Dramatis Personae
Allana Solo Solusar; Jedi Knight (female human)
Ben Skywalker; Jedi Knight (male human)
Darth Krayt; Sith Lord (male human)
Darth Plagueis; Sith Lord (male dark side manifestation)
Darth Wyyrlok; Sith Lord (male Chagrian)
Dif Scaur; Galactic Alliance Chief of State and Intelligence Director (male human)
Drikl Lecersen; Moff (male human)
Han Solo; Captain, Millennium Falcon (male human)
Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight (female human)
Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (male human)
Nek Bwua'tu; Galactic Alliance Admiral (male Bothan)
Seff Hellin; Jedi Knight (male enteched human)
Thrace Solusar; Jedi Knight (male Chiss)
Zedekiah Gattereld/Zeus; Imperial Head of State and Moff (male Terran)
Void Demon: near Nam Chorios
Zedekiah Gatterweld, better known by his own people as Zeus, kept his true level of excitement hidden. Floating some distance from his Star Destroyer was a great armada of the most beautiful vessels he'd ever seen. Magnificent gems set within an onyx sky.
Most of the ships were Terran War cruisers. The front two thirds of the vessels resembled a lozenge. Three thick blades protruded along the length of this lozenge, arrayed a bit like the points of a triangle. The last third of the vessel was spherical, with three protruding wings. Viewed head-on these wings would appear to be between each pair of blades. The blades and wings were a silver-white, and appeared to be made of diamond. The lozenge and sphere were similar, but were a deep brownish color.
But one of the vessels was quite a bit larger than the others, about three fourths the size of an Executor-class Star Destroyer. The first two thirds of the ship was an elongated saucer that was rather flat on top. On the top were a pair of parallel blades which were angled outward. And there was a single, gently curved blade on the bottom. The aft third was shaped a bit like an elongated egg. It had two large, down swept wings and then a smaller, third wing on the top. Zeus immediately recognized her as the Olympus Mons, the only Terran Annihilation cruiser still in existence.
"Sir," said Gatterweld's chief comm. officer, "the larger ship is hailing us."
"Put them on, please."
Seconds later, a beautiful, human-like, female face appeared on the forward view screen. Her eyes were a striking purple with tiny silver flecks. The matching purple hair which framed her face further piqued his interest, as most Terrans had hair so dark it was almost black. Her slightly pale skin had a very subtle purple hue, and her ears were slightly pointed. She was just a kid; probably not even in her mid eighties. "My name is Irisia, Grand Admiral of the Terran Military and Commander of the Terran Annihilation cruiser the Olympus Mons."
"I am Imperial Head of State Moff Zedekiah Gatterweld and Commander of the Star Destroyer the Void Demon." He wished to the Force that he could tell this girl who he truly was. That he was one of her people, but this was not allowed. Irisia could not know the truth. Not until the Destroyers were dealt with, at least.
Errant Venture: Orbiting Kuat
The Millennium Falcon sat upon the flight deck of the Errant Venture, the Star Destroyer which housed the Jedi Academy. The Falcon currently served as a gathering place for the Skywalker/Solo clan. Though Jagged Fel and Thrace Solusar did not have the Skywalker or Solo name, they both had married a Solo.
It was currently time for tea in the main living area. Allana and Thrace sat together on one side of the room's couch, while Jaina and Jag were seated on the other. The Fels' daughter, Mara Padme, sat between the two couples, with her legs folded up beneath her. Mara Padme's face looked like a younger version of Jaina's, but her hair was more of a darkish blonde, like her grandmother, Leia's.
"My due date is only about a month before yours," Jaina told her niece, Allana, excitedly. Both woman had been pregnant for less than two months so there were no outward signs of the newly conceived lives existing within them. But in the Force, if one looked deeply enough, they would 'see' these vibrant sparks of life.
"You and Allana should just throw a joint baby shower, then," suggested Allana's husband, Thrace. All this talk of babies was a welcome distraction from the craziness of these last few days.
Days in which the galaxy had nearly fallen to mostly-mechanical beings called the Nephilim. Like the Yuuzhan Vong, these monsters had existed apart from the Force. But light years more disturbing was the fact that these Nephilim actually registered in the Force. They appeared to belong to a purely evil entity for now called the Anti-Force. Such a thing had never even occurred to Allana. She'd been brought up believing the supreme struggle was between the light and dark sides of the Force. That the light was good, and the dark was evil. But now she wasn't quite sure what to think, except that things were far more complicated than she'd once thought.
