl gave a querulous grunt, and followed.

“A soldier’s job is to kill an enemy, but a warrior kills because he must. I gain no pleasure from the death of those I face. Every life is as precious to me as it is to those whose life it is. I have always tried to limit that, even when it was armies rather than myself fighting.”

“Yeah.” Her tone said she didn’t really believe it.

“Mira, have you seen a doctor work in surgery?”

“Only at a MASH unit.”

“If a doctor gloried in cutting you open, would you let him?”

“No way! I like my insides right were they are, thank you very much.”

“A good soldier or warrior is a surgeon. He must remove that which hurts, and try to leave as much good flesh as possible. I do not want you to glory in a battle, or in the deaths of those you fight. I mourn every man I have led who died. I have mourned for my enemies. Someone must shed tears for them, on both sides and the one who understands those dead best are those they fought.

“Because all too often it is some damn fool politician who sent them to their deaths. Soldiers, at least good soldiers, do not kill anyone just because they can. The most peaceful person in this life is the soldier that knows his world is at peace.”

I took her in my arms. “Shed your tears, my love. Feel pity for them, but know that when I ask this of you, I will get no more joy than you do.”

We were nudged. She reached out, scratching the Drexl. “I’ll think about it.”
A soldier came up. Master Kavar had finished his meeting with the queen, and awaited me.


More question, more answers

Marai

Kavar was alone in an anteroom of the throne room. He saw me approach, and for a moment I thought he was going to hug me. But there was a wary shadow in those eyes.

“The force works in mysterious ways. There are times when I am sure it even has a sense of humor. Or of irony at least.

We spent the last five years trying to find you and instead you came to us. I thought you might return to Dxun and Onderon, and I was right. But I thought you had left.”

“I had. I made a brief stop on Nar Shaddaa. I found Master Zez-Kai Ell there.”

He looked at me coldly. “And what, murdered him? Gained your revenge?”

I returned his cool with my own. “Master Kavar, none of you seem to understand that while the judgment hurt me, I did not disagree with it, and still do not challenge it. I ordered the Shadow Mass Generator brought to Malachor. Even though neither Revan nor I used it, or even wanted to use it, what is done is done. I am guilty of murdering all of those men. Because if I had not had the weapon brought there, it would not have happened. What you and the council decided was not the worst you could have done, merely the most just.”

He sighed in relief. “And you returned just in the nick of time. A trait I am told you seem to have made a fine art. I just wish you had turned up sooner.”

“Why?” I looked at him. “Master you and the council cast me out. Why was I important enough to look for?”

“Because even as Revan was rehabilitated, this evil struck at what was left of our numbers. It has touched only one person that is still not under it’s sway, and that person is you.”

I felt a chill. “I was touched by it?”

“Yes. You are the only surviving Jedi that stood close to the Shadow Mass Generator when it was fired. All the others were thousands of kilometers away. You of all of them must have within you some clue to what it caused. I told the others that we had to keep you where we could examine your condition, but you had already left.

“I don’t know how well you have been informed, but this evil not only hunts us using the force, but kills using it. Master Vrook didn’t believe me, but he and the others went to where we thought you would return. To the places where millions died at your command. Vrook had the attitude that it would be a gloating tour. I thought perhaps you would come to make peace with yourself.

“But our search was too late. The Sith have revealed themselves, and all of us must gather on Dantooine. From there we can plan our counter attack.”

“Why not Telos?” I asked. “Atris was there. She is the one that sent me to find the rest of you.”

“Atris? I thought she had died on Katarr! And why of all places Telos? There was no reason for you to go there. It was not your war that laid the planet waste.” He shook his head. “Eighty of us dead, and what is left scattered. I can try to call the masters together, but the others must remain in hiding. If we fail, there must be something to rebuild from.”

“There is worse.” I told him of Goto’s prediction.

“There is not a moment to lose then. There is much I must do here before I go, but you can help me. I have contacted Master Vrook, and you told me what both Atria and Master Zez-Kai Ell know. But I have not been able to contact Master Vash.”

“Atris had records that showed she was on Korriban.”

“Korriban? Why there?” He looked confused. “Korriban was laid waste without our help three years ago. She had intended to try to see if you went to Malachor.”

I felt a chill. Going back to Malachor would not have been gloating or even expiation. It would be climbing into a grave, and locking the coffin from the inside. “I would not have gone there. But I still don’t understand. What happened on Katarr?”

“Only the dead know. Two dozen Jedi were there in secret conclave to decide what must be done when all signals from the planet suddenly just... stopped. A Republic Corvette went there to investigate. Everything that lived on the planet had been killed, with no physical explanation as to why. A young Jedi was sent to assist, and he reported that every touch of the force had been drained from them. The shock of that mass death reached across the galaxy! Surely you felt it.”

“How?” I asked bitterly. “You and the council had stripped me of the force before I left.”

He sighed sadly. “Though we could have, we did nothing of the kind. Somehow you had severed yourself from the force before that meeting. Taking your light saber and exiling you was a formality, nothing more. Yet I can see it has returned.”

“Yes. I am still puzzled as to why. One of my companions has been with me since Peragus, and I find that a force bond of extraordinary strength was formed between us somehow. Strong enough that I think I might die if she does.”

“I have never heard of a bond of such strength. Then again, you always surprised your masters. You seem to form such bonds readily, almost instinctively. It was a gift that was both blessed and cursed by your masters. As a teacher it made you able to teach even the most recalcitrant. As a student it made you learn and grow quickly. But it is disturbing to a master when a dozen do or try the same thing because you did it. We believe that is why so many from the main temple followed when you went. And why your troops earned a reputation for excessive loyalty. That is why we feared so much that you would return to Revan. A lot of the troops that fought against her had been at one time or another led by you. If those bonds had still existed...” He shrugged.

“That is the past and now we must act quickly to save our future. Go to Korriban. Find Master Vash. Bring or send her to Dantooine!”

Parting gifts

Mira

After thinking about it, I knew Marai was right. I hadn’t intended to kill those men, and while I cried for them, there were some I shed no tears over. As I had said on Nar Shaddaa when I began this vision quest there are those that do it without even caring. Those men in the tomb. They were the kind that would have put out the stars just so they could boast of doing it.

I went to find Marai, But she was closeted with Master Kavar. She came out, and I rushed over, hugging her. “I can deal with it. But try not to send me into any missions of slaughter, okay?”

She grinned. “Promise. Come, let’s get the others.”

An Onderoni soldier came up to us saluting. “Jedi, the Queen wishes to speak with you.”

We followed. The queen was younger that I was and had the repressed energy of a fusion generator. She was ordering troops around in her own city as if it were a Djarik board. She looked up, then signalled. “Bring it.“ The men left us alone.

“Onderon owes you a debt, and only the debt I myself owe to you is greater. There are still battles as the Sith are hunted down, but by tomorrow it will be done. When I arrive at the council hall flying my own Brantarii all the lies will be dispelled.

“If my worth were in coin, I would give it to you. But know you this. By the debt my people and I owe, ask anything of us and it will be done. I swear it upon my life.”

“I ask only that you be the queen your people need, your Majesty. That will be my reward.”

“But that is not enough!” She replied fiercely. A man came in bearing an ornate stone casket, and set it on the table.

“This holds relics of our second royal house, formed by that monster Freedon Nadd. They were not unlike those we faced this day. I know little of the force, but perhaps you can return them to the light.” She opened the casket, and brought out a box. Inside it a dozen lightsaber crystals gleamed. “Take them, use them, remember the love of an entire people when your blades strike fire.”

I noticed one the color of the grain of my long dead home world. I picked it up, and felt two pairs of eyes on me. I blushed, and made to put it back.

“It seems that a crystal has already chosen one of your followers.” Talia laughed.

“Yes.” Marai replied levelly. “Now if she only learns how to use a lightsaber-”

“I’ll practice.” I squeezed the crystal in my hand. “I promise!”

We left the palace, returning to the ship. The Drexl had allowed itself to be sent to the holding pens, and I could feel it’s contentment. I was going to miss that big ugly thing.

Visas stood at the ramp of the Ebon Hawk. I could see her face, and felt her warring heart. She wanted to run forward, fling herself into Marai’s arms. She wanted to touch that face and assure herself that it was still there. Instead she walked over, and smoothly fell to her knees.

“I beg your forgiveness, Marai.”

“What for?”

“I sensed the conflict here, the fury of it. I thought...” She looked up. “I feared for your life. You are the spirit of flame itself, and dance in the fire unharmed, but every fire dies, and I worried, I was terrified that this time the fire would be too hot for you. I stayed here, unable to come to your aid, for if you had died, I swear I would have followed you into death.

“Onderon no longer bleeds, but it needs much healing, and we cannot be here to help. Wounded things are usually what a predator attacks. Their problems are not yet over.

“I shame you with my weakness.”

“Because you care?” Marai knelt beside her. “I fear for all of you, as I did for every man I led into battle. We cannot know when it is our time, but trust me in this, when the fire is too hot, I will assure the flames of it do not outlive me to consume others.

“But come, I hear good things of what you did on Dxun.”

“The last tie to my evil master have been broken. But you knew that I must break it. I thank you for giving me the chance to confront that challenge. I have found that the more I travel with you, the more answers I have gained, but at the same time, the questions I still have to ask increase. I have learned that a slave must free himself, that no hand no matter how gentle will break that chain. I would have cursed you when we began for leaving me alive. But now I see that you would teach me, and I cannot learn dead.

“But I beg you. From this day forward, do not go into danger without me by your side!”

“That I cannot promise.” Marai said. “There will come a time when I must go on alone. But I will go knowing that the best part of me will be safe. You, Mira, the Handmaiden. You are my legacy, and I will not chance it when that time comes.”

“Then I will accept it when it happens.” She said softly.


Enroute to Korriban

Marai

We lifted off, and as soon as we were clear, went to hyper drive. It was only a day or so to Korriban from here, and we prepared again. The crystals that had come from were installed in lightsabers, and Mira began seriously learning how to use it. I went to find Goto as she began training.

He floated in the communications room, and turned as I came up.

“Before you begin gloating, human, I have already sent the orders. Six tankers will arrive at Telos in the next day or so, and they will have the fuel they need.”

“Thank you, Goto, you are an honorable being.”

“No thanks are necessary. As much as you seem to think you had me over a barrel, your request merely chose the market for it. The price has stabilized at present, and you have made the first down payment on replacing my yacht.”

“Then I am happy. You have records of the wars do you not?”

“Yes I do. In fact my agents have even collected all of the written works from the Jedi Archives that have not already been seized or destroyed.”

“So that is why you were so well informed about us.”

“The problem is, that the holocrons are not so readily accessible. That requires a connection to the force that I do not have. A great deal of data sits on the ones that I have purchased and I can only look at their crystalline structure and know that there is wisdom still beyond my grasp.

“I also share a love of history such as Mira does. I have read everything about the Mandalorian wars and the Jedi Civil war. While both sides in each case had been incredibly brave, except for two people all of the battles were sub-par.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the battle of Dxun, you were not the overall commander. General Trancas commanded the landing you were part of, and Master Kavar the other. Yet both had weaknesses, and the enemy knew that and exploited them ruthlessly. It wasn’t until you took command of what remained of two regiments that suddenly the battle became more fluid and efficient. You have weaknesses as well, but the enemy did not know them yet.

“Revan in her own way was the same. I would love to meet her, she would be a challenging Djarik opponent.”

“She was. She almost destroyed the Republic.”

“A popular misconception. Revan’s actions were aggressive, but aimed at subjugating an operational whole rather than mere destruction. In comparison, Revan was a swordswoman that wanted her enemy to surrender rather than die. Malak who followed her however was a barbarian. He did not care what he smashed as long as doing so convinced others to surrender.”

“But she built a massive fleet from the Star Forge!”

“Yes, she did, but consider. First, except for sealed holocrons, there is no record of this Star Forge anywhere except as an aside. According to those same records, she assured that it was destroyed, so no more ships would ever be built from it. From what I have been able to ascertain she could build full sized warships needing only crews in less than a day, yet when she returned to attack, the bulk of the fleet she commanded were ships she had taken with her.

“While she used this source to replenish her ships, she did not build an overwhelming mass of them which was possible considering Malak’s actions afterward. I surmise that whatever powered this ‘Star Forge’ was an energy source she did not wish to use. That it would be detrimental to life itself if she continued.

“That is why she left so many of the Republics infrastructure intact. She needed the capability, but not from that source.”

“But that makes no sense!” I said. “With the Sith under her command, the Mandalorians scattered, there was nothing left to fight if she had taken the Republic.”

“That has occupied my attention a great deal. As you say, every known enemy would be under that same banner, so there would be no reason for another war. I believe Revan had data we do not. A threat that at this time is still weak or distant, and she wanted to assure that the Senate would not spend the necessary funds on solid gold toilet seats or something equally stupid. They tried to do that when Revan won the Mandalorian wars, and the slow buildup of the fleet before those wars shows that their own pet projects were more important than mere survival.

“When she returned as a new person, her first act was to destroy that engine of creation. While as I said all records appear to have been destroyed concerning it, with the death of Malak the numbers of ships decreased sharply, and the subsequent collapse of the Sith attacks proves it. Without a strong central leader, the Sith were once again worried more about their specific enemies, each other. “

Atton had walked past us toward the cargo bays, and I noticed it in passing. He came back however, almost running, his face bright red. I watched him, then turned back toward the passage. A few moments later, Visas, Mira, and the Handmaiden returned. They all had the ‘cat full of cream’ look on their face, and gave me an innocent look as they poured tea.

“All right, I asked. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” The Handmaiden answered with a bland smile. “We were just... practicing in the cargo hold when Atton arrived.”

“Practicing what?”

“My lightsaber. But when he came in, we called Visas, and my battle sister decided we needed to do some hand to hand work.”

“Oh dear.”

“Both of them have progressed very well, and I was going to introduce them to the third tier today.”

“The third tier.” I rubbed my forehead. “Where you fight naked.”

“Yes.”

“So you stripped in front of him.”

“No I did not.” Visas said. “All of us did.”

“Oh dear.”

“Then I had a kink in my leg so we had to do a lot of stretching exercises.” Mira said.

“Long slow languorous stretches.” Visas explained.

I pictured them all. The long lithe Handmaiden, the small petite yet well formed Mira, the middle of the road yet classic beauty of Visas. All nude, stretching like a trio of Twi-lek dancers. I felt my own blush starting to rise.

“Maybe the next time... All four of us?”

They laughed as I flushed even deeper.

I spent time with Kreia. We had not stopped in our headlong flight to get her arm seen to, but she didn’t seem to care.

“You are bound for Korriban now.” She said. “If you step upon that soil I cannot go with you.”

I shrugged. “I must go, Kreia. I must find Vash.”

“Have you noticed that of all of them, only Atris knew where the others were? They had flown to the far reaches of the galaxy, yet Atris, whom everyone has been surprised still lives, knew all.”

“She was a librarian after all. The last keeper of the archive of the Main Temple.”

“Yet this is not like a battle where you can use transport records to determine the movements of people that are not mentioned. She could not have read in those archives where the others were.”

I nodded. “That has puzzled me.”

“I also heard through your ears that Goto has the archives thought to have been destroyed. Perhaps I can persuade him to surrender them?”

“For a price no doubt.”

“Yes.” She considered. “But I believe I have something of great value he will trade for it.”

I left, and a short while later, Goto went back to the berthing area.


Korriban

Handmaiden

The planet was a gray dust ball, and it did not look any better when we grew closer. I felt Visas walk up beside me. I had noticed that when she was nervous, she would hold her elbows, pulling her arms in tight against her. “So much pain and suffering.” She whispered. “Ten thousand years of agony and misery, and only the fact that there are so few remaining to live here makes it easier to bear.”

“A seat of evil. The tomb world of the Sith Lords, as Dxun became for the evil ones of Onderon.” I whispered.

“Yet the people of Onderon did not try to live there among such.” Visas said. “These people constructed those tombs, buried those evil men, and then settled down to live among them. Even the deaths of all that called this world home seven times or more through that history never taught them to stay away.”

“We’re getting ready for the briefing.” Bao-Dur said. I nodded, and we walked into the mess hall.

Marai was looking at the hologram of the world Atton was going over the information. He ended with, “...so far we haven’t detected any people. I don‘t even see why a Jedi would come here.”

“For the ones who walk in the light, there is knowledge of their enemies to be found. For the evil ones, there is power to be had if you are strong enough to wrest it away.” Kreia said. “The place for such in either case is what remains of the Academy.”

“The few that remain hide.” Visas whispered. “When the wind blows madness as if it were a dust cloud, no one wants to be in the open air. The spirits of those men still yearn to return to pick up their empires and their dreams, and the weak minded would fall prey to that.”

“So we must assure that Atton stays aboard.” I said. He sputtered.

Marai chuckled. “But what happened? It seems they fought a great battle here, but there was no record of it I could find.”

Kreia sighed. “When the Sith collapsed, the Republic sent a fleet to obliterate their presence here. They found it as you see it now. It was as if without Revan and Malak, they lost what little sanity they had. Thousands of Sith hopefuls died when their masters fought for mastery. The tombs now lay shattered, their secrets buried for all time. Yet there were those that were believed to have fled, masters that even now vie for mastery among what remains of that cult.

“Yet the lure of that power remains. There are lords that would come to grab it if they could, hopefuls that believe the Force is a convenient set of clothing they can put on. Those few that still try to live here.”

Marai nodded. “We must move quickly Master Kavar will be leaving for Dantooine in the next few days, and I want to be there to meet him. Visas, my sister, we go.”

We gathered our things, and walked down the ramp. The world was a chill place. There was an oppressive feeling of anger and pain over us. The only bright spot, oddly enough was a tomb Marai reported as having belonged to Ajunta Pall. It was as if someone had lit a candle or incense, and the black anger of the rest of the valley was dispelled near it.

“The Valley of the Dark Lords.” Visas whispered.

*****

Marai

Be warned. These ruins hold still to their darkness. Even fallen Sith live here. The Academy is up the narrow defile ahead of you. Kreia’s voice whispered. Look at the wonder that remains still. The tombs of the greatest of the Sith plundered and blasted into ruin. The past meant nothing to those that tried to seize this power. Without a strong leader, they fell upon each other.

We walked up the valley. It was a mausoleum filled with dead memories, and all the evil that these men had done in their lives. We climbed the defile, and to one side was a cave.

Visas stopped. “Listen! The wind from the cave speaks of great evil. Evil long buried, and recently awakened.”

“The cave itself has a presence. A maw eager to devour all that enter.” The Handmaiden whispered.

I felt an urge to walk into the cave. Sally on, my student. You must hurry.

The door loomed ahead, and we stopped. The massive leafs of it stood open before us. “Someone expects us. These door were opened recently, and left open.”

The Handmaiden walked over, kneeling to look at the ground. “There is sign of people recently, perhaps the last few days. This set of tracks,” She pointed at ones made by soft moccasin like shoes, “Also showed by the cave, going in, and coming out.” She looked at me. “But this person is not alone. I do not think it is the Jedi master we seek.”

I nodded. “We have to find out. But be ready to retreat.”

We walked in. We opened the inner door, and suddenly the outer doors slammed shut. We were trapped. But no screaming enemy charged at us.

We swiftly searched the building complex. One door had been sealed by a lightsaber, and Visas told us that it had been a woman, but nothing else.

We found Vash crumpled in one of the cages in the punishment room. She moaned softly as I opened it and pulled her free. Someone had shoved a blade into her stomach, and recently. She opened her eyes, and I saw terror.

“Master, We’ll try to get you out of here.” I said softly. “Help me carry her.”

“Marai... No, leave me...” I tried to pick her up, but she caught my hand in a hard grip. “Marai, the council...We did what we thought was right...”

“I know that Master. I hold no anger.” I held her up. “I came to find you, not to kill you.”

“Regret... the decision... Too much we didn’t understand... Found a clue... Led me... here... Thought I was careful... Not good enough.” She spasmed in pain, her hand clawing at me. “He’s here... waiting for you... Escape...”

“The door was sealed.”

“My name. Enter my name... Run...” She gasped, and I felt her die in my arms.

“Another great Jedi lost.” The Handmaiden sighed.

We fled. When we got to the door, I found a datapad balanced on the control panel. We got outside, and I accessed it.

It was the man from the Harbinger. Scarred beyond belief.

“Did you come her looking for answers Padawan Devos? There are none. Korriban still sings it’s siren call, but it calls only the dead, and those that soon will be. You are no doubt here because of her. That pathetic teacher you have acquired.

“I have made you a subject to study. I knew you when you went to war. Rode the ships into the fire you ordered on so many worlds. You know the heat of battle, the pain of it, the fury. Yet you walked away like the pathetic weakling you have become. You are a broken woman that only goes on now out of a foolish desire to give something back after all you have taken. That woman will finish destroying you as she tried to do to me.

“I served on one of them at Malachor. If I gave my name you might even remember me. But that name died in the fire at Malachor. I am Sion now. Lord Sion. I threw away my master, the one you call Kreia.” He laughed softly. “If you were wise you would be shut of her, but you are not wise. I know her well. I know her as an apprentice knows a master, and as a master that has overthrown her. Her only reason for living is hoping that you can be better than those she taught before.

“As for her there will be not even the scintilla of mercy. She must die, she must see all that she hopes and dreams lie shattered on the ground before that death. But you stand in my way.

“I offer to end this suffering for you. We will not pursue, the bond we share means I owe you that much. Come back into the Academy, face me. Defeat me, or die. Or run like the coward you are. Those are the only options I offer.”

I stared at the pad. Kreia. Kreia taught this thing? Made him what he was? I slipped it into my pocket.

“Let’s go. As long as he will allow us to leave, we will.”

We ran.

Capital chapters, machievelli. Having Vash die in front of Marai was yet another improvement over what happened in the game. Picturing Atton walking in on Visas, Mira and the Handmaiden in the nude was amsuing as well.

But was has happened to everyone's favorite assassin droid? The parts to rebuild him were on Nar Shadaa, Onderon, Telos and Peragus.

Capital chapters, machievelli. Having Vash die in front of Marai was yet another improvement over what happened in the game. Picturing Atton walking in on Visas, Mira and the Handmaiden in the nude was amsuing as well.

But was has happened to everyone's favorite assassin droid? The parts to rebuild him were on Nar Shadaa, Onderon, Telos and Peragus.


The problem is most people are either over the top humorous, or deadly serious. In my KOTOR noverl I had Mission steal 200,000 credits vrom the Exchange (Remember the mention of the gang war?) by bootstrapping it through Kang's accounts.

In The Beginning I have two Mandalorian boys dismantle an entire starship from the insides and in Republic Dawn I had a practical joke contest between the two Jedi Padawan. that included droids wrapping one up like a fly caught by a spider.

As for HK47, part of the mercenary attack I had planned for Dantooine is a dozen HK 50 models in search of Jedi VS HK47.

The tomb

Handmaiden

We ran as if the hounds of all the hells were on our heels But right before we reached the valley, Marai just disappeared before me. I skidded to a stop, dropping to my knees, looking for her tracks.

There was nothing. It was as if between one stride and the next she had flown away.

“Visas-”

“I can’t feel her.” She caught my arm, her face desperate, “I can’t feel her anywhere!”

*****

Marai

I stumbled to a stop. I was in a corridor. The stonework was ancient. A line of old Sith was inscribed, and I ran a hand along it. Ludo Kreesh. The one that tried to overthrow Marko Ragnos a thousand years earlier. His tomb had never been discovered. It was said that among those evil men outside, he was so far beyond them that they had buried him and made sure the tomb would never be found.

“Kreia?” I whispered. There was nothing. Behind me was a solid wall. Slowly I advanced.

There was a swirl ahead of me...

I was in a dining hall. I recognized the room, the great dining hall on Coruscant. A small group of Jedi were there, standing around the towering form of Malak. I recognized them all. Cariaga Sin, who died in that first wave attack on Dxun. Talvon Esan, who had died at Brantator. Nicotsa, the quiet joker that had been killed when a Mandalorian corvette rammed her frigate at Depereaux. Xaset Terep, who had been in command of one of my ships at Malachor. Bastila Shan, who had not been with us...

This had never happened. Cariaga was from the Echana Academy. Talvon and Nicotsa from the Corellian one. Xaset had been from my own temple, but had come late in the war. Bastila had still been an apprentice from the Dantooine Academy, barely 15 at the time. Malak might have spoken to them all, but never together here.

In answer to an unheard question, Malak spoke. “The Council? Why should we listen to the council? The Mandalorians have just taken three more systems. They grow more powerful every day, and the Republic and those fools in the Senate dither as worlds burn!” He saw me. “Marai, join us! Stand beside Revan and I! Face this menace together!”

“This isn’t real.” I answered. “This never happened.”

He smiled. “It is said in cosmology that there are worlds within worlds, my dear friend. Who is to say that this did not happen in one of them?”

“It’s a test, It’s all some kind of test!” I protested.

“All of life is a test, and if the Republic is to survive this one, we must be willing to thrust our hands into the fire.” Cariaga stood, her ebon hair flying as she walked over to stand with him.

“The council is made up of wise persons, but they also dither. They argue and debate as people die. We cannot merely stand aside and let it happen!” Xaset joined him. “You are all those that feel the call of battle, as I do. The Guardians have always been the least trusted of our kind, even by our own masters. Hounds that must be leashed in, restrained. But the hounds of hell must run, must enter this struggle.”

