Chapter four:

Mathes slept on the bed, Bai was sleeping next to him. He was fast asleep dreaming of Coruscant and being home with his wife and son. There was no worries of darkness or of war, just them living happily as he had always wanted for them. Suddenly the scene changed, he was no longer in his home in Coruscant. Instead he was on a dark planet. The sky was filled with lightning, there was no sound, no thunder at all. Mathes could feel the dark side heavily here, it was as if the planet thrived on it. There was a thirst for it that could not be quenched and it reached to him hoping to consume the darkness within him.

In front of him was a large fortress of some kind. Its walls surrounded it leaving one spire to extend from somewhere within it's confines. There was something about it, something menacing. The only other place that could relate to this feeling was Malachor, but here the dark side was far more prominent. A voice spoke out from somewhere in the fortress but it echoed out so that he could hear it as if this being were all around him.

"You are the follower of Revan...you have his teachings within you...the force is strong in you as it was with him...good...you too shall fall to my grasp, just as he did...Jedi."

Mathes awoke with a start, sitting up he could feel sweat all over himself. He turned back to see Bai still sleeping calmly, he was grateful such visions did not happen to her. If anyone was to suffer at all, he wanted it to just be him. Getting up quietly, he grabbed his robe and walked steadily toward the bathroom. Washing his face he looked in the mirror, his face looked warn from the countless nightmares he had. Drying his face he paused, something was odd. The ship was no longer in hyperspace, in fact it seemed it was at a dead stop. He walked toward the window and looked out. He saw that the ship he was on wasn't the only one stopped. The entire fleet was stopped as of awaiting for something. He looked further toward the front and noticed why they had stopped. At least eight large cruisers of some kind were directly in front of them. The ships were massive, they were still distant but were growing steadily closer. Mathes quickly turned and sprinted to the bed, he gently nudged his wife to wake her. She turned and opened her eyes, based on her husbands expression something was wrong.

"What is it..why have we stopped?" Her husband had no clear answer, "I don't know but we should get ready and go to the bridge...something feels off..."

They quickly got dressed and grabbed their bags, whatever was amidst they were not planning to return to the room any time soon. As they ran to the airlift, Mathes noticed no one was in the hallways. This made him even more unsettled then before, he quickened his pace causing his wife to be practically sprinting behind him. Reaching the airlift, Mathes didn't wait for the door to open by itself instead he motioned for the doors to open. They entered the lift, it made a loud beep as it made its ascent to the bridge. The lift was quite aside from the frequent clicks and beeps as it moved higher and higher. It finally reached the bridge floor and again Mathes motioned the doors to slide open. He ran to the walk-way leading to bridge, every instinct telling him to hurry as though something had or was going to happen in any moment. His mind was racing with thoughts of what was happening? Where they were? And why in the hell hadn't Carth come to get them, most of all where were Vaner and Cassis. All he wanted to do most right now was to get to the bridge and hopefully most if not all his questions would get anwsered. They reached the bridge doors just as they opened to reveal a familiar face

"Oh shi..."

"Carth...what in the hell is going on?"

Carth looked surprised to see both of them standing there, even more so he seemed greatly disturbed. Gathering himself from his brief frozen moment he managed to asses the situation. "I was just on my way to get you guys, we're in a bit of..a situation," Mathes could tell from Carth's vocals that "situation" was a bit of an understatement. "Just what kind of situation are we talking and how long have we been here?"Carth seemed very uncomfortable anwsering these questions, which wasn't a surprise he rarely liked bringing people up to speed. His main way of bringing you up to speed was to take you into the action so you could see first hand. This is exactly what he was doing now as he turned and signaled for them to follow him into the bridge, he passed the many computers and bridge officers frantically attempting to search databases and records for something unknown. Carth went to the front next to the captain who was speaking with Vaner and Cassis.

"Well that answers one of my questions," Mathes spoke to himself as Carth stopped next to the captain and pointed out the window. He looked out to see what Carth was pointing at an then he realized what "situation" they were in. Again he saw the large vessels in front of them, this time however there were more then just eight, it seemed as though there was an entire armada before them.

"Damn...we should have brought a larger fleet"

"That is what I was thinking about ten minutes ago before ya'll showed up here," responded Carth.

"Yes well, you didn't get a large fleet did you? No, that is why they sent me," the captain added in.

"So tell me Captain Gyred, if they sent you instead of a large fleet, how good are you?," Mathes asked.

"I'll let you know soon as someone fires on us, Master Jedi," Captain Gyred smiled and accessed the comm.

"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking, as you all may have noticed we have stopped and I have already given orders to your commanding officers. At this moment no hostilities have been directed toward us, but the unidentified vessels are still progressing toward us. If they continue to move toward us and when they are in firing range...we will engage them. I do not know what will happen or what will transpire if we are forced to engage, but we must fulfill our mission set forth by the Republic. We all know what we signed on for and we all devoted ourselves to this very moment, this ship has endured many battles, stretching all the way back to the first Jedi Civil War. We have always worked together and come out strong, we have a fine ship and crew, i am honered to be your captain. As the Jedi say, may the force be with us, all."

"Good speech Captain, very good speech," commented Carth.

"I do my best, its all the crew can ask of me"

"Well, those ships are getting closer Captain and from what I can tell, they are almost in range.." inquired Mathes.

"Yes..it does seem that way doesn't it, private get the comm ready again," he motioned for the private in front of him to activate the weapons, as others did the same. The private moved to activate the comm, but was stopped by the captains hand.

"I'll do it," the private moved his hand as the captain pressed the button once more. "All hands...battlestations."

"The point of no return...," Mathes said in his mind as the fleet prepared to fire.