What You Leave Behind

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 23 — As the Sun Sets

Part 1

Shadows

M’Skigon Ranges
Two shadows stood atop a peak amidst the M’Skigon ranges as the sun set over the city below, the sky reflecting purple onto the snows beneath their feet.

“We should do something to warn them,” Vesi said out loud amidst the whistle of the winds against her dark armour
“They already know Mendax is coming, we can’t tell them anything new”
“We could help them,”
He stood on an outcrop just above her looking protectively over her.

“We gave Karmack the chance on Geonosis, he refused my offer, and you returned his family to him from Canto Bite, even after they attacked Mari.  Ardyn set his son straight on Csilla, Kyran and Lysaea armed and renewed Vih’Torr on Bellerophon, and Cha has given them enough Dark Troopers to hold off a Legion…if they use them correctly”

He paused as she shifted on the jagged peak.

“Would you have us risk our own lives to protect theirs?”

Vesi twitched her mouth beneath her helmet…as much as she wanted to look after her friend Talia…she could never risk a real Persons life.

“No…still…”

He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, her father one of very few males with permission to touch her without explicit consent, as was fitting.

“Your kindness is a good thing sweetling, you carry the Goddess in your heart, yet compassion must be tempered with wisdom, our strength must only be shown when it is absolutely essential.”

“It’s still sad,” Vesi added as they sensed the first ripple of the coming storm.

“As Aunt Kiri says let Outsiders kill Outsiders.”

<<<<>>>>

Requiem

Far Edge of M’Tzigon System
‘Captain’ Nyders left hand twitched as he swayed slightly on the bridge of the Requiem – the understaffed command desks being worked frantically by the Imperial turncoats, tapping keys furiously then sprinting across the control bay to enter the same commands at a secondary console for confirmation.

Many systems remained down, whole decks were deserted, without power or light, and far too many secondary and tertiary systems were offline or only partially enabled.  There was a shudder as the dorsal docking bay doors finally began to open behind the screen of the atmosphere shield – her ears heard the squeal of the eight twin turbolaser turrets charging as they pushed through the tunnel of hyperspace.

Lieutenant Nordas, the ‘smart one’ who had surrendered rather than fight Mendax and the rebels and given over the Requiem managed the depleted bridge crew with all the professionalism and cool thinking of a competent, seasoned but overlooked Imperial officer as Nyder made only occasional spurts of vague orders.

For vague orders were all she had, Mendax will pushed in general directions not precision paths – with one…Horrific…Exception.

Nyder knew what she was doing, knew what her voice was commanding, abhorred Every. Single. Second. Of. It.

But could not stop herself.

“Realisation in 40 seconds…” Nordas advised stepping just behind her as her left hand, seemingly the only part of her body she had any true sovereignty over twitched furiously in protest at her situation.

“Targeting computers are online however the turbo laser are charging to only 60%...surprise will be key if we are to succeed…”

She nodded a bead of sweat dripping along her forehead

“That’s fine…all fine…...”  no it really wasn’t

<<<<>>>>

The control room was decorated for S'Kar'Yom, festive lights and cornucopias arrayed around the room with traditional messages of Thankfulness and Joy, small table set for tomorrow's gift exchange beside a small buffet for those few unfortunates on duty over the holiday.  The crew were still in good spirits, enjoying the holiday mood and relaxed discipline despite being stuck in the system's periphery doing traffic control and customs inspections. 

Everyone, it seemed, except Lieutenant Jo'Lan'Trax.

Jo'Lan sighed and forced a smile as another of the crew greeted him with a over-enthusiastic holiday wish - he couldn’ shake the ominous feeling, whilst his parents hadn’t wanted him to undergo Mak’Tor trials his family did have a number of knights and he always displayed an unnerving ability to predict unfortunate events. 

"Gus, what's the status on the inspection teams?" he picked at the sinking in his gut by looking for confirmation of his bad feelings he hoped no one else would find.

"No change, sir.  All teams report nothing unusual.  Bra'Di just cleared the freighter at Aurek-two and the other three teams will be done shortly.  We should be able to cycle them through and get the next set underway within the hour."

"Very well."  Jo'Lan turned and stared out the viewport at the nearby light freighters being inspected, so many people desperate to get home to kith and kin in time for the festivities…perhaps he was picking up on their anxieties?

"Keep me informed."

"Yessir."  Nik'Olas'Slee, aka "Gus", updated his board.  He'd worked with Jo'Lan for three years now and had learned to have a healthy respect for his infamous 'gut' while working inspection details together, Gus paused before moving to grab a cup of caf

"Sir…should I be worried.", he added despite himself wondering if Jo’Lan’s bad feelings were becoming infectious – Gus felt it too.

<<<<>>>>

Da’Vyd’Ell was bored and annoyed.  He needed to get these custom crystalline circuits to the shop before the end of the day if they were to have any chance of meeting their orders by the end of the week.

Instead of the easy check in he was at the back of a queue of ships being boarded one by one before being allowed to enter further into the system – a blockade during S'Kar'Yom of all things. He didn’t mind working on this day rather than at home with his family, but this wasn’t working, this was just waiting and waiting and….

“EEEP” the proximity alarm blared him out of this stewing annoyance moments before he and his ship were vaporized.

<<<<>>>>

The Requiem screeched out of pseudo motion nearly 100,000km closer to the system than the normal jump exit point – before it had time to fully slow the tip of the Venator slammed into a mid-sized commercial freighter and imparted pseudo-momentum blared it into white heat and molten steel.

Jo’Lan’s guts twisted as he saw the blue white flash of re-entry peppered by yellow superheated fragments of metal.

At first he thought it was an accidental collision…but then he saw the size of the new arrival – and all doubt was lost as the turbo lasers opened up near point blank on the civilian ships in the queue.

Jo'Lan started issuing orders.  "Red Alert! Communications, send a Case Zulu to Command, details to follow.  Flight Ops, scramble your fighters now!  Lets go people, this is no drill!"

Nyder did likewise

"Launch fighters.  Guns redirect to the platform once the freighters are done"  Her stomach dropped even further than Jo’Lans at giving the order to destroy civilian ships for the sole reason of creating a barrier of detritus to offset the disadvantage in having fewer fighters. 

Nordas inured to merciless Imperial commands gave the specific orders with clarity and poise.

The Freighters began to scatter two slower than their brethren exploded under the hammer of the guns.  Jo’Nal immediately commanded Alpha Station to return fire, heavy lasers hammering away in futile defiance while it's shields blazed with energy, buying time for its fighters to clear their bays ... and crew to reach their escape pods.

The ARC-170 fighters began to appear, launched from the control platform in a flurry of panic into the growing field of spinning debris.

“Launch fighters…” Nyder said unenthusiastically “Shields double front…”

The station was well armed, and the Venator old and at less than 50% operational capacity…but even for this disparity the Requiem was still a Star Destroyer.  Jo’Nal knew this and was already making for the exit having given the order to abandon the station while the weapons remained hard locked to fire on the indifferent shields.

Ninety-seven seconds after the barrage on Alpha Station began the shields finally failed in a last flare of blue electrical defiance before it was slagged into molten chunks of doonium by turbolasers that remembered the Clone Wars.

The Arc-170s used the debris field to draw the TIE Interceptors away from the evacuation shuttles – in the co-pilot's seat of one the last evacuation shuttle to make it out Jo'Lan watched his station - his home - come apart.  He used the visual sensors to zoom in on the Venator as it began to disgorge TIE fighters.  "She's Imperial ... probably from a forgotten garrison on the Outer Rim.  Old..."

"But effective." the pilot remarked.  "Looks like the fighters are engaging our guys.  We should be able to get away clean."

"Good." Jo'Lan felt his gut twist again.  "We need to get down somewhere safe.  Soon."  He looked back at the Star Destroyer as the fighters began to engage.  "This isn't over..."

<<<<>>>>

Fog of War

Above M’Tzigon Orbital Plain – North
On the Opposite side of the system another ship slipped into the pull of M’Tzigons star.

On the Bridge of Zearics Bane Mendax in a lotus position the Qixoni crystal in her temporarily deconstructed lightsabre spinning in place before her, amplifying the darkness she drew on like a carefully polished lens.

She remembered when she was still Gaetana, metal piercing her skin, heated ceiling plastics eating into her muscles as broken wires caused them to contract painfully. 

That was the first time she had failed, tricked by Zearic into the collapse of the ceiling.  For months she had been bathed in pain, rebuilt after a fashion but not anywhere near what she had been, barely able to survive for a day without injections of anti-rejection cybernetic hormones or dialysis – trapped in a machine cage with only her hate to keep her company.

The only way to be rid of the hate, the pain, was to push it back on those who had caused it to her, for pain like energy Mendax now realized could not be destroyed only changed in form or place. 

She’d needed power and thralls to do that, Mellichae the Hri Twins, Namman Cha, the crystals…and yet she failed.  For a Sith to fail was death. That should’ve been the end.

But it wasn’t – why Nimmin Cha had her revived did not matter, only that she now had a chance to redeem her failure to herself, to prove her hatred was greater than their weakness.

All the pain, all the hate flooded into the Qixoni as Zearics Bane sliced between the systems navigational buoys unnoticed, all eyes on the Requiem.

As the edge of M’Tzigon itself peaked behind the stars yellow blaze Mendax looked through the crystal to the slowly growing circle – the home of her enemy where all that pain could finally be shed – it flowed from her to the Qixoni, now the Qixoni to the luminous confluence of force energy that suffused M’Tzigon – apart from a few dark patches.

Like ink she spilled her hate across the Force.

<<<<>>>>

Battle Song

Residential District
The wave of dark energy hit Karmack like a hammer blow. 
Disharmonies and discord building for days finally unleashed on S'Kar'Eve with theatrical flourish hammering through the song, overwhelming the normal melody of light and joy as people reunited with family or filled the Temples for the festival. 

Karmack stood, filled with grim purpose as the virus of dissonance infused everything with a malevolence he recognized too well.

Mendax...

The vision rolled through his mind again, silver tide washing over the Temple, wiping away everything and everyone he knew and loved. 

Karmack concentrated, singing a song he'd been carefully composing for weeks the Ancient One glowing gold in the back of his mind responding to him more easily than ever before as if sensing the impending disaster

Power built in a feedback loop as he drew on those he cared for - the familiar melody of his wife sliding into fugue effortlessly in the song as the mesh grew to encompass the others Ken ... Julwynn ... Du'An a chorus of light building against the dark. 

A dissonant flutter came from Zearic ... not active rejection, but a resistance to the connection forcing Karmack too deep into his friend's song till the connection finally settled albeit with a wavering feedback

Gathering the threads together he anchored each in the Ancient One's hum, reinforcing the network.  None except, perhaps, Arnor would even notice the connection, but he would be able to coordinate their efforts and funnel energy to them through the Ancient One. 

“A weapon of mass destruction” the sliver of doubt assailed him, almost threating to undo his efforts then and there…at first he though it came from Zearics connection – his friend had accused him of as much just a day before…no this was something…else...

But Mendax was here and now.

He re-spun the complex motif away into the song as doubt dissolved embedding in the Ancient One's own endlessly complex series of harmonies. 

Pacing the rise of his personal battle song he donned armour and weapons held in the bunker-like annex under the houses foundation – a ‘home improvement’ added after being  designated one of the Council's "on call" special operations teams.  Even as the pace built he kept patient and calm - high explosives required such - his neighbours would pitch a holy fit if they knew about the quantities and types of explosives stored here.

Dark Gray smart-fabric ... black LBH with his gear ... fighting knife on his left hip, the kukri-style blade forged from songsteel ... DL-44 blaster in a secure thigh holster ... and his saber, at his side and over that the songsteel plate.  He was going heavy today, he suspected he would need every ounce of protection he could muster.  Breast and back plate, pauldrons, vambrace and gauntlets, cuisses, knee pads and grieves provided coverage of torso, arms and legs in addition to his combat boots normal ablative armor.  Like most Knights Karmack eschewed a helmet, preferring the better visibility and awareness of going without.  Over it all went a loose-fitting combat smock with an energy-dissipating net built into it.  Normally light gray, Karmack donned one that was pure white, designed to blend with the fresh snow blanketing the Temple area.

Stepping onto his back deck as he did every day with his caf for an hour of meditation while the massive droids noted and ignored him the force focused in and through the Ancient One a slight shiver of mixed fear and anticipation twitched down his spine. 

His eyes were ice.  Fire blazed in his heart.  "Time to dance, big guys..."

<<<<>>>>

Rebel Assault

Beneath M’Tzigon Orbital Plain - South
Gingal felt his throat dry as they exited hyperspace perpendicular to the systems orbital plane- knifing straight up toward the target planet M’Tzigon.

His ships were crammed with transports and fighters brought over from the Requiem – the larger ship almost completely cleared out as it was ultimately the distraction to draw the defence fleet away from the enslaved planet.

Beside him Misrum thumbed the Tenebris Pugione wondering just how much blood the hungry dagger would consume today – it called to him, showed him such wonderfully terrible things – a shattered building alight with the fire of machines, Mendax slashed by the light sucking blade into ribbons of blood stained blue ferroan flesh…and Orfa, the petulant Twi’lek pleading for mercy – he showed it after a fashion, keeping her as a toy for his amusement.

Across the tactical display table Orfa could sense his vile intent, but she didn’t care – Misrum, his Flagellant berserkers and other dark side fanatics and Sith Shadows were to hit shortly after the Rebel troops, taking the brunt of the Mak’Tor response. 

Meanwhile she would be relatively safe capturing the Lunar base with her Pirates and Marauders who were just now dropping out behind the MC30c Cruiser Ellinga they were on.

“All Fighters launch!” the deluded Mon Calamari ordered, in moments the screen was lit with the blue and red exhaust fares of two dozen rebel fighters between the Corvettes advance – the Rebels would take the Mak’tor Orbital defences and their insertion.

“Approaching way point one,” the Mon Calamari continued in blubbery tune to the rumble of the sub light engines.

“You may begin deployment,”

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 23 — As the Sun Sets

Part 2

Collateral Damage

M’Tzigon Emergency Command Bunker
Within minutes of the attack at the edge of the system Cliff had moved to the war rooms deep beneath the M’skigon ranges, shielded by hundreds of metres of rocks and ceramite.

With martial law in effect the control centre was already staffed and operational, data flowing in and reports on response capability ready for his review.

So far the Orbital forces were making a reasonable showing for being so suddenly surprised, but the number and variety of foes was…random to say the least, an old Venator Star Destroyer, Mon calamari Cruiser and various pirate frigates.

The only logical explanation was Mendax, as he observed reports of Y Wings knocking out anti air defences one by one he was certain that very soon a ground invasion would begin.

