Chapter Ten: The Lost Jedi

Ilum was cold. Cold on the order of Hoth. Cold on the order of 30 to 40 degrees below 0 by the common scale. So cold that exposed skin turned blue within minutes, and died minutes after that.

"All the same, I'd just as soon not go out there," Han said. Surprisingly, Vader had agreed to travel on the Falcon to the surface. The fact that Darth Vader was standing in the Millenium Falcon was not lost on anyone. The moment they dropped the ramp, the freezing air had blasted into the ship. "I got enough of ice at Hoth."

"It would be unwise for you to follow in any event, General Solo," Vader said. "In fact, of all of us, only Luke and I should go. Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy is a Jedi trained in the old order and could easily kill anyone else. And since I am here and she undoubtedly senses me, she will view us all as enemies to be killed."

Luke pulled on his heated cold gear, slipped the goggles on, and the two stepped off the ship into what seemed like a permanent blizzard. "You know the Force could warm you and make such gear unnecessary," Vader said.

"True. But why use the Force when a coat will do just as well?"

Vader merely nodded, and they continued walking. Time lost meaning in the white-out around them, but Luke knew which direction to go. He felt a surge in the Force ahead of him, similar to the cave on Dagobah, only this surge was of the light.

They found a temple façade carved out of the stone of the mountain, though the entrance had been closed off with rubble. Vader easily levitated the largest stone away, and Luke joined him, until in moments the way was clear. They walked through the door into the cave, and instantly the air felt warmer. Luke realized it was the sheer power of the Force in this place, thrumming through the air. Around him he saw light shimmering from unknown sources, and in this light thousands of crystals of blue or green glimmered.

"By the Force," Luke whispered. "This is incredible. I understand now why could couldn't bring yourself to destroy it."

"It is a Holy Place of the Force," Vader said. He raised his voice. "Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy, if you are here, I have come to talk to you in peace. I am laying down my saber."

And to Luke's amazement, he did just that. He put the lightsaber down on a ledge of stone and walked back to the center of the clearing before the entrance and sat down cross legged. Luke followed his example and did the same.

They sat, and sat. Realizing it could take some time, Luke closed his eyes and meditated, letting the magnificent Force of the place flow through him. The beauty of the place was breathtaking, and filled him with joy.

"You are not Sith," a voice said.

Luke's eyes snapped open to see a deactivated lightsaber pointed directly at his face. Behind it he saw two angry green eyes framed by a curtain of bright red hair set amid the face of a once lovely woman in her early forties, a face now twisted with bitterness, anger, loss and despair.

"I am a Jedi," he said, calling on the Force for calm. Beside him, he felt his father tense but make no move.

"You keep questionable company," she said. "Who was your master?"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi for a time, and then Master Yoda."

Her arm dropped a little as amazement crossed her face. She wore a large, oversized brown robe over a tight-fitting tunic. Both looked worn with time. "Master Yoda, is he alive?"

"Master Yoda died nine months ago," Luke said. "Obi-Wan died five years prior to that."

She backed away and stared at Vader with open hatred. "What are you doing here, child-killer?"

"I have killed children," he admitted. "And many others whom at one time I called friends. I fell to the Dark Side of the Force. But I have encountered something new, and profoundly more evil and powerful than the dark side."

"The Emperor is dead," Tallisibeth said. "I felt the hole in the Force he left. This enemy you found killed him?"

"Yes," Vader said. "And they have killed billions more. I have been unable to defeat them. The empire has crumbled, and now worlds are falling to these Ori faster than we can defend them. I believe that only the Jedi can hope to stem the tide."

Tallisibeth sat down on the hard rock and bent her head down. "I have heard their screaming at night," she whispered. "So many voices screaming. So many." With Force-borne speed, she snapped back to her feet, ignited the blade and held it to Vader's face. "You killed the younglings!"

The sudden change in her behavior took Luke completely off guard. His father, however, remained calm. "Yes," he said.

"Then you must die!"

"Then you will have to kill me, too," Luke said.

She spun to face him. "I will. I will kill anyone to see justice done."

Look stood, took two steps, and sat down in front of his father. "Lunge deeply enough, and you can kill us both together. But do not call it justice. What you seek is revenge."

