Chapter 10 – In a Mirror, Darkly
Sarah sat in a position of meditation. As she'd done in past conflicts where her strength was not required for individual battles, she instead passively increased the power of her own side while damping their opponents' will to fight. This activity found itself interrupted as several beings appeared out of thin air (or so it seemed).
The Siren did a backflip to avoid blasts of Force Lightning that turned the cushion she sat on to ash. She could immediately sense something different about these attackers—far more focused, better-trained, and thus more dangerous than those she'd powered through before. Their precision coordination left her spending as much time dodging (or regrowing lost limbs) as making strikes of her own. Her purple blade whirled about in one hand as the other busied itself with deflecting Force Lightning, either sending it back to its source or tucking it away through means understood only by the most advanced Jedi or Sith. Blade locked against blade, the trademark squealing assaulting all ears. Another of the three dove at Sarah, so she used the Force to "walk" up and around as if following the contours of some exercise wheel, bringing herself back down to plant a solid kick to the back of that clone's head while maintaining her saber-lock with the first.
A piece of furniture crashed into her, hurled by the last clone not occupied in the immediate brawl.
"Flanders will have a field day" she muttered as a thrown table cleaved in half from her reactionary swing. The number of useless Siren-limbs eclipsed five as she lost another leg. She actually looked down at this point—a small puff of purple something appeared as her leg regrew.
She recalled the abilities she'd manifested when, as the Holcron told her, she'd "given in to anger"—she could flatten all three of these opponents in seconds but at what cost?
The longer I keep them here, however they got here, the less damage they can do to the rest of the ship.
She remembered the horribly deformed Viado Sepsom and his fellow "Vongspawn" who she'd provided some level of sustenance for via supplies pulled from wrecked Star Destroyer. These and other acts drove the Jedi "Council's" determination that (Master Shim aside) she could at least redeem herself. Her desire to defend others notwithstanding, these clones were sent with the single mission of killing her, so wherever Sarah went they would follow.
A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense. Never for attack!
The little green one, Yoda, had told her this. She pushed back, stunning all three opponents briefly by crushing them into walls. That was enough to incapacitate one long enough to blast them (though her Force "Lightning" changed to green for reasons she could not determine) while leaving the other two chasing their fallen lightsabers. Quick recoveries, but not quick enough. One clone lost her saber-hand, the other cried out as Force Speed let Sarah dash to her and crush ankles, immobilizing her. A wave of her hand set two unconscious, leaving only the clone who'd been hit with lightning.
"Out with it!"
Sarah yanked the clone's helmet off. Eyes sunken, yellow, dead. Skin the color of spoiled milk, sagging and wrinkled. Teeth that through some process had a closer resemblance to fangs than would be expected.
"No."
The temptation again rose to call on both Siren and Force powers to bludgeon this woman's mind, compel her to reveal information. Her dealings with Flanders, Jackie, Shepard, and others pushed back.
I will not sink to such levels. Instead, she opted for the "Shepard route."
"You're not like the other clones."
"Of course not!" replied the nameless soldier. "They were inferior, they were slow, they were weak. Only we were chosen!"
"For?"
"The solemn duty to put a blade through your back!"
"You're not very good at it. None of you are. Your masters must be most displeased."
"That won't matter!" rasped her foe. "By the time they harvest all the Paradise Worlds, we'll be more powerful than you ever could hope to be!"
"Thanks for the hint!"
The last clone dropped unconscious.
"Well, that proved annoyingly prophetic" said Luke Skywalker irritably as Sarah described her short interaction with RISE clone troopers (who she'd shoved in a cargo container before dumping them into space). "Emperor Palpatine did that with one planet. Looks like these guys are taking it to an extreme."
"But is what they are saying true?" wondered Sarah. "Can they become stronger in the Force?"
"If history is any guide, regrettably, yes" expounded Tionne Solusar.
"And if they do, what then?"
"You, as one of the few who wields the Force, will have to defend this ship, its crew, and your friends" answered Luke simply.