“Sir,” Ta Re interrupted as he stared at strategic map

“13th and 14th Battalions are ready to deploy, 6th, 7th and 9th should be ready in minutes to secure the Space ports, Sword of Light Units are asking for instructions”

“Tell them to remain on standby,”

“Sir?”

“I’m not letting one more soldier die than is absolutely necessary…evacuate the spaceports and power plants, all the critical infrastructure…”

Soon enough the Hornet and its escorts would arrive to bolster Orbital Defences

“When they land…we let them secure their targets, get comfortable, think we’re in disarray - then we send in the Mark IVs, let the droids take the brunt and the Men at Arms clean up what’s left,”

<<<<>>>>

Joke’s on Them

Check Point Alpha- MWS Hornet

Captain Nath stood on his bridge, his hands folded behind his back.  He had his back to the viewer and the chaos it showed - his attention was on the holographic tactical display showing the overall picture of what was happening in the M'Tzigon system. 

It wasn't good...

Home fleet had immediately moved to intercept the Star Destroyer at the edge of the system.

Once more the surreal reality hit him

A kiffin STAR DESTROYER...

Minutes later a new threat had emerged from system "South", coming up perpendicular to the elliptical, disgorging dozens of fighters and Transports overwhelming the remaining orbital defences and moving to hit the spaceport and Central itself. 

Another, smaller force had broken off and hit Lunar 3 with a ground attack as well, probably aiming to knock out the lunar turbolaser batteries and neutralize its fighters. 

Or worse capture the turbolasers….

And to add fuel to the fire another gaggle of ships led by an Impie corvette had emerged on the NORTH side of the elliptic and was landing troops around the Mak'Tor temple.

The Knights were reacting swiftly, using their local Eta-2 fighters to good effect, but they were getting swamped ... and Cliff has thus far only issued orders for the defenders to pull back into tight defensive positions ... and wait.

Wait for what?

The planet was in jeopardy, the attack on three fronts and Cliffs lack of direction had them all struggling to determine Where to direct their response.

Naths fists tightened - everything in his being screamed for him to reverse course and burn for orbit to help defend his home, but he resisted that urge. 

His fight was here.  Now.  In front of him.   With the Star Destroyer. Fighters and an invasion force Cliff could handle – but if that Beast got in range of the planet…

The Lightray, a Besh-type LAC, was tucked in tight with the Hornet ready to provide fire support.  They were giving the Star Destroyer a wide berth and moving around the perimeter, the TIE escorts kept tight, only sporadically engaging with the Jokers who probed their resolve.

On the far side of the battle space the Ranger and Wasp were matching his manoeuvre while their fighters engaged what appeared to be an almost token force of TIEs compared to what a Star Destroyer should be carrying.

A Destroyer like that should have dozens of fighters…what are they waiting for?

They were taking losses, but they were ripping the far more fragile TIEs to pieces when they did engage.  The Star Destroyer continued to hammer the platforms around Checkpoint Alpha, reducing them one-by-one to scrap with its heavy guns making its way gradually toward the centre of the system instead of striking hard in Home Fleets rear as it turned to engage the attack from the South.

 "What are you up to..."

"Sir?" El'Lynn asked from the bridge command station. 

Nath shook off his meditative study.  "El, I think we have an opportunity here.  Give Jan the plus-five code please.  Comms, open the party line, here in the tank."  He didn't hear either officer's affirmative answer, his concentration on the miniature Star Destroyer hanging in the tank.  Wait for it, my friend.  Just a few more minutes...

<<<<>>>>

Nyder tried to look like she was in charge. Deep down she knew she was anything but.  No! No! NO! NO! some sliver of inner will, still fighting for control, wanted to shout.  Run! Get away!  Now! At her side, her left hand twitched violently.  "Status?"

"Fighters are engaging, ma'am...but our numbers are low in comparison."  A whooping alarm from an unmanned station cut her off.  In a flash the implacable Lieutenant was there, silencing the alarm and absorbing the data even as he beckoned one of their few bridge crew over to him.  "Four ships approaching, from port and astern..."

Nyder swallowed bile.  "Wha...  What is your recommendation, Lieutenant?"

Nordas gave her a level look, the Imperial officer's eyes opaque and expressionless – he well knew there was something that Nyder was not telling him – why they had placed their armoured divisions and most of their fighters with the Elinga and its corvettes leaving the Requiem with barely enough fighters to keep a scout screen.

"Ma'am, three of the bogies are launching fighters. We should launch the reserve and vector squadrons to intercept them – too many of our anti-fighter turrets are offline to repel them if they get in close."

Nyder grabbed her violently shaking left hand, pinning it behind her back.  "Very well.  Make it so, Lieutenant."

Nordas nodded, barking orders with Imperial efficiency while Nyder returned to her contemplation of the blackness before her increasingly marred by flashes of yellow. 

<<<<>>>>

Three disembodied heads floated on the edge of the tactical holo-tank, allowing Nath to address his fellow captains face-to-face.  Captain Yak'Ob'Uziel of the Ranger , Captain Frank'Lin'Orlear of the Wasp flanked Captain Kar'N'Xir, commander of the Lightray - body guards flanking their queen Nath smiled, Xir had seniority with far more experience than anyone else except Nath himself,  Yakob and Franklin were both fighter pilots, promoted to command the new carriers, while Karen was a cruiser captain through-and-through.

"What's on your mind, Erwyn?" Yakob near snapped his eyes darting between his comm link and his own tactical display, situated behind his comm much as Nath's was.

"The SD looks like it's preparing to launch more fighters.  I hope you have something good up your sleeve."

Nath nodded.  "An opportunity, this beast should be moving in-system by now to support the rest of the attack, but it’s taking its time systematically destroying the platforms and seems to have a low fighter compliment – this doesn’t make sense”

"Even so we can’t just break off and ignore it – its doing the job of forcing us to split our forces,” Franklin noted

"Exactly, I’m betting that is all it is there for –  to lock us up worrying about it - they’ve put all their fighters into the South attack – we can overwhelm them and take down its turbo-lasers with our fighters,”

Karen’s lips pursed “That’s quite a gamble to take, if they’re simply holding their fighters inside…”

“Even if they are it will take time to launch and we can pull back and still do some serious damage enough to let us get in range with our own turbolasers – but we need to act fast…”

Nath's grin was feral.  "El'Lynn is calling the Jokers back toward us, where they'll reform into a tight squadron formation.  Frank, Yakob, have your fighter squadrons concentrate as well.  They might have the bigger guns, but we have the mosquitos to kill it with bug bites while keeping our carriers out of range.

In ... seven minutes we launch a coordinated attack on the fighter squadrons.  Your objectives are to engage and destroy as many TIE fighters as possible.

The Jokers will do the same - at first.  Sixty seconds after they engage B'Lain will shift his formation and hold an open corridor through the fighter screen.  Captain Xir and I will send our marine contingents down that corridor and breach the port landing bay with their Battle Taxis.  One group of marines will go for the hypermatter reactors and main engineering, the other will attempt to secure the bridge."

Captain Xir grimaced.  "We're under strength.  I have marines, but Cliff gutted my officer complement for his witch hunt."

Nath smiled back.  "No worries.  Koawan Naith will be in command.  Acceptable?" 

“I didn’t take you as such a gambler Nath…this could go very wrong very quick,” Yakob said even as he offered a slight nod

“No worse than thins are now,” Franklin added “…let just hope the card fall our way,”

Nath smiled
“The Jokers are wild,”

<<<<>>>>

Swords of Light

Sword of Light Garrison edge of M’Skigon Ranges
“We’re not being deployed!” The Sword of Light Captain complained within Arnor’s earshot as she sat in the solitary force cage the amber energy field distorting her view of the long row of similar cages only five of which were occupied by herself, her father, Talia, Julwyyn and Balnard.

“General Cliff has something special in mind for the Invaders, we’re to remain battle ready to follow the vanguard, that’s all,”

“If it’s Mendax we should be on the frontline” a Third Officer grated

“It’ll be those droids I reckon,” A lieutenant suggested,

“The General will send them in to soften them up, we’ve all seen what one did to Silman, half-an hour there’ll only be clean up left for us.”

“That won’t help the guys in orbit…”

Arnor didn’t know fully what was happening, but the tide of death rising in the force and the suffocating darkness spreading over the world was enough to know it was not good. 
Mendax….Temple…hurry
Mendax was dead…surely…what had happened while She and the others were on Canto Bite?

She reached out for Karm to try and get a sense of what was happening…but he was…not closed so much as steeled…in furious combat – he didn’t need any distraction.

That made her heart sink enough.  The shadow that lengthened between the two guards made it crash.

Chillum and Julwynn across the detention floor in their own cages looked up as well as the figure resolved from shadow, to silhouette to nightmare.

It was one of them…The Dark Armoured ones, walking straight past the guards who were completely oblivious.

As Arnors mouth moved to scream a warning it spoke in smooth feminie tones.

“There’s no point they can’t see me…” Maker what was this creature!

“Creature! That’s very rude!” she added whilst her hand shimmered by the console that controlled the force cage.  Arnor knew the voice belonged to either Sophi or Vesi, or possibly Mari, their voices so similar as to be indistinct to her ears.

“How are you doing this? Why?” Arnor whispered assuming she could hear her.

“You need help…it will be dangerous for you if you stay trapped here when the guards leave to fight the invasion…So I’m helping you as much as I can…”

“Invasion? Leave?…”

“Don’t try to understand…” she went on “Your mind isn’t neurologically capable of it…in 4 minutes and 23 seconds the Sword of Light Squads will be deployed under orders that appear to come from General Cliff but are really Kage Silmans…when they do the emergency audio code to deactivate the shields is Peth – Onith – shen – 7-8-2-4-4-5-Release…I’ve unlocked all the other doors to the armoury where your weapons are held…”

“You’re not here…are you…no you’re not here now….” Chillum realised

“Like I said don’t think too hard about it…just remember the code….”

“Wait if you can walk through time…and we’re under attack…why not help us fight?” Arnor protested under her breath as the Sword of Light guards stared at their comms waiting for the orders that were now 3 minutes and 45 seconds away

“I’m happy to help where I can…” the dark figure went on turning away to do Maker knew what in the…future?  Past?  “…but I won’t risk my safety for you.”

As the figure faded into the air Arnor sat perplexed as the Force, even through the suppressive walls of the Sword of Light complex became increasingly tense and conflicted.

Right on Time the Guards sprang up and out of the room slapping the lock down button as they left.

Arnor swallowed hard as the battle rose outside

“Peth…Onith…”

As the crew left the building moments late Vesi cocked her head to the side across the road and went to work to make sure Temporal-Reality remained stable.

<<<<>>>

Moonshadow

Lunar 3
As the explosions in the gravity well between the moon and the planet doubled in number, The Elinga clashing with the portions of the Home Fleet that had remained on station as the rest jumped to counter the Star Destroyer, a flotilla of irregular vessels sliced under the Lunar bases turbo laser range and slammed to a stop kicking up grey dust by the side of the above ground portion of the facility.  Four boarding tubes extended from the vessels clamping on and set plasma to the metal as the ground assault began.

<<<<>>>>

The silence of his cell was broken by the alarm klaxons.

Ken had been in deep meditation just to keep himself steady, to not let the confusion of the last few days overwhelm him – first the difficulties with Ry and the Chiss, the Black Creatures, then arrested by the Men at Arms without explanation.

Ken slowly turned his focus form within to without. 

Panic, confusion, determination, fear – the heady beat of battle was rising in pitch all around him – only one sound hadn’t yet joined the symphony.

<<<<>>>>

Death

The first of the day.

Orfa continued the cut through the trooper’s ribs and out, then sent him flying with a force push into the corridor to be torn to shreds by friendly fire by the retreating soldiers.

The pang and hiss of bolts bouncing off her sabre moved in time to the advance of her raiders all across the lunar base.

The lights cut out leaving only the fiery yellow of emergency signals – a pathetic attempt to stymie them when they were already in. 

The Marines were no doubt capable soldiers and she would take a fair number of losses – but against the most depraved, violent scum she could find raiding the star lanes and backed by Orfa herself and four other Sabre wielding Sith Shadows the balance was in her favour.

Rushing down the corridor she met the fire head on, bolts smacking black chunks out of the wall as she sent a surge of telekinetic energy forward bowling over a few of the marines, gripping their prone forms and dragging them toward her insatiable red blade. 

The first slammed into her like a lover falling upon a lost muse, the energy blade straight through his back as he acted as a human shield to the others fire – giving her pirates a chance to catch up with her.

Firing from crouched positions they took the Marines legs out before they retreated back behind a rapidly closing blast door.  Dropping her glassy eyed lover, she flicked two fingers toward the door and the thermal breaches were brought up in seconds by raiders who made living boarding and ransoming facilities like this one.   

Orfa smiled as the white plasma began to slough off the durasteel bulkhead – soon she’d have the facility and its Turbo lasers – then she would open fire on M’Tzigon as planned – she just intended to fire on the Temple complex a little earlier than Mendax would’ve preferred.

<<<<>>>>

“…Mack’s damn idea of a rescue!”
“You’re a damn idiot Vas, just open the door,”

The cell door hissed open to find Ken’In’ah’Mack still seated eyes closed

“Mack we’re under attack,”

Ken raised his hand, eyes still closed to catch the sabre thrown toward him

“Get that blade humming,” the lieutenant finished as the Power armoured Marine beside her sneered.

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 23 — As the Sun Sets

Part 3

Collateral Damage

M’Skigon Spaceport
“Go go go!”

A flight of X-wings streaked past pursued by ARC-170s as the Ewing landers and GR-75 transports hovered half a metre above the ground disgorging the Alliance advance squads, TIEs redeployed from the Requiem at the staging post covering them.

Forty eight vanguard infantry fanned out across the tarmac securing themselves behind crates and landed craft as the heavy equipment was brought in, their objective to secure the space port. 

Some of the troops almost opened fire on the Imperial Sentinel Landers above before remembering they were on their side now, joining the Alliance to help defeat the Insane Warlord K’ah’re’Mack who had taken control of the M’Tzigon system in alliance with the Remnant.

AT-STs and AT-PTs dropped in beside Mobile Proton Torpedo Launcher Artillery as overhead the anti-air defences shot two more landers out of the sky before the Y-Wings snapped around for an attack run that lit them blue with Ion fire.

“Form up!” “Hit the air intakes” “get those doors open!”

Resistance wasn’t as strong as they thought, the Rebel squads advanced rapidly into the main control room as the Imperial Strom Troopers held the exits and secured the main interior bays.

