Dromund Kaas: Imperial Intelligence Headquarters
Keeper watched the hologram of Dromund Kaas, certain he was watching the fall of the Empire.
Even if by some miracle they managed to destroy the eradicators around the planet, the rest of the Empire was in even worse shape. Darth Marr had been appraised and had immediately instituted an Empire-wide state of emergency. Not that it mattered much. If the eradicators continued much longer there wouldn't be much of an Empire left.
"Keeper!" Watcher Three was sprinting over, "Watcher Two has made contact!'
Keeper spun around to face Watcher Three who immediately pulled out a holocommunicator. The image of Watcher Two appeared.
"Keeper send ships to these coordinates immediately! Darth Jadus is alive and behind the terrorist attacks! Cipher Nine is sabotaging the ship to prevent his escape." She exclaimed urgently, her face filled with worry.
"Acknowledged." Keeper replied, his mind spinning. The hologram of Watcher Two disappeared and Keeper jabbed a finger at Watcher Three. "Get me Marr now!"
Dromund Kaas: The Sith Sanctum
Darth Marr wasn't sure he had heard correctly.
"Darth Jadus is alive?"
"Yes, my lord." The current Keeper of Imperial Intelligence answered curtly, "It is imperative we act before more of the Empire is destroyed."
"Agreed." Marr answered, He would deal with the soon-to-be former Minister of Intelligence's incompetence after Jadus was apprehended. "I will order my ships to those coordinates immediately."
"Excellent, my lord." Keeper replied, "We will keep you apprised of any further developments." Marr nodded, though as he moved to cut the communication, he paused.
"You said one of your agents was sabotaging Jadus' ship. Who was it?"
"Cipher Nine, my lord." Keeper answered. Marr nodded.
"Good. Once we defeat Jadus, I will personally recognize his patriotic sacrifice." The image of Keeper seemed surprised at that.
"Ah-my lord, Cipher Nine is not dead yet."
"He will be." Marr told him grimly, "Once Jadus discovers his betrayal, he will kill him. And no mere man can stand against a member of the Dark Council, assumed dead or not." With that he cut the transmission and began contacting ships to order them to the coordinates Keeper had provided.
Dromund Kaas: Kaas City
There seemed to be a lull in the bombardment. Vauner and Jaesa were racing around the area, lifting large objects that had landed on soldiers and civilians and ordering the soldiers that were in the vicinity to fire on the eradicators, for whatever good that did.
"You should probably let Imperial Control know that Vette is piloting the Marauder." Jaesa grunted as she telekinetically lifted several pieces of debris off an Imperial soldier.
"Good point." Vauner acknowledged as he finished slicing through a wall to free some trapped merchants. Turning away, he clicked his earpiece. "Quinn, patch me through to Imperial Control."
"Yes, my lord." There was a brief pause.
"This is Imperial Control, now is not a good time."
"Understood," Vauner acknowledged, intending to keep this brief, "be advised that a Fury-class fighter, designation: Marauder, will be appearing on your sensor soon. That ship is under my command and I have asked the pilot to assist in the defense of the planet."
"And just who are you?" The control officer snapped.
Imperial Control must be at their wits end, Vauner realized. No control officer would ever speak to anyone in such a manner, let alone a Sith Lord. Given the circumstances though, Vauner was willing to overlook their insubordination.
"Lord Vauner, officer. Current apprentice to Darth Baras." There was a pause on the other end.
"Ah-I apologize, my lord. The Marauder will have unrestricted movement throughout Dromund Kaas." The control officer stammered out quickly.
"Excellent. Lord Vauner out." He clicked off the earpiece. "She's clear now."
Jaesa nodded, looking up to where the eradicator was hovering. "Let's hope she gets here soon, I don't know how much longer we have."
Korriban: Orbit
"Another one of the ships is destroyed, sir."
"Excellent," Moff Drakin told the man directing the turrets, "How many are remaining?"
"Eleven, sir."
That statement took all the accomplishment that Drakin had been feeling out. True, it was a better situation that it had been earlier. Despite it being known as the "Homeworld of the Sith" Korriban was a surprisingly poorly defended planet. Probably, Drakin thought, because they thought that no one would be stupid enough to attack this planet. Then again, Drakin mused, that's probably how the Republic felt during the Sacking of Coruscant.
Despite the first attacks taking place only about twenty minutes ago, the strange ships had caused a surprising amount of damage, probably due to the Sith Academy being a relatively small area. No one had detected the ships until they had started firing, then everyone quickly scrambled to locate them. Drakin had just launched the fighters a few minutes ago once all of the ships had been located.
The Sith on the planet seemed to be rallying as well. One of the gunners apparently witnessed one of the ships being crushed in the air and subsequently exploding. He expected that all the ships would be destroyed fairly quickly now that the fighters were launched. Still, he didn't know how he would explain this to the Sith, he'd be lucky to escape with his life.
Three more of the ships were confirmed destroyed. A junior officer ran up to him, "Sir, Darth Marr wishes to speak with you immediately." Drakin swallowed and nodded.
