Luke Skywalker sat in meditation, legs crossed, and searched.
The Force had never been this silent with him before, there was always some sort of guidance, reassurance, or a path to follow. But right now, he was getting nothing.
He'd tried to send his mind out to every corner of the Galaxy, searching for Anakin's presence, but just came up with nothing, not so much as a hint. He then tried searching for Tahiri, and then Jaina, and it all came up with nothing. It was just kind of disheartening.
He'd discovered the hard way how to snap out of out whatever Anakin had done to them, a jolt of Force lightning to the head did an excellent job. The surge he'd gotten from Kyp Durran probably would have fixed a few hundred people. The throbbing in his cheek stayed as a constant reminder that Kyp was a extremely powerful Jedi, one who always seemed to hold back with his considerable powers, despite his bravado.
However, he still couldn't decide what he'd do if he actually found Anakin. Force in numbers didn't work, should he take him on in single combat? But would that actually work? He watched as Kyp's lightsaber swung right through, and it only seemed to energise him. Maybe a Vibrosword would be a better choice.
A beep on his console brought him back from his useless search. He looked up to see an incoming message search from Jedi Apprentice Durac Gratica, it took a few moments to register the name, then a few more moments to figure out why he was calling Luke.
Gratica had left the Jedi Order in his early apprenticeship, he'd been sent on a easy reconnaissance mission to a planet on the Outer Rims, but halfway through the mission he'd messaged and expressed his desire to leave the order. It'd been during the Caedus rein, so the Jedi had more important things on their minds. Thinking back, Luke couldn't even remember a knight being sent to check up on the young apprentice, it'd been a chaotic time.
Luke thumbed the accept button, and the terrified face of Gratica appeared in the holo, he started, "Master Skywalker. He's here. So many people are going to die."
"Slow down, what's happening?"
"I had a vision about a Jedi, one who came back from the dead. I tried to report it, but the Masters at the Temple said that every Jedi had the same vision, and that it was being dealt with. He's here. On Kegan. He's tapped into the public holo, he sent out a hello message, but there must have been something hypnotic inside of it, because people are grouping up and just waiting. Just like the visions!",
Luke stared at the holo for a moment, he thought he'd have more of a chance to do something before this would happen.
"He's still in the Millennium Falcon above the planet, will you help?"
Luke started thumbing through his contacts and found the head of the Galactic Alliance Fifth Fleet, from memory they were in the Outer Rim. One of the advantages of being the Jedi Grand Master was having friends in high places.
Luke replied to Gratica, "Stay calm, and if you can stall him, do it, but don't take him on in combat, you won't stand a chance. We'll be there as soon as we can."
Luke didn't wait for a reply, he commed the Fifth Fleet Admiral Bwua'tu.
If the entire Fifth Fleet, led by Admiral Bwua'tu couldn't take down this Being who'd taken Anakin's form, then they were doomed.
***...
The starlines around them reverted, and the planet of Kegan took up the front view port.
Jaina had done a few searches on the destination during lightspeed. It was primarily a food producing planet, with less than a million people living there. It'd been left alone during the Yuuzhan Vong war, probably because it was so insignificant.
She felt Anakin walking into the cockpit before she saw him. He felt like Anakin, frustratingly so, but how hard would that be to fake? Jacen could mask his presence, change the way he felt to others around him, but the unique part of him always felt like Jacen. But Anakin seemed to know tricks that Jacen didn't.
She needed to study him, learn off him, and when she knew enough, if he wasn't who he claimed to be, she'd know his secrets and take him out. She watched as he shut his eyes and took in everything around him, he opened them a moment later with a quizzical look on his face, he asked, "What are you feeling down there?"
Jaina opened herself up and allowed the Force to flow into her, she'd tried to recreate how the Force flowed into her on Yavin, but it seemed to be...
She suddenly felt a few points of pressure on the side of her head, and before she could recoil, she heard the words inside her mind, 'Don't try, if you try and call it to yourself, it won't come to you like on Yavin. You're part of it, let go and try this...''
And she felt herself glow bright in the Force, as the energy flowed into her, with so much amazing detail...
And as the pressure left her head, the detail stopped, and she was back to how she'd been before. Almost like having the lights turned off, or at least dimmed. It wasn't fair, she wanted more, needed more.