“This is too easy, stay sharp….Watch out for counter attack,”

<<<<>>>>

“Are they set,” Cliff called out across the War Room

“Yes sir,” Ta’Re replied amidst the hubbub of analysts and logistics officers organising the defence and trying to predict the invaders next moves. Still there was a trepidation in her voice.

“A problem Colonel?” he queried

“No sir, just the Friend-Foe designators are still less than perfect,”

“That’s why I withdrew our forces, send them out,”

Ta’Re nodded and held down the button for the comm

“Deploy Waves 1 to 3,”

<<<<>>>>

At a base some 50Km from the City hangar bay doors slowly opened to the setting sun casting orange hues on the form of thirty metal and stone titans whose eyes blazed red as the flames of Hades.

Their processors uploaded the target location and analysed the intelligence feeds being supplied across quantum network.  Predictive software determined the most efficient course to achieve the simple objective.

[Eliminate All Hostiles]

On blue wings of Proton jet packs they lifted silently into the sky and sped toward the conflict as gathering Men at Arms watched with uncertain eyes their ‘replacements’.

<<<<>>>>

Council Of Balance

The Mountain
There was no question they had to act, simply how without getting in Cliffs way – co-ordination and co-operation between the knights and the Men at Arms was not what it once was or should be.

“We’re already moving to deploy,” Silman said firmly over the secure comm that linked the Kage directly to the Chief of Staff

Cliff immediately protested as the jumped up wizards once more threatened REAL Military strategy with some damn foolish idealistic crusade
“Unacceptable, hold back until I give you the go ahead, we wait until they are comfortable then hit them with the…”

“The droids I Know, but I am not content to allow invaders to secure beachheads while you wait for your tin cans,”

“You defy my orders!”

“You can’t give me orders, you may have authority to control the military but the Knights remain autonomous under my command as Kage to direct as I see fit during a crisis situation and I will be happy to answer personally for any breaches of the Uniform Code of Justice they might incur…we will not stand by and wait…we will be moving on the Temple District to engage the darkness there and I look forward to hearing from your officers to co-ordinate.”

Silman slammed the comm off.

Ju'Lus stood warily behind him “Are you sure that is wise, Cliff obviously has a plan in mind….”

“A plan that puts too many lives at risk…we all felt the dark wave, Mendax isn’t here to capture spaceports and secure objective, she’s here to kill every being she gets her hands on until we put a blade through her skull.”

His sabrestaff in his hand he thumbed the activator eager to set it alight and end this bitch once and for all.  The Force boomed his voice across the Mountain hangar.

“MOVE OUT”

<<<<>>>>

Blades of Night

The Mountain
His boots pounded on the ferrocrete, knees bent for a moment before leaping onto the side of the modified LAAT already crammed with Koawans.  He gripped the cold metal, frozen snow continually bombarding his body while ice shards cut miniature lacerations across his neck and face as the ship ascended, heading towards the village proper.

All that seemed perfectly normal, but a mere week ago Zearic would’ve been afraid of his cybernetic legs buckling, false eye flickering or mechanical hand stalling.

There was no more fear, no more worry, only the violent drive to strike back at the cowardly attack lighting the Force with the flares of death.

A tremor at his side that wasn’t the vibration of the LAAT as it skimmed toward the blue and red blizzard of blaster fire far below, the Nocte Pugione fed off his deadly intent, trembling with his fury to see his friends’ home ravaged so.  Yet another among many of the depredations that his family and friends had suffered at the hands of that traitorous bitch.  Zearic’s hands tightened on the hilts of his lightsabers.

“Soon Mendax, soon.”

<<<<< >>>>>

Temple Village, Mar’Shall District
The Temple of the Maker and the surrounding Temple Grounds looked as pure and unadulterated as the driven snow that had blanketed them in white.

It was a place for the contemplation of the infinite light and goodness of the Maker.

As Misrum’s Church of the Darkside allies set down on the streets he felt a thrill at his own blasphemy.  Bidis chanted a war incantation over the Flagellant berserkers, the self-inflicted pain of their electro harnesses and surgically implanted vibroblades stirring them into a battle-frenzy while Red Police and Sith Shadows dropped in behind from the Rebel E Wings.

He didn’t need to issue orders, they had long since determined the plan on the Requiem, as the Flagellants rushed around seeking any glimmer of Lightside Auras to quench while the Red Police and Sith Shadows rammed down the Temple’s outer doors to take control in preparation for Mendax’s Arrival.  With the element of surprise, they were able to overwhelm and subdue the handful of Knights within.  Those that they didn’t kill, they restrained as fodder for their Mistress, more fuel for the Thought Bomb.

It was a place of worship and beauty, the stained glass amidst vaulted crenelated columns offered no defense to the fanatics who saw desecrating this place as Holy work.  And once he followed them into the main entrance, the delicious screams within already starting to overcome the chanting that had echoed in the Temple the whole day through, Misrum sensed the approach of two dozen flares blazing in light. 

The Gray Knights had arrived.

<<<<>>>>

[Karmack]

*Vorlon voice* And so it begins....

I will refrain further comment except to say this: LSG, you've done a MASTERFUL job of piecing this act finale together.  Thank you my friend.

Now ... pop some popcorn and sit back.  Its going to be a wild ride...

[Taegin Roan]

What You Leave Behind to me feels a bit like Infinity War. The culmination of many stories all leading to this one big battle that has been being set up for what, 3 stories now? Masterfully done for sure. SotO is not going to have nearly as big a finally as WYLB is having, but I hope when it comes it doesn't disappoint.

[Lord_S_Gray]

What You Leave Behind to me feels a bit like Infinity War. The culmination of many stories all leading to this one big battle that has been being set up for what, 3 stories now? Masterfully done for sure. SotO is not going to have nearly as big a finally as WYLB is having, but I hope when it comes it doesn't disappoint.

Thanks TR, just to be compared to Infinity War is great, and yeah MCU probably has unconsciously influenced the Forumverse development.  But this chapter and the next 2 in particular have been a HUGE collab effort (hence why it took a while to get out), some sections its hard to tell who wrote what anymore!

[Karmack]

Thanks TR, just to be compared to Infinity War is great, and yeah MCU probably has unconsciously influenced the Forumverse development.  But this chapter and the next 2 in particular have been a HUGE collab effort (hence why it took a while to get out), some sections its hard to tell who wrote what anymore!

That's to true!  Its really a blend, and getting it all together has been a real work of love.

Well.  Work anyway.  LOL

And an MCU comparison!  WOOT!!!!!

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 24 — As Evening Falls

Part 1

Battle Song

Residential District
With a thought Karmack launched four modified thermal detonators, essentially jacked-up flash-bangs, from his deck and in an instant, before even the hyper-speed huristics of the Mark IVs could do more than begin to react they detonated in unison.

 Each grenade was less than an inch from it's target's optical sensors when it exploded and in each case the droid's primary optical sensors were burned out.

[HOSTILE DETECTED ... OPTICAL MATRIX COMPROMISED ... SWITCH TO THERMAL IMAGING AND SECONDARY SENSOR NET.]  The Mark IVs were linked and in a flash three of them had switched over to their secondary systems, already searching for their single attacker in the dissipating explosion after-effects.  They turned first to Karmack's last known location.   

He wasn't there.  Karmack was moving fast, somersaulting over the head of the fourth and nearest Mark IV he connected with a massively Song enhanced saber-stroke to sever the droid's neck in a shower of sparks, a solid force grip stabilising it as he drove his blade into the neck cavity.

Silman's fight with the Mark IV and Karm's own study of them in the force left him with no illusions that decapitation was sufficient – so into the blade burnt hole he dropped a high-density thermal detonator, ramming it in with the force as deep as he could before pushing off the droid and shoving it away with a telekinetic fist..

The droid staggered, its impressive computer system nearly swamped dealing with the damage he'd dealt but still on its feet.  Karmack landed lightly and hammered the droid with a massive force-push, even headless internal gyros and energy systems damaged from the saber strike still managed to resist... for a moment.

But this push was an order of magnitude greater than anything Silman had been able to throw, and the Mark IV was physically picked up and hurled into the arms of its neighbour, which just had time to catch it before they were both embroiled in the massive release of energy as the detonator exploded and ruptured the energy systems inside the Mark IV's chest.  The stricken droid came apart, the explosion venting mainly upward as the torso opened like a blossoming flower.

Its companion, amazingly, remained on its feet despite deep rents in its armor from it's brother's immolation.  Before it could recover Karmack was upon it, severing knee joints and a hip before plunging his golden blade deep into the chest, destroying the droid's central control system and primary power busses.  In less than ten seconds of combat Karmack had killed two of the massive droids.

He felt a small thrill of satisfaction as he withdrew his blade, a thrill that died as the song shifted and he realized that he'd been in the same place a moment to long...

As their brothers fell the remaining two droids absorbed the data from the attack, the speed with which Karmack was moving ... the power of his blade ... the strength of his force attacks.  In unison they took to the air, rising on blue proton streams even as they unlimbered their massive cannons and opened fire.

Missiles were locked on and streaked down from internal launchers blazing with the yellow fires of hell.

<<<<>>>>

Collateral Damage

M’Tzigon Space port
On wings of proton blue another wave of Mark IV Dark Troopers slid through M’Tzigons skies.

Too small for the X and A wings targeting systems to register automatically, Wave two locked on their plasma cannons and missiles.  As Cha had promised the Mark IVs were just as capable in the air as on the ground, blasting half a dozen Rebel fighters out of the sky, and keeping them occupied as Wave one and Three moved forward.

Implacable ruthless logic determined the best way to achieve the simple objective of [Eliminate all hostiles] 

Each armed with two backpack missiles they locked onto the visible Imperial Walkers and Rebel Artillery on the tarmac.

With a machines precision yellow trails burst in advance of their approach, winding in corkscrews to avoid flak fire before slamming into the vehicles – the ultradense Phirk missile tips effortlessly penetrating military grade armour and detonating within – in one salvo half of the landed armoured division at the Space port was turned to smouldering wrecks, infantry fleeing behind crates and into covered hangars.

Swinging round to avoid the hurried launches of Plex missiles from Rebel squads their plasma cannons blasted the walls of the Space port weakening the ferrocrete enough for the droids immune to pain to simply barge through the wall and inside. 

Rebel soldiers saw only the Imperial Design elements that the Droid were based upon, a veteran called ‘Dark Trooper!’ correctly identifying the source but not the current master.

In close confines of the control rooms and cargo corridors the Droids half bent over used their bulk to crush anything in their path, thermal detonators were tagged onto their legs – but as Karmack had learned even when blown they continued crawling along the ground with disturbing speed pulling the unlucky to the ground to die in efficient single palms that smeared faces to the floor.

Infantry blasters were ineffective, torrents of red and blue energy simply darkened never penetrated the grey-sleet- plex missiles hitting dead on slowed but didn’t destroy outright.  On the main landing platform the MPTL managed to get a square hit on ones back before another ripped it apart with its bare machine hands. 

“Pull back!” the commander finally ordered as another droid was taken down at the cost of nearly a dozen missiles,
“Warn the Elinga, Advanced Imperial droids, we need EMPs down here!”

<<<<>>>>

M’Tzigon Emergency Command Bunker
In the War room Cliff smiled as he watched the Droids hammer the Imperials and Rebels – he was taking down the invaders and saving his men’s lives.

“Deploy Waves five and six to the Power Station, prepare seven through nine to move on the Temple precinct,” he ordered keeping a cool head despite the losses of his own – fight now weep later.

“Yes Sir…however” Ta Re replied

“However?”

“The Knights are at the Temple, and the friend foe identifiers…”

“I did not Order the Knights to attack the Temple, if Silman has sent them there he’s done so at his own risk, in violation of my direct command…now issue the orders and link me to the Firefly.

Issuing the commands despite her misgivings – certainly they had saved lives by letting the droids off the leash…but as she pressed the release button once more Ta’Re wondered whether they would be able to put it back on again.

“Captain Ben’Ja’Min you have the cargo ready?” Cliff could rely on Ben to follow his orders without question and had given him a very special task – whilst they had not commenced testing the droids in Zero-G yet he was ever more certain they would live up to Cha’s promises

“Standing by General, Home Fleet Squadron is ready to deploy once they hit.”

Nath might be fidgeting about at the edge of the system, but this was Cliff zone of control, he had drawn the Home Fleet capital ships still in orbit to the far side of the planet to come around at the Mon-Cal Cruiser – but only after the Droids were launched at them.

“Fire as soon as you’re in range,”

<<<<>>>>

Battle Song

Residential District
On the ground Karmack was nearly overwhelmed by the first attack.  He moved, his saber flashing as he desperately deflected the heavy energy bolts. 

Using the force he pinched out the missiles, detonating them harmlessly above the neighbourhood as he dove and rolled.

He felt bruises forming as flying rocks impacted his armor.  A sliver of paving stone sliced open a cut on his right cheek, missing his eye by mere inches.  He deflected another, larger stone with the force barely in time to save his neck, literally.  Power surged through him, but he couldn't keep up...

In desperation Karmack opened another channel in the Ancient One, humming a perception motif.  Time seemed to slow as his perception increased speed, augmented by the force.  His initial movements felt sluggish until he channelled the same energies into his body.  Moving now at a speed almost as fast as the machined droids he was better able to block their incoming fire moving constantly sending most of the bolts back at one of the droids while he reached out toward the other and...

With a scream of rending metal and deforming alloy Karmack pinched off one of the flying droid's proton-pack nozzles.  The other he deformed, shaping it dynamically as the droid flipped over and screamed head-first toward the ground. 

Each attempt the droid made to correct its flight path or simply to right itself Karmack countered, using the remaining nozzle's deformations to continue to drive it into the ground of an empty schoolyard, where it was impaled on a thick pole, part of the school's climbing equipment.  The resulting explosion levelled the yard and adjacent school, which was empty for the holiday.

The last Mark IV immediately went to rapid fire on its cannon and cut its proton jets, intent on closing the distance.  It calculated that it would have a better chance against this new, deadly opponent in close-quarters battle than at long range – after all it was metal – he was flesh. 

As it dropped from the sky Karmack turned his full attention to it.  His saber blurred into a golden shield as he calmly deflected the incoming fire while he reached out...

The last Mark IV was still 30 meters over the ground when it suddenly dismembered in mid-air.  Shoulders, elbows, hips and knees separated and the torso dropped like a rock.  The proton pack overloaded and exploded, driving the armored body into the signage adorning the center of a traffic circle, where it lay, severed connections sparking, as Karmack approached...

With a single, precise thrust Karmack impaled the crippled droid, neatly piercing the CPU and severing its control runs.  Even now the droid died hard, the oblivion internals and phrik structure resisting his coup de grace, but his blade and aim were true.  The droid, devoid of control, went into emergency shut-down and began to cool, sending out a distress beacon for recovery and repair.