Jag snatched up his comm. as it buzzed to life. "Hello, Admiral Bwua'tu... Sure, we'll be right there." He turned to Jaina. "Bwua'tu wants us on the Turk Brand."
"Bugger," Jaina muttered. She turned her head slightly, and directed a playfully pleading look up at Jag.
"Sorry, love," her husband apologized. "Being cute won't stop us from having to go."
Jaina sighed. "Fine," she grumbled, as though she was a moody teenage girl. "Let's get this over with."
"I'm finishing my tea, first."
"We'll keep an eye on Mara Padme for you," Allana said, gently squeezing her younger cousin's shoulder.
Turk Brand
"Admiral Bwua'tu," Jaina said, following Jag's lead, and shaking the Bothan man's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Why do I feel like you don't really mean that?" Bwua'tu asked.
"It's not you, sir," Jag said. "It's... tea. Which we were drinking."
Jaina shook her head. "Please excuse my husband," she apologized. "Why are we here?"
"Moff Gatterweld wishes to speak with us," the admiral responded.
"Over holo, I take it," Jag assumed, somewhat sourly. He'd only met Zedekiah Gatterweld in person once, when Jaina conveniently happened to be otherwise occupied. The Moff seemed to go out of his way to stay away from the Jedi. The man was obviously hiding something. Another thing that bothered Jag was just how much he admired Moff Gatterweld. Jag did not like Moffs. Except for the late Vitor Reige, but Jag had never considered Reige to be a true Moff. Zedekiah was too charismatic, too likable. His record was far too clean and respectable. And the man's Imperial accent was so perfect and polite. Jagged Fel shouldn't have liked the bloke, but he did. He knew never to trust such a person.
As an answer to Jag's assumption, a holographic rendering of Moff Gatterweld's head and upper torso came to life. Greetings, which in this case really were meaningless, were quickly exchanged. "You recall a woman named Andromeda who claimed to be one of the Celestials, yes?"
"Yes, of course," Jag responded, starting to have an idea of where this conversation was going. "She was instrumental in helping us defeat the Nephilim."
"It appears that her people have returned to our galaxy in force. The commander of their lead ship wishes to speak with representatives of the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi."
Several hours later, a trio of closely grouped starbursts were cast out of hyperspace, several kilometers from the world of Kuat. They resolved themselves into ships, two of which were a little smaller than the standard Star Destroyer, while the third was close to the size of the Turk Brand.
Standing on one of the Turk Brand's multiple flights decks were Admiral Bwua'tu, Jaina, Jag, and Grand Master Luke Skywalker. "They look like they're made of diamonds," Jaina commented, as she studied the screen on a small datapad. The main body resembled a chocolate diamond, while the wings and blades were a silver-white. The razor-like edges of these projections appeared to be studded with rubies, which Jaina assumed to be some sort of turbolaser batteries. The deep blue 'gems' on the rear of the vessel were clearly some sort of engines. Where the two main sections of the body seemed to join together, along with where different colored components met was a material resembling gold. Jaina knew it couldn't really be gold, since that was a rather soft metal. "Those are the most beautiful ships I've ever seen."
"I'll bet they have plenty of female shipwrights," Jag remarked.
Jaina shot her husband a dirty look. "Don't make me hit you."
"Oh, look," Jag interrupted, pointing through the invisible magcon field, toward an approaching fighter. "I believe our visitor is on their way."
Shortly thereafter a sort of snub fighter was alighting on the flight deck. The craft appeared to be made of the same material as the three Celestial capital ships, its color standing in sharp contrast to the grayish hangar bay. The vessel sported a down-swept wing on either side, and a third, smaller wing on the top. At the end of each wing appeared to be some sort of energy weapon tipped with a ruby. There was a fourth energy weapon mounted beneath the cockpit. It looked quite a bit like an E-wing, but made of precious gems. The cockpit quickly slid back, disappearing into the body of the fighter.
A stunningly beautiful woman with long, purple hair seemed to nearly leap out of the small ship, and onto the flight deck. Her slitted, feline-like eyes matched her hair, and had metallic-looking silver flecks. She had slightly sharp, but lovely facial features.
She wore a well fitting suit of armor. Most of the pieces were outlined in purple. The inner area was silver with a purple hue, and on top of that were plain silver reliefs of flames. Small, purple sections of armor protected the hands. The fingers and thumbs were encased in segmented, purple hued silver armor. The knuckles ended in small blades. The feet were similar.
What resembled chain mail covered the inner area of the upper leg and upper arm. This 'chain mail' also protected other gaps in the armor paneling. Set into the armor on the side of her upper right leg was some sort of holster in which sat a purple crystal with a black, metal-like material curling around it. Luke could feel the Force within this crystal, flowing into her. There must have been some sort of conductive material allowing Force energy to move through at least part of the flight suit.
