I'm glad to see people are still enjoying the story.
On a less happy note, I did have to delete one anonymous review (who isn't as anonymous as he might think) from a person who has actually been flaming me on three different sites for some reason. One site's moderators even had to take action against him, which is somewhat sad. However, it was for this very reason that I set up a forum for GOD&L here on so if anyone would like to lambaste the stand-alone sequal to GOD&L called Heaven Falls, feel free to do it there. However, complaints or spoilers about the sequel are not really appropriate in these chapters because this is not the sequel, this is Gods of Dark and Light.
Sorry for that. Hope it doesn't interfere with anyone's enjoyment of the story.
Questions asked:
1) No Dakara device. It is integrated into the Stargate system and no gates were originally established in the GFFA. The supergate components arrived through conventional trans-galactic hyperdrive. It would have been cool, but its not in here.
2) Ori vs. Vong? The Ori are virtually gods (hence my title). The Jedi are able to fight them for a couple of reasons I specify through the story, but the Ori truly are gods. They can kill and then reanimate in the same breath through their Priors. In an all out fight, the Vong would get slaughtered. They would put up a fight, of course, but the Vong have no answer to the Priors.
3) Will Vong be in this story? Nope. Good idea, but the Yuuzhan Vong war occurs between GODL and Heaven Falls, so I never address it except in the occasional flashback.
4) Does this mean the Ascended can control the whole Force? Good question. The ascended of the GFFA (at least in this story) are for the most part Jedi, with an occasional non Jedi thrown in. I'm not sure what exactly that means for the Force, though, since the Ascended beings are described as being in a different dimension. I believe it is implied in Stargate that each galaxy has its own set of higher beings (Merlin's weapon being safe in the Ori's galaxy but not safe to the Ancients in ours, etc.).
Well, thank you for the great comments and reviews. I may have to slow down to one post every two days or so, but I'm still going to try and get this story posted completely as soon as possible. Enjoy!
DM
Chapter Twenty: Into the Gundark's Den
"This was a stupid idea, Skywalker," Mara Jade said. The two sat in a modified TIE Avenger just outside the Ort cloud of the Corellian System. The rest of the fleet was on the other side of the galaxy.
"It was your choice," Luke pointed, trying his best to center himself. "But my father was right—we do need intelligence, and your knowledge of old imperial codes makes you the perfect team member. And for some reason, you refused Kyle, who I admit would have been an even better infiltrator than I would have."
The thought of having to share close quarters with the arrogant Kyle Katarn was enough to set her teeth on edge. So, she flew instead with the less arrogant but no less irritating Luke Skywalker. "Kyle wanted to go on his own mission anyway," she said.
She sat in the pilot's see of a new hyper-drive enabled TIE variant with greater armament and shielding. And, in the case of this ship, a second seat. "So, if these Ori are ascended beings, won't they be able to spot us and swat us like bugs?"
"I don't think so. In all of our dealings, the priors reacted to us only after we showed ourselves. If may be that we are as much a blind spot to them as the priors are to us in the Force."
"Or they might have been playing with us hoping we'd be stupid enough to try and infiltrate their forces. We don't even know if the FOF tag will work. We might set off every alarm they have."
"We went over this, Mara," Luke said. "The Corellian resistance had several people placed in key places through the fleet. The FOF tag should work. If not, we're in the fastest TIE fighter ever designed. We'll just turn around and leave."
"And you're sure my skills are the only reason you wanted to go on a solo mission with me?"
Luke heard everything intended in the question. "Remember, you chose me, Mara. But even if it were my choice, and even if I had no feelings in the matter at all, I would have chosen you as a partner. You are a brilliant tactician and as skilled a fighter as any I've seen, and with your background you are uniquely qualified to get us in and out. You were the only person I could have chosen. You are more important to this mission than I am."
"Just seems convenient," she said.
"The Force moves us all in mysterious ways. Now, let's not keep them waiting," Luke said.
Puffing a strand of red hair from her eyes, Mara pulled the hyperdrive throttle, and the stars around the Avenger blurred, swirled, and then jolted back into place amid the howls of alarms.
"Interdiction field!" Mara cried. "The motivator's blown!"
"Where's the interdictor cruiser?" Luke asked.
"Nowhere. The field appears to by system wide!"
"What?!" Luke asked, momentarily startled out of any semblance of Jedi calm. "What can generate a field that large?"
"Do we really need to guess?" Her skilled hands guided the tumbling TIE back into even flight. "Selonia is the outermost of the habitable planets, and we're only a few million klicks from it. We can make it sublight in just a few days."
"Then let's go."
The days passed in silence. All attempts by Luke to strike up a conversation fell on Mara's deaf ears. Eventually, he stopped trying and chose instead to meditate. It was on the third day of his meditations that their comm unit beeped at them. "Unknown TIE, identify yourself."
The voice shocked Luke into consciousness even as Mara answered. "This is Flight 93-4052 from the Courageous."
"The Courageous was destroyed two days ago."