Tallisibeth blinked in surprise and took a step back. "Take your blade. Defend yourself!"

"I will not," Luke said. "I will not raise a sword in anger to another Jedi. If you wish to kill him, you must kill me. And you must do it while we are unarmed, for we did not come to fight you. We need you to join us, to rebuild the Jedi. That was the mission given me by Master Yoda."

"But he killed all the children!" Tallisibeth wailed, dropping her blade and covering her hands as she collapsed again. "He killed everyone I loved. If not for Master Plett, I would have died as well! He killed the only family I ever knew!"

Luke walked on his knees, ignoring the hard rock, and took her hands in his. She looked up as tears streamed down her face to the tip of her chin. She must have been very young during the Clone Wars. "My name is Luke Skywalker. I am the son of Anakin Skywalker, who once was known as Darth Vader."

Behind him, Vader raised his helmet in surprise.

"I will be your brother in the Force," Luke continued. "I will be your new family. We already have two…padawans to train. Anakin Skywalker has returned to the light side. And if you join us, there will be three Jedi knights. You won't be alone any more."

Tallisibeth stared with scintillating expressions of hate, disgust, hope and despair. Her eyes welled with tears the Jedi code had forbidden these many years. "You are the son of the man who betrayed the whole Jedi order. I saw him slaughter innocent children. He killed them all."

"If you must strike us down, we will not resist. But if you can accept it, I will give you my friendship. And the knowledge that you will never be alone again."

"I have been alone here for many years," she admitted. She hiccupped. For some reason, the idea of a Jedi knight hiccupping brought a smile to Luke's face. The smile turned to an outright laugh. The laugh was infectious, and for perhaps the first time in over twenty years, Tallisibeth smiled.

"Outside is an old Correllian freighter," Luke told her when the laughter stilled. "On this ship is a rebel leader and a princess of Alderaan, a former Correllian smuggler and now general in the Rebel Alliance, a Wookie, and a former Imperial assassin. We are the foundation of the new Jedi Order. And I want very much for you to be a part of it."

She wiped her tears with her hand and stood to clip her saber to her belt. Looking at Vader, she said: "A son. So the rumors were true. You did marry the senator."

"Yes."

"Was it worth it?"

"The answer is standing before you."

She looked Luke up and down, and then casually reached out and pulled gently at his hair. "I met your mother once. You look a lot like her, except for your eyes." She reached up and tousled his hair. "And your hair."

And with that, Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy, Knight of the Old Republic, walked out of the crystal cave and into the blizzard beyond.

0-0-0

The Seinar shipyards orbited an unremarkable yellow star within arms' reach of a massive ring of asteroids that marked the collision of two long-destroyed terrestrial planets. The asteroid field provided ample material for the leading producer of fighter craft in the galaxy.

Security in Seinar was second to none, though production was down due to the collapse of the Empire. The company's primary business now came directly from individual planetary governments seeking some type of defense against the Ori, or the pirates that were quickly becoming a nuisance in the power vacuum.

All of which meant a bad time for one Kyle Katarn, agent of the Rebel Alliance, and according to the records of the Seinar Corporation, a captain named Fresqu in the Imperial Navy.

Kyle had actually been an Imperial once, serving as a stormtrooper rather than as Navy brass. His first commanding officer had been a clone, a tough as nails clone whose only individualizing feature was the burn scars on his face. That had been before the Empire murdered his father, though. Before Kyle discovered the true face of the empire.

Now he carried the plans for the Empire's most effective fighter craft in a hidden dataclip in his boot, but had no means of getting it out. The security lockdown had stopped all but verified incoming traffic, and being the largest producers of TIE fighters in the galaxy, the company had all the security it needed to enforce that embargo.

Even so, all security measures failed when a massive Kuat Drive Yards System super star destroyer, measuring 19,000 meters from stem to stern, emerged from hyperspace in a trajectory bringing it over the main asteroid field directly toward Seinar.

The shipyards were built vertically along the orbital plane with a mass of solar panels arranged along the side nearest the sun for energy generation. The Executor and the fleet of star destroyers that emerged with it were vertical to the platform, looking to any observer in the distance like huge spears about to impale the hundred square kilometers that made up the drive yards.