“You’re not real! None of you are real!”

“Ah but the war is real, and beyond that door, it rages.” He motioned toward the door behind him. “The death toll is real.”

“You were always a pompous overblown fool, Malak.”

“Fool and pompous I might be. But I am not a coward. The Council will be debating as the skies darken with ships, and fire burns their seats from below them.” Nicotsa joined him. “I sense you will join us, Marai, but tell me, why did you go? Was it the glory? Was it the bloodlust?”

“I went because the Mandalorians had to be stopped! They had to be smashed so that they would never do this again.”

“Yet why then did you spare the Senate? The Council? The Senate was and is a parasite that drains the life blood from their people for things of no worth. The Council were doddering old fools without the fire in their bellies to stand for what they believed in.” Talvon and Bastila joined him. Now it was just me, staring into those faces. Malak spoke, and as he did, his lower jaw ripped free, blood pumped from a wound in his neck, yet still he talked.

“I gave of my life, of my body. Of my soul to make sure it would never happen again, Devos.” A metal band appeared, wrapping around his throat like a gorget, hiding that hideous wound. “We gave everything. Of us all only Bastila there survived. Her Revan and you. Do you not owe your own dead anything?”

“I have mourned for them all.”

“Yet you did not follow Revan and I to cleanse the Republic did you?” He strode forward, standing over me. “Yet you are on that path now. Do you think we merely woke up one morning and said, ‘I’m bored, let’s attack the Republic’? Every step of the way, from the high and mighty perch of a Jedi to the command of the Sith we slipped. We did what was expedient, what was necessary. What we felt was right when push came to shove. What is the difference between you and I? Only that you still live.”

I drew and lit my lightsaber, catching his as it slashed at my throat. I saw my weapon bite deep, he fell-

I was alone.

I wanted to scream, but the sound wouldn’t emerge. I stood there, quivering with both fury and terror. I hadn’t known how close I skated to that edge, to falling. Now I did and it terrified me. I found my feet moving forward, and desperately tried to turn and run. Another swirl of the force whipped before me...

I heard the cough, and dove as the mortar shells arrive. I was hip deep in filth, the jungle rose like a cathedral before me, except for one space barely ten meters wide.

Bloody Pass. When the Corellian Marines add to their hymn, they mention battles like Blood Pass. The place where you fought, but no one in his right mind did so.

About 2000 men were with me at the time. The 4th Coruscanti light infantry had come down in the wrong LZ, and had been surrounded for over a day. General Trancas had ordered that they be relieved, and my units, the 2nd Corellian Marines and the 14th Alderaani Scouts had been given the task. ‘Advance to relief’ is the military term. But the term ignored that to get from where we were to where those men held to life, we had to go through a narrow defile, and over a thousand troops held it.

A Republic Captain, Sierna I think her name was dived into the mud beside me. “General, we just lost the last heavy transport. Command is telling us they don’t have any more. All artillery is committed elsewhere, and we have no air support at all.” She wiped the mud from her face. “Without the combat droids, without artillery, we’re just going to die.” She looked grim. “General, we’ll charge, and we’ll die. But will it be worth it?”

I lifted my electro binoculars. An attack had been staged, and the 14th had charged in and were now pinned down. They’d lost seventy or eighty men already and would lose more, but there was a minefield between us and them.

I rolled, and the mortar shell that had stunned me for three hours failed to do so this time. The blast threw me into a tree, and I felt my leg snap like a twig. That had still happened.

“General!” Sierna had her hand against her helmet. “Command has ordered us to advance! We have no mine clearing equipment! What do we do?”

In reality I had been there, stunned, and Mach had led the attack. We’d taken horrific losses, and he’d died trying to stop a company by himself.

I rolled to my knees. “Take me forward.” I hissed.

“But General-”

“Damnit, I will not let this happen again!” I screamed at her. “I will not lose a thousand men for nothing again!” I glared at her, then snatched up a rifle some dead man no longer needed. My leg screamed in agony, but I remembered those faces. Men that had died because an incompetent windbag had sent them in uncaring.

Blaster bolts shot past me, but I was a war goddess, and this was my element. Mortar shells landed, and I heard men dying behind me, but I knew every eyes was on me. I reached the edge of the field, and extended my hand. Then I jerked it sharply and a hundred mines in a corridor ten meters wide exploded in front of me

There was a cheer and my men leaped up, charging forward to relieve their fellows. I collapsed, staring after them Without the mine field they had cleared with their bodies over five hundred of them would live this time. I saw a Mandalorian appear from the side. The sally that had caught Mach, but he was with the men charging forward. The Mandalorian saw me there alone and grinned as more men poured out.

I lit my lightsaber. “Come on you bastards!” The first man died as I swung-

I knelt on the floor. Tears ran down my eyes. If there had been a beneficent god, it would have me who died that day. Instead I woke in the MASH unit after they had repaired my leg. Of the 2,000 men I had led, half were dead or wounded. The battle had not saved the 4th. Of the 1500 men that had dropped, 500 hundred had been killed coming in, and of the remainder, we relieved barely 300. A waste.

The swirling came again, and I screamed when it did-

The shuttle slammed into something, then the nosecone blew off. I found myself on my feet, and my men, the remainder of all those I had led since Zagosta followed. It was Malachor, the Barakash all over again. We fought, pushing forward. I cut my way to the deck just aft of the bridge, and signalled. Ramos ran forward, slapping the charge against the bridge hatch. An instant later he was dead as intruder systems blew him into bite sized chunks. I reached out with the force, ripping the guns from their mounts, then I reached out-

“No!” I leaped to my feet. The blocking force down the passageway opened fire as I leaped to that door. I was going to die, but damn it I was not going to murder those children again!

The door was massive. Even a ship’s guns would have been hard pressed to penetrate them. But I was possessed. I touched those door, pictured their structure as blaster bolts slammed into them and whistled past my head. Then I focused the force, made it a torrent that would have shattered the door by themselves, and pulled.

They moaned, and I felt it trying to pull free of the mountings, but it wasn’t enough. Retreat, my mind said, fire the charge. They died already, you can’t change that.

“No!” I felt them rip free, saw them fly apart as if they were paper. A face inside I remembered looked up, his blaster coming up. I stood there, looking into the boy’s face and smiled as he fired.

-I was on my knees again. So many times I could have fixed it, so many lost chances. Why was ! still alive except as some cosmic joke?

“You are to be commended for making it this far.” A gentle voice said. I looked, and a ghostly form came toward me. It stopped, and hands folded beneath the robe. The form solidified. It was a man. “My tomb opens only for the chosen. Those that stand on the brink of betrayal or redemption.” He waved around him. “I swore by one master, but when he died, I refused to accept his successor. None in the world was the equal of Marko Ragnos, and Naga Sadow might have considered himself worthy, but I did not accept that.” He watched me benignly. “Like you I balanced on the edge of my Jedi blade, and had to decide. Would I honor the memory of the great? Or give honor to one I did not believe great? Decisions, decisions.” He paced. “I chose, as you must. Go.” He motioned toward a door that appeared before me. “This test will judge the mettle of your soul.”

I started to stand, and in a rush, the door shot past me and suddenly I stood in the tomb again. Ahead of me stood Kreia.

“Ah, you have come at last.” She said warmly.

“I spoke with your old student.”

“Yes, Sion. I knew you would meet him, and here we judge your progress.”

“How?” I demanded. “By putting me through hell?”

“My dear girl, the hell you have been through is all in the past. This is your future. I do not say it will occur, but it could, and like all such things, a little literary license is acceptable.”

“Get away from her you monster!” Atton stormed past me, his weapon drawn. “Don’t you see, Marai, she’s a dark Jedi, more evil that any ever born!”

“Atton this is between her and I.” Kreia purred dangerously.

“I don’t care what you say! I have been your puppet from the beginning, but this puppet has cut his strings! Either you die or I do!”

“As you wish you pusillanimous fool.” A ruby red blade sprang from her hand.

“What is going on?” Bao-Dur demanded.

“Will everyone listen to me?” I shouted. “Stop this at once!”

“Stay out of this Bao-Dur. He has asked for this and it is what he deserves!”

“Stay out of it?” Bao-Dur raged. “You threaten Atton with a light saber and I’m supposed to stay out of it?”

“And what of us, you old monster?” The Handmaiden asked. Behind her came Visas and Mira. “You have stage managed her life from the instant you entered it, and we have stood by because it was her will. But no more. Either you die this day, or we all do!”

Kreia looked at them, then at me. She gave a small smile. “Well? All of your friends stand against me, Marai. What shall it be. Will you be unanimous? Or will you stand by me?”

“I cannot stand by you, Kreia.” I said in a soft voice. “You have tried to run my life from the beginning but they are not right either. Even if you were the most evil of people, I owe you a debt, and I would repay it by redeeming you. I cannot let this happen.”

I looked at my battle sister, the closest thing I had to a sister in truth. “Put it away my sister. Mira, you don’t want to kill, and this will damn you in your own soul, and you know it. Visas, sworn to me as you are, I could order it, but instead I plead. Do not do this.

“Bao-Dur, you already have nightmares of the past, will you add another? Atton. You have hunted and killed enough of us. Killing her will not expiate that sin. Kreia,” I turned back to her. “If you have fallen, I will give my life to redeem you. Come back to us.”

For a moment, it was a frozen tableau.

I was outside in the canyon. I heard a shriek, and Visas tackled me, hugging me desperately, tears running down her face. I reached up, and the Handmaiden caught my hand. “Next time tell us where you are going.” She said, lifting the both of us to our feet. Then she enveloped up both in a hug.

“I am sorry.” I whispered. My free arm wrapped around Visas. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

We walked in a tight bundle back to the ship

Enroute to Dantooine

Kreia

As we lifted off, I heard Marai coming toward me. So now it comes, I thought. Will she merely condemn? Or will she listen?

“I want answers, Kreia. I want them now, and I want the truth.”

“I have never lied to you.”

“I met Sion, your student.”

I sighed. “A failed student of not that long ago. He cast me aside because in his own view, I was holding him back.” I smiled sadly. “The worst part of being a teacher is when those you have nurtured decide that you are too stupid to know better, as if youth gives them omniscience, but age blinds you. The master of your blind one is much worse than he.”

“What do you know of that man?”

“If he is still a man, he is the most dangerous. I do not think he can even sense you as yet. While you are gaining in power, you do not have the explosion of the force that would attract his attention. You are one candle in a sea of them. But as your power grows, you burn brighter.”

“What do you mean ‘if’ he is still a man?”

“There is a power little used among the dark arts. You yourself can manipulate the force. You can throw a wave of energy before you like a gust front that shatters the homes before the storm arrives. You have used it even to shred a blast door on Citadel station. But you could draw the force instead into you from the surroundings in such a way that you would need nothing else to live upon.

“It is so dark even the most evil among them knew of it but refused. Because like a body used to a narcotic, you become addicted to it. Normal food and drink no longer sustain you. It feeds you, but you no longer have a life of your own. From the moment you begin you live a half life. Your entire existence is nothing but searching for your next meal.

“He slaughtered her entire planet, but your Miraluka was spared. I would be asking why she of all of them survived. Why she became his disciple. Hold his slave close, my student. That knowledge will guide you in defeating him.”

“She no longer serves him.”

“Believe whatever pathetic illusions aid you. I will not argue.”

“So he feeds upon the force itself?”

“Yes, but another effect of that is that most of creation is now a blank slate to him. He cannot ‘see’ the worlds, only that which guides his hunger. To him we all of the living, are merely more food. I had hoped you would not have to stand against him. Frankly I do not know if any can do so and survive. The Council he slaughtered on Katarr was greater than all that survive, and they had no chance.

“Perhaps the death of that one you have suborned will give you the edge that is necessary. She might have to die to kill him.

“She is like the Handmaiden. She is a pawn in a game you play unnecessarily.” I saw her look. “Oh please, don't tell me you think your kind words and actions have overwhelmed a decade of Atris teaching her?”

“She has sworn allegiance to me.”

“She has broken her oath once, and what makes you think she will not do so again? However she like Visas, has her uses. Atris is your foe. But as she would use her puppet against you, so can we use that puppet against Atris.

“Knowing an enemy is an enemy is strength. You can guide their steps with the proper incentive, and make them an ally if only briefly.”

“You speak as if you know her well.”

“Not as well as I might have liked. If you mentioned my name to her, she would not recognize it, though she would know my face. Like me she was a librarian and a historian. But I followed that path before she was born.”

“You were an historian?”

“At the very Academy where we are bound. I was one of the good kind, rather than the others.”

“What?”

“There are three kinds of historian. There are those that are puppets of their nations. The one that paint an enemy as unremittingly evil, but all of yours are saints in comparison. Bao-Dur and Mandalore are of that type. Both see the evil the others do but tend to ignore what they themselves have done. They want to be judged by a standard the other side does not understand or accept.

“Then there are the self serving ones. The ones who look upon written history, and do everything to ‘revise’ or ‘update’ it. The ones that blame all of the Republic’s woes on the Jedi are that type. They always begin and end with ‘if only the Jedi had not’ or ‘If the Republic had instead of’.

“The last was the kind I was. I did not judge them by a standard of good or bad within the other view. I tried to judge both sides by their own standards to throw into contrast what the evil among them did. There were evil or venal men enough on both sides.

“If the rest of the Galaxy had known what was to come, perhaps they would have dug a Rancor pit and dumped all those that would cause so many deaths into it. Then they would have sold tickets as those men fed upon each other to survive. Cassus Fett dumped in with Lord Quintain. Those two alone would have been worth the price of admission!” I shook my head.

“The Jedi have been in existence for a thousand years before the Republic. 22 millennia of history, but so little is even looked at by the modern members. From the condemnation of Breia Solo and Sienna Dodonna of that time, to their fight against the order, to their redemption by that order, everything that has happened will happen again if you do not look on it and understand. Only the lucky are doomed to repeat history. The unlucky die never knowing.

“But the first thing you learn by looking that far back is that the high and mighty Jedi Code does not hold all of the truth. Too much has been expunged from it by those who felt others need not know. Too many evil deeds carried out with good conscience erased. The destruction of Uba by the Republic while the Jedi did nothing. The Jedi if they had but known it have done so before, and will again if they do not learn the lesson.

“I found that by creating a contrast, by throwing what is believed into sharper relief, the disparity between what is taught and reality is glaringly obvious.

“But my actions had consequences. Students listened to me, and used my meter to look at what the Council said. They recognized that like the Great Sith War of a millennia ago, the Council had put on blinders until too late. They called for their fellows to act, and those that led them came from Dantooine.

“When Revan and Malak left, I was blamed for those children. It wasn’t enough for true punishment, but an indiscretion of my past was more than enough. I was stripped of my titles, cast aside. But think you, girl of one thing.

“When you stood before the council, when they banished you, you thrust your lightsaber into the stone obelisk. You took the word Justice, and divided it into ‘seek’ and ‘truth’. Perhaps what I give you is the unvarnished truth. Something you have been seeking since that moment. It is up to you to decide.”

She looked at me. “If the council cast you out, it bothers me that Atris, Kavar and Zez Kai Ell didn’t sense you.”

“Perhaps they merely considered me of no consequence.”

“You’re lying.”

“Omission is not a lie, but I will accept your definition. There is a little known power of the force where a person can make themselves small, unnoticed. On those worlds where we have encountered them there is a great upwelling of either life or death that can be used by a wise person to conceal themselves.”

“Have you used this on me?” She demanded.

“Frankly, if I had you would not have even noticed. But know this, my student. My words, my actions is what you must use to judge me. I have shown myself as the old saying goes, warts and all, because I want your path to be set not by what I might do, but what you see and understand of my teachings. The path you must follow must be your own without my shoving you willy-nilly. If you take a step, it must be your choice, and yours alone.”

“As Revan followed your words into hell?”

“Revan listened to me, but it was not my words that drove her into hell. It was her own actions and intentions. She understood the problem. Of all I spoke to Revan was the swiftest at seeing that a lot of the blame had to rest on the time servers in the military, and those creatures that call themselves Senators. She knew even before she went to war that it might end with the Senate replaced by a more responsible body at her hand. Not as an evil usurper, but as a benign act of someone who cared. Once it was done, she would have given herself to the Council to be judged, as you did. As I said, it has happened before.”

I turned away. “But there was another influence. One that only I knew of, though I did not know it would become a problem when you bravely went off to war. An evil older than the Sith we know of. One that bequeathed the so called ‘Sith teachings’ Revan had to take the blame for. Like you, she accepted the blame for something she did not do.”

“But her troops fought to save the Republic!” She raged. “Then those same men turned and tried to destroy it!”

“Yes. But when they turned to attack the Republic, they did it at Revan‘s behest. What kind of power is this? You know it, even if you have refused to exercise it to it’s fullest. What did Atton say to you on Nar Shaddaa? They followed those with whom they shed blood because those Jedi they trusted with their lives. When the Sith teachings began to filter down, they accepted them not because they were right, but because those they trusted gave it to them.

“Slowly, before Revan had even noticed it, they became the very evil they had spent their lives to fight, and like a drug addict, they saw no way to step back into the light.

“You see the Sith has not been a race for over a thousand years. The true Sith died fighting against those that saw the Force as a handy tool rather than a precious burden. The Sith you fight are no more the evil empire than the Republic is the bastion of purity.”

“And what of Sion?

“Like the other he embraced what he has become because he gloried in it. When I tried to show him the way, he and another student cast me aside.”

“So you knew this force sucking monster personally?”

“Yes.” I turned. “I am tired. If you wish to kill me, do so. I am sick of questions.”

There was a long moment, then I heard her walk away.

Marai

I didn’t know what to believe. The woman that had brought me so far in regaining what I had lost had been the blame for my enemies. She had taught me so much, but she had given that same knowledge to my enemies, made them what I faced.

How could I be different from them? When would I fall?

I didn’t speak to anyone. I had to work through this, or simply go to the newly reformed council and beg that they destroy me. I worked on HK47 but quite honestly I got sick of his complaining. We did not have everything necessary to bring him back to full capability, and he knew it.

T3 was much more fun. I tinkered, fixing his motivator, working on his systems. He’d been a long time without a memory wipe, but I had grown to like his eccentricities.

“You’ve been through some hard times.” I said. “How long have you been aboard this ship?” He bleeped and warbled. “Almost six years? You must have seen a lot. How much did Atris get from you?”

He bleeped again, a long diatribe. “I don’t think they were being mean. I think they just thought you had information they wanted. Who owned this ship before?” He was silent. “Really, I could check the computer... But you have it voice locked.” He sputtered. “All right, whoever that person was had it voice locked. So no one can look at it without your help.” I sighed.

“I just wish I knew what was so important about the Ebon Hawk. A smuggler goes a lot of places there the data is confidential. Maybe your owner was-” He sputtered again. “All right, the owner wasn’t a criminal. I’ll take your word for it.”

I finished, and he ran around on the newly repaired systems again. “But there’s two of you.” He swiveled his head. “Who erased HK’s memories? Was that you or this owner?” He paused, then gave a small whistle.

“You did it, but were told by this person to do it?” He whistled again. “No, I’m not angry. I just wish you trusted me.” His reply would have been broadly translated as ‘It’s not you I don’t trust’. Whatever that meant.

*****

Telos

The command room was silent. The eldest sister sat, reading the reports. The Ebon Hawk had disappeared as if a stage magician was in charge. One of her younger sisters came in. “Reports from Dantooine and Onderon. They were at Nar Shaddaa briefly, and also at Onderon, but they have disappeared yet again.”

“Why does she not report personally?” The elder asked.

“I do not know. Why does she show so much willful disobedience to our mistress?”

“You are surprised?” The elder snapped. “She bears her mother’s face and blood. That kind will always fail to stand true.”

“Yet she shames us all now.”

“Even in the Art she shamed us. Her stance was always so defiant and passionate. She wanted us to accept her, but on her own terms. She did not accept that a sister of flesh cannot merely be sister of blood because it was what she wanted.”

“She tried so hard.” The younger said softly. “Perhaps...”

“Perhaps what?”

“If we had treated her as sister of both flesh and blood perhaps she would stand here with us now?”

“No. Her blood would tell after all. She has chosen exile rather than be with us, and her own stubborn refusal to contact us is proof of her heart.”

“Yes.” The younger agreed. But she still felt that failure.

Great chapter, mach. Marai's experience in the tomb sounded quite unpleasant.

My rationale for the tomb, which Revan did not find, was that there is a balancing point in your life where you will either become evil or good. What you face is those decisions you made that could have gone either way, or perhaps, as with Marai's two personal ones, where you didn't know the consequences of your actions. Like I was saying in the WW post over in Ahto, would Roosevelt and the New Dealers been willing to give up Eastern Europe if they had known the grief it would cause?

Marai's two personal ones, where you didn't know the consequences of your actions.

The first was with Malak, though would you say the second was when she decided whether or not to kill Kreia?

Like I was saying in the WW post over in Ahto, would Roosevelt and the New Dealers been willing to give up Eastern Europe if they had known the grief it would cause?

Very debatable. There would have been a horrific cost in the short term, much like the Mandalorian Wars.

The first was with Malak, though would you say the second was when she decided whether or not to kill Kreia?

No, the one at the pass (Where the Republic was worried about losses) because my version of marai refused to accept her losses that time. Then aboard the Mandalorian ship where she used the force to destroy the door, and stood there and allowed herself to be killed.

Any soldier has memories he would rather forget, where his Actions (#3) or inactions (#2) caused others to die unnecessarily. Any decent commander ends a battle with 'did I do everything I could to limit unnecessary casualties?'. Every one I have ever met has always answered with a resounding 'no'. Every man that has led in combat knows he could have done better. Even telling themselves that others would have screwed it up worse (Marai's version of the pass) tell themsevles that they could have done better. Even when it isn't true.

No, the one at the pass

Ah.

Say, machievelli, have you thought about including some of the cut content in your fic?

Ah.

Say, machievelli, have you thought about including some of the cut content in your fic?
?????????

As i told you, my machine categorically refuses to run 90% of the cut scenes. When Bao DUr poured out his heart, I assume there was a cut scene, but I never saw it.

?????????

You know, the cut content for TSL that Team Gizka is restoring? Seeing some in your fic would be nice.

As i told you, my machine categorically refuses to run 90% of the cut scenes. When Bao DUr poured out his heart, I assume there was a cut scene, but I never saw it.

The cut cutscenes make up only a very small percentage of the cut content.

Also, there was no cutscene for when Bao-Dur talks to you about Malachor. Just his dialogue.

Plese do, but send it directly to me e-mail so everyone else doesn't have to put up with our off topic commentary again.

The mom-erator and other moderators are very happy when people stay on topic. Thanks! :)

Dantooine

Marai

Dantooine was a pastoral world. The Jedi Civil War had come here not because of position, but through mere chance. When Revan had been redeemed, the woman she had become was brought here. She had left from here to undertake the mission of finding and destroying what she had found before.

Most of the story I still did not know. But Malak’s reaction was what I saw below me. There had been perhaps 20,000 people on Dantooine, and every city had been obliterated along with the Jedi enclave. They had been occupied for almost a year. Only the collapse of the Sith assault following Malak’s death had finally freed them.

The only spaceport was at Khoonda, a settlement that had been taken over by the government after the occupation ended. They administered to the four or five thousand that still remained of the planet’s original population.

When we announced our name there was a curious hesitancy in greeting us. I just hoped that whoever had owned this ship before hadn’t committed any crimes. We came down, and disembarked. The port officer, a woman named Dillan had a ready smile which slipped the instant she saw my lightsaber. “I would say welcome, but you will find little greeting from the people of Dantooine. The Jedi were blamed for the attack and occupation after all. For your own good, I would speak with Administrator Adare, conduct your business and leave before the average citizen find out who you are.”

“Where is the Administrator?”

“She is in the building. It used to be the estate of a man named Matale, but he died during the assault. His son Shen and that man’s wife gave the house to the government and moved into the Sandral estates to the south.”

“Not much left.” Atton commented.

“If it were not for the Administrator, there would be no one but mercenaries here. She was a minor official in the Agricultural Administration, but when she found she was the only member of our elected government, she took control. She has done yeoman work, and we owe our survival to her.”

“Then she has done well.” I commented. But you said mercenaries?”

“Yes. Dantooine is on one of the corridors fought over during both the Mandalorian and Jedi Civil Wars. A lot of men who fought no longer feel comfortable in normal society, and a lot of mercenaries have met here. They used our station here as a hiring hall for a while, but when the government tried to disarm them, they moved out into the latifundia. We can no more get rid of them that wipe out the Kinrath.”

“Problems?” I asked.

“The difference between a Mercenary and a bandit is as thin as a vibroblade’s edge, you know that. We do not have the troops necessary to take over a thousand of them into custody, and even knowing they are the seat of our problems, we can do little to stem their depredations.

“Worse yet, the farmers are too frightened of them. Those that are too outspoken tend to have fatal accidents. The rest give up food to the mercenary patrols. Until we have enough complaints, the Administrator can not ask for assistance from the Republic so she can do nothing. Not that the Republic has been of any help!” She added acerbically. “Those idiots in the Senate passed the Scavenge and Reclamation act!”