[…]
Admiral Grayson, after hearing Sarah's report regarding the potential for turning the galaxy against the proponents of this "New Future," elected for careful application of overwhelming force (again).
"At least we won't have to wait very long to get where we're going."
He picked a Paradise World in the Outer Rim, taking Sarah and Ultimatum (as Colossus's firepower was needed to win the current battle).
"So long as we don't need the superlaser, we should be fine" he noted in his Admiral's log. The ruins of said weapon had been yanked out to accommodate a massive slipspace drive. Keeping the drive "warmed up"—that is, in its default ready-to-go state, would have probably precluded using the superlaser anyway. Dwindling hypermatter reserves meant the only asset the dreadnaught offered came from speed, and even that could be debated since too many jumps would leave her without much power to do anything.
"This place is alive with the Dark Side" said Sarah flatly upon arrival. "It is subtle, but growing. Whatever is going on here cannot be advantageous to us."
The Siren seethed with energy. Even though Grayson had no sensitivity to the Force, he could feel it—she wanted a fight.
"We're not going in guns blazing. I'd rather find out what's going on first." Turning, he spoke to Tactical. "Is our stealth enabled?"
"Yes sir" came the reply. "Unless they have slipspace sensors, they're just going to see the stellar anomaly of the week, not our ship."
"Deploy a Vorknkx, get us some intel!"
Receiving transmissions from a spy ship didn't cause nearly as much of a sensor blip as turning up all of the battleship's active suites would have, hence Grayson's choice. Said transmissions reminded Grayson of the Flood, except not. He saw many Humans through high-resolution sensors mounted on a ship that could probably read a datapad in someone's pocket through clouds from high orbit with a cloaking device on. These people shuffled about mindlessly, their postures identical with arms hanging loosely by their sides and blank expressions on their faces.
"Well, that isn't nor…"
He whipped about in search of Sarah and her Holocron, but couldn't find either. The Admiral figured she'd gone off to do some Jedi- or Force-related thing and he needn't worry—until his Vorknkx sent up images of what was unmistakably Sarah on the planet's surface.
"And why is she down there?" he fumed. "Also, how?"
"Whatever they have done is completely unnatural" she said via hologram. "They're leeching life energies from… I don't know where they are, but it's nowhere near here. It's a whole network using some kind of crystals to focus the Dark Side, if the spirits of the Holocron are to be believed."
"They haven't steered us wrong so far. Now, please tell me…"
A blinking light indicated top-level, Alpha-One classified communication intended for the Admiral only. He put Sarah on hold.
"You need to see this."
Samantha Shepard, aboard her similarly-named starship, transmitted data from Capek.
"We were going to Base Delta Zero the place, but our sensors picked up residual energy signatures. We sent a team down. For once, it's all good news! The Flood kept as specimens were either put down or frozen. The science teams are still alive, though they're in cryostasis and we're working to thaw them out. And, technically this qualifies as bad news, but the scientists did not manage to find either a cure or weapon against the Flood, despite lots of effort."
"Good work, Shepard. We have a big problem on this end, so you'll have to excuse me, as I should go tend to it."
Grayson switched back to Sarah's channel, only to see nothing. He couldn't raise Lookout's Nest either, though the ship did seem to be making a move to leave orbit.
"Lookout's Nest, this is Admiral Grayson. Report!"
No response.
"Lookout's Nest, stop all engines and stand by to receive boarding parties! That's an order!"
"Whoever has that ship is doing something to its engines. The readings make no sense—if it engages hyperdrive now it will be closer to zero-zero-one than any hyperdrive I've seen!"
"Zero-zero-one" was so hypothetical no agreement existed on precisely how fast that would be. For millions of years, scientists had tried to find a way to make such fast travel technologically feasible, if not affordable or practical. And for millions of years, every experiment failed. Often explosively. This caused the "technological plateau" above which hyperspace-based FTL could not seem to rise.
"I assume it's too late to try a tractor beam."
"You are correct, sir. However, we've plotted its course and you won't believe where that thing is headed…"