The security alarms in the main administration nodule where Kyle had been posing began to blare, but just as quickly eased off as the fleet identified itself.

Vader, Kyle read the security verification screen. "Things just keep getting better and better," Kyle muttered to himself. Behind him, imperial officers and company executives began running around themselves in an effort to look busy for the company brass, who swept through the room in an equally futile effort to look busy for the incoming imperial representatives. Vader made his own people as nervous as his enemies.

"All Imperial officers are to assemble immediately in Nodule 245, Main Hangar Bay. Repeat, all Imperial officers are to assemble immediately in Nodule 245, Main Hangar Bay." The intercom blared the speaker's voice out with nerve-grating volume. Kyle felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Colonel Ferkin's rodent-like face. "That means you, Captain Fresqu."

Kyle snapped to his best attention and saluted. "Yes, sir!" and started walking. The corridors were thrumming with the sound of booted feet making their way to module 245. He thought briefly about trying to sneak out, but quickly realized that anyone in an Imperial uniform not at the assembly would stand out like a rancor in a crystal shop.

Besides, with over eight thousand officers, Kyle doubted he would be noticed.

The Main Hangar Bay in Nodule 245 was large enough for anything up to a frigate to dock. It served as the initial dry-dock for interdictor cruisers during initial atmospheric assembly, before the frame was transported to a shipyard in space. Against the sheer volume of the bay, eight thousand officers standing in parade-ground attention seemed like nothing.

The shuttle landed before the assemblage, and Darth Vader stepped out with his entourage. As a mere captain, Kyle was many rows back and could not clearly see who accompanied the Dark Lord of the Sith. The main administrator of the yards bowed to Vader, and Kyle heard the mechanical basso of the Dark Lord's voice, but not the words.

He fought the ache in his legs at having to stand at attention for so long. It had been a long time since he had to do parade ground formations, and the experience reminded him of one of the many things he hated about Imperial life.

"Hello, Kyle," a familiar voice whispered in his ear.

"I'm sorry," he said, remaining at attention, "my name is Captain Fresqu."

"Kyle, its Luke. We need your help."

The other officers around them were trying hard not to look at them. Kyle slowly turned, and indeed saw Luke Skywalker standing behind him, but the Jedi was wearing the insignia of a general in the Imperial army. "That's new," Kyle noted.

"You should see Han," Luke said. "Or for that matter Leia. She looks quite fetching as an Imperial general."

"What are you doing here?" Kyle couldn't help but say. "And why are you dressed like Imperial generals?"

"We are imperial generals," Luke said, also noticing the stares. "Commissioned by Lord Vader himself." The stares came to an abrupt end and forty pairs of eyes snapped forward once more. "We need to talk. Come with me, please."

Suddenly alarms began to blare again. "What did you do now, Skywalker?" Kyle demanded.

"That wasn't me." Luke closed his eyes and paled. "The Ori. We're under attack by forces loyal to the Ori."

An observer from the asteroid field would have seen a fleet of star destroyers emerging on the opposite side of the platform from Vader's fleet, on the sunward side. Though none of the destroyers were as large as the Executor, there were almost a hundred of the imperial class destroyers. The moment the ships emerged from hyperspace, they began firing.

"Follow me!" Luke said.

"What is going on?" Kyle demanded.

"I'll tell you en route. Now come on!" Luke began pushing his way through the assembled officers, who wavered on the verge of breaking formation on their own. Kyle watched with suspicion and shock as his fellow rebel ran straight to Darth Vader.

"The yards are compromised," Vader said as around them explosions marked turbolaser hits. "Even if we make a defensive deployment, by the time our ships are in a position to fight back, the yards will be destroyed."

"Then we have to evacuate all the personnel and resources we can," Luke said.

"I agree. This is Katarn?"

Kyle blanched before Vader's attention. Luke nodded. "He is strong in the force," Vader said. "You have chosen well." To Kyle, he said, "Do not fear us, Katarn. We came to this place to collect you."

"Collect me for what?"

"To save the galaxy," Luke said. "Come on, Han and Leia are on Vader's ship. We also have an encoded communiqué from Mon Mothma authorizing your transfer."

