At War's End
Disclaimer: I don't own The New Jedi Order, Star Wars, or any of the characters. Any similarities between this story and the actual book are tie-ins. Otherwise, all similarities are pure coincidence.
The coralskipper closed in for the kill. It's only a matter of time, Jagged Fel thought. He veered port, then starboard. Whatever he did, he couldn't shake the skip from his tail. "Twin Eight, where are you?" he yelled into the mike. Static greeted him. He looked at the surface of Coruscant as plasmatic explosions buffeted his starfighter, rocking him back and forth in the cockpit. Parts of the surface glowed an eerie reddish-orange. Other parts of the surface were blocked out entirely by smoke from the massive fires that were ravaging the face of Yuuzhan'tar. The dhuryam was wreaking havoc all over the planet's surface. What little parts of the surface he could see were a pale, sickly, almost-metallic green, evidence that Yuuzhan'tar was not bonding with Coruscant. More explosions rocked his starfighter as the skip unleashed a barrage of magma missiles and plasma bolts. His shields were holding well, but if he didn't get this guy off his tail, he was going to fry in the atmosphere. He barrel-rolled the clawcraft to starboard, as only Jag Fel could pilot a clawcraft. The coralskipper kept right with him, following his barrel roll exactly down to the delegation of engine output. As the explosions continued to rock the clawcraft, Jag began to think out loud. "If this guy was really armed, I would have been dead already. This skip must not be real." Glancing at his stats, he said, "I don't even have any damage." Suddenly, he felt the clawcraft bounce around so much that he was nearly knocked out when he hit his head on the upper console. "What the galaxy was that?" he wondered aloud. As he looked at his damage indicator, his face went pale. He had lost his shields entirely, and one of his solar wings was gone. He felt the clawcraft begin to plummet towards the surface of the planet. I'm going to die, he thought. This is it. Suddenly, he saw an X-Wing shear directly in front of him, firing a barrage of lasers into the dovin basal shield over Coruscant. As Jag continued to plummet to the surface, he was able to comm his rescuer. "Hey, who are you?" he yelled into the mike.
The response: "Come on, Jag. My sister would kill me if she found out her son died."
"Wedge?" Jag asked, incredulous. "What are you doing in a starfighter?"
"I'm just doing my part to help out a relative. Sides, it hasn't been that long since Endor. Only about 25 years," he said with a chuckle. "I can't do anymore for you."
"Thanks. You saved me from dying. Now I get to crash." Before Jag could say anymore, the comm went completely silent. Jag turned off the comm. and braced himself for impact. As he prepared to eject from his doomed clawcraft, something caught his eye. As he was perpetually falling downwards, he saw the Millennium Falcon do what looked like a suicide run directly into the heart of one of the Yuuzhan Vong buildings. As he glanced to his port side, he saw what looked like a group of Shamed Ones and a contingent of Jedi marching into what appeared to be a small, domed structure. He looked back down to see the surface filling his viewport. At the last possible second, he ejected out of the cockpit of his clawcraft. He soared several hundred feet into the air before landing hard on the ground. He got up and ran after the Shamed Ones, determined to know what they were doing.
Before he could get 100 feet, he was faced with a contingent of seven Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Several brandished amphistaffs, some coiled, and some rigid, while several others took with them thud and razor bugs. Jag felt around in his pockets to see if he had a weapon he could use. The vonduun-crab armored Yuuzhan Vong slowly advanced, as if to terrify Jag into running away. As he continued to search in his pockets, he felt his hand close on something. He reached further into his pockets, trying to figure out what he had found. As his hand tightened its grip on the weapon, he finally grasped what it was. He brandished the Thraw'ti, a ceremonial dagger used by the Chiss.
He immediately advanced on the first warrior. Before the others could even react, Jag had already plunged the dagger deep into the Vong's heart. Jag felt the life go out of the Vong and withdrew his dagger, covered in black blood. None of the warriors waited to be surprised again. All remaining six advanced on him at once. The three remaining amphistaff warriors raised the amphistaffs in unison, preparing to swing down at once. As the weapons were thrust downward, Jag did a backwards roll, ending up right in front of a warrior, his back to the warrior. Jag immediately thrust his dagger backwards, impaling the warrior in the stomach. Before the warrior could recover, Jag turned around 180 degrees in a lightning fast motion and slit the Yuuzhan Vong's throat. Blood spewed everywhere as the warrior died.
