Chapter 20

Mygeeto—it was cold, it was bleak, and it was boring, unless you paid attention to the continued wail of blaster fire being exchanged between the forces under my command and those of the New Republic. Artillery cannons fired from both sides in the distance. Each side tried to take out the other's command centre with long range artillery strikes and bombing runs, only to be met by ray shields that negated such damage.

My own forces were holed up on the edge of the city, using abandoned and ruinous buildings for cover as we slowly pushed the advance.

Zak had tasked me personally with this mission. He said that there was a pair of Jedi on Mygeeto leading the Republic's defence of the system, and that I was needed to negate that advantage. With me, I'd brought one of our Dark Disciples—a Besalisk female strong in the dark side called Detraxi Lorn. She was currently holed up in safety within the command hub set up by the True Sith forces far outside the city.

If she was doing what she'd been brought to do, Detraxi Lorn would have been deep in meditation, negating the battle-enhancement meditations set up by the senior of the Jedi working with the Republic. If she was not, I would kill her. It was that simple.

I, meanwhile, had other issues to deal with. I was leading Sith'ari Squad, circling around to the left flank of the Republic's defences in order to try and catch them in a crossfire. According to that plan, my most trusted military commander, General Farran of what had once been the Galactic Empire, would be taking her own squads around the other side of the Republic forces to further complicate that crossfire.

The plan was of my own making, and as such there were no flaws. But that wasn't stopping my caution. I had to always be on guard in case one or both of the Jedi did something unexpected to ruin the plan.

My comm. bleeped and I plucked it from my belt, slammed down on the transmitter and frowned as I said, "What is it?"

"General Farran here, My Lady," the gruff voice returned. "I apologise for the unscheduled communication during a communication blackout, but we're in position and my scouts have reported some movement and reshuffling in the Republic's ranks on the edge of the city."

Without a word, I snapped my fingers at the nearest black-armoured trooper and he handed me a set of macrobinoculars without a word. I didn't really need them, but it would take too much concentration to use the Force to get a closer angle with my naked eyes, and I was too busy shielding my location from the Jedi to divide my attention thus.

I looked through the macrobinoculars and could see almost instantly what Farran was talking about. Scout positions were pulling back, and the tank division on my side of the city was grinding away from us in the direction of the command hub I knew was at the far end of the city.

"Captain," I said slowly, looking up to the rooftops nearest us.

"Yes, My Ladyship?" the even-toned voice of Captain Blythe replied from over my left shoulder.

"Does that look to you like they're redeploying their sniper positions to meet Farran's flank?" I asked, frowning. She had better not given away her position so early.

There was a moment's pause as Blythe peered through his own macrobinoculars to assess the situation for himself. When he'd had sufficient time to do so, he lowered his binoculars and looked to her. "Yes it does, My Lady," he said with a frown. "Surely the General wouldn't be so careless?"

"The General's defiant streak is legendary, Captain," I said. I pursed my lips in irritation. It wasn't so much defiance that Farran had been known for. It was that she often disobeyed the direct orders of both myself and my husband in favour of tactics that had proven to work to about an equal level of effect.

"Perhaps she noticed something we didn't," Blythe offered uncertainly. I wasn't convinced.

I hammered the transceiver on my comm. unit and simultaneously reached out with the Force to find the rogue General. "Farran!" I hissed, angry. "Explain your failure to maintain covert movements until we were in position! The Republic is redeploying their snipers to counter your position!"

Concentrating hard on the General, I applied a small level of pressure to her. I heard, briefly, gagging and gasping over the link before she released the transceiver. I held the pressure against the General's throat for a minute or two, imagining her going blue in the face with the lack of oxygen. Then I released her, and breathed a sign of disdain as I waited for a reply.

"I …" The General stopped, hacked a cough, then continued. "We're not out of position, My Lady. I have followed your orders to the letter!"

"Well, that makes for a remarkable change," I muttered, making sure she could hear me over the comm. Though she did not reply to my statement, I had a clear image in my mind of the General grinding her teeth at the accusation. "If you had followed my orders, to the letter, General, there would not be Republic forces moving to counter your impending attack."