“But I thought Dantooine wasn’t part of that?” Bao Dur protested. “After all Telos isn’t.”

“But Telos is still being reconstructed isn't it?” Dillan snapped. “Scavengers can only operate on planets with viable atmospheres. So we have mercenaries forcing tribute and mangy scavengers stealing property and selling it back at inflated prices.” She snarled. “And when we do protest, the Republic answered that the Scavengers are a ‘local problem’ and must be dealt with by us!”

I saw that she had a real problem with the entire world, not just with me. I thanked her, and looked at the Handmaiden, Mira, and Visas. They slid the weapons back farther on their belts. without my saying anything.

“Greetings!” The voice was brittle and overly cheery. I turned, and there was an old B4 protocol droid standing there. “On behalf of the Khoonda settlement and Administrator Adare, I wish to welcome you to our planet!”

“Why you poor thing.” Bao-Dur said. “What happened to you?”

“The last thing I remember is the invasion by the Sith. This unit was at the Jedi enclave when it occurred, and was refurbished and assigned these duties.”

“And no one had bothered to do anything but switch you back on, I assume.” He looked at me, and I nodded.

As we left, I heard him saying. “All right, run a self diagnostic and report.”

*****

Handmaiden

The settlement around Khoonda was sparse, and I was sad. I had heard of the great beauty, the huge sky rays that flew harvesting aerial plankton in the green skies, the Blba trees. But the area had been cleared with a brutal hand, and the scars of war had not been erased.

The receptionist took one look, holding out his hand. “Scavengers have to register with the central authority. I need to see your license.”

“I have no license.” Marai replied. I-”

“Now see here, it’s bad enough the Senate rammed that Scavenge and Reclamation act down our throats, but the rules are clear. No license, no scavenging!”

“We are not here to scavenge.” She replied slowly. “I came to speak with the Administrator.”

He harrumphed. “All right, wait a moment. I have to check her schedule for today.” He checked his schedule, hissing because an icon was flashing. He tapped it, then froze, looking at me. “You came in aboard Ebon Hawk?”

“Yes.”

“It‘s a good thing you decided to come here. She had orders passed for the militia to ask you to come immediately.”

“Then it is good we had her on our schedule isn’t it?”

He gave her the look you get from every petty bureaucrat who suddenly realizes that you’re above his station. He signalled a page, spoke to her in a whisper, and sent us off.

The office was a small room crammed with three desks, piles and piles of files, and three people when we arrived. Administrator Adare took one look, and excused herself from the two people. She had the look of someone far out of her depth, and we were the plank she had seen floating by. “Welcome to the madhouse!” She said enthusiastically. “You are the one who... owns that ship?”

“We came in the Ebon Hawk, yes.”

“Good! Unless I am mistaken, the Ebon Hawk was owned by the Jedi, and was used to transport some of their people. Is this still the case?” The question was a plea.

“Yes I was a Jedi. But considering most people’s reactions-”

“Madam, I do not care if you were a Jedi, and if truth be known these people should be thankful the Jedi were here! It is sad the state they have been driven to, but I for one will be happy to see them restored to their former positions.

“In fact in the last few months I have been maintaining a discreet alliance with a Jedi. I assume you came because he asked you to?”

“No. I came seeking a Jedi. I doubt he would have known where I was to call.”

“Oh dear! That does make my problem more poignant, does it not?”

“What problem is that, pray?”

“Well I have this friend, let us say, we shall call him Vrook, all right?” I nodded. “He was my friend back when I was a middle level bureaucrat, and happy to be, and that friendship transcended our more recent problems. He came here in search of a Jedi they had exiled, yet when he discovered our mercenary problem he felt honor bound to assist us.”

“What manner of problem? I have heard that there were a lot of mercenaries here-”

“They are our problem. When I tried to stop their depredations, they refused to come near the settlement again. However in the last few weeks, they have encamped quite nearby.” She pulled out a paper map, and drew a rough circle with a fingernail. “This is where we are, but over here and here, they have set up camps, and for a while at least, tried to be secretive about it. My militia men have gone to check, but have been shoved aside by them. Vrook was worried that they were getting ready to attack us, and went to investigate. He sent off a signal to Onderon just a day or so ago, then went to the old Jedi Enclave. He said he had to gather the records and what he could save from it. The Scavengers have been trying to find a way in for the last two years, but he felt that he could get in where they have not. However he has not returned. Perhaps... Maybe you can find out what happened to him for me?”

“I will make it my first priority.” Marai told her.


Enclave

Marai

We were on our way back to the ship when we met Bao-Dur. “Say hello to my friend.” He said. The B4 was standing on it’s own feet, and appeared to be mobile again.

“Hello, B4.” I chirped.

“Welcome back, Padawan.” It replied. “It has been several years, but I am sure the rest of the Jedi will be happy to know you have returned.”

“Padawan?” An old man working on some equipment looked up, his face narrow with suspicion. “You’re a Jedi?” He demanded.

“I was, but-”

“Stay away from me, you witch!” He shouted, running. I stared after him, my heart falling. How could the Jedi regain their position when so many hated us?

“Shall I report your return?” The droid asked.

“To whom? The enclave has been destroyed, only Master Vrook is here?” I snapped. “Beyond him what do you even know about me, let alone the Jedi?”

“While you never had direct interaction with me, you are a part of my records.” The droid replied levelly.

“Oh really.” I turned, crossing my arms. “And what record of me is there?”

“You were the subject of a debate between Masters Vrook and Vandar not long before the Jedi went off to fight in the Mandalorian wars.”

“I was?”

“Accessing.” A hologram of the two masters appeared before us.

“...Today I heard her in a heated argument with my Padawan! Her master refuses to properly discipline her! Master Vandar, what are you going to do about this?”

“Master Vrook, while I appreciate your concern, she is not your student, therefore she is not your problem.”

“But she is completely uncontrolled! It is like dropping a pet animal in a pen. Some follow her slavishly. Whatever she tries, they also try! Others loathe her on sight.”

“It is true she is an average student when it comes to the force. However she is a natural leader. A unique strength tied to the ability to form ready links to others.”

“That is the whole point! She can form these links even to Jedi much superior to her in capability. While you consider her average I would be lying if I did not say she is a mediocre student. Zhar tells me that her primary ability is this ability to form bonds, and if that is all she has, what stops her from falling to the dark side?” The recording abruptly ended.

So I was mediocre. Nice to know. I looked at Bao Dur. “Finish any repairs you intend. I am bound for the Jedi enclave.”

I trudged aboard the ship. It is always painful when teachers you had decided you weren't worth the effort. I had spent three years before we marched off to war here, and to think that Zhar and Vrook had felt it a waste of time!

I had been a problem, true, because I was a highly athletic person. I will admit I was able to do a lot of things my fellow students could not. How was it my fault when people tried what I had done so readily, and failed in their own attempts?

Everyone was gathered, and I decided. I would take Mira, because she was our best at traps and mines. The Handmaiden because she was our best warrior. I mollified myself by knowing that we did not expect to go into combat, so my promise to Visas was saved.

we came down the ramp and there was a nattily dressed militiaman standing there.

“I am Lieutenant Berun Modrel, executive officer of the Dantooine volunteer military.” He announced unctuously. “You are a Jedi?”

I sighed. I had never been reinstated, but everyone seemed to think I had to be a Jedi. I was sick and tired of trying to explain that fact, so I let it slide. “Can I help you, Lieutenant?”

“Have you met our commander, Captain Zherron?”

“I have not had that pleasure.”

“I doubt you would find it one if you had. Our captain takes a very hands on control of our operations.”

I heard alarm bells at that. As many time as I had dealt with incompetents in command, I had not done what this man was doing. Going out of the chain of command to complain. He should have voiced any misgivings to the administrator, not me.

So why? I knew instantly why. he was executive officer. If I found that his commander was incompetent, and said so, who would step into that command slot? “Isn’t being a hands on commander a good thing?” I asked. Mira looked at me sharply. She had never seen my air-head act before.

“Well just between you and I he seems to think that everyone should obey all of the laws!” He laughed as if that was a good enough reason.

I admit that some laws are stupid, but as a famous man once said ‘The ballot box decides the laws, the jury box determines how good they are. But if all else fails, and bad laws survive, the ammunition box removes them‘.” As much as my friend here disagreed, I didn’t. “I can see where that might be a problem.” I said.

“It’s worse because most of the mercenaries that have come here are core systems men. They are used to more cool judgment.” He told me. “They are veterans that are looking for work, not ragamuffins that can be pushed around. The men follow him because quite honestly, a man who was a sergeant seems to be a professional, but you and I know that officers are not so bound by the rules.”

You arrogant little... I raged. Sergeants are called the backbone of an army for a reason! “Can’t someone do something about this?” I asked innocently.

“If someone looked at what he was doing with a professional eye, perhaps it could be fixed before he pushes the mercenaries into overreacting.” He said smoothly. “I have friends among them, and all Zherron is going to do is cause unnecessary damage.”

“I will keep an eye on him.” I promised.

We walked away, and once out of earshot, I growled. “”My boss is incompetent, so why don’t you get rid of him for me’? I snarled.

“Was I right when I thought that guy was slime?” Mira asked.

“You had him pegged.” I agreed. “One of those damn incompetent officers that made my life hell during the Mandalorian wars. Politically astute, and dumb as a post when it comes to his duties.”

We jogged along, heading North and west to the Jedi enclave. We dropped to a walk to rest, Mira beside me.

“Why did Hanharr hate you so much?” I asked.

“Sure you want to hear this?” She asked me.

“We have time for it, yes.”

“Well Hanharr was a total lost cause. He took me prisoner on a planet, locked me in slave bracelets, and dumped me on Nar Shaddaa for sale. But he didn't get paid for me, because I escaped. He came after me. I was hiding in the tunnels near the Jekk’Jekk Tarr when he found me. I had a bunch of mines I had collected, and I’d surrounded my hidey hole with them. He tripped one, and it blew out the air supply for the cantina. He was floundering around, trying to stay alive, and when he collapsed, I suddenly felt sorry for the big fur pile. So I pulled him out, and he lived. Worst mistake I ever made.”

“How so?”

“Hanharr is from some mid rim world that is owned by a Corp. Something with a lot of k s and Y s that nothing human can pronounce. From what I hear, Revan kicked Czerka off the planet, but that was after Hanharr was enslaved. He’d been declared a ‘mad-claw’. something to do with the claws they have. He’d gone really mad, and when Czerka caught him, he’d tried to buy his freedom by telling them how to get to his village. They attacked, and all of them died rather than be slaves.

“Of course, they had been lying, so he ended up as a slave anyway. He murdered the entire team that caught him, but he wore those damn manacles as if they were a badge of honor. He decided to make sure that every human he met got a taste of what he’d gone through.

“Have you ever heard of Dersonn III? The Iti cluster colonies?”

“Both settlements were destroyed.”

“Yeah. They met up with Hanharr. He made what Czerka did to his people look like a benevolent society. It’s like if your human, your some kind of animal he has to cage.

“To him, I was prey. I had gotten away, cost him money, and then I had to save his life. Really bad. You see his society has what they call life debts. If you save someone, they become your servant until the end of time. I don’t pretend to understand it, but he should be my servant and protector. But I am human and prey can’t be a master. If he had spent more time in the outside world, it might have helped, but the sanctity of the life debt is ingrained. As long as I live, I’m his master, and he won’t accept that a human can be. To him a life debt is a death sentence. Once I am dead, he is free, not before. Hell, in his religion, he can't even go into the great feast at the end of life if I am still alive. So he spent the last years on Nar Shaddaa pushing me when I was on a bounty. Shooting at my target to force a reaction, planting mines he hoped I’d trip. He kept wishing I would die.” She smiled sadly. “I didn't even hate the big lug. After the first few months I felt sorry for him. So twisted up inside, and nothing could change that. He’s dead, and like you I’ll mourn what he might have been. But I won’t lose any sleep over it.”

We came over the hill, and below us I saw a sight that tore at my heart. The Enclave had been the target of a massive bombardment. The mesas around it had been shattered, and the buildings had been pummeled into the ground as if by an angry hand. It was like leaving home for three or four decades, and seeing the corpse of your father after all of that time. The once strong man you had grown up with now withered.

I must have appeared distraught. The Handmaiden touched my arm. “It is almost dark. We should wait here, make our approach by daylight.”

I nodded wordlessly

****

Mira.

It was quiet around our fire. Marai looked as if her last friend had died, and the Handmaiden was so solicitous I wanted to barf. Hey, it was gone, in the past. Why spend so much emotion on something dead?

We had a meal, relaxing, and looking at the fire. Marai wasn't letting me slack on my lessons, and as much as I hated my newfound capabilities, I was happy we’d found something else for her to worry about. I was extending my senses, learning to find things and beings around us when I noticed someone watching us. I treated it like I was supposed to. It was a human. He was armed, but not heavily compared to the average merc. A lot like a scavenger or bounty hunter. I told Marai.

“Yes.” She replied. “I noticed him when we stopped. Perhaps he watches us hoping that we will lower our guard, but I sense no animosity toward us personally.” She looked to the Handmaiden. “Do you think she is ready?”

“Yes, my sister.” The ash blonde woman replied. “She could slip up upon him and find out what he is thinking.”

“Hey, wait a minute.” I protested. “You want me to what, hunt this guy?”

“Just go up and if he notices you, ask him to join us.”

“Well all right then.” I stood, and used some of the skills I had honed. A lot of them were natural. I could vanish in a crowd if I wanted to, I had just found out that it was an ability linked to the force. I slipped out heading away from him, and did a wide loop.

I came up behind him silently. It was a large man with a haircut that looked like they’d just trimmed it even with a bowl they’d stuck on his head. He was watching the fire, and as I stepped up behind him he spun, clawing for a blaster on his hip. I dropped the lens of my lightsaber so that it aimed at his chest from half a meter away. He froze. Obviously he knew one touch and the blade would pierce him if he moved.

“You know, we have a fire and food. If you want you can come down there.” I told him.

He looked at me, then back at the fire. “I had considered it. But what of your fellow travelers? Will they be as amenable?”

“Our leader actually asked me to extend the invitation.” I replied.

“Then such politeness deserves a response.” He stood, brushing off his clothes. “I assume I should go ahead, and you may follow?”

“After the life I have led, that’s a pretty smart decision.”

*****

The Disciple

I cursed at my stupidity. i had not assumed Marai Devos would be here, nor had I taken into account that she might have such efficient followers.

The girl that had slipped up on me was wearing what I would describe as Nar Shaddaa ‘I don’t care it’s comfortable’ leather and silks. Yet her grip on her saber staff was firm, and if I had wanted to fight, she could have ended it with one flick of her thumb.

The two women at the fire looked up as I came forward. I gave my courtly bow, and Marai Devos merely nodded. “Sit.” She said. I took the seat, and accepted a cup of tea. “Is there a reason you follow us?”

“It is not you personally I have been watching.” I told her. “Since I have come I have been watching many people.”

“Why did you come here?” She asked.

“I am an historian and scientist, though my contemporaries would consider me more the former than the latter. I am Mical. I came from Coruscant to search the temple below.”

“So did a lot of scavengers.” Marai replied sourly.

“Madam I am not a scavenger. I was trying to rescue the record held below. I have spent a lot of time and money doing so.” I sighed. “Do you know how important the archive of the Jedi will be in the future? I found that too many of those Scavengers below, “ I pointed at one of the fires, “Have been using priceless books to light their fires! I bought the entire local supply of fire lighters to rescue them, and still had to pay!”

“Such cretins.” The blonde woman said sarcastically.

“Since by definition, a cretin is subhuman in intelligence, I must agree.” I told her. “I rescued priceless works but in so doing I found that those below were not the only ones stealing them. A lot of the records I searched for had been stolen by obvious thugs, but some had been taken from places where only those familiar with the enclave would have even looked. As if the Jedi themselves had stolen them.”

“Stolen?” The blonde looked at me with a gaze just above absolute zero. I think that you underestimate the cunning of those beasts below.” She jerked her head toward those distant fires. “Even at their height, the Jedi could not protect their records from men that will search anywhere in the hopes of gaining more coin. Besides, most of the Jedi that lived here died in the destruction and those that did survive would not be stealing if they rescued their records.”

“It was a poor choice of words, and for that I apologize. But records were missing, and some of them are priceless. Look at this.” I opened my pack, and held out a pad. “This is what they left. The teachings of master Arca who taught Ulic Qel Droma, and this, the works of Master Bossk who died stopping his student Exar Kun. The collected works of Master Kae, and Zhar of this very Academy.

“I found copies of the Adventures of Jolee Bindo on his Rimward missions. But these copies I save might be all of what remains throughout the galaxy. This devastation of their records is tantamount to the destruction of the entire archives of Ossus in the Crom Drift during the Great Sith war of a millennia ago.

“There has been an organized operation by my organization to gather these together, but a number were taken by ruffians, stolen to be hidden in some hoard for someone to gloat over.”

“We will not gloat if we find anything.” Marai said.

“I wonder, might I ask a question?” She looked at me, then nodded. “Why do you go to the enclave?”

“Because a man I respected for over a decade might have been killed there.”

“Master Vrook I assume?” They all looked at me. “I saw him taken by the mercenaries yesternight. He was taken toward their camp to the east.”

“Then we need not bother with the Enclave.” Marai sighed. “Go to sleep, man. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

The next morning, they began to jog eastward. I watched them run, then I myself ran for Khoonda. I had to report.

Rescue, sort of...

Marai

I tried to send Mira back to the ship, but she was adamant. If the mercenaries had Vrook, she was not going to run home. I was distraught because I was seeing the gentle girl I had met turning into a stark warrior.

We bellied down on a mesa, and scanned the mass of people ahead of us. I watched silently as men exercised, cleaned their weapons, and relaxed.

“I make it just under six hundred.” I said.

“As do I.” The Handmaiden commented. “But I see no holding facility of any kind.”

“Isn’t one.” Mira commented. “If they had one it would have made sense to put it right there.” She motioned toward the center of the camp. “But there’s nothing bigger than a tent anywhere. Did you notice them?” She motioned toward one end of the camp. Four score Mandalorians. “Maybe we should tell Mandalore?”

I nodded, and we moved back from the crest. I contacted Mandalore, and I sat considering. “If they thought the Bounty was still active, they might separate him.”

“Yeah, but Goto pulled it!” Mira said.

“Perhaps the word has not come down.” The Handmaiden said.

“Ebon Hawk, I would like to speak with Goto.”

“Wait one.” Atton replied. Goto came on a moment later.

“Sorry to bother you, but wasn’t the bounty on Jedi pulled?”

“Mine was, but I was one of three such bounties. One is undoubtedly the Sith, however the other appears to be a Republic military bounty for information on locale rather than capture. The first is sizable, but smaller than the one I had started. Perhaps ten percent of what mine had been The Republic one, as the wording suggests, is much lower.”

“So we’re still hunted.” Mira sighed. “You know just for once I’d like to have someone not trying to kill me!”

“The Sith bounty is for living Jedi only.” Goto replied.

“That’s good at least.” Mira agreed.

“But condition beyond living is not specified. They could no doubt remove all limbs at the major joints and still get paid. Unlike me, they probably don't wish to merely talk with a Jedi.”

“Oh.”

“We’ll just have to be faster and smarter.” I said. “So, where is he?” I considered trying to feel him, but as yet I was still having trouble. I signaled the others to watch, and tried to hear and see him.

It was dark. I could feel movement, but see nothing. I felt pressure, the weight of tons of earth. Then I felt the sting of an electro-cage. I was staring out of it, glaring at the bustle of movement of the mercenaries. They ignored me.

I was pointing, gasping for breath. “Five kilometers. A cave.”

We moved around the mesa, staying out of sight of the mercenaries. We moved fast, flying across the latifundia in long loping arcs.

The cave was there, and Mira stopped me. She slid forward, and one by one cleared us a path through the field. Then we moved into the darkness.

I found that the walls gave off a phosphorescent glow. We moved on, and came to a side cave. It had been turned into a command post. A dozen mercenaries were gathered around a panel of monitors, checking the disposition and equipment of scattered teams. From what I heard, there were more than a thousand of them.

“Section four is still behind on equipment, sir.” The mercenary Captain was telling a man via a holo vid. “They’ll be equipped by 1400 hours day after tomorrow.”

“Better than I anticipated at least. How is our guest doing?”

“He’s still adamant that he sent for no assistance. But he gave me a name for this baby Jedi that our friends reported. Marai Devos.”

The man’s face froze. “Devos. I remember her. If it is her she might be a problem, but I think I have a way to control that. Move the Jedi to the camp. I’ll send a skimmer, and we’ll take him out immediately.” He grinned at her. “The Exchange might have removed the bounty, but we’ll still share a tidy sum.”

“Yes, sir.” The vid went off, and she walked over to face Vrook. “All right, old man, you can come quietly, or my friend there will see what stun setting we need to make your life miserable.” A man brought over a slave collar. “Sith design slaver’s collar. It detects any attempt to move, and if it’s outside the parameters we set, it locks the muscles down. If that happens, we’ll just stun you and say to hell with it.” She motioned, and the cage came down. Vrook allowed them to lock the collar on him. The woman took a control, and hit a button. The old man spasmed, collapsing on his side “See? It works!”

I leaped forward from the shadows, and the woman’s hand with the control flew aside. The second blade split her in half. I saw a flash of blades to my right and left, and the others were down and dying before I turned.

I got the control, locked it on safe, then Mira began picking the lock. Vrook looked up. “Oh, it’s you.” He said with disgust.

Most people need a lot more words. When he said it, I immediately translated it as; I’m sent on a stupid mission to find an ungrateful wretch, find the entire planet is going to be taken over, end up in enemy hands, am planning my escape, but you have to show up right now. Hello, you.

“Always leaping in without thinking, Apprentice.” He snarled. I stiffened. I had forgotten my demotion before the trial. He saw my look. “What, you expected thanks? Khoonda is in danger and you have just ruined the best chance we had for a peaceful settlement!”

“I apologize for interfering, Master Vrook. I was only trying to help.”

“Your help might have doomed the people of this planet, Devos. If Khoonda falls, the entire system may be lost to the Republic. Actually I am surprised how well you have done. Probably your Jedi training is still usable.”

He glared at me. “Just like before, you are ignoring the consequences of your acts. Did you learn nothing from the carnage of the Mandalorian wars?”

“Master-”

“I will not hear it! We told you that there were unexpected ramifications, and you all blindly charged in anyway! The Mandalorian wars set the stage for the Civil War, and look at it what it has cost! No matter how pure your motives, you caused more grief than the Mandalorians would have caused if they had won! Telos, Taris, Dantooine, all have suffered because of you!” His glare centered on me. “The way most feel about the Jedi is your fault too, don't forget that. The people of Dantooine hate us because we acted no better than the Sith.

I said nothing. He would not have listened even if I had spoken.

“At least I discovered what is happening. An Exchange official named Tagreth has hired these men to stage a coup. By this time next week, they will be in control, and the Exchange will move in and own this planet. I had hoped they would send me to this man so I could deal with him directly, but you had to ‘rescue’ me. Since they have lost their captured Jedi prize, the only thing they can do is attack, and quickly.

“I am going to Khoonda. I suggest you board your ship, and get out of here before you destroy even more.” He stalked away.

“Marai.” I felt a hand on my shoulder. Mira shook her head. “I remember men like that from when I was a kid among the Mandalorians. No matter what you do, he’ll label you a failure.”

“Yes.” The Handmaiden added. “His stance is defensive. He assumed you would resist, take him to task for what you perceived as his own failures. We should go, but the people here still need us.”

We went through the papers, including a copy of the plan. The commander, a man named Azkul was going for a two pronged attack, catching the small garrison in a vise. He would kill the Administrator, place his own puppet in charge, and fade away again.

The holo vid chimed. We froze, then it lit as the man on the other end activated it. He had once been handsome, but a scar had ripped down the left side of his face, and the left eyes was now a white ball.

“When Harken didn’t report as she was supposed to, I felt it was probably you, Devos.”

“Azkul I assume.”

“Yes.” He looked at me calmly. “When I heard you might be here, I looked at your record. The files I took with me when I left the Sith were extensive. An exiled Jedi, stripped of your powers by your own people. May I ask what you think you are doing? It’s not like the people of this benighted planet want help from the biggest mass murderer in history.

“But you seem to have that same stubborn streak that I have found in every Jedi I have killed even without your powers. I am committed to this operation, and you have only three choices. You can leave immediately, assist me in carrying out my mission with a minimum of bloodshed, or you can help them in their vain hope of surviving. However I will warn you that if you do the first or the last, there will be repercussions.”

He leaned forward, smiling. “We’re not paid to murder the innocent, but there are almost five thousand civilians, farmers, scavengers, personnel at the Star port, what have you. They are now my hostages, woman. If I lose one man more than I anticipate I will order the deaths of all of them. Those lives will be on your head.”

“They will not.” I hissed. “Throughout history monsters have threatened the innocent and blamed others, and it has always been false. If they die, your men will have killed them, and you yourself will be to blame. Giving into a brute only gives the brute a cheap victory. You will not get one as long as I live.”

“Ah and what of your friends?” He smirked. He motioned toward a small box before him. “When I push this button, your ship will be destroyed, and you friends killed. I will no longer negotiate. Come to my camp now, or they all die.”