The two warriors carrying the razor and thud bugs immediately let fly an armada of the vile creatures. Jag did a quick forward somersault to avoid the flying beacons of death and came up face to face with an amphistaff bearer. The Vong was the first to make a move, slashing the weapon at waist level. Jag moved his torso forward rapidly, the blade missing his back by mere millimeters. He stuck his head between the warrior's legs and lifted his head, sending the warrior flying and landing on his back. Before the Vong could even open his eyes, Jag dropped to his knees, dagger poised so that it would go straight into the Vong's vile heart.
Before Jag could move, a razor bug came by and clipped his right arm. Yelling in pain, he dropped the dagger from his hand. One of the warriors brandishing thud bugs moved in for the kill. Jag, sensing this, immediately picked up the Thraw'ti in his left hand and hurled it at the Yuuzhan Vong as hard as he could. Before the warrior could duck, the blade had already buried itself directly between the warrior's eyes. The Vong's head snapped back and he fell to the ground, dead the instant the blade found its mark.
Seeing that Jag was a superior fighter, the two remaining amphistaff bearers closed in for the kill, moving on opposite sides of Jag, To Jag's front was the other warrior, razor bugs at the ready. As the two warriors closed in on him, Jag noticed that one on his right was far ahead of the one on his left. As the razor bugs took to flight, jag grabbed the warrior to his right and moved him into the path of the razor bugs. A sickening tearing sound was heard as the warrior's flesh on his back was opened up and carved out by the razor bugs. Before the warrior on his left could strike with his amphistaff, Jag threw the dead warrior against the amphistaff bearer, tunring on the razor bug warrior. The warrior grabbed for his coufee and moved his head upwards, poised to throw the dagger to kill the infidel. But the infidel had disappeared. Before the warrior even knew what was happening, the Thraw'ti found itself buried in the back of the warrior's head.
As the final surviving warrior got up, Jag threw the dagger once more. This warrior, however, was not stupid, and deftly deflected the dagger. The warrior then dropped his amphistaff. "You are a worthy opponent, even for an infidel. I wish to see who is better in hand to hand combat. One of us will die honorably."
The warrior then advanced, shouting the war cry, "Do-ro'ik vong pratte!" He raised his right fist, poised to punch Jag in the jaw. Jag brought both hands up on his right side to shield him, but the warrior surprised him by swinging with his left fist, connecting squarely with Jag in the face. Jag fell back wards to the ground. The warrior went and picked up the amphistaff. As he raised it over his head, he said, "You ar not a worthy fighter." Before the warrior could swing down, a terrible ripping sound was heard. The warrior toppled forward, nearly hitting Jag, had he not moved. As Jag looked at the warrior's back, he saw a coufee buried in the warrior.
As he looked up, he saw a Shamed One. "You are an ally of the Jeedai, so I will help you to find them."
"Do you know where they went?" Jag asked.
"They went to liberate us. To destroy Shimrra from inside his own personal chambers."
"Where is that?"
The Shamed One pointed to the building Jag saw the Jedi go into. "In there."
As Jag broke into a full sprint, he yelled over his shoulder, "Thank you!" Before Jag ran too far, he stopped, went back to the plain where he had defeated the warriors, and retrieved his Thraw'ti. He ran back towards the Citadel.
As he approached the stairs, he saw several dead Yuuzhan Vong warriors. He assumed they had been killed by the Jedi, but before he got too far, something caught his eye. He looked at one of the warriors and saw that the Vong's flesh had turned a pallid gray. Several blisters were on the Yuuzhan Vong's body, and these blisters had swelled and oozed out a clear viscous fluid. Jag tried to comprehend what he was seeing. Suddenly, it dawned on him. "Oh, my God," he said out loud. "Alpha Red." The poison had made its way to the planet and was already fast at work.
He then broke into a sprint towards the center of the Citadel. As he continued to run, he saw more Vong bodies. He could see that the bodies were rife with the symptoms of Alpha Red. He continued to run as fast as he could towards the center of the towering structure.
Finally, he reached the center, in what appeared to be what was left of the New Republic Senate Building. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jacen Solo, slumped against the far wall, unconscious. He couldn't find Jaina, but then he saw Luke. He was in the grasp of Shimrra's amphistaff, slowly being squeezed to death. Without even thinking about it, Jag withdrew the Thraw'ti towards the head of Shimrra's amphistaff as hard as he could. The blade sunk deep into the head of the weapon as it screeched in pain. The amphistaff went limp, and before Shimrra could even attempt to move out of the path of Luke's lightsabers, the Supreme Overlord's head was already rolling across the floor, landing in the corner with a sickening thud.