Luke felt her reaching out gently, through the Force, clearly taking the measure of her welcoming party. Luke did the same with her. He sensed no hostility. In fact, he felt grave concern. And brain damage like Andromeda had.
"My name is Irisia, Commander of the Terran Annihilation cruiser Olympus Mons," the woman said, extending her hand. "I understand that it is a customary greeting to clasp hands and... shake them."
"You are well informed, Irisia," Luke said, for some reason determined to be the first to shake her hand. "I am Luke Skywalker, Grand Master of the Jedi Order." He found his gaze transfixed on her eyes as she introduced herself to the others. He finally managed to tear his eyes away, and felt a sense of mild amusement from Irisia.
"There is a matter of great urgency that we must discuss," Irisia said, her amusement switching back to concern. "Is there is a designated place to discuss such matters?"
"Yes," Luke said, helping to set Bwua'tu and Jag's mild concern at ease. "Admiral, why don't you lead the way." In short order the five were in one of the Turk Brand's ops rooms, seated around one of the oval table's rounded ends. Luke had, for some reason, made it a point to sit next to Irisia.
"Our people recently learned that beings we refer to as the Destroyers will soon be returning to this galaxy," Irisia began. "It is for this reason that we have also returned. We first encountered them hundreds of thousands of years ago. Shall I assume you are all familiar with the tsils of Nam Chorios?"
"Yes," Luke said.
"Our people seeded the world with modified lambents, which over time grew to become these tsils. Among other things they can act as quantum crystals, enabling instantaneous communication. These Destroyers destroyed the fleet we had stationed there, murdering many of our people. And then their vessels bombarded Nam Chorios. We still don't know why." Though her voice was completely under control, Luke could feel her anger, sadness, and confusion.
"I understand that your galaxy recently fought against beings called the Nephilim," Irisia said.
"We did," Luke said.
"I'm sure Andromeda told you about them," Irisia said, looking at the floor.
"She did," Luke responded. "The Destroyers were responsible for corrupting their programming, I'm guessing."
"Yes. I know that Andromeda died helping your galaxy defeat them. She was a close friend."
"Andromeda didn't seem to know about these Destroyers," Luke commented. "And she never said anything about you."
"We needed to limit the information she had in the case that she somehow fell into enemy hands. We wanted to help defeat the Nephilim, but we also wanted to avoid alerting the Destroyers to our activities. That's also why we refrained from sending one of our fleets; it was not out of cowardice."
"That makes sense," Luke said. Something felt off, but he managed to keep it from Irisia's perception. He didn't like doing it, but he felt it was necessary.
"You mentioned that these Destroyers would be coming to this galaxy," Admiral Bwua'tu mentioned.
Irisia nodded. "Like us, they spent many ages in another dimension. It was not the same one we'd gone to, of course. Their world disappeared in a region you call the Chiloon Rift. And now space is expanding there, around a monolith that they stole from us. This will eventually form a tear in the fabric of space time."
"Perhaps we could disable this monolith," Bwua'tu suggested. "So that they never come at all."
"There are other ways they can get in," Irisia warned. "By letting them enter via our stolen monolith, we will know exactly where they are. Even now, we have envoys meeting with other nations, discussing the most effective way to eliminate this threat. I will give you time to discuss these matters amongst yourselves."
"That would be greatly appreciated," the admiral said.
Irisia stood up, and saw herself out.
"Well?" Admiral Bwua'tu asked after Irisia had left.
"I do trust her. She's telling the truth, or at least what she believes is the truth," Luke Skywalker said. "But who knows what could have been erased from her memory?"
Jag nodded. "And if memories can be erased, maybe they can be implanted, too."
"There's that, too," Luke said, frowning. "So how much of what she's saying can we actually believe? It's whoever manipulated her memories, and those of apparently most of the other Terrans, that I don't trust."
"How do we know these Terrans aren't actually the real Destroyers?" Bwua'tu asked. "And then who would the so called Destroyers be? What if they're actually the Celestials?"
"I wonder if all this has occurred to Irisia," Jaina said. "If I was her, I'd have some serious doubts..."
"So would I. I'll have to see what the Force has to say," Luke said. The Jedi Master wasn't quite sure what to think. And his level of attraction to Irisia was a bit... concerning. If he'd simply found her to be beautiful, that would have been one thing. But it was more than that. Luke hated all this uncertainty. I'll have to see what the Force has to say.