"Luke, this is got to be a trick."

A brief wind whipped past them as an adjoining nodule blew up, resulting in a momentary loss of air pressure. "Maybe," Luke said, "but the alternative is to die here. The Ori do not take prisoners."

Kyle glanced back, and finally threw his hands in the air. "Ahhh Sithspit! All right, let's go!"

Vader lingered and motioned for the frightened administrator to come. "Abandon the yards," Vader ordered. "All personnel and material are to make their way to my fleet. The yards are lost."

The administrator nodded and ran to execute the orders.

The shuttle emerged from the hangar as around them thousands of TIE fighters tried to defend the station. Against capital ships, though, the fighters stood little chance. One of the destroyers did erupt in an orange ball of flame out under concentrated fire from a squadron of gunboats flanked by hundreds of TIE fighters, but the rest of the hundreds of destroyers continued their relentless pounding unaffected by the tiny fighter ships.

"Do we fight or run?" Luke said to Vader while Kyle sat nearby, staring at a beautiful red-head in a trim officer's uniform.

"So, come here often?" Kyle said.

Mara rolled her eyes. "If you're the best the rebellion could offer up, we're doomed."

Ignoring the exchange between his apprentice and Katarn, Vader nodded thoughtfully. "Those ships are elements from Grand Admiral Thrawn's fleet that was at Coruscant when it fell. If we don't destroy them, they will go after Kuat next. We can't afford to loose all our production facilities. We must destroy them."

"One hundred destroyers will take a toll," Luke said.

"We will win the day," Vader said. "But there will be losses."

The shuttle reached one of the smaller hangars of the Executor and came to a stop. "Kyle," Luke said, "stay with Mara here. Mara, please get him to Leia."

Mara opened her mouth, then closed it and nodded. "Mara, huh?" Kyle said. "So what do you do around here, Mara?"

"I kill idiots," she snapped back. "Come on, idiot. The little princess is waiting."

"You wish to fly in combat?" Vader asked as he watched their newest recruit move out.

"I do. I've had some…success in commanding squadrons during combat."

"I remember," Vader said, thinking back to the first Death Star. "I have had the same success. The Force not only influences the weak minded, but with a Jedi to lead, can strengthen and organize minds. You may go. I'll have Piett load a transponder ID to your Astromech droid with a CAG ID. The pilots will follow your orders."

Luke looked up to see Han running toward him with Chewie a step behind. "We're launching Rogue and Green squadrons," he said. "We've already got the ID codes loaded. You going out, kid?"

"Yes. I'll lead the Imperial pilots, you can take the Alliance ships."

And pre-battle planning was over. Vader watched the two go and felt little surprise at the presence beside him. He looked down to see Princess Leia standing beside him. "I took the liberty of reviewing General Solo's Naval academy record," he told her.

Leia glanced up at the creature who used to be her father and said: "Yes?"

"Perhaps my judgment was premature," Vader admitted. "Insubordination aside, he won several commendations for outstanding performance and graduated valedictorian of the academy."

Although she would never have admitted it, she did not know much about Han's days in the academy. She knew he'd gone, but not much more than that. She felt a spark of pride that her love had shown such potential early on. "He is a natural leader."

"Indeed. Come with me to the bridge."

"Is that an order?" Leia flared.

"My vocoder does not project inflection well, Princess. It was an offer, so you could view the combat. I sense that you wish to be out there."

She did, but she was practical enough to know her talents were not in piloting or navigating ships. She could if pressed, but in open combat it was better to leave such roles to those trained for them. "Thank you, I will," she said at last.

On the bridge, Vader led her to a massive strategic display of the battle. The shipyards were already almost completely destroyed and debris was becoming a real hazard to the smaller ships.

Piett was already at the display, relaying orders. Vader reviewed the display. "You are using a defensive deployment," Vader said.

"Until your return, Lord Vader," Piett said. "Until I received orders, I felt the preservation of assets was of primary importance."

"Very well. We will use our numerical superiority to overwhelm and destroy the enemy ships. Deploy half the fleet through the asteroid field to flank the enemy and prevent escape. Group the destroyers together in sets of five for each enemy vessel and concentrate all fire. Increase the groupings with each enemy craft destroyed. The Executor will handle the nearest ship alone."