Anakin said, "It'll take practice, but you'll get it, just don't try, relax and open yourself. Now what did you feel down there?"
Jaina saw every part of the vision coming true, she wanted more, the knowledge he held was intoxicating. And she wanted it. And that scared her to the bone.
"It felt like a regular planet. Life forms of every kind, and millions of intelligent beings going along their business. Normal fears, loves, just a regular planet."
"Does it feel especially powerful down there, like a planet wide nexus in the Force?"
"No. Should it?"
"Yes."
Jaina spread her presence out again, but felt nothing out of the ordinary.
Moments later, the lanky form of Plagueis stepped into the cockpit, and it took every bit of control inside of her not to reach for her lightsaber, even if the blade didn't function, she could still use it as a club. He seemed to wear the dark side with pride, taunting her with what he was.
Anakin's voice came almost as if he was lecturing a child, "Jaina, Plagueis has dedicated his life to studying the Force, and in over 80 years, he hasn't tried to conquer the galaxy, or even meddle with events. Why do you hate him for what he is?"
Jaina felt blood pulsing through her hands, surging through her head, she bit back, "I don't hate anybody, hate is of the dark side."
Anakin didn't change the tone of his voice, "You're currently fighting the urge to kill a being which you know nothing about, simply because you don't like the way he uses the force. If you don't think that's hate, then you need to do some thinking about the word."
Jaina felt the blood pulsing harder still, ringing in her ears, she said, "I know what the Dark side does, I've seen what it did to Jacen, what it's..."
Anakin snapped in, his voice harsh. "No, you've seen what happened when people can't control their own emotions. The Sith like to have a sacrifice to draw people completely over to darkness, do you know why that is?"
"I'm sure you're about to tell me."
"Guilt. The subconscious can't deal with the sacrifice, and it shuts down part of the mind that deal with guilt, and without guilt, self control goes out the window, and the more bad you do, the more your mind shuts down, not wanting to accept the guilt, and the harder it is to bring them back."
It all made a little too much sense to her, the darker a person went, the harder it'd be to face the guilt of what they'd done. And she'd just been schooled by her little brother again.
Anakin didn't seem to push the issue anymore though, he turned to Plagueis and asked, "Can you sense anything from your base down there, anything at all."
The elongated Muun head shook, he replied, "Nothing. Although it seems a little too perfect."
Anakin slid into the co-pilot seat, and started typing away on the console, he said, "I agree, I'm going to try a little experiment, see if I can remember how to slice into the public Holo network."
"Why?"
"Just an experiment."
*****...
Admiral Nek Bwua'tu stared out the massive view ports of the Admiral Ackbar - his Victory Class Star Destroyer - and puzzled on his new mission. He'd been called a master tactician, but he'd never considered himself that before, more of a Bothan who was quite good at getting into the minds of others. When you knew the mind of who you were against, then finding their weaknesses would be easy.
He'd beaten the Thrawn Simulator countless times, not by thinking out every possible option, but by figuring out Thrawn himself, what motivated him, what his weaknesses would be, but as the crono counted down, Bwua'tu realised that he knew nothing about what he was up against this time.
Master Luke Skywalker didn't give anywhere near enough details, but apparently he was up against a reincarnated Anakin Solo, one which wasn't really Anakin Solo, but knew Force powers that nobody could understand.
Really very cryptic information indeed.
Also, apparently Han Solo, and Tahiri Veila were with him as well, either a hostage or accomplice, and they would probably be quite displeased if either were killed.
His first instinct would be to play this like it was up against the original Anakin Solo, play against the presumed humanity, give bait, snap the trap. But that could work out quite badly if he applied it against the wrong quarry.
He did have a few new toys which were just out of development, or in it's live testing stage. During her reign, Chief of State Daala had started several secret research departments, she'd been in charge of the Maw installation, a research station, it only made sense she'd do it as Chief of State. However, she'd had a different goal, she set all these in charge of killing or controlling the Jedi.
Given the history of Jedi problems impacting the galaxy over the last 80 years, Bwua'tu thought it'd be a very bad decision to disband these research departments, even if they never used these, it'd be smart to keep them on hand if another Darth Caedus decided to try and take over. Bwua'tu funneled funds from other parts of the Fifth Fleet, and let them go to work creating whatever they could.