Blythe made as though to speak and I ignored the comm. device in favour of his counsel. "My Lady," he started carefully, "perhaps the General is doing as you ordered. Perhaps the reasons behind the Republic movements are something we aren't considering."

"Like what, Captain?"

"There are two Jedi with the detachment in the city. Is it not possible one of them foresaw the coming crossfire and is taking steps to defend against it?" Blythe paused, frowned as something occurred to him. "But then, why aren't they moving to counter our position as well?"

"I'm using the Force to shield my presence from them. Entirely possible there's a bleed-over onto the rest of the squad."

"They might not know we're here? Wouldn't this work to our advantage? With the snipers deploying to the other side of the city and the armour moving around to protect the Republic's command hub, that leaves their left flank open to attack."

When the Captain's plan occurred to me as well, I nodded to him. "Have a jetpack-fitted squad get up onto those rooftops immediately. Lead them personally, Captain. I want a half-dozen snipers up there pinging the Republic snipers at once."

"And the rest of the regiment, My Lady?"

"Once you signal to me that the snipers have been taken care of, we'll be moving on the city. General Farran can serve her purpose as a decoy. She'll draw Republic forces away from us and into the areas they wouldn't otherwise defend."

"Very good, My Lady," Blythe said. He dipped his head, replaced his helmet, and shot off into the air to get to his troopers at the back of the regiment.

I was sitting there for another hour before Blythe radioed to tell me that the Republic snipers had been felled. I reacted on instinct. As his leader, I didn't have to respond to his report anyway. But even if I'd had to, I wouldn't have. I ordered the charge, and watched as waves of black-armoured foot soldiers poured over the barricades and headed into the city, keeping as low as was practical.

The idea was not to give away the charge until the last moment, when we were already penetrating the city and taking out their advance defences. Farran had been ordered to hold her position and deploy some light artillery and scouting to draw the Republic closer to her. She wasn't happy, but I didn't care. She would do as she was told or she would die. I was in no mood to deal with her nonsense.

When my forces hit the outer edge of the city, I took off. I sprinted as fast as the Force would allow across the ruined terrain between our advance post and the edge of the city. Not until I reached its outermost limits did I pluck my lightsaber from my belt and flick the blade to life.

A Republic regular stepped in front of me to halt my charge, bringing a blaster rifle up to bear. I pivoted when I reached him, slicing clean through the barrel of his rifle and melting it to uselessness. Then I spun the blade around my fingers and plunged it deep into the trooper's chest. He gasped, dropped his ruined blaster, and went limp on the end of my weapon. I pulled it out of him sideways, finishing the job beyond hope of repair, and continued my charge on.

Death surrounded me on all sides. My True Sith forces, the Republic's army; many of them were dying as they encountered each other. Light and heavy artillery shells slammed into the overhead ray shields that had protected the city from bombardments, but not from foot entry. Blasters were being fired from every vantage point, into every other point. Men in greys and browns were felled by men in black cortosis. Men in black cortosis were felled similarly by those men in greys and browns.

I drew heavily on the Force, sucking up all of the death, all of the pain, all of the fear. It made me stronger. I fed from it, like any good Sith would.

There was an enraged scream somewhere to my right, followed by a rocket shooting from a shoulder-mounted launcher. I heard the explosion, felt the death, but it was all out of regular sight.

Another couple of Republic troopers came at me, this time from either side as I passed a large, carved pillar that had been felled.

I swatted their clumsy blaster fire out of the way lazily and reached out to the one on my left with the Force and an outstretched hand. I gripped him tightly around the neck, flicked forcefully until I heard the snap, and then tossed him across to his companion on my right. The two collided and went down to the ground, but not before the living one fired a dozen shots into his dead companion in a foolish attempt to stop the advance.

As he struggled to push the dead trooper off him, I approached him quickly, gripped my lightsaber in the backhand, and stabbed it down through the both of them. I withdrew my lightsaber and held it steady as I stepped over the two of them and continued on.

I encountered only minimal resistance as I continued on to the command hub; most of the fighters were being intercepted by my own troops and eliminated.