Karmack felt the burn of the force energy he'd focused on himself and let it back down some, shifting more power into the healing flow. 

The hyper-speed perception he kept.  The motif was an improvisation of the flow-walking song he'd sung on Geonosis, but it worked... 

Another wave of dark energy hit him in force and song and he shook his head, clearing his senses.  He pushed back, holding it off, and used the attack to orient himself...

There you are...

A dark wave was washing over the Temple, and Mendax was at its heart. 

With a pulse Karmack sent an instinct to Arnor and Silman to meet him there as soon as they could. 

Zearic was already on his way, Karmack didn't disturb him.  Ken ... would be engaged soon enough, and would need all his skill.  Other Knights were engaging, moving to the darkness and challenging it. 

The force was alive with clashes between light and dark, the song frenzied with the clash of battle songs and dark melodies.  Lives ended, flaring like strobes as death took them.  Everywhere there was flux and chaos as light and dark collided.

Karmack pulsed his song into the net and the space around him, pushing back the dark song which bound the enemy together.  He began to run toward the temple, toward Mendax, using the force to augment his limbs and increase his speed.  Pouring this much energy into his body, even with the Ancient One, was dangerous, but there was no time to spare.  He had one goal: Engage the darkness...

...and destroy it. 

<<<<>>>>

Rebel Assault

M380C – Elinga in orbit over M’Tzigon Captial Sierra
The enemy fleet had pulled back allowing them to secure aerial supremacy and deploy their forces at the space port and main power grid near the city too easily…now Gingal realised why.

Advanced Imperial droids were taking apart the ground forces piece by piece, the forces at the Space port were already calling for extraction, they had downed twelve of the droids, but the eighteen that remained were too many for them, they were too small for the A Wings, too manoeuvrable for the Imperial walkers, and too strong for Plex missiles and handheld launchers.

“Confirmed captain,” A tactical officer responded to his request

“The M’Tzigon regulars are slowly moving up to the space port and power grid, our forces will be unable to resist by the time they get there,”

Our forces will be gone by the time they get there…

On the main holo-console the battle at the Power station took a turn for the worst, the two six-legged AT-TE’s – old Clone wars walkers they could barely fit in their transports and keep running which they had used as mobile hard points around the Power Station were now streaming smoke.

“One of the Droids got inside!” Reported the on Ground Commander, no more explanation was necessary, at close range no humanoid could resist them as if they’d been programmed to take on Jedi hand to hand.

“Begin extraction, we secure orbit and await the Requiem,” his gravely tones carried across the bridge as a third wave of droid was detected heading toward the Temple Precinct where the Mad Singer was said to be located.  He only hoped Misrum and Mendax could kill the insane Karmack and end this before those droids arrived.

But…waters of Dac he was glad to be up here away from those mechanical abominations.

<<<<>>>

Firefly Bridge Far side of M’Tzigon orbit
“Locked on, all signals green,”

Ben’s eyes narrowed as he checked the vectors himself, after launch they would curve around using M’Tzigons orbit and then hit the Alliance.

“Launch.” 

The launch tube of the Firefly normally used for ARC-170s had been refitted temporarily to test Cliffs deployment concept for Space warfare using the Mark IV’s, Ben never expected the first test would be in active combat.

Four of the Droids were hurled into space by the propulsion sling, their proton jets firing up on exit to add acceleration as they tore across the sky at 300KMPH, arcing toward the distant rebel corvettes.  Even as they reached maximum velocity Ben was already overseeing the loading of the second group.

Sensors on the Elinga detected the unusual flares of proton engines…too small to be fighters…too powerful to be escape pods. 

Indifferent to the shattering speeds, Phirk armour brushing aside micro particles that would rip any other unshielded being moving at that speed apart, they began twisting toward the corvette, large Rebel Symbol painted on its upper hull in red.

The X-wings managed to pick one of them off, the blazing body spiralling out of control before self-destruction protocols overloaded the plasma cannon to deny the enemy anything to learn from.

But Three hit the Rebel symbol straight on, their vast weight denting the doonium hull, kinetic energy too low for shields set to counter energy weapons to divert. 

Stone hand grasped and pulled off the plating with clinical efficiency, the breached section was sealed off, the Droids dropped inside, running through their inbuilt data-drives to find a corresponding schematic.  Then they began executing the simple instruction [Eliminate Hostile Vessel – Maximum Prejudice]

Gingal began wish he was in the Waters of Dac as the Corvette was rent from the inside out.

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 24 — As Evening Falls

Part 2

Shadows

Somewhere in or Near M’Tzigon system
The profile built in greens, reds and blues along the screen, overlaid with more complex symbols and notations that could only be seen without training by her own People – and perhaps the few of their very distant Miraluka cousins still alive.  They had improved themselves over the millennia since Nihlus destroyed Katarr, become People – become better - the Miraluka had not.

What Karmack had refused them by way of trade, they would obtain by observation. Combined with data from his fight with Mendax on Vyth they were getting ever closer to developing a working model of his unique Crystals functions and abilities.

Data from the fight with the Rebels and Imperials flowed in the secondary and tertiary channels adding to the accumulation of knowledge - even now Aeresdottir was planning the upgrades needed to counter Karmacks tactics in the next generation of droids – they needed to constantly innovate, to learn and adapt to ensure that they were always better.

Cliff seemed to be using his forces wisely, 3rd level cognisance equivalent - impressive for a mere human although she doubted he would be doing so well without the Droids to use as a spearhead. 

But the Knights were disobedient, no doubt seeking personal glory to ‘fight the darkness’ and would interfere with his strategy rather than assist it…they were led by a male after all…their territorial chest thumping evident over the transmission between the Kage and General she had intercepted.

“Clever moves…” Cha noted behind her encased in his air tight suit, this was her ship and she had the atmosphere set to her preferences, Noble gases and radiation levels matching her Deep Core home world that would, given more than an hour’s exposure kill even an enhanced human so fragile were they.

“Not clever enough…”
<<<<>>>>

Joke’s on Them

On heading to M’Tzigon from Check Point Alpha- MWS Hornet

Jan swallowed and hummed a calming motif under her breath as the assault shuttles launched.  The Hornet's two "Battle Taxi" assault shuttles were overloaded, carrying her full Marine complement of fifty men. 

Heavily armoured and moderately armed, fast but not highly manoeuvrable, but their pilots formed up expertly with a matching pair of craft from the Lightray.  The assault force paused, loitering in the shadow of their parent ships, waiting for the "go" call from Nath. Jan noted their position on her tactical repeater and made her first transmission. "Eagle One, Jester Six: we are go for launch."

<<<<>>>>

"Acknowledged Jester.  All Vipers, go go go!  Jokers, go!  Jesters, go!  Heavies, launch now ... now ... NOW!"  Nath transmitted.  As he completed the call, the three carriers and LAC flushed their concussion missile tubes in rapid-fire mode.  Within second’s fourty-eight missiles streaked out in proximity mode, seeking targets in the cloud of TIE fighters swarming nearby. 

About half found targets, opening holes in the fighter formation just as the reinforcements from the Star Destroyer arrived.

Into those holes 39 ETA-2z and 12 ARC-170-MZK fighters drove, sowing death and reaping destruction...

<<<<>>>>

"OK, Jokers, we're wild!  Tighten up!  Shields double-front!  Lets punch through and see if we can't scratch the paint on that beast!"  B'Lain called on the squadron frequency. 

Around him the 12 fighters of the Joker's formed into a stacked chevron formation, with his gold flight in the middle and slightly ahead of silver (above) and bronze (below).  As they reached the encroaching fighters they started firing, 'plowing the road' with their heavy lasers as they maneuverer subtly in formation to prevent long-range fire from impacting them. 

Ahead of the tight, heavy formation a wall of fire advanced as TIE after TIE entered the cone of energized light - and died.  The Jokers advanced, a juggernaut, unstoppable - and the inexperienced TIE pilots broke off and got out of the way.

"Joker One to Eagle: The road is open!  Send the music!"

"Eagle Actual: The Music is playing.  Keep the road open."

<<<<>>>>

Jan was pressed back into her seat as the Battle Taxis went to full thrust and leaped out of the shadow of the Hornet. Moving at full speed, the four spherical ships arrowed down the middle of the corridor the Jokers had opened.  It seemed like an eternity, and everyone inside was tense, waiting for the fighters to turn and attack.

They never did.  Concentrating on regrouping and organizing to counter-attack, the TIEs were all looking the wrong way as the four dark-gray shuttles slipped through their defenses.  Jan let the breath she hadn't realized she was holding out as an explosive sigh and turned her attention to the port-side docking bay doors.   "Jester Six to Jester Flight: Combat spread.  Gunners, concentrate your fire!  We need to take that door down hard and clean!  Call your bearing!"

"One on target!"
"Two ... lock glitch ..."
"Three on target!"
"Four on target!"
"Two, manual battle-sight up! On target!"

Jan'a closed her eyes and for a flicker of thought she opened herself to the Song.  A dark thread was woven through the song of the battle, evil and oppressive, but it was ... thin.  Elusive.  Waning?.  From the planet she had a sense of a golden melody overtaking the core of the darkness, drawing its attention to itself and the fight there and abandoning this one.  "Range?"

"Four thousand and closing..." Jan'a added her exultant cry to the song and spoke a single word: "Fire."

The four single-mount heavy turbolasers on the Battle Taxis spoke as one, their green bolts striking within centimeters of each other and blowing a hole into the docking bay door more than large enough for the taxis to fit through.  With an expert touch the four pilots slid into a single line and went to full thrust braking as they closed the distance and slipped into the portside auxiliary hangar of the massive Venator-class Star Destroyer.

<<<<>>>>

Nyder jumped as an alarm wailed.  "Report!"

Nordas took two steps and vaulted over the pit, cutting the corner off as she headed to the offending station.  Nyder saw her face go pale.  "Captain...  Port side bay is compromised.  18% loss of atmosphere.  Emergency force fields are in place."  She straightened and turned, stiff and formal.  "Captain, we are being boarded."

Nyder felt her left hand jumping in her right.  Run! Now! some part of her screamed again ... but she couldn't...

Could she?  She tugged... Mendax' control was distant, but the Quioxi wasn't quite ready to give her up yet.  It yanked back and Nyder suppressed a flinch of pain as the crystal - and its Mistress - once again exerted control.  "Notify Grayson and Choel'dral.  They will know what to do."

Nordas nodded.  "Yes ma'am."

Nyder turned back to the darkness, again poking at her leash the way one pokes at a sore tooth.  Maybe...   Just maybe...

<<<<>>>>

Moonshadow

Lunar 3
The Men At Arms stationed on the Lunar base were competent, well trained and organised.  They rapidly locked off critical section, vented key passages of oxygen, disabled gravity in entire wings and activated countermeasures all across the base.

For all this they couldn’t stop the raiders.  The Lunar base was designed before the Clone wars, for all their training in zero G, few men at arms had actually experienced a real battle. 

The Raiders used the latest breaching equipment and disarming mechanisms, had spent years pillaging and boarding craft across a dozen hyperspace exit points, seen dozens of different ships, sneered at hundreds of captain’s attempts to throw them off. 

And so section by section they left a trail of floating bodies dripping frozen rubies of blood amidst carbon scored armour that wafted out of breach holes mingling with the molten globs of promethium blasted blast doors and hard walls.

Most importantly they had Illiv Orfa at their head.  She knew how to run a raid, her teen years had been spent being passed between various pirate captains, a trophy of sorts until she finally learnt to control the latent power within her.

She had learnt much during those years – how to conduct a raid, how to manage and control a band of alpha males each vying for personal glory…and that no matter what she did, the female twi-lek would always be looked at as a weak sex object and the only way she could have any choices in her life at all was to make them fear her more than they wanted to use her.

Even as another power armoured marine fell to her blade three of her men were looking at her thighs and rear with lecherous intent – only the threat of violence kept them from using her – every moment was a precarious tightrope walk to stay above their contempt and out of their clutches – this was the only Galaxy Orfa knew – one in which you were either Using or being Used - she knew which she preferred.

Pushing off the armoured form off and into the pile atop the bloody corpse of the less than co-operative base commander, she gestured for the team to secure the doors as the slicer set to work – as expected all the consoles in the TurboLaser command centre were locked down, just as a regular commercial captain would lock down auxiliary bridge and engine consoles – Pirates dealt with such measures every day.

Through the Trasnparisteel window she looked on the planet across the gulf of space where the Elinga provided the anvil against which the Requiem would crush the M’Tzigon fleet. 

It was a waste, all for Mendax vanity, and that was why once the Turbolasers were online Orfa would blast Zearics Bane in Space and Misrum on the ground to pieces and call for a full withdrawal – yes they would take losses, but she would still end with at least one capital ship and hundreds of soldiers.

For the first time she would truly have power, maybe then they would call her ‘Mistress’ without locker room sneers an hour later.

<<<<>>>>

Long hours he had spoken to his grandfather about the necessities and implications of battle, the role of the Knight to take on the burden of ending one life to protect others.  Ken had in his way come to accept the necessity during his time with the Sons.

But intellectual assent didn’t make emotional impact any less.

Ken felt powerless in a way, thrust into a fight before he was ready, the burden of his Oaths dragging him into an external battle when a greater one still raged across his mind.

He felt the gaze of the Marines upon him, half looked upon him as the only hope they had to defeat the murderous witch who had torn through their defences, the other half saw only a Mack and kept their fingers on their triggers just waiting for Ken to turn on them.

Ken wasn’t ready to lead these men, or even himself, but the choice wasn’t his to make.

He looked behind him and raised a thumb up indicating he was ready, Lieutenant An’ne’Krey, now the ranking officer that the Commander was presumed dead.

“Go!” she called into her comm and the lights in the hall died to be replaced by the blue of Ken’s sabre that became hot white and yellowish gas he plunged it into the wall, beside him three promethium breach charges likewise lit up the dark and rent holes into the wall to Turbo Laser command.   

It was time for the Men at Arms, and Ken himself to take back control of the situation and themselves.

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 24 — As Evening Falls

Part 3

Joke’s On Them

On heading to M’Tzigon from Check Point Alpha- MWS Hornet
B'Lain watched the four landing craft disappear into the Star Destroyer.  "Joker Six to Eagle: Jesters are on stage."

"Acknowledged Joker Six.  Move to track two."

"Roger.  Jokers are wild." B'Lain fired, taking out a pair of TIEs that lingered too long in his sights, and corkscrewed back toward the rest of his squadron.  "Jokers!  Form on me.  We're about to play track two!"

From the swirling dogfight ten ARC-170s emerged, finding and forming on each other even as they continued to twist through complex defensive manoeuvres. 