His favourite at the moment was given the pet name of the Stealth X Bomb. The Stealth X's gave the Jedi a little too much power, they could potentially use these modified X-Wings to destroy any crafts unaware, just sneak up next to it, and maneuver a Shadow bomb right next to a power convertor. The Stealth X bomb took away part of that advantage.
Scientists had dissected several Ysalamiri, and discovered the parts of their brains and bodies that controlled their Force negating bubbles, it was only then a matter of putting electrodes to the correct parts, and they had a way to switch the Force on and off.
The bubble itself wouldn't be enough to take down the Jedi though, finding the Stealth X was still an impossible feat. So they'd taken another native species of Myrkr, a Vornskr, a canine beast which instinctively used the Force to track it's prey. The scientists had taken the beasts and implanted a Cybernetic implant which interfaced their instinctive Force tracking ability.
Given the living aspects of the bomb, it wasn't an easy one to store, or mass produce, but hopefully it'd work.
However, luckily they weren't up against a Stealth X. Just the Millennium Falcon. But figuring out who was piloting was a bit of a guess, and Bwua'tu really didn't like to guess.
Moments later, the starlines reverted to stars around them, and they were staring at the vision of Regan.
"Sir, we're receiving several hundred distress calls from the surface, they are saying almost three quarters of the population is being brainwashed, and are grouping together, and just waiting."
Bwua'tu nodded and looked at his subordinate in his station.
"Sir, we've located the Millennium Falcon, it's hovering in orbit around the planet. It seems to be in a holding pattern. Do you wish to make contact with the Falcon?"
Bwua'tu thought for a moment, and replied, "Extend the interdictor field over the Falcon, and tell tractor beams to be ready. Tell the Ion cannons to warm up and lock targets. When I say shoot, don't shoot directly at the targets, spread the fire over every possible possible maneuvering vector. Presume they'll have a premonition before we shoot, and take away their escape capabilities."
"Yes sir."
"Now get me a direct line with the Falcon."
******...
"Why is there a Star Destroyer out there?" Han Solo demanded as he rushed past Anakin, and shooed Jaina out of his pilot's chair. He trusted his daughter to pilot, but damned if he'd let anybody go up against a Star Destroyer while he was on board.
Anakin replied, "That's the flagship of the Fifth Fleet. Where's the rest of the fleet?"
Han started flicking switches and powering up the maneuvering thrusters. Bwua'tu was probably the only Admiral that could have gone up against Thrawn, and stood a decent chance, outwitting that man wouldn't be easy.
And almost on cue, his display warning flashed up on his display, he was watching as the rest of the fleet emerged from Hyperspace, he counted 4 Star Destroyers, and another 5 Mon Calamari Star Cruisers. Han tried to plot a Hyperspace jump, but the warning flashed up at him that he was under an interdictor field. With the Fifth Fleet surrounding him, he wasn't going anywhere.
"Hey kid, unless you've got a brilliant idea, I'd suggest that we surrender."
Anakin stepped up closer to the front viewport, and stared down, he said, "We can't trust our eyes, they'll deceive us."
"What? That isn't the fifth fleet out there?"
Anakin shook his head, "Oh no, that's definitely the Fifth Fleet out there. Dad, go into evasive movements, I'll mirror and cloak us. Plagueis, find something large in orbit around the planet, and throw it down to where your research base was located, something large enough to wipe out a few hundred kilometers. Do you know how to shield it against others using telekinesis?"
Normally Han would have jumped from the smooth Munn voice behind him, but Han somehow knew the being was there, Plagueis replied, "I believe so."
Jaina jumped up from the co-pilot seat Han had pushed her into. "There is over a hundred thousand humans in that area, if you think I'm going to let you kill them, you've got another thing coming."
This time Han did feel something weird happening behind him, Jaina was... He turned to the side to watch as wind started swirling around her, and a faint glow started emitting from her hands. Moments later it'd swelled into bright blue orbs, getting bigger by the second.
"Hakouri, knock her out."
Before the words had even exited his lips, Han felt a rush of wind passing him, and the blue glow dissipated from Jaina's hands, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Moments later she was falling to the ground. The small Noghiri caught her between the shoulders and lowered her to the ground.