I thought of Visas Kreia Bao-Dur Atton even T3. “Push it. It will not change my mind.”

He sneered, slamming the button flat. “Remember you could have saved them all.”

Preparations

Mira

It was a nightmare. It was almost ten kilometers to Khoonda. We ran, knowing we were too late.

We were almost there when I waved for them to stop. I walked ahead, scanning left and right. “Republic mines, but they’re laid out wrong.”

“We don’t have time-”

“Remember that woman said ‘our friend’? How much you want to bet the defenses they have were buggered?” I asked. “You lay mines wrong they don’t do any good.”

“We can worry about that when we arrive.” Marai said.

We ran on. The building looked as if they had never heard of war. I looked at the turrets facing east. They should have been tracking us, but weren’t. More proof.

We were amazed to discover the ship and our friends uninjured. Bao Dur had been suspicious of a package someone had set against the forward landing strut and had removed a thermal detonator triggered bomb that would have blown the ship and the docking bay apart.

Administrator Adare listened to us, and nodded. “We can’t defeat them Our militia is not trained for a full scale battle against hardened troops.”

“Madam, it is a matter of repairing your defenses.” Marai told her. “And getting all of the farmers in where it will be safer.”

“But we have no space for all of them! I’ll have them surrender-”

“We can’t do that.” Marai sighed. “The commander tried to convince me to help him. I refused. He threatened that if we put up any real resistance, everyone on the planet dies.”

She stared at Marai. “And you couldn’t just lie to him?”

“And have him enraged when he found out I had?” I asked. “If the farmers are left at their homes, there is no way to protect them even if you had ten thousand troops. Here they have a chance.”

“But we have to get the defenses back on line.” I said. “The turrets weren’t tracking, and the minefield to the east were improperly laid.” Marai looked at me.

“My friend is an expert of sorts on mines.” She commented.

Adare called in the militia commander Zherron. He looked at the defenses, and shook his head. “The turrets have been offline with mechanical faults for the last three months. We had droids, but they are down. As for the mines, Modrel took a team out just yesterday to lay them.”

“He did.” The Handmaiden replied levelly. “How long has this man been your executive officer?”

“Five years now. He didn’t like it. He was riffed by the Navy right after the Jedi Civil war ended. Thought he should have had my job.” He sighed. “Ever find yourself in command of someone you would have had to call sir before?”

“Yes I did.” Marai told him.

“So what are you saying? That he set this up?”

“It would appear so. He was hoping we would notify the Administrator that you were incompetent.”

“That...” He picked up his com link. “Control.”

“Control, trooper Kastan here.”

“Find Lieutenant Modrel and have him report to the Administrator’s office.”

“Sorry sir, The lieutenant has checked out for the day. He had vacation time due, and decided to take the next four days.”

He looked at Marai. “I hear tell you’re The Marai Devos.”

“Yes, I am.” She said softly. I could feel her worry. If all this man remembered was Malachor...

“Well I have about two hundred men. More warm bodies than anything else. They’re armed, but with whatever they kept from the war, and a couple of stashes this Sanderal guy had never reported. They’re slow, overweight, and most have never faced an enemy in their lives. Our systems have been systematically screwed up according to you, and if we fail everyone dies.

“Heard you performed miracles during the war.” He waved toward the building. “Can you do it again?”

She sighed. “It looks like a case of have to rather than can I.”

“You have my full support.” Adare told her. “Save us, please.”

Marai seemed to shrink, then stood tall again. “Mira, get everyone from the ship. Leave T3 and Kreia there, but that includes HK.

“Sister, look over their positions. We have to change them and don't have a lot of time. Captain Zherron, I hope you men know how to operate a shovel...”

*****

Bao Dur.

I looked at the control panel, and began a diagnostic on the gun turrets. Someone had fed in an algorhythm which designated everything that moved as a target. Since they were behind most of the Militia positions, it would have slaughtered them if it had been activated.

I tried to reset it, but the system refused. It was a five day job, and we didn’t have five days. Instead I targeted all fire a minimum of fifteen meters from the building. It meant that a fast running force would get close, but it was the best I could do. Then I went down to the droid storeroom.

There were a dozen of them gathering rust. I started activating them, and had to buy equipment from the little electronics salesman that had set up shop in one of the rooms of the building. I had them all up and running when I found out why they were out of action in the first place. I knew the General would be very interested.

*****

Mira

Gently I emplaced the mine. I had left the first two in the sequence that had been laid alone. That way, they would think it was still as it had been so poorly set. I emplaced mines where they would have to kneel to try to take out the turrets from a safe distance, and where they would dive for cover when the guns began firing. I had a lot of loose explosives, and I had laid out where the mines should go as I made up a few jury rigged ones. I was down to wrapping commo wire and steel strips around them in lieu of shrapnel, but beggars can‘t be choosers.

*****

Atton

“Listen ma’am, we don’t have the time.”

“But my husband left for Khoonda, I have to ask him what to bring-”

I took her hand. “Ma’am, when he gets there, they aren’t going to let him leave. The mercenaries are going to kill everyone and we can’t protect you here.” Please, get aboard.”

“I don’t even know you-”

“But you know me Elsba.” Trooper Kail said. I had been chosen because I could fly the ship, but Anara Kail was the person everyone liked. This was the fourth farm we had stopped at, and every one of them had needed her touch. She didn’t argue with the trooper. I helped the woman load some things, looking at the cargo bay. Seventeen people so far. We were only hitting the farms that didn’t have com systems. It was taking too long.

“Next place, I’ll let you do the talking.” I said lifting off.

*****

Handmaiden

I moved slowly, looking for our enemy stopping beside a Blba tree. I could see for three kilometers ahead here, and I slowly scanned with my electro binoculars. Three kilometers before me, four behind me, that equaled an hour and a half before anyone I saw would be in position to attack.

They were frantically trying to get the rest of the civilians in but there were no guarantees we would succeed. A man once likened an emergency evacuation to emptying a bag of sugar. No matter how well you do it, some persistent grains are still in it. In fact My battle sister’s main hope was that they would try to attack us first, because we would at least bleed them enough that some would be missed.

The night had been rent by hundreds of people moving. Swoops being repaired, turrets now tracking as commanded. Droids rolling about, their weapons ready. The space port hangers had been jammed solid with people, and now she had the additional worry that one mortar round off range could kill all of those she wanted to save. We didn’t have enough men to cover every possible target, it was that simple.

I saw movement, and watched as a squad moved forward. Luckily, they had assumed that we would fight them on the ground because there their power was overwhelming. There were a few swoops, but they stayed in watch positions above their men. I called in a report, then moved back to the next ridge. I would shadow them from the front until they reached the valley.

*****
Visas

I sat, listening with the force. I felt a movement headed toward us very fast. But it was only one man. “Tell Marai that Master Vrook is returning.” I felt a storm cloud behind the old man, evil clouds with sheets of pure red fury in it. “The enemy troops are behind him about two kilometers.”

*****

Marai

I looked at the map, and my heart sank. We could slow them, bleed them, but I couldn’t guarantee we’d stop them. Five or more to one. I heard a shout of panic and stepped out of the small defile. A hundred odd Mandalorian warriors were marching toward our positions, and men started to raise their guns. “Hold your fire.” I ordered over the all-com channel. I went forward.

Mandalore motioned. “My people are out of this. They will await transport to Dxun.”

“How did you do that?”

“Back when the Mando-a first fought, we did so as mercenaries. The old laws says all contracts are held by the Mandalore. I merely revoked their contract.”

“I doubt it was that simple with Azkul.”

“No. He has made some rather stupid threats, but he has to get here to follow through on them. My men will go in there and await transport.” He signalled and the men we so desperately needed walked past us into the spaceport complex.

“But Mandalore-”

“I cannot order them to fight against those that had hired them.” He told me softly. “You know that. It would be dishonorable.

“However, my men are not going to sit on their butts and be slaughtered. I have told them that until the transport arrives that port is our bivouac, and we will defend it, and everyone in it. That I swear.”

I felt a rush of joy at that. Fully a third of our men were in positions designed primarily to protect that mass of humanity. “Then I will allow you to do that.” I lifted my com. “Platoon seven, hand over your positions to the Mandalorians. They won't fight beside us, but they will protect your families. The Mandalore has sworn it.”

There was a flash of movement, and Master Vrook came running in the long force assisted lope of a runner. He glared at me, then went to Zherron. His mood grew darker when that man signaled for him to tell me.

“They are coming. Thanks to your Mandalorian friend-” He said it like a highly religious man would say ‘whore’. “-They are down to just under 600 to the east. I don’t have time to check the west-”

“They are moving in now, Master.”

He growled. “Are you fully satisfied with your actions? These people will die thanks to you-”

“Master, as I am no longer a Jedi, I do not have to take this from you.” I turned, facing him squarely. “You see, like any religion, when you excommunicated me, I no longer had to answer to you.

“I was sent to find you all by Atris. She sent me to Onderon, to Nar Shaddaa, to Korriban to gather you all together. It was not my choice to be on this planet, and my arrival did not create this situation. But I am here, and these people need someone who has fought before to lead them.

“I did not protest the Council's actions when you exiled me. I gave up my entire life when you did. No doubt you think I spent time in the ranks of the Sith, and when you went looking for me you looked there first. After all, this is all I had left. But I walked away from war for almost ten years. I wasn’t willing to go to war again for anybody.

“The one thing the entire council ignored was we did what our teachers had taught us our entire lives. Put ourselves, our own bodies and lives between danger and those we were sworn to protect. While you complained that we didn’t listen we died. None of that Council had fought in a real war except for Kavar and Vash, but you condemned us for using war to end a war.

“Perhaps you were right, perhaps we failed in our charge when we did. But it was the only logical alternative most of us saw. I accept that we were wrong in the end. But I will not run away now or let these people die when you no longer have the authority to tell me what to do."

I sighed. “Master, when battle this is over, you may judge me as you wish and I will allow you that. But until that time, I will fight for them.”

He looked like I’d stuffed a lemon in his mouth, but nodded.

“If you would, go within and guard the Administrator. If she dies, we have failed.”

Atton came running up. “No more flights. There’s maybe five, six hundred still out there but we’re out of time.”

“No help for it. Are you going to man the ship?”

“No. T3 told me he’s run the guns before, I’m going to leave it with him and Goto on board. When the attack starts, they can lift up and strafe the enemy lines, or shoot down incoming. I’m going to man a swoop.” He pointed at the area where a bunch of the younger troopers were running them out. “Those kids think this is a cavalry charge, and they’ll get eaten up if they do it that way.”

“Be careful.”

He stormed away, and I went to Zherron. “Have you talked to the men?”

He shook his head. “Ma’am, I’m a soldier, not a politician. All I ever say to men I take into battle is ‘follow me‘.”

I had sensed a lot of worry out there. These men who had played at soldier for years were suddenly thrust into the front lines. My force was a glass bowl that would shatter at the first blow if they did not stiffen their spines. “Gather them over there by the main door.”

I went over, looking for my spot. The door opened, and the Administrator came out, followed by Vrook. She started to speak, but then stopped as the men came. They were filthy from digging in, tired because we had worked all night to get ready. Somehow I knew that if I failed in what I was about to do, they would run at the first shot. I motioned for the Administrator to stand aside.

I stood up on the edge of the planter, looking down at them. For a long time, the grumbling had continued, but as they noticed my silent regard, they fell silent. 200 men. That was all we had, and the enemy were a thousand or more.

“For those of you who have never seen me or my face, I am Marai Devos. I just wanted for you all to see that I am not three meters tall, covered with fur, and feeding on my own dead.”

There was a little laughter out there.

“Too often a leader will stand there, and impugn your manhood, or exhort you to stand because your families are in there.” I hooked a thumb toward the docking bays of the tiny space port. “They’ll tell you that you will be shrouded in glory, that your sacrifice will be remembered forever. I’m not going to do that. If the truth is not what you want to hear, I’ll find someone to lie to you.

“The odds are crap. We are outnumbered by five to one, and they are better armed. They have assault droids, and we don’t. They are trained professionals, and you’re just a bunch of guys trying to add to your take home pay. Glory? It doesn’t put food on the table, or protect your children. Honor? While I put store in my personal honor I have never been given a centi-cred because I hold to it. Does that pretty much cover the totally screwed position we’re in?”

“Damn straight.” Someone whispered. I looked down at him, grinning. ‘Good. Hate to be so terrified if I had no reason.” There was another chuckle. “Yeah, you’re scared but I’ve got a secret for you. So am I. I fought an entire war with that fear inside me every second. So when I speak, I’m not the hero on a podium, or the monster I am painted. I am a frightened human being right now people, just like you. Join the club.

“Did you know that I was offered a way out of this? The commander of those men told me personally that if I would bugger your defenses, that if I was willing to sacrifice all of you men, that your families would be safe. He also told me that if I didn’t help him, none of you would live. That he would slaughter you down to the last baby.

“Yet I am here with you now.

“Except to those that survive, this battle will be a footnote in history. We will fight and die, and a hundred years from now some fool will make it a punch line for a bad political joke. There will be no parades, no days named in your honor . Anyone who doesn’t want to fight can run, and I won‘t stop you. Anyone willing to let their families live that kind of life with them has my blessing to take a skimmer and get the hell out of here. “But I will tell you right now, that I will be staying.”

I jumped down, walking among them. “We don’t fight for territory here. We fight for your homes, and your families. I have a ship in there.” I pointed again at the space port. “I can get out of here at any time, and to tell you the truth, part of me wants to cower aboard and see the last of Dantooine. I want to see tomorrow, but the other part of me thinks of you men, your children, your wives, your brothers and sisters left in their hands. Part of me says, if I will not die to defend these people, what world is important enough to die for?

“So run if you want. I will not live to see your families killed. I will not drink in the Cantina and remember those dead. I will either live to drink those toasts with them, or I won’t live at all. It’s that simple.”

They were silent, staring at me. My words were so soft that those at the back leaned forward to hear. “My friends may run, I may be the only one standing here when they come, but I swear before all the gods of man, I will be here. Your society may die, but I. Will. Be. Here. So if you want to run, start now. I don’t know how long I will live. But that building-” I pointed at the fragile structure. “-That hope for your home and very way of life is where I stand and die.”

I walked back to where I had stood before, but instead I sat down. “So if you’re going to run, do it. I have work to do before they come.”

They stood there, then suddenly there was a roar. Men waved their guns, screaming. I heard my name used and I raised my hand. “No. Do not go to war with my name on you lips.” I leaped back up. “Home!” I screamed.

They repeated it, and it became a chant. No one was running, the faces had lost that fear, and a terrible resolve had taken it’s place.

“Stations, people. Be careful, may the Force watch over you all.”

Vrook whispered savagely, but the Administrator waved him off. She nodded to me, and went back inside. The Handmaiden came in. “They are a kilometer behind me.”

“They’ll have to coordinate the attacks.” I mused. “You know your position?”

“As much as it should by your side, yes. I will command the west left, Zherron the right. You will command this side.”

I nodded. HK had disappeared. I wondered, but I couldn’t really see where he would have been a major help. Mira would be on my right and control the mines, Atton would be our cavalry, Bao-Dur would run the turrets and droids. Mandalore commanded the defense of our civilian charges. Visas came from the building.

“I hold you to your promise.” She whispered.

“If she dies Visas, I will be... upset with you.”

“No more than I will.”

“We have to get ready.” I hugged the Handmaiden. “Go my sister. Be careful." Stay alive.” She grinned, and was gone.

Mira came up, fiddling with the pad she had rigged activate her mines and other improvised devices. “You know these will only take a few minutes to go through.” She commented. “What then?”

“Head for the star-port, my sweet. From that point on it will be blood and pain.”

“Right.” She wandered back to her position.

I heard the snarl of Swoops taking off. I only hoped we were ready.

I am not going to post until the entire battle montage is done. That is why the section just posted was so short.

Marai's awfully charismatic. It should be interesting to see how you have her fend off a superior enemy that outnumbers the militia. In the game it seemed kind of ridiculous that the Ebon Hawk's crew could fight off an army almost singlehandedly.

The Battle

The mercenaries moved forward. They knew what the enemy had, knew their defenses. There would be no surprises.

*****

Atton

I felt the wind whipping at me as we shot out from the settlement. There was a black blot ahead of me. The mercenaries were forming up for their attack. “All right, you know the drill! One pass, haul it back to the building.”

The three with me answered. I worried more about the other four heading east. Unfortunately the best of them was a hot dog, and it isn’t a good combination. As the old saying goes, there are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.

But I couldn't be in two places at once.

We swept into sight, then turned to the north, and the guns on the ground turned to follow us. they no doubt expected us to continue, come in from behind, then sweep through.

Guess again.

Two of the kids dropped so low they were scraping the grass, and moved back along our track. The one with me stayed stuck on my right as we howled north. We stayed low, and I could see their swoops headed for the rear to blindside us.

I head a click. The others were in position. I spun the bike on it’s axis, and was howling back at them at the speed of heat. There was a flash of faces below me staring in shock as I came over them, but I wasn’t shooting. I pressed the button and the two boxes of primed grenades behind me fell in a swath. To my right my wingman had done the same, and ahead of us and slightly to the left and right came the others.

Explosions walked through the massed men, and as we went Winchester on the bombing run the other two came through one above and the other below
our swaths and did the same.

“Run!” I shouted. I turned toward the settlement, mentally making an assessment. Maybe a hundred or two killed. I looked back, and one of my men was turning toward the swoops that were chasing us. “Number four! Obey orders damn you!”

He hesitated, and they overran him before he could start his turn. One of them went with him at least, but they had a couple dozen swoops to our eight. They could afford that loss.

We ran toward the settlement, hugging the earth as we did. The enemy followed. They had newer faster bikes. It was only a matter of time, and the four kilometers to the settlement wasn’t enough for us to really try to evade. All we could do was dodge their fire.

I saw the marker ahead. Mira had blown a tree down, making what for our enemy would be a handy abattis. “Now!”

We hit our retro thrusters, and dropped behind it, then dived from the bikes, huddling in, hoping it would work...

The enemy did what standard procedure ordered. Half of them cut right, half left, to sweep in from both sides, then they climbed to get a better angle...

The turrets on the west flank roared. Of the dozen swoops, five were blasted before they even knew they were under fire. Only three were able to escape, and one of them was smoking from a hit.

“Are you still there?” Bao-Dur asked.

“Yeah!”

“You have time for one more run.”

“I heard that!” We jumped on our bikes, running like hell for the settlement. We landed, and men began loading the last boxes of grenades. Only one returned from the east, and it wasn’t the hot shot.

“Number two, you help out on the east.” I ordered.

*****

Mercenaries

An army is as much an organism as the men within it, and this being recoiled from the pain. The brain was pushing it forward, but it was now wounded and tender. It would not move as fast as they wanted.

*****

Bao-Dur

It was an intricate dance, and Atton had proved he knew the steps to this pavane. His second strike didn’t do as well as the first of course, but the front of the enemy wave was now a snarled mess. His men had gained us some time, but only two, both of them from his group returned from that attack. They had been hurt but not as badly to the east. No one who had gone that way had lived, and now the enemy only had seven swoops total. I spotted a movement on the long range scanners. “Mandalore, there is a speeder section heading for the berm.” I reported.

“We’ll be ready.”

*****

HK

The four land speeders landed, and a dozen of my immature brethren disembarked. If I had been merely human I would have snorted. Genetic beings tend to think of themselves. They take cover, or wait for the others to arrive. But these improperly programmed things merely stood there until finally one of them motioned toward the berm.

“Irritated statement: Why must we corral the hostages?” One whined.

“Equally irritated response: Because if it were humans that undertook this mission, they would not be as efficient.” Another retorted.

I looked at the panel not-a-meat-bag Mira had made for me. She had known what I was doing. I wondered if she had notified not-a-meat-bag Marai and not-a-meat-bag Mandalore?

Unlike them I was under cover, my weapon extended. There was a Rodian meat bag named Adun Larp in the compound, and I had convinced him to let me have a Mandalorian heavy repeating blaster rifle by promising not to unscrew his head. As they approached my position, I set my finger on the trigger button.

Query: Who do humans and other organic meatbags assume that droids must use their equipment? I understand the logic of making it so they can use it as well, but I could just have easily linked it to my circuitry rather than have to carry it. But then again, they would have had to be more innovative.

I triggered the box, and a dozen ion grenades irradiated their circuits. I picked one that was still standing, and cut it’s arms free with neat precise blasts. There were four still standing, and they laced the woods around them with fire. However their addled circuits placed none of that fire near me. I took the others down with ease, then chopped the legs off my first target.

“Sarcastic assessment: Amateurs.” I stood, walking down to the remains. I linked to the unit that was still relatively functional, and accessed it’s
memory. “Irritated Query: All right you incompetent box of circuitry. You will tell me what I want to know.”

It didn’t take long as natural beings measure it. Merely a few seconds. But I disconnected and put a round through it’s brain. The bodies supplied a lot of usable equipment, including new motivators. When they had time, the not-a-meat-bags would be able to install them.

I moved down, emplacing bombs in each then setting the speeders to return to their camp. I walked up the berm, and found not-a-meat-bag Mandalore waiting.

“Statement: The first attempt has been stopped. I have mined the speeders, and they will kill more when they have returned to base.”

“Well done.”

“Irritated response: I am HK47. All of my actions are ‘well done’.”

He gave me an irritating grin, and went back to what he was doing.

*****

Mercenaries

Azkul ducked as the third speeder came in. Like the first two it had exploded. “Blow the other one to hell!” He screamed. He looked at the neatly planned operation coming apart around him. The Eastern unit that he led had taken a hundred plus casualties, but those damn ‘disabled’ swoops had killed almost three hundred in the Western sally. He spun, glaring at the man in Militia uniform.

“A fat lot of help you have been.” He snarled.

“Hey, I did just what I said i would!” Modrel protested. “I spiked the guns so they’d blast everyone, rigged the minefields so they were ineffective, helped that little Sullustan rip up the droids-”

“Yes, and so far the guns you ‘spiked’ have slaughtered my swoops, the swoops you ‘disabled’ have killed almost four hundred of my men, and I am sure the minefields were also fixed.” I walked over to him, standing face to face, my breath blowing in his face. “All you have done is helped my men die!”

He gasped as I jammed the blade in his stomach. I punched him in the throat, his scream dying as I smashed his larynx. I whipped the blade savagely, dumping his guts onto his boots.

“Since you can't do anything else right, why don’t you just die quietly.”
He turned away from the dying traitor. “All Eastern units, push forward as fast as you can. Do not, I repeat, do not use speeders or skimmers after you reach point Zed. All swoops, ground at point zed, and hold until relieved.

“All western units, get you men under control or by the gods when we’re done with them, we’re going to blow you to hell too!

“All mortar units. Moved forward and set up. You’re first target is the star port. I want it to be a stubble field before we come in contact.” He grinned furiously. “Let them think about their dead before they die!”

*****

Marai

The swoop attacks had hurt them, but not as badly as I might have hoped. We had reduced about 1500 men to just over a thousand, but there were still more to kill and we were still outnumbered badly. I considered redistributing my men, but did nothing. There would not be enough time between the western and Eastern attacks to switch men from one to the other.

I stood, looking at the terrified young woman that manned the console. “I am going out there. I will keep my com link open, so pass any orders I give.”

Visas stood there as calm as always. I regretted having her by my side because the hell we were going into was worse than most of my men imagined.

It was still quiet here. In the distance we could hear explosions as secondaries continued to cook off. I ran forward to the half kilometer mark. I had made them dig three lines of holes. One here, another a quarter kilometer back from it, another 100 meters back, the last the original holes they had dug before we arrived. We had spent no time stabilizing the soil camouflaging or making them as comfortable as that initial line, and it showed in the loose heaped dirt before the men. The first two lines were actually in front of our mines, and I knew they were all worried, because one coward behind us could activate it and kill us all when we retreated through them. But the fact that I was here seemed to calm the men down. We were going to take casualties, they all knew that. But they also knew if we didn’t bleed the enemy, we would lose.

“They’re half a klick away yet.” Mira told me. She was smudged, tired, filthy. I hugged her wordlessly. I could see most of that half kilometer from here. I knelt, touching the soil, picking up a handful, and held it as we waited. We were dying for this. For the people that would bring food from it, the men that would move it aside to build their homes, and those that would dig into it for ore to power it’s industry.

It was worth it.

I saw movement, and speeders pulled from the trees. They stopped, and men began deploying. A hundred, two, three... I lost count and still they came. To those behind me, it must have looked like an elemental force coming at us. A tsunami of men machines and death that we expected to stem with our bodies.

I saw a mortar section setting up.

“Control, warn the space port.” I ordered. “Mortar rounds will be in bound in just a few moments.” I listened to her repeat it over the command push.

As the men began to move cautiously forward, I heard the thump of mortars firing. The men behind me crouched deeper, but I knew instinctively we weren’t the target.

Suddenly there was a flash of light as the turret and anti-intruder systems of my ship roared. The shells that were falling were swept away. I heard a howl, and a swoop bike flashed past us. Then it did what’s called an idiot’s loop, sweeping up into a loop, and running back toward the compound. I caught a glimpse of four small objects flying up and away, then descending. They vanished into hundreds of bomblets.