As they shook out into formation B'Lain noted the missing pilots and a small part of him said a prayer for them.  Mostly, though, he concentrated on bringing the formation back toward its next objective.

The Requiem.

With a twist the formation, which now resembled a three-bladed arrowhead with B'Lain as the tip, swooped in on the Star Destroyer.  B'Lain set his vector to appear to be setting up a run on the port turbo-laser batteries, twisting and turning along that base course ... until they were nearly on top of the Star Destroyer. 

Then with a whoop he arced up, and each of the ten fighters loosed a proton torpoedo.  The concentrated spread streaked toward the starboard tower control station, impacting in tight sequence and obliterating the fighter control deck.

But that was just the distraction.  By the time the torpedoes hit, B'Lain'Throwd and his Jokers were inside the main bay of the Star Destroyer, prepared to launch their second volley of torpedoes.

No fighters Nath was right! …. Somehow that fact wasn’t as enthusisaing as it should be…

"Torps away!  BREAK BREAK BREAK!" B'Lain yelled into his mic. He hit the firing key and reefed his controls.

As one the ten Joker fighters launched and immediately arced upward, streaking up and out of the bay as quickly as they had entered it.  They emerged in a line which immediately broke into five pairs of fighters on independent courses.   

Anti-fighter laser turrets laced their formation and hit three of them as they sped away.  Jace managed to hold his fighter together, spinning away and putting himself on a course that would go very near the Eagle before punching out and activating his transponder.  Jokers Nine and Eleven - both new - were not so lucky. 

Both ships were hit emerging from the bay with catastrophic results.  One simply exploded, but the other, out of control, drove full-power into the port-side turbolaser turret #2.  The resulting detonation destroyed the turret and badly damaged the turrets to either side, crippling the ship's firepower on that side.

The damage to the surface, however, was only a side-show.  Inside the ship carnage and chaos reigned. The proton torpedoes diverted port and starboard, tearing through the hanger decks of the massive SD.  Flames erupted from the long dorsal hanger bay door and the smaller ventral bay as fuel tanks and ammunition storage for the ship's small complement of fighters and ground-assault vehicles were detonated in long chain reactions. 

“Jesters Track two complete” Blain commed as he twisted out shaking flecks of debris off his wings.

Armored bulkheads and automated fire suppression systems saved the ship despite the internal damage.

Shivering from the explosions and streaming air and debris, the Star Destroyer seemed to shrug off the attack, her fire on the M'Tzigon platforms diminished but continuing.

<<<<>>>

Jan'a and her men were thrown off her feet by the Joker's attack, and for a moment she thought the bay was compromised and they were all dead. 

But the ship and song both settled back into their steady rhythm and she rose to find the internal gravity was still in place ... for now.  "OK, Jesters!  Listen up!  Sgt Cam will take her teams from the Lightray and secure Engineering.  Blackie and I will take the teams from the Hornet and secure the bridge.  If we're on plan, the Jokers just blew away the fighter control center on the starboard tower and obliterated the main bay.  Hopefully that means most of their troops are dead, but this is a big ship.  Move fast, hit hard, and don't get pinned down.  Understood?"

The marines gathered around her answered in unison: "HOO-AH!"

Jan'a grinned a deaths-head grin and ignited her saber. "OK, boys, lets take this bucket!"

"CAN DO!!!"

<<<<>>>>

Nyder was knocked off her feet, almost falling down into the control pit, when the torpedo storm destroyed the adjacent tower.  She stood, blood trickling from a cut on her scalp and stared in fascination as the deck vented, belching flames, air, debris, and bodies into space. 

Someone, back to them, drifted toward them almost gently.  He struggled briefly as his blood boiled and his body bloated in explosive decompression, kicking and thrashing in the vacuum, unable to even scream in the cold, hard vacuum of space...

"Ma'am!" Nordas spun Nyder around, pulling her eyes from the carnage.  "Ma'am, the bay ... its gone!  I need orders, ma'am..."

Nyder blinked, swallowed, focused on Nordas, still somehow impossibly neat and clean despite the soot and smoke from secondary explosions.  "Orders...."  Nyder pulled on the leash, felt it slipping...  Not yet.  Soon...

Nyder steadied herself.  "Status of Grayson and Choel'dral's troops?"

Nordas frowned and his voice shook slightly as he answered, the only outward break in his calm façade.  "Grayson is dead, his troops were wiped out in the bay.  Choel'dral is online but his Marines were in the Armor Morgue when those damned torpedoes hit and were wiped out.  He only has a handful of troops with him."

Nyder nodded.  "Have Choel'dral block the passages to engineering ... and have everyone here draw weapons, and prepare to repel boarders…then engage the drives full speed to the planet.”

Nyder met Nordas' eyes with her own.  She felt her hand twitching again, felt the control of her Mistress' will.  Will he defy me as he did his former commander?  Will he choose surrender and life rather than resistance and death?  Will he kill me to live?

Nordas looked away and swallowed.  "It will be done."

Nyder exhaled explosively as the small Imperial stepped away, issuing crisp orders again.  Nordas was back in the groove, his moment of weakness past.

So why do I feel disappointment?

<<<<>>>>

Sgt. Cam suppressed a curse as blaster bolts impacted on the bulkhead just above her helmet.  She jerked her head back, meeting her second's eyes.  "Don't you dare say it..."

Corporal "T" Anders only grinned ... and handed her a fiber-optic scope. 

"Thanks Tee." Holli grated, the boyish grin on his massive face irritating her.  Calm down, girl!  You're only riled up because you did something stupid ... and nearly paid the ultimate price for it. 

She shook it off, focused, and carefully slid the probe around the corner.   The small screen of the device lit up, showing her a half-dozen impies in soft body armor manning a barricade at the next intersection.  She held up her hand and flashed three fingers twice to the troopers with her, then made a fist and flashed the estimated range - "2" and "5" for twenty-five meters.  She tapped her grenadier on the helmet, pointed up the corridor, and signalled four fingers, instructing him to pump four "hot fragment" grenades 25 meters up the corridor.

The trooper nodded, checked his weapon, then after taking a deep breath he ducked low and poked his weapon around the corner. 

<<CHONK-CHONK-CHONK-CHONK>>

Return fire struck the corner above him as he rolled back into cover.  Holli ignored him, watching the grenades go down-range on her tiny screen and impact among the prepared positions.

<< BOOM >>
<< BOOM >>
<< BOO-OOOM>>

Holli noted with grim satisfaction how the position came apart.  "GO GO GO!" 

Tee charged around the corner, flanked by Marines, and finished off the strong point, taking another 25 meters of corridor.  Holli followed him forward, advancing cautiously until a new strong-point emerged, and they started the process all over again.  Tee rolled onto his back, slapping a fresh power pack into his blaster and grinned.  "Two more turns and we'll be in engineering.  Almost there, Sarge!"

"Good.  Now, lets see about this next strong point..."  Holli was already watching her screen, her scope snaking around the corner again.

<<<<>>>>

Behind the barricade Choel'dral Bendix tried not to despair.  Not enough time...

He'd been in a hurry and sent his men to the Armory in a group - just in time for that fiendish torpedo strike to wipe them out en-mass.  Only the small detail that he'd kept back with the engineers and his small HQ group remained, and most of them...

The flashing explosions of grenades hammered his ears and lit the corridor.  One more turn ... and they're turning us into ground nerfmeat...

He looked at the position.  He had seven men here, all armed with side arms and the odd bladed weapon.  No heavy weapons.  No explosives.  No armor...

His orders were clear, Hold Engineering at all costs.

Behind him the bulk head to the hypermatter tanks and reactors was already sealed…

Odd looks like they sealed them before we got boarded…
The thought stuck for a moment but given they had a skeleton force on the Requiem at best perhaps it made sense.

As he sat and racked his brain, trying desperately to think of some way to slow the advance time ran out.  Choel'dral heard the <thonk><thonk><thonk> of the boarder's grenade launcher firing...  Heard the grenades whistling through the air toward them...

Nerfmeat...

<<<<>>>>

“It’s speeding up!” Ellen called from tactical as the Jokers continued blasting away at the Turbolasers, support flights from the Ranger dealing with the few remaining fighters.

“Heading in system,”

Nath couldn’t pick why…surely if it wanted to join with the rest of the fleet it would’ve done it earlier…it was as if whoever was in command was…vacillating between wanting to press forward and wanting to run…for now pressing forward in fits and starts of conviction.

“Franklin, Yakob, have your fighters hit the engines with ion cannons, looks like the Marines won’t get there in time,”

Fighter grade Ion cannons against a ship that size were almost useless, but the only other option was…

“Helm heading 425, get us in range of their engines and charge turbo lasers.”

“We’re not going to engage a Star Destroyer?”

“If Jan can’t take the bridge we won’t have a choice.”

<<<<>>>>

“Ma’am” we’ve lost contact with Choel'dral” Nordas reported as the last of the TIEs was blown away by the proficient ARC-170s that now turned their attention to the Requiems Turbo Lasers, whittling them down one by one allowing the carriers to close back in and begin picking up their casualties.

“Very Goood…” Nyder nearly drooled glancing to the tactical display, the Carriers were not in vaporization range…but would certainly be crippled….

None of it matters, none of it matters

As Sgt. Cam began placing charges to breach and take Engineering and Jan worked her way quickly up through the empty corridors to the bridge, increasingly troubled by the lack of resistance, the charges were being prepared by Engineers convinced by the Qixoni crystal to turn the Requiems outdated hyper-matter chamber into an anti-matter bomb that would be the crescendo of the M’Tzigon fleet.

<<<<>>>>

Blades of Night

Temple Outskirts
Zearic hadn’t waited for the transport to land.  Along with half a dozen of the bolder Koawans and Silver Knights, he had simply leapt into the mutilated hordes of Darksiders. 

Around the Temple Grounds and adjoining hamlet, the battle between Light and Dark raged. 

The Flagellants cared nothing for pain nor feared death; each life they took, each drop of blood they squeezed from their enemies was a votive offering to the Dark Side.

Likewise, the Knights of the Mak’Tor cared nothing for pain nor feared death; each heretic they struck down was another step toward fulfilling their Oaths to the Maker to protect the weak.

With enemies on all sides, Zearic led the charge, ploughing through a group of the vile fanatics, his glacial blue blade plunging in the back of an opponent with a hissing vaporization of meat and bone, the last breath of the dying Flagellant steaming in the frozen air.  He was quickly surrounded, the four Darksiders confident, taunting him.

Zearic engaged the four Flagellants, their red meeting his own ice-blue and silver blades in a flurry of strikes.  They found no hole in his defence, nothing to exploit as they attempted to overwhelm him. 

Before his…augmentation, he doubted that he could have fought this many enemies—opponents who were skilled saber-practitioners—simultaneously and lived, much less prevailed.  And with his anger raging inside, he instinctively knew that he required an…outlet was the best he could describe it as.  With newfound speed, he tangled three of his opponent’s sabers, identical looks of shock upon their faces.

Suddenly, the Nocte flew from the holster behind his belt as if pulled by the Force.  Glancing behind him, what he saw filled him with amazement.  And grim satisfaction.

The Nocte had flown from its scabbard…to bury itself deep into the forehead of the fourth Darksider Zearic had been fighting.  He had done nothing telekinetically with the Force; the Oblivion dagger had reacted on its own…almost as if it was an extension of his will…

Breaking the blade-lock, Zearic quickly dispatched one and then another of his foes, eviscerating the bodies even as they fell, the last one backing up as a look of terror began to spread across his face. 

As a sudden explosion pulverized the house by which they’d been fighting, Zearic lost sight of the Darksider as he turned to run.  But while he couldn’t see him, he could feel him in the Force.  Using his shoto—as well as his enhanced abilities—he threw the silver lightsaber at the retreating figure, its scything blade burned through the falling snow, bisecting the Darksider’s torso at an angle, head, neck, and right shoulder falling to one side, the rest of the body to the other. 

Calling his shoto back, Zearic went to physically retrieve the dagger.  As he pulled the Nocte from the already snow-covered head of the Darksider, the black blade stood in stark contrast against the white blanketing the ground and surrounding buildings.  Like the Tenebris Pugione, the Nocte would not respond to telekinesis. 

But it did to his anger…of which he had plenty.  Instinctually, he channeled his rage into the black weapon, an almost sub-auditory hum accompanying the action.  As he reached behind his back and holstered the dagger, Zearic’s thumb felt the slight but deliberate indentation of the inscription upon the fuller.

“She left you for a reason”

And now just as then, he wondered what it meant…

As Zearic moved through the streets towards the other side of the village, a large explosion destroyed one of the taller buildings on the west-side of town.  The west-side…which invariably pulled one’s gaze to the slopes of the near mountain.

And ever-present just atop the slopes: the Temple of the Maker.  Even from this distance, every Force-user and Singer could feel the power emanating from within the building.  Something momentous…and terrible…was going to happen.

And thanks to Karm, Zearic had a feeling as to what that was. 

“Mendax” He seethed rushing into the fray once more

<<<<>>>>

Inside the Temple as the Red Police rounded up the terrified worshipers Misrum felt the Tenebris grasp his mind with fear, his eyes rolling up in their sockets, visions of savagery assaulting his senses.

Strike Now, Strike Fast, He’ll Kill You!

The one from the Deep Core…Zearic was here…if Misrum killed Zearic…not only would he deny Mendax her satisfaction but more importantly he would prove his superiority.

The red Nikto grimaced malevolently.  “To me, thralls!  Our enemies gather for the assault.”  In one hand he held his ignited saber, in the other, the Tenebris Pugione.  He brought the black dagger to his lips, the bifurcated tongue licking the blade.  “They will beg us for mercy.  And shall be granted none.”  With shouts arising from the two dozen or more Darksiders that had broken off to follow Misrum, those remaining trained blasters and sabers upon their fearful hostages.

Moving with purpose, his fingers possessively clutching the Oblivion dagger, Misrum gave a devious grin, thinking again of the gift he’d been given.  He would do what Mendax had failed at twice: killing Zearic Vih’Torr.

<<<<< >>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 24 — As Evening Falls

Part 4

Blades of Night

Temple Grounds
Zearic’s blades moved like a spinning wheel slashing through limbs and torsos.  The Nocte filled with his fury could no longer be contained, slicing once again out of the leather sheath he had quickly made on Dualism’s Soul as it flung itself between the vibroblades of a distant Flagellant and straight into the skull, through and out the back of the neck.  Then, its energy spent, dropped again.

Zearic pivoted through another foe, shoulder and torso parting as he arced the blade upwards allowing him to scoop up the Nocte once more.  He’d gotten used to that.