"Very well, Lord Vader." Piett nodded and turned to issue the orders.

"Will there by any danger of friendly fire?" Leia said.

"Almost certainly," Vader said. "We've altered our transponder ID codes to identify friend or foe, but those fighters who rely primarily on line of sight may not see such codes. It is the best we can do, however."

Luke's X-wing fighter soared out of the hangar at the same time as the Millennium Falcon. Nearby Luke could see the X-wings of Rogue squadron and the A-wings of Green Squadron waiting for Han to lead them. It was, Luke knew, the only way Han knew how to lead.

Luke thumbed his comm. "To all Imperial craft, this is General Luke Skywalker. I am taking command of all fighter craft. I am sending command codes now. Space wing commanders, report."

The wing commanders, after verifying Luke's ID codes, quickly reported in. Unlike Alliance squads, each Imperial space wing consisted of a hundred squadrons of a hundred TIEs. A full wing could have many hundreds of squadrons. Fifty wing commanders reported in. The numbers were greater than anything Luke had ever worked with, and he briefly wondered how the Alliance was able to even challenge such numbers.

"All space wings, your orders are the complete destruction of the tainted vessels. Any ship that escapes presents a continuing threat. Form up by wing, paint your target, and concentrate all fire on that target until destroyed. I am painting target identified a as 84." Luke quickly scrolled through the different groups and immediately saw a group that had lost its commander and senior squadron pilot, as well as a third of its ships. "Sontag Group, with me. All other space groups break and pick your targets. 'Ware the Alliance ships, they're with us."

"This is Solo. Roger that. Rogue and Green squadrons are painting target identified as 94." One by one, the other air groups picked their targets, and battle was joined.

Vader listened to the exchange on the bridge. The whole ship shuddered as weapons opened fired up. Instantly, Luke's voice rang out. "All ships clear for capital barrage. Stay clear of those torpedoes!"

The Executor and the other ships of the fleet had opened up all guns, and at the same time launched a barrage of torpedoes that slammed into the superstructures of the first enemy vessels.

Vader pointed to one line of small blips hovering around an enemy destroyer, doing significant damage. "That is Luke's group. Notice how all the fighters fly in perfect formation with him. They have not lost a fighter since he assumed direct command. That is the effect of a Jedi commander."

Mara emerged on the deck with Kyle a step behind. "There you are," Mara muttered. "Here's your spy." She left Kyle's side and moved to her master's. Kyle gave Leia a quick hug. "I wish I knew what the hells was going on here," he said.

"We've formed an Alliance with the remnants of the Empire to fight the Ori," Leia said. "Even Mon Mothma realized the Ori were the greater threat."

"Then what's all this about the Jedi?"

"We think the Jedi are the best bet to fight the Priors who serve the Ori. And you, Kyle, are force sensitive. So congratulations, you've been drafted into the first class of a Jedi academy."

Just then, the destroyer Luke had targeted went up in flames. "Luke is making quick work of his targeted vessels," Vader noted. Even with the vocoder, Leia thought she detected a hint of pride in the words.

"I'm still getting used to this," Kyle whispered to Leia, "but why is Darth Vader talking about Luke like they're best friends?"

"It must be a father-son thing," Leia whispered back conspiratorially. "I'm proud of him too, but then he's my brother, so what can you expect?"

Kyle straightened and stared at her, then at Vader. Finally on Mara. "I asked; and no, I'm not related," she said.

In the thick of the battle, another enemy destroyer went up in flames. "Target destroyed," Han whooped into his comm. "Give me a head count, squadron leaders!"

"All accounted for," Wedge said. Green Squadron reported the same. "Okay, folks, moving on!"

"All squadrons," a voice from the command ship interrupted their signals, "enemy ships are launching ties. You've got company."

In moments, swarms of TIEs began firing on each other. "This isn't going to work," Luke realized. "Han, you with me?"

"Yeah?"

"I need the Rogues and Green squadrons to concentrate on space superiority. Interceptor wings 14 and 23, you are to join the Alliance vessels. General Solo will command. All other wings, continue on your painted targets."