There was a rolling flash of them exploding, and the mortars fell silent.

*****

Mercenaries.

Azkul didn't flinch as his mortars died. The western attack didn’t have any. Pure luck had placed the entire mortar company under one of those damn bombing attacks. “Push them, hard!”

*****

Mira

The men came not in a charge, but in a sidling rush. Men ran from cover to cover, coming toward us slowly. I caressed my control panel. A little closer...

They reached the point I had set, and I ran my finger along the contact.

“Not yet.” Marai said softly. I looked at her. She repeated the order. “Wait just a moment longer.”

The men reached the cover, then stood to advance toward us. The second wave was running toward us now.

“Now.”

I had not had enough mines to cover everything, and the Republic never went in for the massive mines the Sith and Mandalorians did. I’d had to make the damn things that went off now. Not grams but kilograms, tens of kilograms of blasting explosives went off. In front of them were millions of 5 millimeter balls, and those balls ripped through the first and second waves like a reaper from hell. Men dissolved into muck that would have to have DNA tests to even know who had died.

Some men, maybe fifty or so were past that point, and they were slammed down by the shockwave. As they tried to get themselves back together, Marai shouted, “Fire!”

There were only thirty or forty guys with us, but they were primed, ready to fight, and had simple orders. If it’s in front of you, and alive, kill it. Blasters went to auto fire and those men that had survived the explosions went down like ten pins.

“Withdraw!” Marai shouted. The men leaped up, running like hell toward the rear. Marai backed more slowly, watching the enemy. I stayed with her and Visas.

We reached the second line, dropping into our holes. Marai looked at me, then held out her hand. “Give me the panel, Mira.”

“Hey, you take care of the war, I’ll take care of the mines!”
“Mira, how many have you killed today?”

“I don’t like it, but how many of ours have been saved by me?” I snapped back. “You do your job, let me do mine.”

She sighed, and looked toward the enemy again. They had reached our line, and men started to drop into those holes. I waited until the next wave was starting to move past them and triggered my next surprise. I had moved along those holes, and planted charges in the bottom of each. They blasted upwards, taking more men with them.

“Hey! We’re sitting on explosives?” One man complained.

“I promise that if it goes off prematurely, I will take any complaints by survivors in my office after the battle.” Marai said.

There was a grunting laugh from some of the men.

*****

Handmaiden

I watched the men charging toward our first line. I wished for a moment that Mira was here instead of I. Killing men with mines is to me, unsatisfactory. Atton’s attacks had cut these men to about half of what had started, but the survivors were out for blood. They came firing, and I waited as long as I could before I fired the charges. A hundred or more men died in bloody swaths and those that had run past the charges kept running.

We opened fire, but they were too close. Men fell, and my men died with them.

We killed the last, then the twenty odd survivors stood and ran toward the next line. Men with sniper rifles harrowed their ranks, and I dropped into my hole with less than a dozen remaining. I triggered the explosives in that line of dugouts, then stood. Blaster bolts whizzed past me. My very presence, standing as if it were just another spring day egged them on. They charged, and as they did I touched the next series. Mines fired, and men died out there, and still they came on. “One volley and retreat!” I shouted.

The blasters fired, and my men ran toward the bridge. I waited until all had gone, then ran to follow. The enemy was not pausing now. Survival depended on them being in as close a contact with my men as possible, and they ran. I leaped, activating the minefield as I landed thirty meters on. The shockwave threw me on my face as they ran into it.

I leaped to my feet, running. The men had gotten pinned at the bridge. and sharpshooters were picking them off. I spun in place, and as the first men came at me, my lightsaber bounced their shots away. There were ten of them, but they had as much chances as a group of boy scouts against a threshing machine. I killed them, slowly retreating. The next group came at me in a rush, and I bounced shots into their midst then killed the few that did reach me.

The sharpshooters had started targeting me, that allowed the few that remained to escape across the bridge. But I would not be so lucky.

“Duck!” I dived, and massed fire ripped into the men that were charging at me. I looked back, and Atton waved as his men poured fire into our attackers. “If you’re coming, do it now!”

I leaped up, crossed the bridge, and activated the last of our mines on this side as we fell back to Khoonda.

*****

Bao Dur

I had been using the turrets to smash an attempt to run in on us with skimmers and speeders. I had gutted that attack, but the troops nearby had smashed my turrets. The droids were out, and giving a good account, but they were going to be blown away in a few minutes. I sighed, picking up my rifle. Time to join the party.

*****

Marai

We reached the last line of defenses. We had hurt them badly, but there were more than 300 facing us still, and all I had to stop them was less than a hundred. From the fragmentary report I had heard, there were about 200 on the other side, but they were making up for their losses with sheer ferocity. They were facing about sixty defenders.

They had settled into positions where they could snipe at us, and we couldn’t hold forever. My men were down to the last magazines they had.

I crawled over into the hole beside Mira. Her mines were all fired, and she had had nothing to do for the last few minutes. “Mira-”

“No.” She looked at me, and that hard core was showing. “I am not going to run.”

I reached out, took hold of her head, and pressed her to me, forehead to forehead. “I’ve failed Mira. We’re going to die, and there’s nothing I can do to stop that. I won’t see you die. Go to the ship.”

“No.”

“Please.” She looked at me with unshed tears.

I bit my lip. “All right. But I’m only going for my lightsaber. I’m coming back.”

“I know you will.” She said.

*****

Mira

I watched, then took off like a broken field runner. The enemy was surprised, and I reached the gate before their fire caught up with me. The Mandalorians nodded to me, settled in their defensive positions. They had already informed the enemy that they would fire if attacked, and the mercenaries to the west had avoided shooting at them.

People were huddled everywhere, and I walked past them with a sinking heart. These people would live, but what of Marai? What of Visas, the Handmaiden, Atton, Bao-Dur?

There were a group around the ramp of the ship, and someone was trying to hotwire the system.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.

“We’re getting the hell out of here.” Some woman snarled at me. She was an older woman who looked like her life had really been hard. “We tried to grab the ship and that little droid locked it up. But we’ll be in any minute.”

“Oh yeah?” I lifted my com link. “T3, activate intruder systems.”

There was a siren, and the ventral anti-intruder guns dropped out, spinning. the people moved back sharply, but the woman stood glaring at me. “So you’re going to stop us? You and what army little girl?” She reached out, and I reacted. The Handmaiden had deplored my stance, but she would have been proud. I caught the woman’s wrist, rolled it, and my thumb jammed into the nerve plexus on the back of her hand. She screamed as I dropped her to her knees.

“For filth like you I don’t need a stinking army.” I hissed. I glared at her fellows. A lot were scavengers, but a lot were farmers. “Those people are fighting and dying for you!” I bent to the woman on her knees. “There were some that said we should let you take your chances. It was those people out there that saved your life!” I put my foot in her chest, and shoved her violently away. The ramp came down, and I went aboard. I came back down with bandoliers of ammo packs, everything I could find aboard. In my hands the lightsaber. The honey gold of the blade sent them scrambling back.

“A Jedi!” Someone wailed.

“What of it?” I demanded. “The Jedi in the enclave died to protect your kind, and all they get is complaints.” I pointed at the old man that had insulted Marai. “You called her a witch!” I pointed at another pair. “You two just thought of how much you could make off a captured Jedi! Every one of you owes the fact that you’re alive at this very minute to them. Three of the women out there could claim to be Jedi, and they are dying for you!”

There was a clump, and HK47 came down the ramp. Goto followed. “I’m going back out there, and I expect to die. Every one of you that lives out this day will owe me for your lives, and to tell you the truth I don’t know why they are even bothering!

“You sit in here, a little crowded, safe, and whine! You're not worth my sweat let alone their blood!” I turned to the ship. “T3, full intruder systems activated. Kill anyone who even gets close enough to breath on her!”

There was a man a little younger than Marai to one side. He and his wife had been huddled together, but he stood up. “Life and love. Yes we do owe them.”

“Shen-”

“No, Rahasia. A Jedi brought us together, made our families reconcile.” He came over to me, grabbing the bandoliers. “If you’ll keep them off my back, I’m going with you.”

“Hell Mr. Matale.” A older man with a weather worn face stood up. He held a Republic issued Blaster rifle. “Always thought this damn thing would be hanging on the wall, but I expect it’ll still fire.”

Men, women, people sick of being pushed around came forward. I looked at them, and felt the thrill Marai must have felt when she talked to all of those men before.

“What’ll you do for weapons?” Mandalore said walking up.

“According to you honor code, your men will only defend their positions, right?” Shen Matale asked. “But is there any rule that says your guns have to stay here?”

The Mandalorian looked at him for a long time. He drew his blaster, tapping the barrel on his hand, then handed it over. “Bring it back.”

*****

Azkul screamed. Over half of his men dead, and they still weren’t winning! He had gone beyond fury into the realm of madness. He called on the com link. “All men will advance, now!”

*****

Atton

They rose in a wave and charged at us. It was madness, but they did. But that madness was catching. My blaster ran dry, and I flung it aside to leap at them. Men rose around me, following. There were only about thirty left, and at least a hundred of them, but we no longer cared.

The Handmaiden leaped past me, landing like a living dement band saw, and men flew aside in chunks as she charged forward. I entered the thick of it and everything I had been trained in came to the fore. I was death on two feet, and nothing lived within my reach.

*****

Marai.

I heard the scream, saw the enemy rise and charge, and leaped up to meet them. Together Visas and I sliced into them. The few men I still had joined us and the madness was total. I had less than a hundred, there were at least 200 remaining for us to kill, and we didn’t care.

There was a smashing when we met, and some men literally were thrown up and out of that press in broken pieces.

I killed, and the same battle madness that had gripped me so many years ago waited. I knew that I would die here, but nothing would survive me.

Then suddenly a third group descended on us, blasters firing into the press. I saw Mira, HK, Goto in the fore. People that we had been sheltering had decided to take a hand and they were fresh. A trio of girls leaped on a man screaming, one of them wrapping a chain around his neck and strangling him as the others pinned him down. An old woman screamed falling, her chest blown open.

Mira moved like a homicidal china doll, and men fell all around her as her light saber whipped. She rolled across one man‘s back, stabbing forward and back, and two more died as she leaped to the attack again.

****

Azkul stood carefully. His arm was broken, his leg felt like it had been dislocated, but the door was right there! He staggered forward, opening it. He saw the Administrator, and drew his knife. “I win!” He screamed.

Something hit him in the chest, and he looked into an old man’s face. The damn Jedi that had gotten away. “Guess again.”

*****

Mira

I fell to my knees, sucking in deep gasps of air. Around me there was nothing but stillness. I saw Marai to one side, looking around, Visas beside her. The woman that had seen her husband go out so proudly was kneeling beside him weeping. I staggered over to her, and checked his pulse. “He’s just knocked out, Mrs. Matale.” I told her.

Farmers, scavengers, surviving soldiers, they were milling around aimlessly. I stood up, clapping my hands. “All right! All of you able bodied civilians, start carrying the wounded into the space port. There must be some med techs, they can start triaging the wounded.”

“What about him.” One of them pointed at a wounded mercenary.

“He deserves his chance.” I told them, waving at the bodies scattered around us. “There won't be a lot of them from either side.”

Condemnation

Marai

It took three days to clean things up enough to even think about what to do. I kept coming back to the pad with ‘my’ casualties on it.

Forty men and women had survived. Of the 200 I had led into that horror, forty. I had been almost devastated just looking at the carnage, and the idea that we had faced 1500 and annihilated them earned me no kudos in my own mind.

I kept trying to find a way I could have done it differently. If I had placed the mines closer in. If I had flown one of the swoops myself. If my men had been better placed.

No one second guesses themselves as much as an infantry field commander after the fact. A Naval officer sees just the shattered ships. The snub commander sees the empty seats.

But an infantry commander sees the bodies torn by the horror of war. Feels the blood on them, or on the ground as they tread over that field. These aren’t statistics, x percentage killed and wounded. It is real men who depended on you, looking shell shocked because somehow they survived, in pain, still in death. You can’t help feeling that you have failed them somehow.

Until the pursuit was completed I was still technically their commander. About 200 Mercenaries had not been either killed wounded or captured, and we could not let them live. They were a danger that must be ended. If they surrendered, we’d let them live. But if they did not, the Administrator had ordered that they must die.

Those farmers who had saved us at the end were the ones pursuing the mercenaries. It was not my choice, but every one of us that had fought the entire battle were honestly too tired to even consider the necessary pursuit. Once Zherron and his uninjured men were back on their feet, I had sent them out to mitigate the slaughter I knew would occur. No one is more willing to commit murder than those that you have harassed and brutalized.

I had already had the ones we had captured under guard with the Mandalorians watching them. If I had not the 200 odd that had surrendered would have been murdered already. They had been disarmed, and as soon a another ship arrived, we were going to send them off to some other world.

But I ended up in charge of that. Masters Kavar and Zez Kai Ell had arrived, but neither had been willing to speak with me. They had instead closeted themselves with Master Vrook. I was merely waiting for Atris to arrive.

The Sullustan Arrekke was brought in, and I stood. “Explain this please.” His face stiffened as I handed him the hydrospanner Bao-Dur had dug from the innards of one of the droids.

“My sister. She needed money and-”

“Spare me.” I said. “Constable, find out where his sister is. Assure that she has enough money to take care of her needs. Lock this man up for attempted murder.”

“What! I don‘t kill anyone!”

“If my people had not been here, if we had not worked miracles on the defensive systems, those droids would have been sitting waiting for you to strip them even more. I will not let someone who put every life on this planet in danger walk away free.” I nodded to the constable.

Kreia came to see me. “The Masters are ready for you now.”

“Atris has arrived?”

“Atris is not coming.” She said softly. “They are waiting for you at the Enclave.”

I sighed, standing. The girl that had been my secretary looked up as left the office. “I am going to the Jedi enclave. When Captain Zherron gets back, tell him that I was dragooned into this, and I am done. He can have his job back.”

She grinned at me.

The land was still torn, and there was the stench of death in the air. You couldn't have almost a thousand people die in such a small place without it. But droids were already smoothing the landscape, plowing the pieces of uncollected flesh and spills of blood under. A few weeks from now it would be a peaceful trimmed greensward again. But they had placed a marker. I had told them that no one would care, but I had. I had gotten a large stone, and had it moved to the area where we had faced that final charge. I had set my lightsaber to a narrow short beam setting. I was not good at carving, but this I was good enough for;

FOR THE MILITIA MEN WHO DIED HERE SO
THAT THEIR WORLD WOULD BE FREE
I SHALL NEVER FORGET YOU
MARAI DEVOS

I walked, breathing the air, feeling the life returning. The animals hat had been terrified by all of that thunder had come home, and even knowing that a Kath hound would consider me a meal kept me from the wonder of watching a bunch of puppies frolicking around their mother.

I stopped before the hill that would reveal the enclave to me. I still remembered the total devastation of it. I didn't want to see this again. Kreia looked at me, smiling slightly. “Do you think they hunker in the center of a disaster still? There are rooms of the Enclave that survived.

We came over the hill, and I stared at the shattered buildings again. Part of me wanted to die.

“Come.” Kreia said.

*****
Kreia

She was like a child expecting to be punished. We walked down the hill. At the entrance to the enclave there was the scattered remnant of a camp. The scavengers had set up here, but the attack by the mercenaries had put some spine into the local farmers. After having scavengers rip up their land, steal everything not being watched, and lord it over them, they had decided that enough was quite enough. The farmers had taken all of those weapons that the mercenaries had left laying around, and the scavengers had decided that law or no law, there were much safer places to be.

We came to the bridge, and she stopped again. “I remember when it was whole and beautiful.” She said wistfully. “I was sent here for three years so I could learn more forceful techniques for my lightsaber work from Master Zhar. Diplomacy with Master Vandar. Logic with Master Vrook. In a way it was the worst time of my career. Master Vander believed the only diplomacy I would ever learn was slapping someone as hard as I could. Master Zhar always said I was too busy attacking to think about defending myself. And Vrook...” She sighed. “Revan and I got along too well from his view. We would argue politics, sports, anything. Not with acrimony mind you, though the floor dripped with blood when we fiercely disagreed. He sent me a message before we departed to the Republic. ‘You have stolen my Padawan. That is something I will never forgive’. As if anyone could make up her mind for her.”

we walked, and I motioned to the left. “But I was told the only way still accessible was over there.” She pointed to the right.

“To the sublevels, yes. But the Jedi are wiser than some realize. Those with the force could have opened the main door more readily.”

She shrugged, and we walked on. The door stood open, and she paused again. The inner hall was deep in dirt and filth. There were areas where bodies once had lain, and to the left of the door was a burnt out pyre. She walked over, touching the ashes silently. Then she walked in. The courtyard had trees growing wild, and grass had forced itself up between the paving stones.

I suddenly felt it all. So many memories I had thought I had forgotten, or no longer cared, but seeing it in this way drove into me how much I had lost. I walked over to the buttress wall around the saplings that had replaced the great tree. I leaned into it, then turned, using it to support me.

“Kreia? Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes.” I snapped. “An old woman has a right to be tired some times. They are waiting for you in the council room. Go on. I will be along shortly.” She turned, walking across the courtyard. “Marai.” She turned. “I have not been kind to you, but please remember. I have never lied to you. Trust in what I have taught you. If you cannot trust me, trust your instincts.” She turned, and was gone.

*****

Marai

The council chamber had been ripped open, the priceless mosaics commissioned by Master Baas when he had built it were shattered, laying on the floor like a broken child’s toy. I stared at the shattered dome with horror. I had so loved that mosaic...

The three masters were standing near the scattered remnants of the seats they would have once occupied. “It is not as it was.” Vrook said with a sad tone in his voice.

“Perhaps that is for the best.” Zez Kai Ell said. “If the order is to survive, it must be rebuilt and reformed just as this room must.”

“I just wish...” Kavar’s thought was unspoken as he saw me. The others looked toward me.

“We were wondering when you would arrive.” Vrook said coldly. “Obviously you have come for answers. Or maybe it is vengeance you seek?”

“No.” I said softly. “I received my answers from masters Kavar and Zez Kai Ell. I have no need for vengeance. I came to ask if I can help.”

“As you did Dantooine? How many more must die for your bloodlust?” Vrook snapped.

“Master.” I looked away. Still he hated me. I sighed.

“We will wait.” Kavar said. “Until the enemy finally reveals himself.”

“Wait?” I looked at them in shock. “The enemy is the Sith!”

“The Sith are a symptom, not the disease.” Vrook snarled. “This is not a physical battle where you can merely chop them to pieces. It is a battle within the force itself. Something you have no hope of understanding or participating in."

“I sensed it on Onderon.” Kavar said. “Something that was trying to drain the very life from the planet.”

“A pool of dark force energy wanting to devour all life.” I whispered.

“What?” Zez Kai Ell asked sharply.

“Some of my companions stopped a ritual on Dxun. Sith dark lords had entered the tomb of Freedon Nadd and had tried to unleash a pool of dark force as I have described.”

“So it was you that stopped it.” Kavar replied.

“No matter.” Vrook snarled. “Whatever moved through the force was not there, I have told you that. If the masters that died on Katarr were unable to stop it, how could some force-blinded woman do it?”

“I have asked both of them, now this I will ask, Master Vrook. If the Council did not take my abilities away, what did?”

“Malachor did.” Vrook snapped. “It is why you were exiled.”

“Because I fought at Malachor?”

“Because you caused Malachor!” He growled.

“Master, as I told Master Zez Kai Ell, I admit to having the Shadow Mass Generator brought there. I admit that much. But I did not-”

“It doesn’t matter!” He roared over me. “If you had not followed Revan, if you had not disobeyed the Council, this would not have happened.

“We might have cast you out for that reason alone, but there was another.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I asked.

“You had come back, the only Jedi to do so. And you had changed.” Zez Kai Ell said.

“Changed.”

“You were no longer Jedi.” Kavar answered softly. “But why that was true would have made no sense if we had merely told you that. You had to come to your own realization.”
“What had happened was punishment enough.” Zez Kai Ell said. “As much as Atris wanted you to die, we could not agree at that time.”

“At that time?”

“If you had remained in the order, it was believed that you would cause us to change, and that we could not allow.” Vrook said.

“Changed you? How could an apprentice or even a Padawan change the order by existing?”

“You know, and if you do not you are more stupid than you realize.” Vrook said. “Look at your followers. Have you noticed that when you decide on a course of action, they follow?”

I looked surprised. “When I was a General others deferred to my decisions.”

“But you aren't a general anymore. Yet still you are the focal point of those around you. Your followers do what you bid, even when it is against their nature.”

Ever since her loss at Malachor V, I have felt incomplete. A hollow shell of a person, desperate to be healed...But this wound felt comfort when I met you. It felt drained as we fought in sparring. Perhaps this wound will be healed. The words of the Handmaiden as she had foresworn herself.

I have found peace in my life for the first time since I awoke on a dead planet and I cannot sacrifice that peace no matter how you ask. Visas swearing herself to me.

I felt... Maybe if I helped you... Maybe the screaming would stop, and I could have a decent night’s sleep again. Atton on Nar Shaddaa.

You brought this out, you made me see, if anyone is going to teach me, it’s going to be you if I have to pound your head into the pavement to get that idea through! Mira on Nar Shaddaa. She had not even considered another teacher.

I haven't cried in years. Ever since you came back into my life, suddenly it’s not as hard to deal with any more. All that anger, that hatred of them and myself. It’s begun floating away. I no longer hate myself. Bao-Dur. Did I heal him only to use him?

Before I could always back away from it, leave the bounty alive. But since I’ve met you, it’s like a reflex. I don't like it, and I don't know why it suddenly became easy. Mira on Onderon. And here, she had become a stark warrior with no visible remorse.

I was suddenly terrified that the masters were right.

Kavar was looking at me sadly. “I saw you in combat, Marai. you are a leader, you earned the title General. But it is deeper than that. I have watched you agonize over those you lost in battle. The last two days here. You did not even know those men personally, yet you spent as much time agonizing over their deaths as if you had grown up with them. It comes back to Force bonds.”

“I don’t understand. Of course I know what a force bond is, but how does that affect anyone other than a Jedi?”

“The Force affects everything around you.” Vrook snapped. “Between a teacher and a student, between a master and apprentices, a force bond aids in understanding. You knew this as both student and teacher, yet you ignore it here?

“Force bonds help you learn, and teach. But when that bond is with those who are merely force sensitive like your compatriots, or those who cannot touch the force, it becomes something that can be turned to evil. When you suffer, they feel your pain. When they suffer, their pains drives you. This is not the first time it had happened to you.”

“There was another time.” Zez Kai Ell said.

“Malachor.”

“Yes, Malachor.” Kavar said. The battle of Malachor is in the past, yet it resonates inside you still.”

“Three million men and women, smashed by a planet’s gravity, seared by the plasma of a failed star.” Vrook spat. “And their deaths resonate inside you at this very moment.”

“Such a loss in one place was too much for any to bear.” Zez Kai Ell said. “It is a wonder that all of the Jedi in the system did not follow them into death with such a shock. But of all, you worried us the most. Others were hundreds of thousands, millions of kilometers away. You were within that effect wave. The ship you had just captured was almost destroyed by it. Yet you lived.”

“You thought we had stripped your powers away, you had done it to yourself. No person linked to the force could have survived, and you slashed away that ability from yourself to survive.“ Kavar said softly. “I felt it‘s possibility at Dxun. Remember I spoke with you of it. Yet you persisted as did the others. Malachor ripped them apart as it did you, but where they merely twisted what remained into hate, you had no capability to use any more.”

Kreia stirred. She had been listening quietly. The same thought she had in the berthing area awaiting Marai came back up. Would they listen? Or condemn?

“You were deafened.” Kavar said.

At last you could hear. For only with it's loss do you understand.

“You were broken.” Zez Kai Ell added.

Only that which is broken can be healed.

“You were blinded.” Vrook snapped.

But only then could you see. Kreia stood. She wished for her old staff. It had been what, five years since she had seen it. She was piqued. So much for a grand entrance.

“When you alone returned from Malachor, we sensed it. A hole within you, a void hungry to be filled. You were a wound in the force.”

“But master, I have found my connection to the force again.”

Vrook waved off my protestation. “It might just be Dantooine, but I do not feel it. If you have regained the force it is as we feared, for that wound is a sucking void.

“In you we saw the end of the force. You may feel the force, but you cannot feel yourself. You are an enigma. Something that feeds on the force, feeds on the will of others, dominating and controlling others to assure that you have enough to survive.”

“These new Sith teachings speak of it as a given. That all of living flesh is there to feast upon. Those teachings are symptomatic of what we first sensed in you.” Zez Kai Ell said. “Have you not noticed that in all of the conflicts you have faced, in all of the battles you have won hundreds die, yet you grow stronger? Whether you admit it or not, you are doing what these monsters have done.”

“Master, may I point out the flaw in your logic?”

“Oh this I must hear!” Vrook sneered.

“Within the cloister of the Academy and temples, there is peace, there is no conflict beyond the occasional harsh word. But for those outside these walls life is pain and struggle. You yourself master Vrook told me that if we stayed our entire lives within these walls we would be pure, and at the same time unable to help because of that very purity. We must ’get our hands dirty’ helping others.