The drive to the Temple grounds had been gruelling, Red Polcie and Fanatics in small mortar encampments levelling houses to stop their advance, LAATs unable to land clean closer to the Temple for the plex-missile armed fanatics running from apartment to apartment firing from windows.

Without intending to Zearic had picked up a group of knights, the bloody path he carved inspiring them to follow him through miasma of dust snow and blood that choked their lungs and stained their armour.

To his left Sam’El’Mack and two other Silvers whose names he had no time to learn jumped across the street battering the door open – through the windows he saw the glow of swingin blades as they took down the Red Police hunkered within, to his right Silver Knight Shar’Naa lead half of the Koawans up the right flank while Knight Boh’Az will took the remaining Grays in a circuit up the side streets along the left the retaining walls for cover and splitting the Darksiders double the targets and diverting their focus while Zearic leap frogged along the left his ‘buried presence’ and Sam’s Force Concealment hopefully allowing them to get the drop on the mortar positions as they fired on the right.

Take what you want and pay for it he said - The Temple was only a few blocks away, the price was flesh and bone.

<<<<>>>>

You Must Kill Him, You Must Strike Now, You Must Strike Fast, He’ll Kill You!  KILL HIM BEFORE HE KILLS YOU!

Misrum’s fear was stoked to another pinnacle as he grasped the deceptively heavy black dagger in one hand, humming red lightsaber in the other.  “You six, come with me.”  He indicated a group he knew to be deadly swordsmen and women.  “The rest of you: fan out and kill those frelling Mak’Tor.”  The red Nikto looked on as the Flagellants dispersed, a mix of anticipation and trepidation roiling within him.

Misrum moved, making turns and going forward by instinct, one supplied—at least in part—by the prodding of the Tenebris Pugione.  Even filled with the Dark Side, his thralls had a difficult time keeping pace.

Damn his orders to remain in the Temple, he had to kill him before he kills you

<<<<>>>>

One moment their spotter was calling out target protocols, the next her head disappeared, a fountain of blood spewing from her neck.  When one of the loaders looked up to see why the spotter had stopped talking, his eyes saw only a blue flash before his vision went forever dark. 

The second loader had time to cry out in confusion before a lance of silver plasma impaled his throat, silencing him.  The commander of the team was the only one to put a hand upon their weapon but was unable to draw the blaster, a blue blade bisected her wrist, torso, and shoulder in a brutal cut across her body. 

But even before the pieces of the dismembered body hit the ground, Zearic was already moving up the sloped and snow-filled avenues between dwellings leading to the switchbacks up the mountain.

The dull tvump of Sam’s DC-17 blaster pistol echoed in a building up ahead and the clockwork fire of Plex missiles on Shar’Naa’s squad stopped dead allowing them to vault a wall to the next ring of houses, the last block before the Temple. 

The way ahead looked clear and they had no time, every moment the pressure of darkness built up ahead.

Rushing into the manicured Temple Grounds Zearic was soon followed by Bo’Ahz knights, their presence reminding Zearic not to get lost in the single-minded focus of his anger.  But that warning seemed a small thing compared to the fury that he’d surrounded himself with.

As if crossing an invisible barrier he suddenly felt it…familiar as it was unwelcome oppressiveness, like a menacing sound just below the hearing threshold.  …The Tenebris Pugione… Even here and now, he felt an unnamed, indefinite fear starting to rise.  …no…No…NO…! Anger like he hadn’t felt since losing G’av consumed him, a rage that flared white-hot burned the remnants of his fear away.

And within its scabbard, the Nocte trembled.

With laser-focused senses, Zearic gave warning to the Mak’Tor Knights, igniting both of his sabers. 

Moving purposefully through the delicate white-covered garden paths, the beautiful snow speckled lavender blooms an unseemly backdrop to the violence of the night, the Gray Jedi fanned out, feeling their Darkside counterparts as they closed the distance with the inexorable pull of opposites.

And like the meeting of matter and antimatter, the results were as catastrophic as they were destructive.

<<<<>>>>

As soon as the heavy Temples doors opened to let in a breeze of dust contaminated snow Misrum saw him.

There!  Kill Him NOW!  KILL HIM BEFORE HE KILLS YOU!

Yellow eyes filled with hatred locked onto hazel, the red more pronounced with burning rage.

Without waiting for his thralls, Misrum knew what he must do, to usurp his one-time Mistress, to stop the big man from stealing back the Tenebris, but mostly to eradicate the fear coursing throughout his body.

Wordlessly snarling, Misrum attacked.

<<<<< >>>>>

…Bastard…that dagger is MINE!

The thought came unbidden to Zearic as the red Nikto rushed forward, red saber and black dagger in his hands, deadly intent matching the hatred within his Sith eyes.  Zearic’s sabers spun, deflecting the Nikto’s weapons, icy-blue blade meeting red, silver shoto against Oblivion dagger.

The first two passes had already proven dangerous, both combatants had drawn blood as their blades fended off the others, intent on a lethal strike on riposte.  Zearic bled freely from a vertical cut from chin to brow; Misrum’s eyes cringed in pain from a semi-cauterized laceration on his shoulder.  And even as they both shunted the pain away, their injuries did nothing to slow their attacks.

Again, their blades locked together, determination masking the other emotions that both men felt.  But for Misrum, he received his second shock of the night: this human was stronger than he was.  That by itself may have been uncommon as categorically most humans were weaker than Nikto, but Misrum prided himself on his physical might and was pointedly stronger than average.  But against Zearic, it didn’t seem to matter… The Tenebris was right…

Zearic kept forcing downwards, the Nikto’s red blade slowly but inexorably being pushed closer to his horned head.  The big maenowan could see the abject fear in the yellow eyes, intent upon the loudly humming red blade.  Then he saw the Darksider’s eyes flick over his right shoulder, panic replaced by relief…and satisfaction.

Almost instinctively, Zearic pushed the Nikto away, pivoting to his left and circling around the incoming attacker.  It was one of the Flagellants from the Deep Core, her red lightsaber cutting through the air and the spot that Zearic had but a moment ago been.  A look of surprise filled her face as she hit nothing, instead leaving herself exposed. 

Grimly, Zearic brought both of his sabers together in a savage cut, effortlessly slicing through the Flagellant’s chest and neck, nearly decapitating her.  His senses alert, Zearic took a moment to step back and assess the situation.

In his haste to engage the Nikto who seemed the leader, he had missed the battle around him, another seven clashing with the Gray, Sam diving beneath the charge of one firing his pistol straight up into the arm, Bo’Ahz sabre locked with another,  Shar’Naa stumbling but still fighting as her Knights moved to support. 

If he could break the leader and get the Tenebris…two Oblivion blades who could stop him!  The glee fed into the trembling Nocte as the Nikto surged at him again with zealous fury, twoof his companions attempting to circle Zearic where with their numbers they would have advantage. 

Trying to keep his sabers between himself and his enemies, Zearic moved both blades in a defence pattern, trying to cover all areas at once.  But deep down, beneath he stirring of the Nocte and the pull of the Tenebirs he knew that he was in trouble; he could not possibly defend against this many opponents at once, and he didn’t have a magic crystal to help…

Suddenly, when the first Darksider quickly advanced, the Nocte spun out of its sheath, twirling point over hilt in the air, creating a black edged barrier between Zearic and the attacker.  And while Zearic’s anger was still primed, he could now feel the dagger itself feeding off of his opponents…almost as if it had locked on to their aggression, siphoning power from them.

With a small grin upon his lips, Zearic looked around, scrutinizing the group as he mentally switched tactics.  With crystal clarity, he noticed they were all competent saber-practitioners, balanced between rushing him and waiting to see how he responded.  …No time like the present…

And so Zearic attacked.

With both sabers creating a whirling shield of plasma, supplemented by a black shadow that seemed to teleport around him, staving off attacks, Zearic engaged the two Darksiders in front of him, focusing on the Nikto leader.

Smiling grimly, each of his attacks threatened his opponents, disbelief etched deeply in their faces.  The Flagellant on the right soon fell under his blade, his eyes widening as he died a victim of his own saber as Zearic’s blue blade crashed down against him, too much momentum for the Darksider to mitigate.  He died…poorly.

“‘And then there were two…’”  His quiet, deep voice intoned.  Stepping forward, he gave a flourish, the glacial blue and silver blades burning the air as Zearic adopted an aggressive stance, the Nocte continuing to hover protectively around him, a third hand and blade.

The red Nikto and the remaining Darksider exchanged a glance as Zearic smiled, a wicked grin that spread across his face.

And without warning, the Nocte dropped from the air, the pommel of the dagger heavily clouting Zearic on the head, blood suddenly flowing down his face.

Seeing their opening, both of the Darksiders rushed forward intent on killing the human.

<<<<< >>>>>

KILL HIM BEFORE HE KILLS YOU!!

Misrum’s fear-fueled body and mind jerked forward as if controlled by a marionette.  Seeing the human’s own weapon fall and strike him upon the crown of his head was the moment that the Nikto knew he had been waiting for.  With death in his eyes, Misrum knew that he would taste victory over two of his enemies today: first this Zearic and then his former Mistress, Mendax.

Stabbing outward, Misrum felt the Tenebris cleave into flesh, blood wetting the tip of the heavy blade as he withdrew it.  His red saber soon found an opening to exploit in the big human’s defense, scoring a glancing blow off of Zearic’s elbow.  The smell of burnt flesh joined the snow falling in the air.  Inhaling deeply, Misrum licked blood from the black blade, fear and ecstasy acting like a drug, coursing through his body.  The remaining Flagellant pressed her own attack, making the human lose ground as he desperately defended himself.

KILL HIM BEFORE HE KILLS YOU!!

Not wanting to be deprived of his victory, Misrum’s own trepidations gave way to his growing paranoia.  Knowing only that the Tenebris would be silenced by Misrum killing the human, he plunged the black dagger deep into the spine of the Flagellant, shoving her aside even as her lifeblood flowed from the wound in her back.

But it didn’t matter.  Misrum knew that only he was worthy to carry the Tenebris; Zearic Vih’Torr had only been a…carrier.  Much like a vermin acts as a vector, so too was this…insignificant human, carrying a powerful entity, one that like the plagues of old, held the very power of death.

And it was Misrum that would command this power.

 

<<<<< >>>>>

Zearic desperately tried to clear his ringing head as well as the blood that threatened to blind him.  He was vaguely aware that the Oblivion hilt had given him a concussion and that he’d need a Singer for the accumulated wounds that he’d taken. 

But he knew that that was academic; he was literally fighting for his life.  And he was sure that the Flagellant in front of him would be the one to end it; she was a better swordsman than he and—worst of all—she was patient.  Combined with his head wound… He tried to flare his rage into something constructive but both pain and vertigo acted as a cold river dousing the flames of his anger.  It was all that he could do to defend himself.

And then, shockingly, the Flagellant cried out in pain, her left arm dropping her saber while her right tried to reach around to her back.  Confused but nevertheless grateful, Zearic didn’t bother wondering what had happened, instead taking a moment to wipe his eyes and gather the Force around himself in a Healing wave.  And while his skill at Healing was still lackluster, his augmented abilities also seemed to help out in this regard as well.

It was the chance that Zearic needed; he was finally able to collect himself so that he had the wherewithal to focus again.

And none too soon; the Nikto suddenly attacked shouting wordlessly, a crazed glint within his yellow eyes.  Zearic’s two lightsabers matched the Darksider’s weapons, strike for strike, the two opponents being fairly equal now.  Even as they circled one another in the snow, steam radiating off of their backs in the freezing night air, neither was able to gain advantage.

Suddenly Zearic slipped in the snow, only faltering an instant but it was detrimental to his defense.  His mouth wide in a rictus grin, the Nikto laughed loudly as a strike to Zearic’s blue blade sent the saber flying from his hand, leaving him with only his silver shoto.  But worse, the Nikto hit Zearic full in the chest with an unexpected Force Push.  Knocked on the ground, the wind from his lungs, his head concussed, the big maenowan lay stunned on his back.

The Nikto’s lips kept moving, as if he were saying a silent litany over and over again, one that Zearic thought he heard as “kill him before he kills you.”  Desperate, Zearic was at a loss as what to do.

Misrum stood over the human, crazed, triumphant.  “Tomorrow, I vanquish my Mistress forever.”  Flipping the Tenebris in his hand blade-downwards, the Nikto raised the weapon, intent upon plunging it into Zearic’s heart.  “But first, tonight, you die.”  And as his hand fell, two things happened.  First, instead of relying on his anger, Zearic instinctually focused on his opponent’s aggression.

Second, he funnelled all of it towards where the Nocte lay.

Zearic heard a wet, deep thud and saw the Nikto’s arm drop, the Tenebris falling from limp fingers.  His hazel eyes intent upon Misrum, Zearic saw the Darksider fall heavily to his knees and then unceremoniously on his face in the snow.  And from the base of his skull, the Nocte had buried itself to the quillions at an angle, stabbing upwards into Misrum’s brain.

Sighing heavily, Zearic rose unsteadily to his feet, swaying as a wave of nausea hit him.  Supporting himself on one of the granite walls, Zearic spend several minutes focusing on Healing.  Once he felt strong enough to stand unaided, he retrieved his three weapons and went to search for one of the Singers among the Knights.

He knew that the night’s killing was far from over.

<<<<< >>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 24 — As Evening Falls

Part 5

Collateral Damage

M’Tzigon Spaceport
Captain Tesk had a smile on his face as the armoured speeder hovered near the edge of the fence around the spaceport.  All across the tarmac were smoking ruins of Imperial Walkers and Rebel Tanks, E-wings and an Incom Y-85 Titan drop ship desperately trying to get back into orbit as the Mark IV’s opened fire on them in between plastering fleeing troopers.

Preliminary scan indicated at least a few dozen enemy infantry still through the space port, but their main force was broken.

“Move on up,” he clapped the pilot shoulder and headed into the back, he had been suspicious of the Droids, incensed that Cliff had held them back for so long but considering the losses they had avoided among the men at arms by letting the Droids loose…he couldn’t argue with results.

“Alright we’ve got rats to round up, set for stun initially but if they shoot back give…”

<CWOOOM>

The transport shuddered and nearly tipped, he felt the G’s and slammed into his second in command as it cut a hard left – they must be under fire…a rear-guard…

“Captain! The droids they’re firing on us!”

<<<<>>>>

Sword of Light

Main road from M’skigon Mountains to Sierra Temple District
The shift in the Force was sudden – shock, disbelief…betrayal.  Yet this wasn’t the echoes of the initial attack, this was new – elation turned to terror in an instant.

Arnor pressed on despite it, as bad as that was the rising darkness ahead was worse – a tune at the edge of her perception telling her it needed to be confronted before anything else.