After the ships had started firing, he'd immediately informed the Dark Council. He hadn't expected a response this….soon though.
Drakin walked into the transmission room. The junior officer saluted and left as the image of Darth Marr appeared. Drakin immediately attempted to explain, "My lord, the situation is curr-"
"I am not interested in excuses." Marr interrupted, "Take your ship and travel to these coordinates. The ones responsible for this attack are there." Drakin tried, and failed to contain his surprise.
"Yes my lord, but Korriban…"
"The Sith will defend Korriban," Marr stated, "As is our right."
"Of course, my lord." Drakin hastily apologized, "We will depart immediately."
"See that you do." Marr commanded, "The Empire does not have much time left."
Dromund Kaas: Kaas City
Vauner and Jaesa were coordinating with the few troops that were in the area when a dozen Imperial heavy weapons specialists stormed in and stopped before a surprised Vauner. "Long-range Heavy Weapons Battalion Zero-One-One." The ranking soldier declared, snapping off a salute, "Darth Baras thought you would need some assistance, my lord."
"Indeed." Vauner nodded, pleased, "Your name, soldier?"
"Sargent Norman, sir."
"Norman," Vauner ordered, "tell your men to set up and target the eradicator nearest to us."
"Eradicator, sir?"
"The name Imperial Intelligence has given to these ships."
"Of course. Do you have coordinates?"
"Right here." Vauner answered and Norman punched the coordinates into a targeting computer. While this exchange was taking place the rest of battalion was setting up large guided missile launchers.
"Ready?" Norman called out to the battalion.
"Nearly! We're having some trouble with the precision instruments!"
Vauner looked at Jaesa, "Can you help them?" She nodded, lowered her gray hood and kneeled on the ground. After a few moments her breathing became steady and even. He hoped she still had enough energy to provide some additional coordination. He didn't fully understand the technique or its limitations but it was one of the most useful uses of the Force that Vauner had encountered.
A few seconds later the air seemed to shimmer around her, similar to a heat wave. Norman studied her warily. "What is she doing?" He asked nervously.
Vauner watched with increasing confidence as the aura around Jaesa strengthened. It must have been taxing yet she seemed incredibly serene, eyes closed as her brown hair whipped around her face in the wind. Turning to Norman he answered his question.
"Helping you."
Norman seemed to accept that as he turned to the men manning the missile launchers. "Ready?" He shouted with far more energy than earlier.
"We have a lock!"
Norman thrust his hand towards the eradicator, "Fire at will!" He commanded. Six rockets fired simultaneously, something Vauner suspected wouldn't have happened if Jaesa hadn't been helping them. The rockets sped towards the eradicator, and as they did, Vauner closed his eyes and reached out with his hand and the Force. His senses enhanced to an unnatural degree, he felt the course of each rocket and with subtle nudges he ensured that each of them would collide with the eradicator.
He was rewarded seconds later when they collided with the ship in a spectacular explosion. With a roar of victory he watched as the flaming ship fell in pieces towards the surface of Dromund Kaas. "Well done!" He roared, deep enough in the Force to not realize he was projecting his voice to unnatural degrees, "We will destroy these invaders one ship at a time if need be! Come on! He didn't even have to look at where the closest eradicator was located he simply stopped and told Norman "Coordinates: One-One-Five-Seven," His voice rumbled, "Blow it out of the sky." Norman nodded eagerly and turned to the troops setting up the missile launchers, "With pleasure my lord!"
Suddenly, Vauner felt a familiar presence. Smiling, he looked up and saw the Marauder streaking across the sky. Vette had arrived, he clicked on his earpiece. "Glad you finally made it."
"Ow!" The voice of Vette complained, "What's up with your voice? You nearly blew out my speakers!" Vauner frowned, not comprehending…Oh. He quickly ended the voice projection he had unconsciously been doing.
"Sorry. You have a shot?"
"Yup, got one coming up now!" The Marauder twisted in midair until it was on a direct course for the eradicator. Vauner could sense the soldiers worry, they feared she would collide.
But as the Force flowed through him, he knew without a doubt that she would hit her target.
"On course!" she yelled, her voice strained, the Marauder sped ever closer to the eradicator.
"Three…" There was only a few dozen meters between the ships now.
"Two…" Even closer now…
"One!"
"Fire." Vauner whispered.
On cue the Marauder shot two torpedoes at near point-blank range and immediately went into a dive, barely missing the eradicator. The torpedoes collided and tore into the defenseless ship. Fire filled the air for a split second as another eradicator fell from the sky. Vauner smiled as he heard Vette whooping over the comm. "Good shot!" he told her as the Marauder swooped overhead.
Inputting coordinates of another eradicator for Vette he turned, hearing the sounds of missiles being fired and saw Norman directing the fire at another eradicator. A few seconds later that one was also falling from the sky. Vauner looked at his datapad, searching for the nearest eradicator.
Feeling a grim determination he summoned a nearby troop transport. It wasn't nearly over but he felt the tide was turning.
They just might win this fight after all.