“We know this but our knowledge has always been at one remove. We choose what pains we will accept. We choose what conflicts we face. They do not have that option. A woman trying to feed her children cannot merely decide that her job is not worth the effort. Not and keep those children alive. There are those warped by this into evil, but most survive such pain day to day.

“But in war, this is accelerated. You face as I did, not only your own death but the deaths of those that have sworn their lives to you. Even if you do everything perfectly, some of them will die. You know this, you feel this, you worry about them all, and there is nothing you can do to guarantee that any of them see their homes again.

“Yet look who led us. Sure there was Revan Malak and the others, but there was Saul Karath, who if he had not fallen would have been an icon to the Republic. There were those too stupid to lead, but for every Quintain the Navy put up with, there was an Admiral Dodonna. For every Trancas the ground forces dealt with, there was a Yusanis. These are not people who touch the force. They are normal humans without our abilities that transcend what they are to become someone worthy of respect and honor.

“I cast aside my weapons when I returned from war. Not because I could no longer do it, but because I needed a cause worthy of that. More than the maundering of some senator who feels disabused, or some planetary leader who feels disrespected. If I had not been cast out, I would have fought and died for you against Revan. As much as you feel that I was a step from the dark side, I had seen what it could do and wanted nothing more than to step back, end that war, and live my life.”

“But you could use the force. You were not only a leader, but with this evil attached to you, you had become a threat.”

“I don’t understand.”

Vrook took on that ‘you’re and idiot, but I will try to explain’ tone he did so well. “You were the possible future, and that future frightened us. What if other Jedi who had suffered as you did, found this link to the void, and made use of it? What if war is the crucible that draw our own to the darkness?”

“For you, that confluence of events named Malachor was that crucible.” Zez Kai Ell said softly. “We saw what had come from that mold, and we saw the end of the Force. Perhaps the end of all life.”

“What is worse, is there are such beings leading the Sith against us now. When Katarr died, we discovered that you were not alone. The death of Katarr resonated in the same echoes of what you had become.

“You taught them this hunger. We do not know how, but it must be true.” Kavar said almost sadly. “We cannot allow you to remain.”

“Our judgment stands. You must be exiled, but we will do what we should have done then. All ability to touch the force must be removed. You must be swept clean of it forever.”

“We do this to save all life, Marai.” Zez Kai Ell said. “It is a step not taken lightly.”

Each of them reached for their lightsabers. They obviously expected the monster I had become to fight them. But I understood why they were doing it. If I were what they claimed, Dantooine would be just the first world to die because of me. After all my dead, I couldn’t bear that as well.

I took my lightsaber from my belt, setting it on the ground gently. Then I bowed my head. “I accept your judgment, Masters.”

They relaxed incrementally. They spread out, and I saw Kavar raise his hands. “Marai, I’m sorry.”

“Do it. Please.”

The two that were on the outside reached, and I felt a tugging in my chest. Then Master Vrook reached out, and it felt as if they were tearing me apart.

“You will feel no pain. Just relax and this will be over with.”

I would have called him a liar if I could have spoken. Agony ripped through me and I collapsed.

*****

Kreia

I stepped in, and felt them ripping the force from her. I waved a hand, and they were slammed off their feet. “Bullies. Children that see the one that is different and torment them. Worse yet, create reasons to make it acceptable!

“You will not harm her. You will never harm her ever again.”

“You!” Vrook shouted. “If there was a beneficent god you would have died at Malachor!”

“Yes, I know, the author of all your pain, the one that convinced so many to run away. Someone had to be blamed, and I was I that bore the brunt of it. Foolish men that hid away in their cloisters and tried to judge the real world like a blind man describing a Drexl by what he can touch!

“She brought truth, told you of that world, and you still condemn her! By what right do you punish the messenger?”

“So you are the one that brought her here?”

“Fate and the force brought her here. Brought her to Telos where she confronted Atris, brought her to Dxun and Onderon to save them, brought her to Nar Shaddaa to help the refugees. She has earned the title of Jedi more thoroughly than any of you Masters ever did, for she did her work starting as a normal human being.

“Ten years she walked with no touch of the force in her life. Ten years of living as do those people we watched out for. Until she truly needed it, she had no touch of the force. Not until the force itself took a hand to make her return.”

“So you have trained her. The same filth that drew Revan and Malak into the darkness-”

“Spare me your hypocrisy. You are like the man who sits in his comfortable chair and glories in the wars of the past without realizing that war is death. You teach how glorious it is, how wonderful it can be, the honor that can be won, then flinch away at it’s most gentle kiss!”

Lightsabers blazed in their hands, but I had no need to approach. “As you would judge her, I shall judge you all.”

I reached out, and severed the link to the force that each man had. Vrook looked as if I had eviscerated him. Zez Kai Ell screamed in agony. Only Kavar was able to stand and face me still.

“There. But I will be more merciful. You will not have to go through the hell she has for ten years.” I reached out again, and they collapsed bonelessly.

I looked at her, laying there, still quivering in agony at what they had tried to do. She was still linked, I could feel it, and that link would only grow stronger. In that they had been correct.

But would it be for good or ill? Had I condemned the galaxy or saved it?

“I finally understand, my student.” I brushed her hair with my hand. “How a stark fierce warrior could walk away from all that you had, from the very power that Malachor would have gifted you with. I had thought it was fear, but it was fear for those you loved. The men under your command, the planets you protected, the order you still swore to. It was fear that you would not be worthy of all of that, that you would destroy it with a careless thought.

“A fear I find admirable.

“But I cannot stay with you. The final steps must be taken without my interference. They are the steps you must take to reach the heights of your power in wisdom.”

I kissed her cheek. “Make me proud.”

I could hear people approaching. Her friends, wondering what had happened. I touched one, and she paused, allowing the others to go on. I made myself small, insignificant. I walked past Atton and Bao-Dur. Past Visas and Mira.

The Handmaiden stood outside. I walked up to her, and she flinched.

“I have done great evil my child. I must be judged, and none remain but Atris. You must take me to her.”

“But Marai-”

Marai is no more. The masters struck her down, and I struck them down. It is all my fault and Atris is the only Master remaining.”

She spun, running toward the land speeder. I smiled inwardly. It had to be done, and only she could get me in before my vengeful student followed.

Choice chapters, but I'm surprised so few people are commenting. After 1,689 views, I seem to be the only person who gives frequent feeback.

All right people, A: What did you think of the battle, and B: Why is my nephew here the only one commenting consistently?

Oh BTW, ED, is there an easy way to use the module for the droid factory/planet? Remember my computer illiteracy

Why is my nephew here the only one commenting consistently?

Nephew? :confused:

Oh BTW, ED, is there an easy way to use the module for the droid factory/planet? Remember my computer illiteracy

I'll explain the droid planet situation in a bit more depth; it doesn't even have a complete story. There's only what the group I'm part of (Team Bantha) has come up with. As I said, I'm not willing to reveal it before the mod is finished. While the droid planet modules exist, there is almost nothing in them, due to the lack of a story. You'll find nothing but hostile droids, some that won't talk to you, and the areas themselves. There's not a single peice of dialogue in there. Even the fog colors aren't finished.

The HK factory is a different matter. While there is dialogue there, it's incomplete. There are gameplay programmer notes throughout the place, and the most important pieces of the dialogue can't be activated. You can download what little there is for both the droid planet and HK factory here (http://www.team-gizka.org/downloads.html), in the misc. section. Since I've sent you all the important Malachor dialogue, I'll send what's not included in there soon.

To activate these modules, copy them and put them into your modules directory, which is within SWKotOR2. If you've enabled cheats already, type 'warp 298tel' to get to the military base sublevel, and warp '299tel' to get the level below it, which is the factory. The sublevel does have HK-50 units and dialogue, so don't go directly to the factory. To get to what little there is of the droid planet modules, type 'warp 80<1 to 7>dro' to go to various modules there.

If you haven't enabled cheats, open swkotor2.ini (sometimes it won't have .ini at the end) and go to the end of game options. Type 'EnableCheats=1', and make sure there's still a blank row between what's in game options and the other things. Press ` to activate the invisible cheat console. What you type won't appear on the screen.

When I first played The Sith Lords, I could not believe that after I'd worked
so hard to find the Jedi Masters and gather them upon Dantooine, after I'd
struggled not to say or do anything that would turn them against me...

...they would do that. Consider me an enemy, as much of a threat
as the Sith themselves! I was shell-shocked. How could they condemn me?

Nevertheless, after they explained their reasoning, I thought I understood
enough to submit, as Marai did, through my heartbreak. I felt Marai's pain
acutely, because I'd felt it myself the first time that I played the Exile.

Through your superb chapter, I found the arguments that I'd wished
to use against the three Masters when I had first played, but
I was too busy going "grrga grgh? What the crap? Why did you betray
me, Jedi? Arrrgghhhh!" to think of anything halfway coherent to say.

Good thing the pre-scripted dialogue did all the arguing for me, eh? :)

I wonder what Marai will do with Kreia. Half of me hopes that she'll
wish for Kreia's redemption, but the other half hopes that Marai
will rightly battle her to the death because of her many betrayals.
I wanted to reach out and kiss Marai's cheek, as you had Kreia do in the
ruins of the Jedi Enclave. I felt like I knew what she'd been through.

Brava! You are an incredible writer, and I mean that sincerely.
This chapter must have spent you, as my last chapter of Ya--Yevo' did! ;)

(By the way, I wish you could fast-forward to the Trayus Core. Unless...
no. Marai wouldn't revel in the deaths of so many streaming towards her,
even if they were Sith. All those hostile mannequins on Mal V--just so
empty, more hack-and-slash before the final confrontation with Kreia.)

(P.P.S. I wish you roleplayed, or would co-write something with me. That
Condemnation chapter was the crux of TSL for me, and you portrayed it
perfectly!)

Nephew? :confused:


My own little joke. As if my family is the only one here commenting.

more brilliant chapters Mach...

just out of curiosity tho, why didnt you get Bao-dur and Atton in on the Jedi thing?
I could see that maybe Atton has too much anger, and hate towards the Jedi, but you did mention that Marai could see Bao from the ship on Duxon, so that showed that he has potental...

Anyway, it just seems a bit late to train hem to be effecive... (but thats just me)



“Because I fought at Malachor?”

“Because you caused Malachor!” He growled.

“Master, as I told Master Zez Kai Ell, I admit to having the Shadow Mass Generator brought there. I admit that much. But I did not-”

“It doesn’t matter!” He roared over me. “If you had not followed Revan, if you had not disobeyed the Council, this would not have happened.

“We might have cast you out for that reason alone, but there was another.”

Im pretty sure its Mass Shadow Generator...

Well I have read all of this so far and I can only say it is a pity the game is not like your descriptions (it would be a lot more fun) so please keep up the hard work. :sithk:

more brilliant chapters Mach...

just out of curiosity tho, why didnt you get Bao-dur and Atton in on the Jedi thing?
I could see that maybe Atton has too much anger, and hate towards the Jedi, but you did mention that Marai could see Bao from the ship on Duxon, so that showed that he has potental...

Actually the scene with Visas coming up will explain part of it. Quite frankly if that doesn't explain it, you'll have to wait until the Trayus Core.


Anyway, it just seems a bit late to train hem to be effecive... (but thats just me)
Im pretty sure its Mass Shadow Generator...


I only saw two references, and I have been calling it the SMG instead of MSG all this time. If you'r correct it will be corrected here without a problem

Pursuit

Marai

I was standing on a night swept plain. Off in the distance, I could see the glow of a force field interacting with the atmosphere. I felt a surge of the force so great I was driven to my knees.

Telos, I was on Telos. Above me glowing in the sunlight was Citadel Station. I reached out, how I do not know, and was shooting upward like a missile. Something was happening...

Ships had come out of hyperspace, a fleet of nightmares. Republic ships cruised alongside Mandalorian and Sith vessels. But the bulk of that fleet had been ripped apart by some massive force. There were rents in the hulls, drives with their fairings ripped away.

At their center came the largest warship I had ever seen. One I knew well, because I had seen it in dry dock, sections of the hull still not emplaced. Naked ribs shown through those tears, and within it I tried to feel what should have been there, but it was not.

The fleet closed on the station, fighters racing ahead. It began firing on the weapons on the station, smashing guns and men away as it closed. Then suddenly I felt a wrenching.

I was on the deck of a module. Men were running toward their stations when suddenly they clutched their heads, screaming. Then they fell. On every deck I knew it was happening. half a million men women and children dying, and the out-rushing of the force from them ripped at me as well, but I was still here.

Then I felt it from below. The animals, trees, all of the effort the Ithorians had put into trying to bring Telos back to life was undone in seconds.

I was alone on a dead station above a dead world...

*****

Atton

I froze when I saw her collapsed. I had failed, she had died and I hadn’t been there to protect her. I ran over, lifting her from the ground. I almost screamed with joy when I heard her breathing.

Visas and Mira had walked past me. Visas had gone to the bodies, but Mira was looking at the ground. “She walked in, stood there. They had been moving around, but stopped when she arrived and took up defensive positions.”

“What?”

“Their placement. One facing her in the center, two others flanking and slightly forward. If you attack one, the others sweep in and assist. They expected her to fight. But she did not move forward. Everything that was done was from a distance. And back here.” She moved back toward the door. “Another stood. Kreia.”

“These men are not just dead, they are drained of life and force.” She leaned back, head tilted. “Yet it was not done as my old master would have. They have joined the force in death. But it was ripped from them first. Almost as if the killer wanted them to feel the pain of loss first.”

“So Marai-”

“No. She’s still here. This was Kreia’s doing.” Mira was adamant. “After all, Marai saw both Zez Kai Ell and Kavar alone. She could have killed them without this cantina gunfight motif.”

Bao-Dur was looking around. “Where is the Handmaiden?” He and Mira ran out. They came back. “The other speeder is gone. They must have left together.”

“But why?” Visas asked. “She feels for Marai as we do. Why would she abandon her?”

“She wouldn’t unless Kreia told her they murdered her, and the Handmaiden would have run home to Telos.” I snapped. Marai groaned, and I held her tight.

“Atton?”

“Yes, I‘m here.”

“I don’t want you think I dislike you...”

“I don’t think that.”

“But if you don’t let me go, I am going to vomit all over you.”

My father once said you can tell true love when you hold your date’s hair out of the line of fire when she vomits. Must have been love.

She wiped her mouth, and allowed me to help her stand. She looked at the Masters’ bodies and all she said was ‘Kreia.”

We hurried out, pouring into the land speeder It only sat three comfortably. But Mira sat in Marai’s lap, and Visas sat primly on mine as Bao-Dur almost burned out the engine getting us back to Khoonda. Before we breasted the hill a square nosed ship was already taking off, and we’d IDed it as the one Kavar had arrived in.

*****

The Administrator was waiting when we arrived with Captain Zherron.

“General-”

“I do not have time.” Marai said softly but adamantly. “One of my people has murdered the Jedi Masters, and is enroute to Telos even as we speak. A force of Sith will be attacking there in the next few days and I must be there to fight them.”

“But...” She looked at Zherron helplessly.

“Which one? The old woman or the girl?” The man asked.

“It was the old woman that killed them.”

“Then...” He also looked confused. “Then why did she tell me to get as many of my men as possible together to go with you?”

“What?”

“She stopped by my office.” The Administrator said. “Told me that Telos would be destroyed if they did not get help. Said ‘if Telos dies, so does the Republic’ then she and the girl departed to contact the Jedi on Telos themselves.”

“Then she found me when I got back here, and told me to get ready to follow you.” Zherron said.

“I do not know what is happening, but she was correct in saying that the second death of Telos will kill the Republic.” Marai told them. “The one thing that has held us together since the war has been hope. Hope that we can bring the dead worlds back to life. If Telos dies, there will be no reason to spend the money, the hope will fade, and soon we will be squabbling planets without even the old Galactic Trade Authority to hold us together.

“No more support from the Republic. Mercenaries pirates and bandits taking what they can as they tried here, repeated on a quarter million worlds.” She shook her head.

“I must go. I may fail to stop it but I must try! The dead Masters would have wanted it.”

“Give me ten minutes.” Zherron snapped, running away.

We boarded the ship. Marai went to the com room, and spent the time talking with several people. Mandalore came in, went in and was with her for some of that time.

Eight and a half minutes later, Zherron and twenty men came running aboard. All but six were soldiers that had fought under her earlier. The rest were farmers with grim expressions. “Captain-”

“You said we had to hurry ma’am or everyone would be here. I’m, sorry.”

“Not that. Why?” She waved at the men behind him. “How did you convince them so quickly?”

“I told them you needed help. It was all I had to say.”

There was a thud, and one of the Mandalorians came running up the ramp. He saluted Marai, then bowed his head to Mandalore. “Chu!”

“All of the men. Take that ship and go directly to Telos.” Mandalore ordered, pointing on the larger ship Zez Kai Ell had used to arrive.

“Chu!” He ran down, and a flood of Mandalorians began throwing equipment aboard.

Mandalore looked at Marai. “We will be there.”

Marai looked at me. “Atton, take us to Telos. I have an old friend to see before we arrive at the station.”

*****

Onderon.

Queen Talia stretched. It had been a long day. The rebellion had fizzled out, and now it was just cleaning up the mess. She stood, pulling on her robe. Her servants had set up a breakfast, and as always, there was a stack of pads beside her plate.

She looked at each only in passing, nothing to... She found herself frozen. One hand at her mouth with a piece of fruit held between her teeth. The other with the pad she had just read.

“Where is my Chamberlain?” She snapped.

“Your grace?”

“Bring him here. Now!” The girl scurried off.

The door opened, but it was not the chamberlain. A woman in Beast Rider leather came forward, then dropped to one knee.

“What means this.”

“Your grace, I am Bakkel. When the young Jedi first came, I was a lost cause to our people. She made me see what I had become, and I have redeemed myself in the eyes of our beasts. Last night I felt an urge to come back to the city, and when I did I knew why.

“She is in danger, and needs our help. I must repay that debt. I ask for a ship.”

The door opened, and the Chamberlain came in. He had served under Talia’s father, and his walk and stance bespoke years of being the power before the throne. He bowed, but before he could speak, the queen thrust the pad into his hands. “Explain this.”

“It was received four hours ago, your grace. You were still asleep, so I told the woman that I would bring it to your attention when you woke.”

Talia took a step forward, and her full body was behind the arm that slapped the man off his feet. She stood over him, towering in rage. “How dare you impugn my honor in such a way. You were there when I said, ‘ask anything of us and it will be done. I swear it upon my life’.” She stalked toward him and the old man scuttled backwards.

“We owe this woman our lives you pusillanimous worm! Master Kavar told me that if the Sith had released that horror from Dxun everything on our world would have died and you didn’t think her request was important?” She reached under a table beside her, and with a shriek flung it across the room, spinning to those that stood stunned around her.

“Call the fleet. Every ship that can fly is ordered to descend and load troops. I will be with them shortly. Thanks to this fool I must apologize in person. You.” She pointed at Bakkel. “All that wish to go with you be at the star port. I will show these monster what the people of Onderon can do.” She glared at the chamberlain

“As for you. You will come with me to explain to a woman that risked her life for our people how honor is not important. Vaklu argued it with her and died.” She turned, seeing everyone frozen in shock

“Do I have to use a prod to get you moving?”

*****

Mical sat in the chair. This would be kind of hard to explain. The holo-com before him lit up, and Admiral Carth Onasi looked at him. “Admiral, I found the Exile. She was on Dantooine until recently, and I met her.

“That is good to hear, but it could have waited.”

“No it could not. According to her the Sith intend to attack Telos and destroy it completely this time. She has gathered people from here to assist in the defense of the system, including almost a hundred Mandalorians. However I will not be there.”

“You won’t?” Carth looked surprised. “You always wanted to see a space battle first hand. What kept you from coming?”

“Well it seems some droid stole my ship...”

Ebon Hawk

Enroute to Telos

Visas

It was as if she had merely changed places with Kreia, who always meditated in here alone. Marai knelt, facing away from the door.

“You are troubled.”

“That took no skill to work out.” She said. I knew she was speaking from some internal pain. Having spent my life in pain as she had said, it took no great skill.

“What did you learn from the Masters that had caused you such anguish?”

“Why are you here?” She asked. “Not just aboard this ship, but here standing at my side?”

“Because you need me to be here.”

She gave a small pained chuckle. “So you are here because I made you be here.” Then it turned into a sob “They were right.”

“In what way?” I walked up behind her. “When I swore myself to you, I said my life was yours to use as you pleased. I would die gladly, even if it was your hand that took my life.”

“That’s what they said!” She wailed. “That I am a web weaver, I draw others to me and when they come I devour them! I...I can’t stand this any more. I will cause you all to die, and I will feed on your rotting corpses, and go on!”

I knelt beside her, turning her to face me. she resisted until I caught her a chin and made her look at me.

“If there is an ending between us, it will be at the right time. This I feel. If my death will keep you alive a second longer I would leap into the void with that thought to sustain me. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to what people must do. This is what I must do.”

“But is that you speaking or me?” She wailed.

“What did they say that has struck so deeply at your core?”

“That I have always been able to form bonds with those around me readily. That I can direct them, make them my puppets. You, Mira, Bao-Dur, Atton, those men in the cargo bays. What if they are just puppets I have been playing with!”

“It is a danger they have created from the information they had.” I told her. “That such power in someone’s hands automatically makes them evil. Yet I have seen someone with such power. Felt his body, felt his anger need and hunger. Things they attribute to you.

“But I see none of it in you. Where I felt his anger, in you I feel your compassion. Where I felt his need, in you I feel the desire to hold us all free of danger, even if you die alone. Where I felt his hunger, I feel in you the boundless willingness to give of yourself. Even thinking yourself unworthy, you try to teach us all, and nurture us all. Where my old master seeks to devour all life, you nurture it as if we are all your children. The other side of this coin of power. Like the gods of my people, the Destroyer, and the Preserver. You were needed to balance him.”

“The Jedi masters have spent so much time being masters, they have forgotten what it is like to be human and without the force. They do not understand what an awakening experience it is to have to find another way to see, to feel, to react. For ten years you were blind and you had to learn how to see the world just with your eyes. When you regained the force, you could not see it as they had. You were now judging it by those years of blind movement.

“Where they had the force to guide them, you had to walk alone like the rest of the people out there. As I did before my master made me see again. You see, I did what you had done. I cut myself away from my abilities so I would not have to witness the horror around me. If he had not come, taken me away, forced me to do what I have done, I would have died content because as any child will tell you a horror you cannot see cannot harm you. I spent five years seeing only what he wished me to see, seeking what he wanted me to seek. Then... Then I found you.

“I heard something so soft, so gentle, so beautiful there was no way I could have avoided loving it. I felt the call of all that beauty my master destroys embodied in one spirit one mind one body, one woman. I felt in you a wound so like my own that my very being was subsumed. Someone out there had suffered a loss as great if not greater than my own. I came to die by your hand, for such beauty would take my life without the glee my master felt. Nothing so beautiful could enjoy my death. I would have been enfolded in gentle death, and there was nothing I yearned for more. Killing me would have been mercy.

“Yet instead, you redeemed me. As he made me see, your words, your actions, your very spirit made me want to so desperately see the world as you do. Not the filth he sees everything as, but in the joy and wonder you have at a simple sunrise, the joy you feel when you teach Mira, the sorrow you feel when you held Bao-Dur in his nightmares. The simple pleasure you get from cooking. Even the mercy you gave to Atton for all of his sins. The effort you spent on me as well. Not out of a sense of duty, but because it is what you are.”

I turned from her, and felt a sob in my own throat. “I understand if you are terrified of this, that you feel the need to go alone, leave us in the darkness so you can chase the death you now seek. But as long as you remain among us, treasure that horrible nasty link you have with us all. Our world will be a dark and empty place when you are gone. Do not put out the light so readily.”

I fell to my knees, weeping. I felt her arms enfold me, and spun, burying my face in her neck.

“What is wrong.”

“He will be there not long after us. He will come, and he will kill, and you will face him, for you could no more stand aside than a moth can avoid being attracted to a flame.

“He will try to take you, to wound you as he had done to me. He will take you from me, and I cannot bear it!” I reached up, felt her face. Damn it I wished I could see! “Please, I beg you, don’t go. Stay here, stay with us... stay with me. I will not live beyond you, and I cannot bear that you will go to death first!”

“I can’t stand by and let him murder the dreams of trillions of lives.” She whispered in my ear. I could feel her tears on my face. “Not and live myself. I must face him, even if it means my death.”

“I know.” I whispered. “But I will not let you face him alone. Whatever else happens, I beg you to remember your promise. Do not cast me aside and face him alone. If death takes you, I wish to be there hand in hand to make the crossing as I failed to do with my family. It is all I ever asked of you, and I beg you. Please.”

“Visas...”

“Do not deny me the choice of my passage to death!” I leaned back, hands touching her face. “I wish I could see with eyes like you do. To me you are a presence, a voice, a shape of the force before me. I want to see the woman that leads us, to see her face as the skin I can touch. The eyes that weep as I do. The hair that is always getting loose from that insufferable bun as a sheet. To see the color of it!

“I want to see the woman, understand why the Handmaiden feels such contentment in your very presences. Why Atton’s heart beats faster when you walk by. Why Mira clings to you like a frightened little sister. Why Bao-Dur found strength within himself just because you have asked him to go with you!