Up ahead she could see the blinking lights of blaster fire begin to erupt on the fringes of the Temple district…still so far away…glancing behind she saw Julwynn near behind her, but Balnard absent the force to speed him, Talia understandably a bit out of shape after Ilians death and her father struggling with age were back a fair way.

A familiar yet…strange…presence exploded as the LAATs descended halfway up the built up are around the Temple Zearic…but not Zearic… something about him felt familiar in a…wrong way.

“Come on!” she called shaking it off through the empty streets, the citizens all evacuated to underground bomb shelters as the battle raged above them, speeders by the side of the road universally mag-locked and drive dead to avoid becoming explosive collateral and deny the invaders any materiel.

A rumbling erupted behind her, snapping on her sabre she turned to face the threat…

The LAAT that descended had the familiar figure of Kage Lo hanging from the side had out.

“Silver Mack need a lift!”

Shutting off her blade she rushed forward to rasp his hand

“Definitely, where is Karm?”

“No clue there was a burst of energy earlier on, but amidst the rest of it…how did you get out of jail?”

“Eghh…I’ll explain later, we need to…”
Silman nodded grimly as his fellow masters helped the others onto the deck then finished her sentence
“…Drive the Sword of Light into the heart of Darkness.”

<<<<>>>>

 

Battle Song

Road from Residential district to Temple District
Through the thickening snowfall and gathering darkness Karmack ran...

Ice crystals stung his cheeks as Karmack pushed himself beyond previous imagination. The cut on his cheek stung but the bleeding had stopped.  Karmack ignored it, not wanting to divert energy to heal such a minor wound.  Other pains - contusions and cuts from his fight with the droids - pulsed on the edge of his awareness for a moment. 

Gently he willed them away, subsuming them under his expanded awareness.  He knew he was running at incredible speed, but the enhanced awareness that allowed him to carefully plan and place each step also made the journey take even longer subjectively than his normal walk along the same, familiar path.

Time crawled...

With effort Karmack squelched his own impatience and the tremors of panic and frustrated urgency that rose in his chest.  He'd seen the ship land, felt the swelling of the darkness as it subsumed the Temple.

Mendax had landed...

Hurry... he injected into his connection with Arnor and Silman.

And he ran....

<<<<>>>>

The Temple

Mendax walked slowly down the knave of the Temple, her boot-clicks echoing through the chamber.  Carved stone arches rose majestically around her, framing brilliant stained-glass windows ... at least where the flagellants had not broken them out in their orgy of defacement.  No matter.  The real beauty of this place lay deep below...

Mendax came to a halt at the exact centre of the intersection of knave and transcept.  All around her power hummed.  No doubt there were secret shrines and hidden chambers cut through the rock below her where the Mak'Tor had placed more of their damned crystals, focussing and balancing the force nexus deep in the mountain's core.

The regulation of the force's flow was an impressive achievement - and would help them not at all.  Their efforts would only serve to focus and amplify her own act of destruction and bring down not only their Temple but the entire planet. 

With a sigh Mendax opened herself to the force, letting the flow of power envelop her and amplify her song...

He was close .... nearly here ...  too late!  Mendax felt Karmack's presence in the force, heard his counter-melody rising to challenge her own song.  For a single moment she was staggered by the strength, volume and depth of that song, and instinctively she pulled her own song in tighter, wrapping it tightly around herself and the Temple.

He was strong, but she was Sith!  She would prevail!  She turned, dropping her outer cloak and drawing her saber as she addressed the strongest of the flagellants she'd chosen for this most important task.  "It is time.  Set yourselves here.  Prepare yourselves and begin the incantations.  I will buy you the time you need."

"Yes, mistress!"

<<<<>>>>

Ahead of him light and dark clashed.  The fighting still raged throughout the ancient village below the Temple to the West, but inside was only blackness and death.  Mendax was there ... and behind her a deadly, familiar pressure was building in force and song.  The Thought Bomb!

There was no time...   Karmack pulled every ounce of speed he dared from the force, feeling the burn in his limbs despite all the Ancient One could do.  With a final leap he launched himself up the hill, somersaulting through the air, aiming at the Eastern portal...

Only his enhanced perception saved him.  Almost before the blood-orange blade formed he was activating his own saber.  With an easy push he deflected her force attack but his own blade was still coming up and was out of position.  As he landed he caught her strike on his vambrace, defecting the blade and following through with an elbow strike that caught the Ferroan woman on the cheek. 

Blood spattered from the cut that opened, and Mendax staggered backward.  Karmack used the opening to shake off the damaged vambrace, the songsteel armor warped and red-hot from the lightsaber blade's impact.  Only the very tough cybernetic glove underneath saved his arm from taking serious damage, but his right arm was now un-armored and vulnerable.

So be it.  Karmack adopted a high guard settled, his attention on Mendax even as a part of his mind searched the temple...

Mendax stood, outwardly calm as she raised a hand to her damaged cheek.  "You'll pay for that, singer..." she spat.  "An eternity trapped in the silver hell of the bomb..."

"After you." Karmack replied.  Mendax opened her mouth to respond ... and he attacked. 

<<<<>>>>

Iconoclasm

M’Tzigon Emergency Command Bunker
“What!”

“They fired on us when we got close!” Tesk reported, “Knocked out two transports before we could pull back”

Ta Re repressed the urge to say ‘I Told You So’, they only had ‘friend’ designators for their immediate handlers, techs and key command personnel, options for working out how to designate all Men At Arms friendly once they were set to Active Combat Status still proving elusive.

“We should shut them down, they’ve done their job” Ta Re suggested

“Send the order for them to return to base then,” Cliff said grudgingly

“Sir we should also stop the launch of wave seven and eight on the Temple Precinct, the Knights are there…”

“Still? Against MY orders.”  He slammed rather than pressed the red square that initiated a direct link to the Kage in a crisis

“Silman get your men out of there, we will handle it!”

Silman could only shake his head, belatedly realising Cliff couldn’t see on the audio only channel.

“General this is something only the Knights can deal with, the Dark Side of the Force is being wound into…”

“Enough with this superstitious rubbish, let the droids turn this Mendax bitch into a bloody paste why risk your lives, pull out now,” 

He personally typed in his launch authorisation codes for wave seven and eight.

“You’ve been warned Silman…”

<<<<>>>>

Wave 7 and 8 had a simple objective [Eliminate Hostiles at the target location].  As they analysed the data feed from the Central CPU they determined the most efficient way to achieve this at location designated [Temple].

Their long range scanner detected Zero [People] or [Friends] therefore all life signals within and about must be [Hostile – Extremis].

As they added blue flares of light to the yellow and orange fire tinted night sky their emotionless red photoreceptors synchronized with radar and thermal sensors to lock their missiles onto the structure [Temple] which contained [Hostile Extremis >>> 342].

They fired.

<<<<>>>>

Temple Grounds

Blood turned the snow a strange pink as Zearic knelt beside Misrums corpse, pulling out the Nocte with a wet crack, the battle petering out around him as the humming LAAT’s delivered more knights, Arnor leaping in beside Silman to put an end to three flagellants locked with Sam and Boh’Az.

Yet all this was peripheral.  The Tenebris sat in the pink snow…strangely…lost without a master, calling for someone to take it…his mind was split…he knew the dangers and the benefits...and right now with Mendax just inside…

He took up the Tenebris once more, the blade almost bouncing to his hand as soon as the decision formed in his mind, the Nocte trembled with glee and filled him with confidence – Two oblivion weapons…Mendax has no hope!. 

Zearic’s strong leap over Misrums corpse toward the Temple doors turned into a dive as his spine snap froze with danger sense icing the confidence the daggers and their master healing had given him. 

Overhead ten missiles slammed into the side of the Temple, ripping through the stone erupting stained glass and marble fragments back over the assembled Knights

Arnor skidded to a halt as her stomach lurched with the sudden loss of life and shock from the knights she had just reached to support.  Karm was in the Temple already in danger from the Oily black monolith that was Mendax – and Mendax would hardly give him a break to turn on their common enemy.

From the West a flight of Machines was closing fast, another salvo of yellow burning missiles approaching as the cries within the Temple in time with the seepage of life forces.

As one the Knights turned their attention from the civilians inside to what they could only assume based on the first salvo were enemy units.

“Stop Those Missiles!” someone screamed.

As if guided by a single will the assembled knights threw up a telekinetic screen into the missiles path – a few exploded others were slowed enough for concentrate grabs or pushes to send them spinning wildly.

Cold logic assessed the failed launch and determined the intervention of the variegated unclassified sentitents was responsible – as they had interfered with completing the droids objective they must be [Hostiles] splitting into four groups of five they opened up with their assault cannons on the [Hostiles].

Three dozen already fatigued blades slammed back the supersonic blue bolts, - arms and minds burning with overexertion as the Droids attempted to surround and [Eliminate] them.

<<<<>>>>

[Karmack]

Building to a climax... 
*bites tongue*

Again, nice integration!  :-)  I think Chapters 23,24 and 25 qualified as a novella in their own rite....   :-)

[Lord_S_Gray]

CHAPTER 25- In Midnights Grasp

Part 1

Moon Shadow

Lunar 3
“Breach!” a Sith Shadow screamed as the east wall lit hot,

“Imitation is the highest form of flatter,” Orfa mused as the Marines copied a tactic she had used fifteen minutes before

“Blast them!, How long till we have the cannons online!”

“Nearly there!”

Nearly was not good enough as the walls blasted inward smashing consoles apart – this was not momentum from an explosions, the tingle in the back of her neck told Orfa there was a Knight.

<<<<>>>>

The Marines lobbed grenades and blasted repeaters into the rows of control consoles, doing more damage to the computers and screens that to the enemy. Ken remained with his back to the wall waiting. The Sergeant eyeing him off mistrustfully, wondering why the Knight wasn’t leading a glorious charge.

A moment later the red glare of a sabre appeared from the haze and Ken swung up from his low guard to slice the hands that held it apart, his hands and sabre gone the Sith Sabre was easy prey for the Sergeants rifle.

Now Ken Moved in.

Torrents of Red bolts battered against his blue blade casting a purple tinge to the smoke from the electrical fires that stunk of melted plastics. He pulled a teetering light fixture down onto one head, used a micro tug to dislocate the shoulder of another on the far side to create a window for the power armoured marines to get in and lay down covering fire.

“In 10!” Ken called back.

<<<<>>>>

Orfa leapt down as the Marines poured straight into her trap, slamming one onto the ground as her best men who hand hunkered underneath hollowed out control stations fired from holes blasted in them in the midst of the Marines.

Like shelled aquatic animals they darted out lethal red claws but remained unharmed by the return fire, until the Knight realised the ruse and pulled on the force to lift a half dozen of the improvised shells up, the power armoured marines using their servo enhanced fists to bludgeon the pirates.

Irritated Orfa leapt over the melee to strike her blade straight into the high guard of a blue sabre.

<<<<>>>>

He barely met the blow…but he met it and that was all that mattered…the twi’lek fought with ferocity and instinct rather than a form or method as Ken kept note of the time.

3

The marines were losing, the counter trap too effective, on the large vid screen half shattered he saw a vast crosshair pointed at an overhead image of the Temple Precinct on M’Tzigon. 

2

Her attacks were driven by a rage Ken felt a sympathy with, to not be seen as weak, take back control.

Ken had thought that way – that to take back his sovereignty he needed to attack those who had taken it from him, and deny anyone else the chance to take it by showing how strong he was. 

It might work but it left you isolated and turned you only into that which you sought to overcome.

1

As the attack intensified and were supplemented by slaps of raw force energy the Gravity died.  The Twi’lek and the Pirates scrambled to activate their mag boots, Ken twisted horizontal to the floor and sliced into her pauldron cutting into the shoulder of her left arm.

Quickly backtracking she let off a furious blast of lighting – more instinct that strategy that left her drained – she was not a sith master to pour such energy out without consequence and the slip in discipline she had never been taught left her weakened as Ken used the force to push him through the weightless air.

In rapid controlled movements he picked apart her blows, she overextend in rage with one slash toward his legs, his blade dragged in sparks and crack of energy from the tip of hers to near the emitter then flicked, sending the hilt flying from her hand,

As she reached out with the force to summon it back he twisted round in the resistance less air to slam his pommel into the side of her head.

“Target Confirmed” the recorded voice called across the room as the Marines finished off the last of the raiders.

“Target?” He spun round in his float to see the console at the far end of the chamber lit up – the Turbolaser control…He recognised the green map outline…Temple district full of worshipers on S'Kar'Yom Eve….

Pushing as fast as the force would let him he floated over the console looking for the kill switch and not finding it.

A hard shoulder shoved him away

“Move it Mack!” The Sergeant set to work fingers tapping quickly – the same sergeant who had demanded Ken not be behind them as they moved through the station, the same sergeant who had thought the attack was a ‘Mack’ conspiracy to bust Ken out…

“Got my position the hard way…years of study, nights behind these consoles, not cause I was born the son of some Wizard with magic powers…” the sergeant grumbled as he saved the lives of millions by repointing the turbolasers to the Alliance ships floating nearby.

<<<<>>>>

Rebel Assault

Elinga – M’Tzigon Orbit

EEEP EEEP 
The Elinga was rocked by a blast from the Lunar base that Jedi Gaetana assured him would be captured by Padawan Orfa.

On his sensors the Corvette Sentas went black as the Droids got into that one too, they already lost the Nch’Anas Hope to a dozen of the machines. The M’Tzigon fleet was creeping up behind as his own ships spread out to get out of range of the droid proton jets and cover the evacuation of the ground forces.

The entire assault was coming apart, the Requiem was moving in but had lost its fighters, the resistance was far stronger than Gaetana had indicated…

The more he thought about it the more Gingal realised the whole situation was utterly wrong…the whole plan now seemed ludicrously wasteful in men and materiel…there was no strategic merit to taking the Temple Precinct, it was illogical to use their greatest asset the Requiem as mere distraction and under equip it…

Yet he had thought it brilliant at the time. 

They had not even tried to make contact with any local resistance movements, co-ordinate an uprising against the Mad Singer…was there even a Mad Singer at all – the concept sounded ludicrous

It was as if the waters he swam in became less clouded with mud every second.   He needed to stop the carnage, to pull back and reassess the whole situation…

“All ships pull back, rendezvous Besh!”

<<<<>>>>

Last Song

The Temple
No banter.  No quips.  No comments.  Just concentration.  Karmack, moving with blinding speed, abandoned his normal Soresu and hammered Mendax with a blistering Ataru attack.  Mendax, on the defensive, quickly found and mimiced his improvised perception motif, matching him speed for speed, blow for blow ... but without the Ancient One he could feel her burning already, the force overloading her like an overtaxed electrical circuit.