Jag immediately went to Luke, asking, "Are you alright?" Luke could only nod in response. Jag decided to tell him about Alpha Red. "I found out something."
It was not Luke, but Onimi who responded. "Yes," he hissed. "You discovered Alpha Red." The way Onimi spoke, it was almost as if he had wanted Alpha Red to be released.
"How do you know about Alpha Red?" Jacen asked.
"Oh. The answer to that question is simple. I allowed it to come here," he responded in an extremely sinister tone.
Jag was speechless, but the revelation was beginning to dawn on Jacen. And then Jacen began to put the pieces together. "You rediscovered the Force."
Onimi smiled a crooked smile. "You are good at figuring things out, Jacen Solo."
Jacen continued to fit the pieces together. "You secretly controlled other people's minds to allow Alpha Red to come here. You may have even influenced Dif Scaur," Jacen said, referring to the head of New Republic Intelligence. "But why?"
"Oh, I couldn't risk making Shimrra my puppet. People would get suspicious. So, sitting at Shimrra's right hand, I observed everything that came and went from Yuuzhan'tar. Then I saw that the Supreme Overlord was becoming deranged. He thought we were fighting a war against the gods. So I had to act. I -" he said, carefully choosing his next words, "-persuaded some people from NRI to refine Alpha Red. To make it destroy Yuuzhan'tar itself." He let the silence hang in the air as the puzzle came full circle. He then resumed speaking, saying, "I used my knowledge of shaping to create an antidote to Alpha Red. The only sample is in my bloodstream. And it's going to stay the-"
Before Onimi finished saying "there", the Thraw'ti was lodged in his forehead. He toppled backward, dead instantly. Jacen turned around to see Jag Fel with his hand outstretched toward Onimi.
"Why did you do that?" Jacen asked in disbelief.
"Examine the body to find the cure," Jag coolly replied. "It's our best option."
As Jacen searched his robes for his comlink, he suddenly doubled over in what seemed to be sheer pain. He reached out through the Force to find the source of the pain, but the Force seemed tranquil. He reached out with his Vongsense and felt the dhuryam screaming. Jacen then realized what was happening. The dhuryam was already dying. Yuuzhan'tar would die – and it would take Coruscant with it.
"Jacen, what's wrong?" Jag asked in deep concern.
"It's already dead," was all Jacen managed to say.
The realization then dawned on Jag. "Oh, my God." He grabbed his comlink. "Falcon, do you read me? This is Twins Leader."
At first, there was static. Then, "Hey, kid. Glad to see you're still alive," said Han in a somewhat carefree voice.
Jag wasted no time. "You need to get to the Citadel right away to pick up me, Luke, Jaina, and Jacen. The planet is dying." Before Han could even say something, Jag said, "I'll explain everything when you pick us up. Tell Kre'fey to pull all ground troops out."
"Be there in two minutes."
Two minutes later, the Falcon appeared at the front of the Citadel. Earthquakes began to peal across the planet, and the ground simply fell away in places. Jag felt the Citadel shake severely, and he knew that the place was going to collapse.
He yelled to everyone, "Get on now! Don't waste time, just get on and get us out of here!" No sooner had the landing ramp closed than did the Citadel fall away.
As the Falcon moved to a high orbit, Han, Leia, Threepio, Artoo, Cakhmaim, Meewalh, Luke, Mara, Jacen, Jaina, and Jag watched Coruscant crumble away. Even though they had won the battle, they had not won the prize.
Han then pulled Leia into his arms. Leia then pulled in Jacen and Jaina. Luke and Mara remained by themselves, holding each other. And Jag Fel. Jaina broke away from the Solo tangle to pull Jag into a tight embrace. As she brushed her lips against his, she said softly, "I love you."
Jag held her close. "I love you, too." That moment seemed to last for a millennium for everyone on the Millennium Falcon.
In the end of it all, the Yuuzhan Vong were banished from the galaxy. Alpha Red was destroyed. Zonama Sekot returned to the Unknown Regions. Coruscant was lost forever, but in its place stood a new symbol of hope. The Yuuzhan Vong had brought the galaxy together like never before. The Jedi Order was re-formed. New relationships were spawned, and older ones blossomed. For Jag and Jaina, a walk down the aisle was in order. For the rest, who knows? Only time will tell as the galaxy attempts to rebuild with the help of the New Jedi Order.