“The masters and elders of my people could do this. I wish...” I leaned back, tearing off my hood, grasped her face between my hands. “It is no longer a wish. I will see you!”

I reached out, feeling the force flow through us, and...

“Your hair.” I loosened the bun. “It is golden, but with a reddish tint, as if copper was added to it. Your eyes are gray, with flecks of fire in them as well.” I whispered. “Your skin is as soft to my sight as it is to my hands.”

I held her face between my hands. “I understand now why Mira forsook her solitude. Why the Handmaiden saw in you what she had always wished to be and walked away from Atris. Why those of us that are women loved you, and yearned to merely sit at your feet and learn. Remember that, Marai. You are us, and to deny any of us denies yourself.

“You are these things to us, as we are all parts of what you have been. You have been cast aside as the Handmaiden has, wounded as I have been, lost and alone as Mira has. We see someone who has gone through that horror we have faced, and has survived beyond it. You are the ideal we all strive for.

“You are our leader, the one for whom all will die for. Each of us had an answering echo of your pain. That is what draws us, even the men that boarded our ship at Dantooine. But where my master would have used it, you have drained it, cleansed it filled it, removed it. Made it no more.

“I understand why Atton yearns for your touch, your body against his. I understand how Bao-Dur can look upon you and see all that he has lost regained by your presence. All of us shall die a little when you die.

“To my master we were pawns to be expended. To you we are that for we play this game for the Galaxy itself. But as this game is played out, as we die, know this my heart. We know the player weeps for us. We know that part of you will die with each of us, and our dying will wound you. So we strive to live, to make sure that we will not wound you. For you are our heart and soul.”

I stood, touching her face again. I felt her heart lighten a bit. Not much, but anything was better than that deep gloom.

“Perhaps the three of us that remain can see what we will do to Atton’s blood pressure?”

She chuckled.

*****

Marai

Some of the recordings Mical had found at the enclave had been loaded aboard our ship by mistake I thought. But his note that I might enjoy reading them told me otherwise. While I love history, I was looking at a future where there might not be any more.

So I was cooking. Since we had almost 30 people aboard, that meant I had to use our largest pots, and was making enough stew to literally feed an army. The oven was filled with pan after pan of bread. I wasn’t happy, but it was the closest I had been to it since this entire mess had begun.

Mira came in, holding a holocron. “Marai-”

“Stir this.” I said. I turned to pull the loaves from the oven. The smell of fresh bread permeated the room, and a moment later, I had to assume the entire ship because eager faces could be seen in the passageways leading into the mess hall.

“Guys, I need a moment alone with our chef. Do you mind?” Mira said. They looked crestfallen. “Don’t worry, I’ll slice up a loaf and bring it to you!”

I shrugged. There would be enough so that any who lost their appetites would have their chance. “All right Mira. Talk to me.”

“It’s something I have to show you.” She pulled me away from the stove, sitting me down, and started the holocron. I failed to see what was so important. The holocron was a history of the Academy, with images of the faculty. Baas and his teaching staff, then his successor Master Alisi Windu and her staff. Then finally Master Vandar and his...

I stared at the face. “Kreia.”

“Yeah, but look at that.” She pointed at the subtitle which gave name and position. Her name hadn’t been Kreia then.


Telos

Handmaiden

I flared out the ship, settling it in the snow near the entrance. I felt numb as I had for the last two days of our trip.

Marai was dead. She had died, and I had failed her, failed the Jedi she followed. Failed so abjectly that nothing I could do would redeem me. Kreia had been as social as she always had been, and I was grateful for the silence.

We crossed the snow, and entered the redoubt. My sister nodded curtly. “The Mistress wishes to see this one first. Wait here.” Even at her most angry, she had never spoken this coldly to me. I would have been alarmed if I had emotion to waste on it.

I was left in our common room alone. All four of my sisters ignored me.

*****

Atris

I knelt among all that wisdom, and felt nothing. My plans had come to fruition, yet I felt no joy in it. The others no doubt still waited for my arrival. But they were the ragged remains of an outmoded order. The order I would build would be strong. It would not meekly stand by and let the Senate and the Chancellor push them around. We would give them order if I had to ram it down their throats!

The door opened, and I fumed. No one came in here, that was the first thing I told all of my budding young acolytes. I would be here alone.

“Who dares disturb my meditation?” I hissed.

There was a dry chuckle. “I knew I would find you surrounded by the wealth of knowledge like a catcher bird filling it‘s nest with shiny things. and expending just as much thought.” I had heard that voice before. In one of the holocrons that lay in serried rows around me.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Who I am is not the question my little friend. It is what am I?”

“You are Sith. That much I can tell. But I am Atris, last of the historians of the Jedi order. Last Jedi of the old order itself! I am your doom.”

“Sith. Jedi. Historian.” Each word was a stinging brand. “Titles, Atris. Titles you have woven around yourself, used to ease your mind. All are titles I also held. But they are not what or who I am. No more than ‘Master’ is what you are.” Again that dry chuckle. I saw a robed shape move among my collected works, her very actions driving me to fury. She picked up one of them, idly perusing the title. “The collected musical works of Zardan Landru of Fondor. Most claim he was the first of the humans that later would claim to be Sith almost thirty years before the Republic was even founded. But he was not the first.”

“Who are you?” I demanded again.

“I have had many names. My most recent if Kreia. But before that I was known as Traya, Darth Traya. For Darth Traya was the premier teacher of those fools that call themselves the Sith. Betrayed by her own teachings. Betrayed by her own body. Betrayed by her order, and at the last, betrayed by her own students. While that Darth Traya no longer exists, the title still remains. There must always be such a person in the Galaxy. Otherwise it will die of sheer boredom.”

She moved to the other side of them, running her fingers through the wealth of knowledge. “So many different books, so many points of view. Jedi, Sith, the writings of the ancient Sith race. The few works saved by Revan of the Rakata that predate us all.

“Yet you have failed to grasp the most important part of all of this. To hold the knowledge to you like a miser wastes it. I knew that when I was your age, and I gave of it freely. I was condemned for it in fact. That I would not simply spout the rote knowledge the Council wished spoken, not tread the narrow path they wished of me.

“Yet there was so much good I did with it. An enquiring mind will always seek the best possible answer. It might not be what the Council would wish, but we were supposed to be teaching them about the galaxy beyond, not what we wanted them to think of it.

“This you knew, but there is a fatal flaw in your use of it. I used it to show the outer world in all it’s horrors so that my students would not be surprised by it. You have merely taken it and incorporated it and called it all good.

“Sith is what I might have been, but look into the mirror my young friend. You are as much a Sith as I ever was.”

“I can’t...” I wanted to rail at her, but in my heart, I knew she was correct. In trying to pick and choose, I had chosen unwisely. “How could this have happened?” I asked plaintively.

“It is such a quiet thing to fall at the first. But so much more painful when you realize that you have fallen, isn’t it? As I said. You can not blame battle for your fall, as you did with Marai and Revan. You cannot blame the ‘New Sith’ teachings, for as any fool could see, the New Sith teachings are but variations of the very old. You cannot even blame Malachor, for this has happened before, and you, the one who should have seen it was blinded by your own sanctimonious stand.

“As for Marai. The ‘exile’ you still call her. You were too busy demanding something you were not worthy of from her when you were students, and that festered. That grew. That if you want a true starting point, was your fall.”

“No! I loved her like a sister!”

“Rather more I think.” The woman said. “For only love of that sort turns so readily to hatred when unrequited. She spurned you. Oh not through any intent. She knew some about the Echani, and assumed much that need not have been true. But you drove yourself into this. She had nothing to do with it beyond sheer naivetй.

“And unlike you and I there is hope for her still.”

“I thought-”

“Ah, you thought she would face them and act as you would. That they would all die and leave you to rule. A common fallacy. She went meekly to face them, willing to give up all she had regained because even after ten years of punishment, she still believed.

“I’ve seen your representation of the obelisk. Justice severed you thought. But her final statement was ‘how can you dispense justice when you will not seek the truth first’? None of you on that council sought truth. All of you came with your own view of what the truth was, and none of you actually looked for it. As in my case, it was easier to react than it was to think then act.”

“Your case?” I looked at her, and she lowered her hood. “Oh gods-”

“The Gods do not hear our kind, Atris. The force does, but the Force is more egalitarian. It give to all who can seek it without judgment as to why you want it‘s power.

“But judgment is coming here. You and I stand condemned from our own mouths. She may yet be condemned by her actions. But you and I deserve what comes.

“Tell me, for my records if nothing else. What has hurt you worse? The fall? Or the idea that with all your pride in place when she stood before you, that she never betrayed that trust?” She pulled the hood back up. “Call your Handmaidens. There is a test that must be given before the one you betrayed arrives.”

*****

Handmaiden

I had never felt uncomfortable in this place before, why did I feel so now? My sisters had gone, and I was told to wait here. But I wanted to move, wanted to do something!

I left the room, walking toward the council chamber. We had called it that since our arrival over five years ago, when Atris had relocated from Coruscant. This place, this atmosphere had been my home for almost ten years, yet I felt like that crawling thing in the oceans that used the shells of dead creatures to protect themselves. I had outgrown this shell, and didn’t want to return to it.

The door of Mistress Atris’ meditation chamber opened, and my sisters filed out of it. All four of them walked down toward me. Their stances had changed incrementally. They were more self assured, but...

“No.” I whispered, stopping.

They filed into the room, moving in two pairs to my left and right. They thrummed with power, but I knew it was nothing like what I had felt with Marai and the others. It was...

“Gods, she has fallen, and taken you with her.” I gasped.

“Silence.” The eldest said. “It is good that you have come here.” She waved at the room. “You have come before judgment. You have much to answer for.”

“My sister-”

“You have never been my sister of blood, and only the link of Flesh has kept you as ‘sister’ all this time. Yet even that you foreswore!” She screamed. “You betrayed us, you betrayed Atris! You sought power and were willing to give us all up in that search.”

“Sister, that is not true!”

“Silence.” Another of them said. “You who were our sister of flesh, but never of blood, you are no longer our sister. We deny your flesh. We curse you in sitting, in standing and lying.”

“No, please.” I fell to my knees. Not the Cold curse!

“We curse you by day and by night.” The next eldest said. “We curse your friends, and those you cling to.”

“We curse your issue, and the man that sinks so low as to take you to his bed and home.” The next said softly. She had always felt at least something for me. But it did not dissuade her.

“We curse you in life, and only your death will end this curse.” The youngest said. “Be gone.”

“Sisters, somehow Atris has been touch by the Sith-”

“Silence woman of no family. If you will not leave we will kill you.”

I stood. “You have denied me, but my flesh still feels the call. For the sake of you all, I must stand against you in this.”

“It is a crime to spill the blood of family.” The eldest stepped forward. “Have you sunk so low?”

“I will not fight unless you force it of me. But you have been led into the darkness by she whom I had obeyed. For the sake of our family, I must stand here. Please, do not force this upon me.”

She struck at me with her fist, and I flowed beneath it. I caught her wrist, flipping her aside as another came at me. I caught her arm, kicking her in the side below the ribs, rolling away from her as the last two came at me together.

I was caught by the arm, and I used that fulcrum to kick out with both feet, punching that one off the ground, then rolled back, my body rolling on the ground, feet against her chest, and flung her away.

I was on my feet, facing them again. The eldest stood, and there was a snap as her staff leaped to it’s full length. The others drew, all of them facing me.

“It is a sin to spill the blood of family, but by the cold curse you are betrayer to that blood, and there is no sin in killing you.”

I drew my lightsaber, then put it away. She saw this and laughed. “Pathetic to the last, hoping that blood will tell what flesh cannot. You have earned this, betrayer.”

Together they leaped at me.

*****

Atris

I heard the fighting die down, and sighed. The first step in the plan was complete, and now the second. I came from my meditation room, and stopped at the door of the council room. My Hand maidens lay dead. The one who was foresworn was clutching the obelisk, one hand at her side.

“My sisters...” She whispered with pain not of her wounds. “I am sorry.” She looked up, and her face grew harsh. She shoved away from the pillar, staggering slightly. “Why Atris. Why did you do this?”

“I do this?” I laughed. “It was you, foresworn one that had murdered her sisters. You that consorted with the demon to gain what? Power? She has none, and her teachings are garbage before what I possess.

“Love? She does not have a scintilla within her.

“Then why did you command me to go?”

“Did I command you to foreswear you oaths? To ask, no, beg her to teach you? To use the excuse that an oath to your father was more important than your oaths to me?” By the last sentence I was screaming. “Of course I did no such thing! I wanted to keep track of her whereabouts. To see what she did when she murdered the last Masters that might have forestalled my plan!

“I offered you the galaxy to rule as my subject, and you spurned it for what? For Her!”

I reached out, and the force slammed her into the obelisk. I burned her with fire, I smashed her down with the sheer power of what I had learned. “Why?” I screamed. “Did you have feelings for her as I once had? Did you look upon that face and feel love? Did her touch do for you what your own flesh you have murdered here would not?”

She had staggered to her feet, and I could see her own loss of her sisters in her face. “She gave me what none of you would. A choice.”

“There is no love in that woman!” I slammed her against the post again and again. “She is a shell, she is a void formed by Malachor, and you willingly gave yourself to the void! You have earned this!”

I caught her throat. Not with my force, but with my hand. “You have tried to steal even that from me!” I screamed in her face as she fell unconscious.

“Let her go.” I looked up. Marai was there, and I felt the fury she refused to show.

I dropped the girl. “So, an exile comes to save another exile. It is almost touching.”

“Atris, I was a stupid young girl that didn’t understand what I was offered those years ago. If I had, perhaps we could have bonded as you asked. But I have not taken it and turned it into a hatred spanning almost two decades. If you want to punish someone, I am here. It was my acts then that made you what you are now. I will not let you harm her because you think she achieved what you did not.”

“Ah, so you have feelings for this one. Perhaps there is humanity still in you. You came across the span of the void to save this one?”

“I came for her. I also came for Kreia.”

“Kreia!” I roared with laughter. “That is not her name. She has already left. She is beyond your reach, Marai. When I have dealt with you I shall go to her, and your death will cause the galaxy itself to die!”

“Atris, by the love we once shared as sisters, by all we meant at one time to each other, I beg you do not do this.”

I took the lightsaber I carried, and it thrummed. “You execution has been delayed, nothing more.”

What a fantabulous chapter! Atris and her handmiadens are colder than all the snow on Telos.

However I will not be there.”

“You won’t?” Carth looked surprised. “You always wanted to see a space battle first hand. What kept you from coming?”

“Well it seems some over droid stole my ship...”

not to be nit picky, but the carth question seem to be him asking in the past tence... also i was wondering what an over droid was...

I will have to reread this. Today I have my entire column to flesh out, and jury duty. I did correct the over droid. You see, I had HK steal his ship for his own purpose which would have come clear in the next section.

Marai

I looked into that face I had once cared so deeply for, and felt nothing in return. My own saber-staff hummed, Then she came at me.

It was all attack, with no thought of defense. Against someone who had never faced a lightsaber it would have been my death. I had fought like that once, back when I first learned, and Master Zhar had broken me of it. It had been painful, and it would be this time for her.

I matched her strokes, making her work, making her put more energy into her attack, making her make the same mistake I had. Because I did not have to expend half as much energy as she did in blocking her. Her strokes became ragged, and at the appropriate time, I merely blocked her blade aside, stepped into her within that circle of death, and hit her with my fist in the chest, slamming her off her feet.

She rolled to her feet, and came at me again. But she had not yet learned what I had with the first punch against my chest all those years ago. I allowed her to expend her energy, and yet again stepped in. This time, I caught her from below, my open palm slapping into her chin, lifting and throwing her with the force rather than the blow to limit the injury. She flew backwards, slamming into the wall. the blade dropping from her hand. I reached out, and drew it to my hand with the force.

She screamed, and turned, running toward the meditation chamber. I set the lightsaber down beside my fallen sister, and gave chase.

The massive blast door was closing as I reached it and I closed my eyes, using the force to stop their progress. The generators whined in protest, and I pushed harder, harder, then suddenly there was a shriek and the right side generator exploded into scrap. I switch my mental grip, and the left side shattered as well.

Atris stood there, and as I walked in I felt such a miasma of evil that I paused. Around her in ignored piles were books of the Jedi, taken from wherever her assistants had gained them. More that Goto had collected I am sure. But in the places of honor, rising up the dome in their serried ranks were the holocrons of the Sith. The bookshelves behind her were stuffed with Sith teachings, and all that the Jedi had ever said were spurned on the ground.

No, not all. The histories of the wars written by Jedi had been stuffed in with the Sith ones in some mad effort to rationalize it.

“She said you would come, but Atris was not worried.” She spun like a young girl dancing in the moonlight. “All the knowledge of the Sith and Jedi. War, diplomacy, teachings of how the force should be used, all hers. She has spent months, years in this room. When the Telosians fled this planet She seized this place, stuffed it with all I had gathered for her, but oh so secretly.” She put a finger to her lips as if whispering a secret. “You see, Master Vandar had begun to worry about Atris, oh yes he did. He had asked her to represent him at Katarr, but I was not fool enough to allow her to go. You see, I had figured out we faced even then. It has happened before, back in the midst of time, before the Republic was even born!”

“Atris-”

“Atris?” She looked at me. “I have not been Atris for over ten years. Atris withdrew from the world when the one she loved left her to go to war. When you spurned her so you could fight.”

I looked at her remembering that day:

I had been finishing my packing when she came to my rooms. She had taken my hands, dragged me away from my bag.

Stay here. please. She had whispered. Or let me go with you!

Atris. I had sighed. I touched her face, the first time I had touched her since we were student and teacher. Her eyes had closed in bliss, leaning into my hand. I ask you to stay, but I must go.

She had opened her eyes, wounded by my words. Why?

Every warrior needs one thing before they go to battle, Atris. That is something to come back to. Something that holds them in this world even as slaughter happens about them. You have been my anchor for years.

Anchor. The kind of thing you tie to someone’s feet so they are dragged down!

Never, Atris. I had touched my lips to her palm. An anchor holds a ship from being cast upon the rocks and shattered. War will be my storm, and the rocks that I fear. You will hold me, give me something to look for, and return to.

If I meant that much to you, why will you not bond with me?

Because... I am afraid of it. I cannot stand here with you, or bond with you, for if the bond is so strong, what happens if I die? Will I drag you down into death?

Go. She snarled. Go and be damned! I will not be an anchor for anyone such as you!

“I did not spurn her. She refused to let me live unbonded.”

“Ah, but I know that even if she did not!” Atris replied.

“Gods above, what happened to you?”

“Malachor happened to her. When you returned you ignored her! You did not come to be held as Atris would have wished. To have the one thing that would hold you to this world beside you again. In her eyes your words when you departed were just wind, and the wind moves nothing! ‘Be my anchor’ you said, and when that anchor would have held you, you cut it free, yet another casualty of Malachor.

“Do you remember the crystal? The one you gave to her? She threw it into space the day after you left but regretted that act of pique. Perhaps that is why after your trial she took this.” My old lightsaber lit in her hands. “I had not even known she had done so until you came here the first time. So she has also betrayed me, sneaking out to do things of which I had no knowledge. She is the one that sent the Handmaiden you suborned to you. She must have hoped inside that you would give to her what you would not to Atris. But even that pathetic little girl only got the teacher, didn’t she? The teacher that gave Atris nothing.

“The old woman you travel with revealed to me what had happened. You see, I had a vision of how to save the order that Atris did not. She merely intended to bring these girls here, teach them secretly, keep them safe until the Jedi and Sith had destroyed themselves, then return, bringing back to the Galaxy what they needed.

“But I took that plan one better. Why should people of such power bow and scrape to monsters that would murder their own children for enough votes to sit in the Senate? Even the Sith were appalled by such arrant nonsense.

“I would have brought them order. I would have brought them peace. True it would have been the peace of a team under one whip, but I would have been sparing with the lash!”

“Please, Atris, there is no reason for us to fight. Just tell me where Kreia has gone, and I will leave you in peace.”

“Now that I cannot do. You are the one fly in the ointment. As long as you live, the Galaxy has a chance to turn from what I will offer. I needed you here, because you would draw the most powerful of the Sith here. After he had killed you, I would defeat him, and the grateful galaxy would name me God!” She sighed. “But you arrived too soon. The Sith have not come, and they will not be weakened for me.

“But if I slay you, Kreia told me that the secret of defeating him will be revealed!”

She came at me. I was heartily sick of this, and instead of meeting her blade to blade, I snatched the weapon from her hands.

She stared at me, then stood defiant. “So kill me, carry out the vengeance you have held since you left me alone!” She screamed at me. “Here, I’ll even make it easier!” She spun on her heel, back to me. “You never had the guts to face me in truth. So from behind like a coward suits you.”

I stepped forward, and my arm encircled her below her bosom. I kissed her neck, then stepped back. “I could not be what you wished me to be, Atris. A lover in truth. For that I apologize.”

“Then you leave me alive in pain! Such mercy!” She wept, screaming at me. “So Kreia lied to me as well! It is not I she awaits, it is you!”

“I must end this, Atris. Even if it means my life. I ask you again, where did she go.”

“But you know!” She said with a laugh. “Where it all began. Where the hole that you bear was formed! She has known of it since it happened, for she was there to witness it.

“You and her share a link, have shared one since that day though you knew it not. You felt her pain along it, and both of you have feared her death. But have you ever thought that your deaths are exactly what she has hoped for?

“As linked as you are both to her and to Malachor, your deaths would create a hole that will suck up the force throughout the galaxy! It will cleanse the galaxy in one great orgiastic blast, and the sad chapter of life with it would be finally finished and closed!” She laughed, the cackle of a woman no longer linked in anyway to reality.

I walked away.

“Come back here! Kill me!” She screamed.

“I can’t, Atris.” I looked back and felt tears on my cheeks. “Even as you are, you are too precious to me.”

“Liar!” I saw the blade an instant before she thrust it into her own bosom. I leaped into a run, catching her as she stood, stunned by her own actions. Her hand released the hilt, touching my face as she collapsed.

“Marai...” She smiled. “At last, you came back to me.”

“Atris?”

“Have I changed so much that you do not recognize me? Has my love meant nothing?”

“No, Atris.” I saw a tear fall on her face. She touched it in wonder, then touched my face again.

“No more tears. We are together at last as it was meant to be. We will bond, you and I, we will grow old watching the children of our bodies grow into adulthood...” She was no longer seeing me. “Our bond will grow and soon there will be love within it. I will not accept otherwise...”

I held her body, and cried for her.

****

Handmaiden

I felt a hand on my cheek. I opened my eyes, and Marai was looking at me, crying.

“You’re dead. Kreia told me-”

“As much as she said she has never lied to me, none of you seemed to have been exempted. She needed to be here to confront Atris before I did.”

“Marai...” I didn't know what to believe. She was dead, Kreia had told me so! I was alone, only my sisters... I looked. One of them lay there. her neck had been snapped. I remembered it, fighting them, trying not to hurt them but there were too many. When my eldest sister had broken one of my ribs, I had stopped trying to keep them from harm.

“Oh Gods!” I rolled to my knees, looking at the bodies. My sisters, half of my flesh, and I had killed them all!

“Marai, Atris had gone to the dark side.” I whispered.

“Atris is at peace finally.” She replied.

She held me in my grief. I did not know what was the worse pain, that my father’s line had died, or that it had happened by my hand. I clung to her, and both of us cried for what we had lost.

She finally sighed, standing. “We must go.”

“But...” I waved at the bodies around us. She took my hand, helping me to my feet.

“The Sith are coming, and if we take the time to do them the honor they deserve, we will join them.” She said softly. “If we survive that attack, I promise they shall get their due.”

There was a movement, and we spun, weapons out, lightsabers humming. The droid walked forward, hands empty.

“HK?” Marai asked.

“Amused reply: I so detest the ability of meatbags to restate the obvious. Query: Did you forget that I was not aboard the Ebon Hawk?”

Marai looked chagrined. “I hadn’t noticed. I did have a lot on my mind.”

“Irritated answer: It is nice to know that this unit is so important to you. If you would peruse this document at your leisure, I will... clean up the mess.”

“They deserve-”

“Rejoinder: I know the practices of the Jedi and five hundred other races and seven thousand planets. I will prepare them for your return. It seems we have company overhead.”

I looked at her, then dropped to my knees. “I am no longer the last Handmaiden.” I looked up at her. “She who bound me has betrayed us all, and died. My sisters that followed her have died. For my line, I must do this.

“I, Brianna Rekavali Bai Echani beg that you take me into your service. To avenge the wrong done to my family I will fight and die at your side.”

“Brianna.” She smiled shyly. “May I call you that?” She shrugged “It is much better than ‘hey you’. Though that is what I have been doing for so long.”

“In love I give it, in hope I offer it, in patience I await it.” I said, bowing my head. The bow not of a liegeman, but of a slave. She caught my chin, lifting my head, making me look into her eyes.

“In grace I receive it, in love do I cherish it, in humility I shall honor it.” She replied. The oath of a sister in law to her new family. “My sister, you have no flesh to call your own. Will you be mine?”

“Marai-” I turned my head. “Would you give me what you denied Atris?”