"I know, I was there," Mara said, nothing bothering to hide her contempt. "Standing orders in the event of defeat was for all personnel to return to nearest Ori-loyal Imperial beacon."
"Acknowledged," the voice said. "Proceed on current course for intercept."
"Well, the cover story seems to be working. There it is," Luke said, pointing. Mara fallowed the direction of his finger and saw it. The planet Selonia appeared in the distance as a brighter than average star; much closer they could see an Imperial-class Star Destroyer quickly approaching.
"Well, here we go," Mara said.
The average Imperial-II class Star Destroyer had a crew of over 37,000 men and enough armaments to, in and of itself, invade or destroy an entire planet. The dual purposes of battleship and carrier made the star destroyers among the most lethal war machines ever devised by the Empire, or the Republic before it. One did not just walk onto a star destroyer.
Mara knew this. She had been on more destroyers than she could remember. So it should not have come as any surprise that upon opening the hatch on her TIE, she was met by an entire squadron of storm troopers with their blaster rifles pointed directly at her head.
"Dismount your ship and stand at attention, pilot," a young lieutenant standing beside the stormtroopers ordered. Mara slowly dismounted and snapped to attention.
"Remove your flight helmet."
She complied, and hid a grin at the officer's shocked expression. Female pilots were few and far between. "Name and designation?"
"Lieutenant Arica Mar, Designation CO-8555-435-23322A."
"Your ship has been reconfigured. Explain?"
"Scouting mission, sir! My navigator is inside awaiting orders."
"Then get him out here!"
Luke climbed out, also in a flight helmet, and slowly climbed down the ladder to stand beside Mara. "Navigator First Class Lars Jansen, CE-8555-434-89147A, reporting as ordered, sir!"
"Come with me, now," the lieutenant ordered.
Mara and Luke fell in behind him, striding down the standard imperial halls. Both hid their sense of shock when they saw the bulky metal armor and staves of Ori troopers walking side-by-side with Imperial stormtroopers in the hallways.
"Enter this room for debriefing," the lieutenant said. "Failure to cooperate will result in your immediate execution."
"Understood, sir!" Mara said, snapping a stiff salute.
They entered the small room and then turned as the door slid shut and locked behind them. Both could sense they were under observation, and so knew to stay under cover, talking about how it had been two days since they had bathed, and how much they looked forward to rejoining the fight.
A little later, a man with thinning hair wearing a primitive woven robe stepped into the room and motioned the two to sit. He appeared to be in his fifties, and looked as human as either of them. "Hallowed are the Ori," he intoned.
"Hallowed are the Ori," Luke and Mara both responded quickly.
"Tell me about the Courageous." the man said without any further preamble.
They told their agreed upon story, most of it true. Three Alliance capital ships had stumbled by accident onto the Ori-loyal vessel in the Cho'orti System and when the Courageous refused to acknowledge friend or foe signals, the ships engaged. The Alliance was victorious.
"We were testing a modification of the TIE Avenger as an advanced scout ship when the battle happened. We engaged as many of the enemy as possible, but when our capital ship was destroyed, I made the command decision to return to the nearest Imperial beacon," Mara finished.
"What was the Courageous doing at Cho'orti?"
"I do not know, sir," Mara said before Luke could make a guess. "We were not told the overall mission priorities, only our immediate assignment."
"As it should be," the man said with a nod. "And you and your navigator have found the Path of Origin?"
"We have only begun to walk it," Luke said suddenly. "We know it is the only true path to Ascension, and that we must serve and worship the Ori, but I still know so little. Are you the teacher for this ship?"
Mara tried to hide her shock at how smooth Luke's lies were, but the man nodded with an appreciative smile on his face. "Indeed I am. The Priors of the Ori are few, and their tasks many. I have been given the great honor of leading the faithful on this great vessel, and I would be glad to show you the light."
"And could you also tell me what the great and mighty Ori plan to do in this system?"
Mara did not dare breathe. The Force was laced subtly through Luke's voice, enticing rather than compelling an answer.
The man blinked. "Why, they wish to harness the Holy Station in order to crush the unbelievers. And they soon shall. The Priors have already begun unlocking the secrets the Ori themselves built into the Holy Station, and in time, our enemies will be crushed!"
"And how many ships have the Holy Ori gathered in this system?"
"We have gathered fifty of the powerful Prior Ships, and another hundred Ori attack craft, in addition to Lord Jerec's entire fleet and the remnant Coruscant fleet. We have over ten thousand ships, enough to destroy our enemies even if they should bring the full force of their might against us."
With apparent fervor, Luke said: "Hallowed are the Ori!"
"Hallowed are the Ori," the man said with a beatific smile. He blinked, and sat back in his chair. "So, my young friends, tell me about the Courageous." The rest of the conversation proceeded as if the man had no memory of Luke's questions. In fact, he spoke solely to Mara as the ranking officer and seemed to forget Luke entirely. In time, completely satisfied that they were loyal members of the Ori forces, the two were released pending reassignment.
"Ten thousand is a lot more than our sources thought," Luke said as they stepped into the halls.
"Any chance he was lying?"