When I reached the building, I deactivated and belted my lightsaber and touched a finger to my left temple as I concentrated on the interior of the building, ascertaining threats. There were a handful of soldiers in the lobby—most of them toting blaster rifles, one with a pair of holdout blasters who was probably the leader, and another with a repeater cannon. All of them were training their sights on the door, and not one of them exuded even a hint of fear.

I smiled. I'll fix that, I thought to myself gleefully.

I lowered my hands to my sides and reached out for the Force. I drew on as much dark side energies as I could, focussing the power down my arms, channelling it into my palms. Then I thrust out to the solid durasteel door with both hands and unleashed the gathered power. Though the assault was invisible to the eye, the result was not.

The doors buckled and snapped off their hinges, flying inwards and smashing loudly into walls within the foyer. I heard the distinct squishing sound of an unfortunate someone being caught between the door and the wall and grinned as I drew and activated my lightsaber once more and darted into the building.

The Republic soldiers, now only mildly fearful, thought they could be clever and catch me in a crossfire. Unfortunately for them, they severely underestimated my abilities.

I spun to the left, cleaving a man in two with a rapid flourish of my lightsaber while reaching for his companion and tossing him over my shoulder. With that one down, and two temporarily engaged in disentangling themselves and getting back to their feet, I turned to the next nearest: the repeater-wielder. He hammered down on the trigger and a rapid series of blaster fire screamed through the air at my chest. I flourished once, twice, and sent all the bolts away from me and into the walls or floor.

The soldier grunted irritation, took a step back and pulled back on the trigger. I reached out with the Force a split-second before the weapon fired and spun the weapon around in his grasp. The barrels, now aimed directly at his face, spewed forth with green ionised energy and the man was lifted off his feet at the force of having his head blown apart by the assault.

"Charlei!" someone behind me shouted.

I spun, dashed across the space. I hand-sprung over some low blaster fire, and came down feet first on the chest plate of a Republic soldier. He tried to raise his weapon but I kicked it aside and severed his head from his shoulders before turning again.

The two that had collided due to my efforts were free from each other now. They were half-hidden behind an overturned marble table, their blasters over the edge training on me.

I paused for an instant just to consider my situation. With four of the elites down—and I had to assume they were elite if facing me brought only the slightest touch of fear to their minds—I was sure the others would have scampered. I'd expected them to regroup with the Jedi on the upper levels. I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't. When they all died here, that left less competent resistance between me and the Jedi.

I hissed as a stray blaster bolt singed the outside of my leg, and lashed out with a steady crackle of lightening from my fingertips at the offending soldier. Within seconds, the man was convulsing on the floor, containing his agonised screams quite well as the after-effects set in.

The other two renewed their assault on me, and I caught another blaster bolt to the shoulder, and a third passed through my hair. Miraculously, my hair didn't catch fire. That would have been more than I needed. But I felt the heat sear my scalp as the bolt passed within microns of it. I leapt in the air and flung myself into a whirlwind of motion. When I came down between the two, I was spinning so fast they couldn't move away fast enough. My lightsaber sliced through them both multiple times, cutting their midsections into even slices that fell to the floor one at a time.

With the temporary lull, I checked my wounds to make sure that they weren't too severe. I had a bacta injector in a pouch on my belt, but I wouldn't need it. The pain would fuel the dark side coursing within me. It would give me the strength I needed to kill both of the pitiful Jedi here on Mygeeto.

I took the time to retie my hair on the ascent through the building, however, to cover the chunk that had been seared from the mess during my incursion.

Two hours later, and the battle was still raging. The first of the Jedi had been dealt with, and I had gained another scar to wear as a badge of honour. The Jedi Master, a Barabel by the name of Saba Sebatyne, had been a difficult opponent to fight. She moved in ways that I hadn't been expecting, and easily broke my defensive circles more than once.

But now that she was out of the way, I had only one more obstacle in my path. It would be easy. Even as wounded as I was, there was no challenge in taking on this young apprentice.