Instantly, two hundred TIE Interceptors fell in formation on either side of Wedge Antille's X-wing fighters and the smaller, more agile A-wing fighters behind the Millennium Falcon. "This is something I never thought I would see," Han muttered. "All right, all ships pick a wingman, break formation and fire at will. We're here to keep the enemy occupied. Let's give them a run for their money."

Watching the strategic display, even Leia was impressed at how Han piloted his old freighter through the battle as if flying a nimble fighter. "General Solo has made some modifications to that ship," Vader noted.

"And we added a heavier weapons package in the Alliance," Leia admitted.

"He's good," Kyle admitted. "But look what Skywalker is doing. How is he keeping every ship in formation like that? Not even TIE pilots are that good."

"He is a Jedi," Vader said. "He is directing the actions of his men, guiding them where they need to go. He may not even be aware he is doing it. Such is the power of the Force."

The other half of the fleet assumed its position on the other side of the enemy ships, and soon the two sides started making quick work of the enemy caught between their pincers. Piett returned to the strategic display console and bowed. "Overwhelming victory," Piett said. "We have not lost a single ship, and only three report damage of any consequence. We have lost perhaps two hundred TIEs, but we will be receiving at least a thousand from Seinar that managed to launch. Plus a significant amount of new personnel."

"The battle is not over, Admiral," Vader said. Only a dozen or so enemy destroyers remained, and those were already failing under the combined barrage of Vader's fleet.

Piett blinked. "My lord, I don't understand. Our sensors can detect no other enemy vessels."

That's when Leia felt it as well, a feeling in the force almost as if a hole had been ripped in it, sucking the Force itself away. "Priors."

Just then, five Prior ships emerged from whatever plane of existence they used to break beyond the barriers of light and time. The moment they emerged, thick beams of white light burst from the noses of the otherwise featureless ships.

Five of Vader's destroyers died. The beams punched through the ray shields of the doomed vessels with ease, burning through the superstructure to the massive hypermatter reactors that powered the vessels. "Sithspit," Kyle muttered in awe.

Piett ran back to his post. "All vessels regroup, all fighters return to your berths. All ships, open fire on the Ori vessels."

Turbolasers opened up en masse against the five Ori ships. Those ships returned fire, and instantly five more star destroyers died. "Those things are like tiny Death Stars," Kyle said.

"We just lost 100,000 men," Vader said. "Admiral, deploy shield buster torpedoes."

"At once, Lord," Piett said.

The shield buster torpedoes themselves were almost as large as the ships they were fired upon. The massive weapons streaked through the stars nestled within a rain of turbolaser bolts. It was the same type of barrage used to crack planetary shielding. Five torpedoes, launched in a staggered wave, impacted the Prior ships. On either side of the Executor other star destroyers launched their torpedoes as five more star destroyers died.

The torpedoes delivered an impressive payload on the order of several thousand gigatons of explosive force directed by concussive wave generators into a focused area at the tip of the torpedo of not more than two square meters. Because the attack was based on kinetic concussive force as well as energy-based, the Ori ships were unable to distribute the force like they did with the superlaser of the Death Star. Even so, the ships took the torpedoes without pausing. Only when the second staggered wave hit did the center ship falter. Whatever energy field the Prior's used as shielding cracked over the center shield upon the first torpedo hit of the second wave. With the next five, the shielding collapsed. Even as the Ori ships fired five more beams, four hundred and twenty three direct hits by the main guns of the Executor and its escorts slammed into the unshielded hulls of the Prior ships, reducing them all to vapor.

The last five star destroyers were struck only by abbreviated beams, which even then were strong enough to punch through the ray shields and into the superstructure.

Piett walked back to the strategic display. "Fifteen ships destroyed, two more damaged beyond repair. Three damaged but repairable."

"Just like our last encounter with the Ori," Vader said.

"Yes, Lord."

Vader turned to Kyle. "This, Katarn, is why I am working with the Rebel Alliance, and why they are working with me. In a four minute engagement, I lost almost half a million men and seventeen ships. And for all my losses, the losses to the civilians on Ori-controlled planets is a thousand-fold."

"Well," Kyle said, "you certainly got my attention."

Thanks for reading. DM