“To bond as sister is not what she asked.” She replied softly. “At least in her heart. Do you expect the same?”

“No!” I reached out. “My sister, love is not always such!”

“Then bond with me. As sisters we shall fight to save not only ourselves, but those we cherish. As sisters we shall hold each other in pain, laugh together in pleasure, face the world one flesh, one heart, one soul.”

I hugged her. A sister in truth at last.

I apologize about the brevity of today's post. However I have a serious combat scene coming, and want to give it my full attention. On top of that I have jury duty, so bear with me...

Additional information on jury duty. After 3 days the defendant plead guilty, so I am done. But no one has commented WHEEMPER!

But no one has commented WHEEMPER!

I'm not done with my education, mach. I have less time in which to comment on your fic now, and so do most of the other forumites. :)

Your latest chapter was good, and the idea of HK performing any rituals to honor the dead is amusing to say the very least. Your chapter left some door open as to Atris' sexuality, but that's moot with how she's dead.

I find it amusing that an assasin droid would care aboutr buryial rites, still keep up the hard work :D

I find it amusing that an assasin droid would care aboutr buryial rites, still keep up the hard work :D

I was just making a sarcastic stab at C3PO's 'I know six million languages' but with something that HK would no doubt know, how they would dispose of the body afterward.

I'm afraid HK will do the 'bot equivalent of spitting on their graves. :)

Glad jury duty's over for you.
I've been swamped with this crazy crisis in my history group that has created some of the ugliest politics I've ever seen--I've put in about 200+ hours on it in the last 4 weeks or so, and have several hundred left to go before an October meeting. So I haven't had much time to comment.
However, I have been one of those 2000+ viewing it. :D

I chuckled at Atton's version of 'true love', didn't quite agree with your take on Talia but could see it just the same (I couldn't see her throwing a table across the room), thought the monologue with Visas needed to be broken up a bit and condensed, followed Atris' descent into madness with great interest, and felt Brianna's pain at having to kill her sisters. All in all, quite the emotional romp and an enjoyable read, and I imagine the rest will be just as interesting. And I caught the Landru reference. ;)

Citadel Station
Ships had come out of hyperspace, a fleet of nightmares. Republic ships cruised alongside Mandalorian and Sith vessels. But the bulk of that fleet had been ripped apart by some massive force. There were rents in the hulls, drives with their fairings ripped away.

At their center came the largest warship ever seen.

Lieutenant Grenn stared at the horror coming toward them. It wasn’t the largest Sith fleet he had ever seen, but it was one of horrors because the light codes flashing told him that most had been listed as lost over ten years ago.

“Sir?” The officer on the sensor panel looked up in horror. “That large ship! It’s reading as Ravager!”

“Well it looks like the Sith have been busy getting ships from somewhere. Now we know where.” Grenn replied. “Battle stations.”

The people of Citadel station turned in shock as the battle klaxons rang. “All civilians, return to quarters immediately. I repeat, All civilians, return to quarters immediately!” Came the call over every intercom. The three thousand odd men of the Telosian Security forces ran to their armories, loading up on weapons, slapping on their armor. They had as much chance as a pint of Tihaar at a Mandalorian Wake, but they had to try.

*****

Queen Talia heard the klaxon, and ran to the com panel.

“Ma’am this line is restricted to operations at this time, please-”

“Tell whoever is in charge that I will lead my men to their assistance. If they will stand here and waffle, we shall fight alone if need be!” She flicked off the screen, turning to the men with her. “Riiken, Gelesi, take a third of the men each. I hear their fuel is low, and destroying it will win the battle for the enemy.”

The men ran off. The com chimed, and she opened the channel. “I am Lieutenant Dol Grenn. You wanted to speak to me?”

“I have two thousands of men on this station, and by the oath I swore, we will defend it even if you do not!”

“Calm down, lady-”

“That Lady is queen Talia!” My chamberlain shouted.

“Shut up, you worm.” Talia snapped. “Call me what you will, Lieutenant, but my captains have moved to protect the fuel stores. I only ask where I will stand with what remains.”

He looked at her for a long time. “Well since you put it that way, check the station schematics. Modules 42 through 65 need support.”

“I shall be there.” She flicked off the switch, then drew the gold chased sidearm she wore. “As for you.” She pointed at the Chamberlain. “You will come with me.”

*****

Corren Falt looked up from his panel. While the company had taken one hell of a hit from Lorso’s arrest, he had caught them up. The openings the Ithorians had promised to resources on his promise to stop interfering with them had brought them back into the black with a vengeance.

“What’s going on?” He demanded.

“The Sith are attacking the station, sir.” His assistant reported. “We’re preparing your ship for departure-”

“Do I look like Lorso?” He asked in a cold voice. “We have an investment, and by the gods we’re protecting it! Arm all of our men, get those mercenaries that are sitting on their butts off them!”

*****

Marai

It was a scene from my nightmare, and now it was real.

“Where did they get a fleet like that?” Atton asked.

“Malachor.” I answered. I touched the light codes. “Republic cruiser Endeavour, Mandalorian frigate Ralshia. Over three quarters of them are ships lost at Malachor. The rest are just what the Sith have left.”

“Ship approaching Citadel Station, this is the Security force,. Override seven is in effect, veer off, leave the system immediately!”

“Security this is the Ebon Hawk. This is my party, and I will be here for it.” I snapped. I pointed. “Is bay 2 on module 126 still open?”

Atton checked. “Yeah. A ship just pulled out of there.”

“Then put us down.”

The ship flew through the cloud of fighters running ahead of the monster fleet. There weren’t as many as I would have anticipated. Only the ten or fifteen Sith ships had put them out. It didn’t mean they didn‘t have more, but it gave me some heart.

But Ravager filled me with cold terror. Was the generator still aboard? If it was, we’d all die just as they had at Malachor.

We flared out for our landing, and my crew leaped down onto the deck. TSF troops stood there staring at us. Grenn pushed himself through, and glared at me.

“Are you always going to be disrupting my station every time you come here?” He snapped.

“I promise, this will be the last time.” I replied.

He grinned. “From what I hear, I have you to thank for the Queen and her entourage. “ He motioned. “Her men are covering the fuel stores, and it gave my men the breathing room they needed. Add in almost a thousand Mandalorians, and we might even be able to hold our own.”

“Only until Ravager gets here.” I corrected him. “If the Shadow Mass Generator is still aboard, she can crush us like an egg in less than an hour. Even without it, it will be tight.”

“When it rains it pours.” He sighed. “I’m out of my depth here, lady. Got any ideas?”

“Ravager left the yards unfinished. she didn’t need to be complete to carry out her assigned mission. Her guns were operational, so were shields and engines, but not a lot more. If we can smash her, the rest of the fleet can still kill us, but can’t guarantee it.”

“You just told me all weapons and defenses are operational.”

“Weapon shields yes. They can block enemy fire. But a shuttle or fighter can get close enough.”

“Flying through that hell? Who in their right mind...” His voice died as he looked at my face. “Never mind. Where can we get a shuttle?”

“In docking bay 74 module 17, almost directly in their path.” We turned as Mandalore and a few of his men came in. “We already have the shuttle prepped.” The helmet turned. “We’re just waiting for you, Jedi.”

I looked at the others. “Brianna, stay here, you are injured. Mira, you and the others go along with Lieutenant Grenn. Advance as possible, but stay safe.”

“Wait-” Atton started to say.

“Atton, this is my show.” I looked at Visas. “Our show. You will help them, Atton.”

Visas Mandalore and I ran toward the shuttle pod to the next module. The enemy had not taken into account that every section was it’s own little fortress. If a single squadron of fighters had been tasked with blasting any pods, we would have been trapped.

We fought alone, alongside TSF troops, alongside Onderoni including Beast Riders, we even found ourselves leading a charge of Czerka Security men in Module 82, fighting our way toward module 17.

I heard a cheer, and the Onderoni beside me screamed “The Republic fleet has arrived!”

*****

Carth

The Frigate Sojourn came out of hyper drive, and her dozen fighters were flushed even as the sensors stabilized. Admiral Onasi looked at the screen, at the phantoms of the past that confronted him. Behind him, the fleet arrived, doing a slight swirling motion to shake out into their proper formation. Something that looked so simple, but took months of practice.

“Admiral-” Technician Hapa gasped.

“Calm down, son.” Onasi patted the young man on the shoulder. “They died at Malachor, and no one told them different. First division, right flank, Second division, left. Third, straight up the middle. Cripple them if possible, but we have to hit the Ravager before she gets close.”

The thirty ships, ten frigates and 20 corvettes charged into the fray.

*****

Ravager
The ship was silent. She moved, and fought like the others, but she and those that had died at Malachor were silent because their commander demanded it. He stood on the bridge, gloating. It had been long since he had fed properly, and this was his chance. The report had said the Jedi were meeting her, fresh power to drain, to sustain his own existence.

If he had considered it from the view of those people, his very existence was an abomination. Draining people to stay alive. But he had not cared what most people thought for more than two decades, and his present condition reflected that.

He sent the commands, not orders, not words, but his own thoughts.

Closer.

Past that worthless station with it’s few hundred thousand worthless lives.

Close enough to drain the planet. Those people would die with it, but they were a snack compared to the feast that awaited!

*****

Visas

I staggered. I could feel his regard, but my master had not seen us! How was that so? I followed in Marai’s wake. Actually the safest place to be because nothing that faced her lived. She spun, her lightsaber flying in an arc to cut down a Sith trooper and shatter the turret he had been setting up. She reached out while it was spinning away, and a wall shattered down the long main promenade, smashing a dozen more from their feet.

“Come on!” She screamed, charging forward. The men before us fought, and they died. We were an unstoppable force.

I looked at one of them as we paused to survey our next field of battle. I touched Marai, and took the helmet from the trooper that had died at our feet. He looked... gaunt.

“What?” She gasped.

“This man must have been upon my master’s ship. He feeds from all those around them. To be assigned to his ship is to waste away. He grows desperate. The men aboard are dying even as we kill them.”

“Then why don’t we feel it?”

“I do not know. He does not see us. Yet you should be like a solar flare to him!”

“Enough talk.” Mandalore snapped. “One more pod to go.”

“What was your plan, Mandalore?”

“Board the ship, plant proton warheads, get off, and blow him to hell.”

“It has the advantage of being simple.” Marai said, then she ran at full tilt down the promenade. She leaped, bounced off the wall, and landed behind a planter. Screams echoed, and she stood, shutting off her weapon. “Did you plan on surviving this?” She continued the conversation.

“No one lives forever.” Mandalore replied.

We fought our way to the last pod, and debouched into module 17. A Sith shuttle that had carried the troops in was sitting there. A dozen Mandalorians led by Kelborn were there, carrying the dismounted proton heads. Each was equal to about five kilotons of blasting explosives. Mandalore lit his holographic projector, and touch the ship in four places. “Eight of you in two four man teams will set charges on this side, Kelborn.” He motioned to two of the dots. “The Jedi and I will do the same on the other.”

“Death or Glory.” Kelborn replied.

We boarded the shuttle, blasting up through the confusion. A Republic fighter made a pass, but missed us. Then we were in the shuttle bay aboard Ravager. The Mandalorians leaped aboard, blasting as we followed.

*****

Marai

Ravager looked no different. I almost expected that damn Quintain to traipse in, using that ‘I am so much more important’ tone he always had. The men that had been there were already dead, and I didn’t need to do more than look to know that we had only sped the inevitable. Each was gaunt as if they had been held without food for months. The Mandalorians moved off, and the team that was with us followed as I led the way.

Mandalore might have studied this ship, but only Visas and I had ever walked her decks. My memory led me to the section where Mandalore had wanted to set the first charge. We set it, and moved toward the second. On the other side of the ship, the Mandalorian teams kept us apprised. They had run into resistance, but nothing to really worry about. Every man we had seen and fought so far were all in the same condition.

We set the second charge, and had turned to run when the ship side slipped a few meters as if someone had thrown it. We staggered into the bulkheads, barely staying on our feet. Mandalore flicked his com link. “Damn it, I told you all to wait!”

“Mandalore.” I heard the voice. Zuka, in terrible pain. “Republic fighter... He blew the charge early...”

“Situation!”

“Kelborn... Dead. I’m all that’s left...” He hissed in pain.

“Was it in it’s proper positions?”

“Negative... too far forward... Not good enough...Need another charge... Weapons bay... Need diversion...”

“We’ll take it to the bridge.” I told him. “We had to make sure he is dead anyway, so attacking the monster there was something I needed to do.” I told him.

Mandalore looked at me. “You’re on your own. But once we set that charge to blow, you don't have a lot of time.”

“Understood.” I clasped his hand. “Death or Glory.”

“Give them hell, Marai.” He signalled, and Visas and I were alone.

*****

Visas

We ran down the passageway to the lift, and shot up to the command deck. I started to lead, then stopped. The door that had haunted me since I was a child was there, and I froze, staring at it.

“Visas?”

“This was my cell.” I said softly. I touched the annunciator, and the hatch hissed aside. “Please, a moment.”

She followed as I walked through the sumptuous room. It had been visiting flag officer’s quarters. What would have been a dining room had been converted into a horror for that child I had been. My master’s will had made it so.

Yet...

It no longer terrified me. It was a place I had spent five years of my life, spilled blood when he punished me, yet even those memories were softened by the person I had become with Marai.

“Once there was a world.” I whispered. “Strong in the force, home to a peaceful people. Now it is a wasteland, thanks to him.”

I knelt. “But past the surface, there is still the force. I must return to you, I know. I must walk again, grieve for all of you. I lost my way, but now I have found my rudder.

“What happens here is not done from hate, or vengeance. It is done because it is right. For the sake of all life, we must cut this last bond. I ask you all, forgive me, Kreeon my father Variala my mother, Maris my big sister Canalaro my brother. Oh how I miss you most!” I sobbed. I felt...

“Father?” I gasped. The spirits of my family, of my people filled it now. Freed somehow from his power, here to tell me they forgave me for surviving. I felt them surround me, phantom hands reaching out, touching my face, my arms. I held them to me, then turned. They knew, as did I that it was a brief moment. For if he lived, they would again be trapped.

“My body is no longer a prison.” I told them softly as they moved away. “I will join you, but not until the evil is gone from this world.”

Marai touched my shoulder, hugging me to her.

We opened the door leading to the last passageway. A man lay crumpled to the side, and as we approached, he looked up. I saw the pistol he held in his hand, but it wasn’t aimed at us, it was aimed at his own chest. The knuckles of his right forefinger were white with exertion, but the gun didn’t fire.

“He won’t let me die.” Colonel Tobin said in a hoarse whisper. “He stands up there so damn sanctimonious, and he won’t. Let. Me. Die!” He looked at the weapon as if it were his only hope of salvation. More true than he knew.

“The final insult. You and those fools that follow you stripped the General of his due. Tried to strip him of his troops.”

Marai knelt. “We do not have time for this, Tobin.” She said softly. “What are you doing here? I thought you died on Onderon.”

“I did, I think.” He looked up, and I could see pride and terror warring in his mind. “The Drexl hurt me badly, but a woman saved my life. Told me that the last of the Jedi were here. I came to him...” He looked upward. “Now, I await my death, and it’s the only thing I have left to wish for!”

“When he is done here, Onderon will soon be the target.” Marai pressed.
“Onderon has been dying since the war.” He ignored her. “What is worse, the slow wasting away as the Republic drains it of life year by year? Or the flash of the bolt hitting it between the eyes?” He laughed. “Could the Republic offer such a sweet swift death?”

“But your people, your home-”

“Spare me you sympathy! If I cannot sit at the right hand of the ruler of my world, it doesn’t deserve to live!” He had a wistful look. “When he came to me, and then to the General, it had been so easy. He had men, ships, power. Enough to wash that stupid twit of a girl from the throne. But he cared nothing for us, for our people. He builds nothing, maintains nothing, creates nothing.”

“As if you did?” She snapped. ‘If you can’t rule they don't deserve to live‘? Are those the word of a patriot or a hypocrite? Is it really better to reign in hell than serve in heaven?”

“It doesn’t matter. People live only to feed his hunger, worlds live only for that purpose. He is an omnivoracity, feeding upon the lives of everyone around him, and none of us matters.”

“How did he get this ship away from Malachor? It should still be trapped inside the Shadow Mass Generator field!”

He laughed. “He turned it off, you stupid fool! He turned it off, removed it from the ship, left it on the rock and had this towed from the maw of hell to serve him again!” He slapped the deck almost fondly. “She was battered, wrecked, even now the only thing that holds it together is his will. He would not leave Malachor without it. It was his, had always been his, and would always remain his.”

“I think Malachor formed him.” I said. “As if Malachor is a crucible that melts away all but the pure person beneath all of the dross, and his present existence is all he ever really was.”

“Oh yes he had a life there. Or an existence. He would never die if he did not leave it, but the food is so much better out here!” Tobin laughed and sobbed at the same time. “Onderoni must not be too toothsome, because the Sith seem to fall so much faster than I. I wonder if he prefers human over Twi-lek? Do Hutt taste like the slugs they mimic? Will he like the taste of you?” He looked at the lightsaber in Marai’s hands.

“Oh yes, a Jedi, pumped full of all that glorious force energy! You will be the bon bon of his delight!”

“But why here? Why did you tell him to come here?” She caught his shoulders. “Why Telos?”

“Because she told me the Jedi were here! Told me where to find him.”

“Kreia.” I whispered.

“But there are no Jedi below.”

“Then he will be, upset with me. His hunger grows, and the normal walk of life does not feed him so well. He is a starving man on an island stuffing grass into him mouth in the hope that he will live until he catches a fish.” He looked up at Marai. “Those lies have condemned them all, for Jedi or not, he will feed.”

“If he believes there were Jedi here it would explain this mad attack.” Marai said. “Just about all the Sith have left are out there. The Republic fleet is already smashing them, and soon only he will remain.

“I did not come all this way to see Telos die.” She looked up at me, and that determination burned in her.

“Kreia did this to weaken him.” I said. “Even the thousands, no hundreds of thousands down there will not sustain him for long.”

“And all of us will die when he feeds!” Tobin looked almost gleeful. “Everyone aboard this ship will

“I will stop him.”

“Stop him.” He began to chuckle. “Stop him? You? You, your friend, the men attacking this ship it‘s crew. We all mean nothing to him. We are insects crawling on the ground, grains of sand on a beach. Planets are large enough to attract his gaze, but nothing smaller. We are only important if he decides to devour where we happen to be. Grit in the sandwich of his life.”

“You made your choice, Colonel. One way or another you will be free in a short while.” Marai stood, and we walked away from him. We reached the lift.

“Visas.” She stopped me. “You don’t have to go any farther.”

“I must I told her softly. “He must die, and I must see him die. I will go with you, even unto death.”

We walked down the passageway, and the door to the bridge opened. We walked through, and there in the distance, was he who had been my master.

*****

Marai

I stopped when I saw him. He was cloaked in a full robe, a painted mask on his face. But I knew him somehow. He paced back and forth before the massive transparisteel panels, hands clasped behind his back, almost strutting...
The ship was new, segments of metal still gleamed, because they had not taken the time to paint it. I looked at it as the shuttle approached, Revan sitting beside me.

No one ever imagined anything so... huge. She said. Except for you.

I didn’t imagine the damn thing. I told her. We needed some huge ship to transport the device, and that- I pointed at the giant arrowhead, -was what Bu-ships had in the production queue.

We approached, and I could see the ranked guns on her side, the huge dorsal fin with a winged bridge. What maniac would spend what that ship must have cost in the middle of a war?

Of course I knew what maniac. After Costigan’s Drift, everyone with half a brain knew Quintain was going to be beached. He had lost too many, failed too many times. Dxun had been the second to the last straw, but we had finally gotten him sent home.

Oh, not to be cashiered. Being nephew of the Prime Minister of Corellia had saved him from that. No, he was sent to Bu-ships, where he took a smoothly running machine, and came up with... that.

Well, I said. She’s still open to space over half of her length, her frames are naked to space, and she will only support half of the 6,000 men she would carry normally. No fighters, barely able to move. What fool would want to command her in that condition? There was no reply. Revan was suddenly intently interested in the seat back before her. Suddenly I knew.

Oh no-

We needed a commander willing to take her to space. One that would take her to Malachor. Someone-

Tell me it isn’t him. I demanded. She was silent. Damn it, Revan, you let an incompetent idiot control the Shadow Mass Generator?

I didn’t have a choice. She replied coolly. You told me the mass of the ship we needed to carry the weapon fully assembled. That was the only ship in the inventory large enough. When he found out that this would be the final battle, he leaned on his uncle, suggesting that without his actions work stoppages ‘redesign conferences’ that kind of thing would delay her indefinitely.

So we had a choice of the ship we want now, or what, another year and a half of war? She nodded dumbly. Why didn’t you just send me back to Corellia? I nodded toward the ship. I would have chopped him into hound food, let myself go to jail for life, rather than have him here.

The shuttle had landed, and we’d gone through all of the interminable ballyhoo that happens when a fleet commander and senior Army general arrive. We finally reached the bridge, and I knew it would be the only part of the ship that would be completed.

Admiral Valentin Lord Quintain greeted us. He might be our junior now, but this was his ship, and he ruled her decks. He had walked us through the controls, men standing at consoles rather than seated. He had always thought the navy too soft on the men, and he’d actually designed this ship with only one seat on the bridge, his. It was almost a throne, mounted on a raised dais, heavy arms and high back so he could lean back, and survey his domain like a rule out of ancient history. After showing us around the bridge, he had mounted that throne, rubbing the arm of that chair. All he had to say was one word.

Mine.

‘It was his, had always been his, and would always remain his.’ Tobin had said, and suddenly I knew who that monster had been.

“Quintain!” I roared. The figure paused, turning. He faced us as I stalked forward.

Visas had fallen in to my left, pacing me. I came toward him, and the figure watched our approach silently.

“He calls himself Lord Nihilus now.” She told me.

“I don’t care what you call yourself, butcher.” I snapped coldly, standing in front of him. “You were always a fool, and this proves it!”

He still stared at me. Visas sighed. “He doesn’t believe you are who he thinks you are.” Visas told me. “He knows Marai Devos is dead. He slew her in his last great victory.”

“Victory.” I snarled. “Three million dead, half of them our own people! Only you would have considered it a victory!”

He shrugged, turning back to the planet.

“Once he has dealt with the Jedi below, he will deal with you.” Visas reported.
“There are no Jedi, you fool!” I screamed. “I am the only Jedi here!”

He turned, and even I could sense his horror. “Yes, you damn fool. I don’t care who told you but the Jedi are dead, and I am all you can eat here!”

He stumbled, then straightened. A lightsaber leaped into his hand, and I ripped it from his grasp.

“You came to feast because you are dying, but there’s nothing here! Even if you kill everyone in this system, the crews of your own ships will die before you reach home! Choke on that!”

He reached out, and like the Masters on Dantooine I felt him try to drain me. But there was a flash, and he staggered back. He could not draw the force from me.

Something about that event had transferred to me, suddenly I knew how it was supposed to work. They would reach in, cutting the links that led from the force to the midichlorians, merely making them unable to absorb it. I would have woken up, and my mid-count would have been nonexistent.

As He recoiled, I suddenly knew how his power worked. I knew how it worked, and also knew how to do it without taking the step he had done. Not feeding upon it, but using it to help those around me, like Battle meditation will guide men fighting.

I caught his hands, sucking the life from him instead. He tried to struggle, but as I drained it, I released it, freeing all of those lives trapped for so long in a corpse that wouldn't die. I felt the men around me strengthen as their lives returned to them, and felt the body in front of me start to shrivel. He clawed at my hands frantically, but the gloves began to slip as the flesh beneath shrank away from them. The broad chest began to wither away, and still he fought to break free.

“Damn you to all the hells, Quintain. Die!”

He made a noise at the end, a sobbing scream as I plumbed down, taking everything he had stolen to stay alive. The body shriveled even more, and I let go as he collapsed in a pile of skin and bones.

The crew stared at me as I stood away from the dead monster. “Abandon ship you fools!”

*****

Mandalore

I reached the weapons bay. Zuka had dragged himself to the nearest missile, and was tinkering with the warhead. He clutched his side where shrapnel was even now leaking his life away.

“I have it, sir.” He gasped, wiring a handle into the circuit.

“Zuka-”

“Death or Glory, my Mandalore.” He gasped. “I’ll hold it as long as I can for you.”

I hugged him to me fiercely. Then signalled, and my men fell back. “Marai, report!” There was nothing. The ship still thrummed as weapons fire went out, or slammed into it’s shields. “Damn it Marai!” I screamed.

We fought our way to the shuttle. I leaped aboard, looking back. I’d give them ten seconds...

Ten seconds passed. All right, ten more...

Seven passed before Marai and Visas came running. We ran aboard, slamming the hatch, and the shuttle was already spinning under Tagren’s hands as we punched back out through her shields.

“How long will-” His question was answered as a massive explosion blew out the side of the ship behind us. Another, then another. The ship exploded into pieces, ripping itself apart as it’s engines tore forward through the debris. The fleet was turning, but it was trapped between the guns of the station, and the charging Republic fleet. We rode silently down to the station, and docked.

For those of you that looked at the last post, and think perhaps I am slipping...

I admit it was rushed, and i am editing and expanding it. I will repost it before I post the next segment.