The boy paled when I stepped out of the lift to the renewed sounds of battle raging throughout the city around the building. He was a few years younger than I. With short, dark hair and piercing blue eyes full of fear and determination, he looked the sort I might have killed at a Jedi academy, rather than here in the thick of battle.

"You have no business here, darksider!" the boy hissed at me. I kept my lightsaber in hand, but deactivated for now. "Leave now, and take your army back to the pits of Mustafar that spawned you."

I bared my teeth and hissed at him. "Your Republic will bow before the True Sith, or you will be swept aside to make way for the new order!"

"Your 'order' is a joke!" the boy quipped. I fought to reign in my temper and avoid responding to his taunts. I vowed I would not let myself ever fall prey to the same trap that had destroyed Mara Jade on Yavin 4 so long ago now. "The Sith will never rule this galaxy."

"We will, if we have to slaughter every last Jedi to do it!" I responded hotly. "Actually, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea …"

I flicked my lightsaber to life, and the boy did so as well. I took a step to my right, and he did the same to keep the distance between us the same. We circled like this for a minute, glaring hatefully into each others' eyes, before the boy made his first mistake.

He lashed out, sending forth a wave of the Force to throw me off-balance. Then he followed right behind it with a charge, his lightsaber extended. I shoved off the weak attack and battered his lightsaber down to pierce the floor as he whipped past me, overshooting his target. Laughing, I kicked the back of his ankle to trip him up. He stumbled a handful of steps before righting himself against a guard rail and turning to me again.

"I give you this chance again," the boy started. "Take your army and leave."

"And I give you this one chance;" I started in reply, "join us or die!" I dashed forward, slashing at him left-to-right with my lightsaber, and then right-to-left. He backed away a handful of steps and spun his lightsaber artfully around his fingers before coming at me swinging once more.

We traded blows for a time, and the youngster even managed to gain ground on me a few times. I berated myself harshly for those times; there was no way he would have had I been at peak performance. But I couldn't say that my failings were because of the battles I'd fought to get here, including the duel with this whelp's teacher. I could not make excuses. A Sith would never make excuses. A Sith would remain strong and accept their faults, turn them into advantages.

And I did succeed in that regard a few times.

The boy hand-flipped backwards away from me and planted his feet firmly on the slanted plexiglass wall of the room. Just as he was building up his calves for a leap from that position, I drove my lightsaber into the glass by his feet, and then touched it gently with my palm near that point. The entire glass shattered outwards with explosive force, and the boy lost his footing.

He fell—

"Will you just die already!" I snarled, looking down at the Jedi to see him hanging by a single hand by the window frame. His fingers began to slip, and he swung his other arm and grasped at the durasteel to secure a better grip.

"Not …" The Jedi paused, breathing heavily. "Not on your life!"

"Fine!" I slashed at his exposed fingers with my lightsaber. I missed.

The boy refocussed the Force energies he'd been gathering in his calves to his biceps and forearms instead. He pulled himself up with such force that he shot up and over my head, landing firmly on the deck a few meters away from me. It was then I noticed that he had lost his lightsaber in the almost-fall.

"Give it up, child," I said softly. I pointed my lightsaber to the floor as I gained a step on him. "You cannot beat me. And you have less than a fighting chance without your weapon."

The boy realised this as well; I could see the defeat in his eyes. But I knew that he wouldn't just give up. He would fight me, and, if possible, take me down with him. I remained cautious of traps, wary of deception.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"I am your doom," I hissed. I was upon him before he could react, my lightsaber sunken deep into the young whelp's gut almost to the hilt. Looking over his shoulder, I could see the crimson blade sticking out from his lower back.

It gave me a kind of pleasure—two Jedi in one day. I hadn't felt this good since the day of Mara Jade's death.

"When you become one with the Force," I whispered into his ear, "tell your loved ones that Jaina Solo sent you."

I took a step back, withdrawing my blade and watching as he fell to his knees pitifully. He looked up at me then, and the look I saw in his eyes stopped my heart cold.

He wasn't in pain, he wasn't even angry that I had killed him. But neither was he at peace. He looked … sad, and it was so similar a look to one I had seen in the mirror more than once.

"Sister …" he gasped.

And then he was gone.