Han exclaimed, "That's your sister, what the hell did you just do?"
"Dad. She's fine, but pick a side quickly, we don't have time to Frac around."
Han looked around his cockpit, Tahiri seemed to be climbing over Jaina and the Noghiri, and the Muun still stood in the door. Han grumbled, "There is way too many people in my cockpit!"
"Oh my. Master Solo, if I may interject?" The golden droid waddled into the cockpit.
Another person in the cockpit. "Argh! Not now Golden Rod!"
Nothing seemed to shut that droid up. Threepio waffled, "I do feel far more concerned about my own safety now. How do you beings deal with this sort of concern? It's really quite debilitating."
"Too many people!"
Han watched at blue lights of an Ion blast shot past his view port, a warning shot. He looked down at the comms station, a request was waiting from the Admiral Ackbar.
"Dad, if they hit us with an ion blast, it'll kill Threepio in his current state."
"Oh my, my new circuit will reboot without my current memory. I couldn't imagine what would happen."
Han flashed a look at his son, and knew it wasn't an option to be caught right now, at least until he'd figured out if this was Anakin, he wasn't about to lose another child, he'd lost more than a family ever should.
He might be able to out maneuver a Star Destroyer or two in the middle of a battle, but the whole Fifth Fleet wasn't going to happen.
"Dad, answer it and stall him. And set the Falcon on full burn to get us out of the interdictor field, if I'm wrong, we'll need to get away quickly."
"What do you mean you could be wrong, about what?"
"If I'm wrong, or have timelines messed up, we could be about to kill a lot of people."
Han took a deep breath, and let it out, he'd made his decision, it was time to stick with it. He swung the Falcon around to pointed it towards clear space, and gunned his baby for all she was worth.
"Hi Admiral Bwua'tu, what can we do for you?"
****...
Bwua'tu cleared his throat, and motioned for his aid to put his voice through, "Han Solo, we've currently been put in charge of capturing your vehicle, it appears you have a fugitive on board."
Bwua'tu started mapping out escape courses, Han Solo may have been a great member of the alliance, but he was too predictable.
"He's done nothing wrong."
Bwua'tu watched as the Falcon stayed where it was, this wasn't like Han Solo, he muted his line and asked his closest aid, "Track the comm's signal, not his transponder, or even visually." He unmuted his line, "I'm afraid that's not for me to decide, Anakin Solo won't be harmed under my charge unless he resists."
From the Aid's face, Bwua'tu knew he'd been right, the transponder and visuals weren't matching the Comm's signal. He was trying to get out of the space interdictor field. Bwua'tu decided to end this quickly, disable them and pump the craft with knockout gas. He motioned for the gunners to target the comm's signal. And thought better of it a moment later, he linked up with all the commanders of his fleet, and got them to sync up all their ion cannons. The Comm's signal could be faked too. Skywalker said he had unusual skills.
****...
Han swore wildly, as his yoke was suddenly ripped from his hands, and slammed hard into his chair as too much strain was put on the compensators. And moments later, the whole space around them erupted with Ion blasts, all he could see for a few moments was blue. Coming from everywhere.
Han swore a few more times, knowing his baby had just been hit, but as he stared down at his readouts, they'd only gotten his right quad laser.
Han tested his controls, they responded. That was a miracle in itself.
"Sir, we've got them, plotting an intercept course now."
Bwua'tu smiled down at his display, he'd been correct, the Falcon wasn't where the comms signal, or even the visuals or transponder where coming from. It was in another complete area.
"Send my congratulations to all ships. Tell them to stand down."
"Yes Sir."
Only moments later, he held his breath in horror, as every single ship opened up their turbolaser cannons, including the Admiral Ackbar, and pulverised the entire area with turbolaser fire. He yelled, knowing it was too late, "Cease fire immediately! Any crew member firing without authorisation will be put up on charges!"
Bwua'tu watched as almost a hundred shots - each powerful enough to destroy the Falcon several times over - shot directly though where he thought the immobilised craft should have been.
And moments later, the entire Fifth Fleet went wild, every single weapon they possessed shot wildly into space. Shooting at any possible spot the Falcon could be hiding.
Had his entire fleet mutinied?
Moment later, he watched as his entire arsenal of Stealth X bombs were loosed. Almost 50 of them.