Savagely, desperately, Karmack pushed the pace, forcing Mendax to burn hotter and hotter in the force, bringing her closer and closer to burn-out ... and death.  Behind her he could feel the Thought Bomb rituals building as well.  It was a race.  Would he burn Mendax out in time to stop the bomb?  Or would she hold him off long enough for her enthralled followers to destroy everything he held dear?

<<<<>>>>

With a shriek Mendax drew her song to herself, pulling it ever tighter, ever closer.  Like a cyclone it surrounded them, light and dark in mortal combat.  Lightning flickered ... flashed as Mendax drew on it ... died as Karmack dampened it.   

Gold and orange blades flashed and screamed as they traded blows.  Karmack drove the pace, pushing.  Probing.  Always moving closer and closer to the central alter and the dark ritual being performed there...

No! I am Sith!  I will NOT FAIL!  Mendax altered her song, drawing more and more power into the dark vortex which surrounded them.  The oblivion collar was heavy around her neck, ready to cut her off from the force at the appropriate time.

 Time...   She needed more time...

THIS was the time.  THIS was the place.  Nothing else mattered.  With a shriek Mendax cut her links to Gingal, to Nyder and Nordas ... even that bitch Orpha ...  She no longer needed them.  They could fend for themselves now, live or die.  They no longer mattered.  Only the adepts, Red Police and flagellants directly involved in the Bomb ritual remained under her direct control as every scrap of energy was diverted into her song.  Only this fight, her revenge, mattered now.

She felt the energy flow strengthen, felt the energy of her battle song increase, felt the blackness of her hatred intensify, and she revealed in it.  Saber flashing, she shifted from defense to offense.  Now ... now Karmack, Zearic, and all they held dear would die!

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

CHAPTER 25- In Midnights Grasp

Part 2

Requiem

On Approach to M’Tzigon Gravity Well
Nyder felt Mendax' iron grip suddenly release and she gasped.  Free!  I am free...  The dark hand gripping her heart released as Mendax turned her attention to other things.  Released, her soul rose and her eyes watered.  "Free..."

Joy bubbled up inside her and she forgot about her ship, her crew, her mission, her life.  Everything was was right again.  The bubbles burst and she sank down, hugged her knees to her chest and begin to giggle uncontrollably as tears streamed down her cheeks.  She ignored Nordas, who was shaking her shoulder, trying to get her attention...

Free!

She was free ... and she couldn't do anything but blubber and cry!  Through her watery vision Nordas looked perplexed and flustered.  Something hovered in her mind, in the corner where the blackness left an ugly, scarring stain.  SOmething important.  Something she needed to tell Nordas.  Something important...

Did it matter?  It mattered very, very much! 

If only she could remember why....

 

<<< >>>

Jan was ten meters away from the bridge hatch when she felt the wave of energy wash over her.  The song rippled as light and dark melodies clashed, and then in a massive push the symphony of light overwhelmed and subsumed the dark song, wiping it away and leaving the song and the force shining and bright again.  The oppression of the darkness lifted, but the suddenness of the change still staggered her.  She missed a step, stumbled, and caught herself, leaning on the bulkhead as her equilibrium returned.

"Ma'am?" Sgt Black's voice betrayed his concern.  Like everyone else in the Hornet's Marine complement he knew his Lieutenant was a Mak'Tor Knight.  Anything that could suddenly make her stumble was worthy of note.  "Everything OK?"

Jan grinned and nodded.  "Yes, Blackie.  All is well.  I think..."  She looked away, eyes opaque and far away for a moment as her concentration left the ship and she saw the system, the planet, and the swirling lines of force-energy all around them.  After a moment she shook it off and her attention returned to the moment.  "I think something massive, something good, just happened on M'Tzigon.  But we're here, now.  Lets finish the business at hand..." 

Blackie realized she was talking to herself as much as anyone else and just nodded with a matching grin of his own.  "Aye, Ma'am."

Jan stepped forward, steady now, her senses probing forward again, noting the drop in energy, the confusion, the panic...   "One more hatch."  She ignited her saber, it's pink glow infusing the corridor.  "Jesters, lets dance..."

<<< >>>

Regann Nordin was at a loss.  He was trapped on the bridge, cut off from the rest of the ship.  Engineering was off the air, no longer responding to them.  Flight control was gone, the adjacent bridge platform shattered and open to space, its crew dead.  Already severely undermanned, the large portion of the crew assigned to the flight decks had been killed by the devestating torpedo attack launched from the enemy fighters.  They had boarders somewhere nearby, and none of the few Marine units aboard were answering her hails.  And now...

He looked down at the sobbing Nyder, still completely unresponsive.  Its on me ... again ...  Nordas stood a little straighter, squaring his shoulders.  No commander ... decimated crew ... badly damaged ship ...   There was only one thing to do.  At least I have some experience...  "Communications, try to raise one of those ships..."

Before he could finish the sentence the bridge hatch exploded inward.  Nyder never moved, just continued to blubber.  Nordas was knocked off his feet, stunned by the explosion.  He shook her head and started to rise only to stop as a battle armored figure wielding a hot pink lightsaber loomed over him, extending her blade to his throat. 

"Surrender your ship!"

Nordas just sighed and nodded.  "Yes ... ma'am."

<<< >>>

Nath frowned at the icons in the tactical display.  The Jokers' heavy strikes had done a great job in suppressing the turbolasers on the Star Destroyer and he had moved this small fleet in close to the massive ship to limit it's maneuverability and better support his Marines at need.  So far, however, there'd been no calls for fire or continued bombardment.  The ship's accelleration had dropped off and it was essentially coasting in-system now.  Other than simple attitude control it hadn't even manuevered.  Things were going well, but he still had an itching sensation between his shoulder blades, a feeling that the other shoe was about to drop...

"Sir, message from Lt. Naith!  They've captured the bridge, but the controls are off-line.  She's left Stg. Blake and second squad on the bridge and is heading toward Engineering to support Sgt. Cam.  Sgt. Cam reports he is about to breach."

Nath nodded.  "Very well.  What's the status of the Star Destroyer's engines?"

The tactical officer manipulated some controls, and Nath felt his hackles rise at the officer's suddenly thoughtful tone.  "That's odd...  I'm showing the hyperdrive offline but there's a spike in both the power grid and the hypermatter reactor chamber.  Its like they're building up to a hyperspace jump, but..."

"Show me." Nath ordered.  As the power curves and build-ups were overlayed on the tactical icons his blood froze.  The hyperdrive field guide was indeed building up a gamma charge, but the motivator itself was off-line, the power relays dead.  Without the motivator, the hypermatter would continue building the gamma charge until the system overloaded ... and turned the entire ship into a collection of shrapnel moving at near-light speeds.  That cloud of projectiles would tear his ships, Home fleet and lunar 3 apart and would devastate the spaceport and Sierra, as well as the primary agricultural areas of the Arvon and M'Ar'Quette vales.  And the Temple...

The Temple would be at ground zero, the focus of the explosive force.  Irradiated by gamma rays and scoured by debris, the entire Temple area would be utterly destroyed...

"That ship is a bomb..."  Nath checked the plot.  The rebel fleet had been driven off...  The droid attack launched by the Firefly had been as effective as Cliff had promised.  Maybe those overpriced rust buckets were worth something after all...  Space between their current position and the planet was clear, and at their current speed they'd be just about into orbit when the hyperdrive went super-critical.  "Comm, contact Central and the Mak'Tor! Update them on the situation, then contact our boarding parties.  We need to get into engineering on that ship and stop that reactor now.

Nath studied the plot for a few more seconds.  He didn't have time to get out of range... Might as well try.  "Helm, come to 272 mark 358.  I want to be just below the nose of that ship in ... two minutes." 

Maker, what I wouldn't give for a hammer-head right now...

<<< >>>

Sgt. Cam nodded as her demolitions troopers placed the final breaching charges and scampered back from the blast door into engineering. A quick glance confirmed that everyone was behind cover with their heads down.  "Charges set.  Assault one and two, on deck!  Demo, go!"

"Fire in the hole!" Smoke erupted as the shape charges detonated, cutting through the doonium like butter.  Criss-crossed with compound-22, the circular blast door was cut like a pie, the pieces slamming inward.  Assault group one and two followed on their heals, charging through the smoke with weapons raised.

Inside they found ... nothing.  No return fire, no defenders, no crew.  Nothing.  The assault force fanned out, advancing to contact as Sgt. Cam led the engineers and remaining shooters through the portal behind them.  She was about to call in a SITREP when one of her marines with engineering training stopped next to a console.  "Strange..."

"What?" Cam looked down at the confusion of lights and graphs.  Despite being displayed in standard it was just so much gobble-de-gook to her.  "Something wrong?"

"Yeah.  There's a feed-back loop in the field guide.  This would usually only be happening if they were building to a jump, but if that were the case, the motivator over there would be lit up like a S'Kar'Yom wreath.  With the motivator offline there's nowhere for that energy to go, which will eventually cause the entire chamber to explode."

Cam looked around nervously.  "Um...  I take it that's bad?"

The trooper gave her a very level look.  "Yes.  Very bad."

Sgt Cam spotted Lieutant Naith coming down the corridor at a dead run.  "Ma'am! Over here!"

Jan'a came to a halt next to them, her face grim.  "Eagle One says that their sensors show the hyperdrive is building up to an overload..."

"Way ahead of you El-tee..." The trooper said, fingers already clacking away on the keyboard.  "And ... I'm in.  Gotta love those default passwords..."  The trooper's hands flew over the controls, flashing through screens faster than Jan'a or Ho'Li could follow.  "And...there.  Sergent, if you would stand by here for a moment, and when I signal press that blue key there."

"You bet." Ho'Li replied, taking the seat the trooper vacated. 

Jan'a watched him sprint across the room, setting into another station and beginning his work again.  "How does he know what to do?"

Ho'Li grinned.  "When they increased the figher complement on our ships they had to make room for more flight crew and maintenance crews.  They did it by assigning the Marine complement to damage control.  Corporal Mainze is assigned to engineering.  I guess he's picked up a few things from them."

"Thank the Maker." Jan'a replied. 

"Sergent!  On three!  One ... Two ... Three!" Corporal Mainze called.  Ho'Li mashed down on the blue button, holding her breath.  For a moment, nothing seemed to happen ... and then there was a winding-down sound in the air as the power levels displayed on the screen visibly began to fall. 

Maize jogged up and checked the screen.  "Good.  Power is falling off now.  for whatever reasons the knuckle heads in here overrode about a half-dozen safeties and manually started the wave guide charging.  Its almost like they wanted their ship to explode.  Idiots..."

Jan'a shook her head.  "No, not idiots.  Martyers."

Sgt Cam rose.  "Well, whatever they are, lets find 'em before ..."

She was cut off by a member of Assault Two.  "Yo!  Sarge!  Over here!"

Ho'Li and Jan'a left the main engineering space and followed the voice into a small conference room.  Inside were a half-dozen crewmen, wearing Imperial uniforms.  Five of them had their throats cut.  The last, at the head of the table, held a bloody knife in one hand and a hold-out blaster in the other.  His face was placid, even peaceful looking.  It took a few seconds for the two women to realize that the entire back of his head was simply missing.

"Well...  I guess they won't be causing any more mischief." Ho'Li said.  "I'm overdue for my SITREP.  Maize!  See if you can get auxilliary control online!  We still need to stop this beast..."

Jan'a turned to follow, but on a whim turned back.  Calming herself, she opened herself to the force and listened intently to the song.  The despair and darkness echoing in the room nearly overwhelmed her, but she fought through it, isolating it and analyzing it.  The song was dying now, depleted, but the signature was the same as whatever had come from the planet. 

With a shuddering breath she pulled back from the contact.  Her eyes were watery as she looked again at the dead engineers.  "Thought control.  You poor bastards..."

<<< >>>

Nath copied the report from Sgt Cam, followed shortly thereafter by one from Lt. Naith.  The Requiem was taken and under control.  The hyperdrive was slowly discharging, the gamma radiation being directed harmlessly into space through its shielding.  "Eagle One to Jokers: Take up station around the Requiem and fly CAP.  Reapers, Black Sheep, Bingo, re-arm and refuel.  Task force, stand down."  Nath relaxed in his command chair, letting out a long, slow breath.  "Ok ... Communications, send a SITREP to Central and request instructions."

<<<<>>>>

 

Last Song

The Temple
Karmack felt the power of her attacks grow and realized she'd found some further reserve to tap.  Her renewed attack was powerful, but like before he deflected and redirected her force attacks with ease.  Patience...  There would be an opening soon enough.  The song was still confused and chaotic, but the underlying harmony of Light was asserting itself. 

Energy crackled through him as he moved with lightning speed, expertly countering her attacks.  Karmack shifted from the aggressive Ataru back into his more familiar Soresu and absorbed her attack, leading it, looking for openings...

Even at the speed his mind was racing Karmack almost missed it.  Mendax, her blue Ferroan skin suffused red-orange with the power flowing through her, missed a block.  The miss was only a milimeter, the recovery only costing her a split second ... but it was enough to provide him an opportunity.  Karmack shifted his orbit and attacked her blade, pinning it high and away, stopping her motion just long enough for...

The side-kick was force-enhanced and hammered Mendax with the power of a grenade.  Too late she swept her saber down, missing Karmack's exposed leg by millimeters.  The Sith Lord absorbed the attack and rolled to shed energy, coming back to her feet several meters away ... and closer to the Bomb.  Karmack closed the distance, re-engaging with furious speed, focusing more of the power of the Ancient One through his own body now.  Time to finish this...

<<<<>>>>

Mendax screamed in pain as the armored boot slammed into her ribs.  She expected to feel the breaking of bone, taste blood in her mouth from the punctured lungs, see the fall of the golden blade...

But none of that happened.  She rolled out and came back to her feet, bruised but intact.  Enhancements...

She swept her blade up, catching Karmack's blade high and throwing it off.  She could feel the power of his song increasing, beating hers back note by note.  She glanced over to where the Acolyte was beginning the final incantations.  More time...  She needed more time. 

She would NOT FAIL! She couldn't overpower Karmack, he was too strong in the force, too powerful in the song, thanks to that damn crystal of his...   

With a maniacal laugh Mendax locked blades with Karmack.  "You fight well with your magic crystal!  Lets see how well you do without it!"  With a savage jab Mendax reached up and activated the oblivion collar, cutting herself and her foe off from force.  Her saber died in her hand but she had expected that and hammered the stunned Karmack in the face with the dead hilt. 

"First you bleed ... then you will DIE!  FAILURE IS DEATH!"

Failure is death.  The words echoed in her mind.  She would NOT FAIL!

<<<<>>>>