"None. He personally saw the assembled fleet as it was deployed—it was in his mind."
"So what do we do now?"
"We need to get to this 'Holy Station' and find out what they're trying to do with it."
"There's an interdiction field up through the whole system. It would take weeks at sublight to make it to Centerpoint."
"Not on an Ori vessel."
Mara stared. "You're not serious."
"We've studied their vessels and they use a different form of hyperdrive than we do. Much more powerful, must faster, and completely unaffected by gravitational distortion."
"And how do we get an Ori ship?"
"By duty rotation, of course."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Mara did not know how Luke was able to do it, but both of them were up for the next tour of duty on the Prior attack ship.
In their crisp imperial uniforms, they and a group of twenty other technicians were ordered to gather in an otherwise empty loading bay. Rather than meet a shuttle, Luke and Mara saw a bright flash of white light, followed by a ringing in their ears and a wave of nausea both fought down, and suddenly they were standing somewhere else.
And a prior stood just two meters away.
Mara fought an urge to panic, and instead hid her presence in the force using a Sith technique Anakin had taught her. Luke, having learned the same lesson did the same. Even to a Force adept, they appeared as ordinary people to the Force. They could only pray the technique worked on the priors.
"Hallowed are the Ori," the prior intoned.
The imperials responded in kind.
"The Ori give you their blessings for your devoted service to the Path of Origin. Be welcome on this craft, and be light of heart as you walk the path to glory." The prior nodded, turned and left the small, dimly lit room. In his stead was a thin man with wispy hair and pock-marked face. "Technicians and communications teams are with me. Pilots are to report to the docking bay for debrief."
By pilots, he meant Luke and Mara. As the rest if the imperials left, the two found themselves wondering the halls alone. They walked slowly as around them the halls seemed to echo with their footsteps.
"Not many people," Mara noted.
"No." Luke shook his head. "I need to remember not to use the Force. It's so tempting to reach out and sense the number of people on board."
After a few minutes of wondering, they ran across a soldier in the Ori armor with stave and asked for directions. The soldier smiled. "Of course, brothers," he said with what seemed like odd cheer. "Come, I'll take you."
And he did just that, leading them through the bowels of the ship until they reached the docking bay.
They were expecting TIE fighters. Instead, they saw row after row of large, coffin-shaped white craft unlike anything they had encountered in combat before. "Good luck, brothers," he said, obviously using the term in a broad sense. "Hallowed are the Ori."
Luke and Mara responded in kind, and then returned their attention to the ships. Afraid to speak lest they be overhead, they wandered slowly down the central aisle between the strange ships. Like the Ori destroyers that killed the Death Star, there were no visible weapons ports of any kind.
"Welcome, brothers!" a booming voice said from behind.
Both turned and saw a large man with thinning hair and a large stomach. "And a sister, as well," he said with obvious surprise. "I forget the brethren of this galaxy occasionally allow their women to fight."
Mara bristled and for a moment Luke feared for the other man's life. Instead, Jade snapped to attention. "Reporting for duty as ordered!"
"Very good, captain," the man said. "My name is Ronas. I have been tasked with training the brethren of this galaxy to fly the fighters. Few of the Ori's followers have the hand-eye coordination required for such a task."
"Yes, sir!" Mara snapped, still in military posture.
"Relax, Arica. And you must be Lars. We are here to learn and accept the path of Origin; all other things are mere formality. Now, come and I will show you the secrets of the fighters."
Despite their situation and the risk of imminent capture and death, Luke and Mara could not help but be fascinated by the ship. The technology of the Ori was the most advanced either of them had ever seen. The tiny craft had no visible means of propulsion, but rather zipped through space using some form of wave energy. Its inertial dampeners were so powerful the ship could accelerate faster than even an A-wing with not adverse affects to the pilots. Although its weapons arrays were invisible during flight, the craft had two pods that opened and fired a compressed burst of charged particles that pierced any known shielding or armor, just as the staves and the main weapons of the larger ships.
In all, it was a superior fighter to anything the Alliance could put in space. A single shot could take out even a fully shielded Y-wing fighter.
"Are there many pilots trained to fly this ships?" Luke asked.
"Sadly, no, or else our enemies would have been destroyed in greater number. You are but the first in a large number. In time, the ships of this galaxy will be abandoned and the gifts of the Ori will reduce the disbelievers to ashes. Even now, new ships are being built."
"Joyous news," Luke said with false fervor. "The power of the Ori is incredible. I've never seen such an awesome ship."
The back hatch swung shut as they lifted off. "And now you will show me your mastery of this ship, Lars. Take her out."
The controls of the craft operated on a level of symbiosis unlike anything Luke had ever encountered. He thought of what he needed, and the display appeared in the air before his eyes. His hands moved intuitively over the control panel, and with a minimum of effort or even thought, the tiny ship zoomed outside the field containing the air in the bay, and they were in free space.
"You are a talented pilot, I can see that already," Ronas said. He turned to Mara. "Do you have similar skill, young lady?"
"I'm twice the pilot he is."
Ronas laughed. "Perhaps. But this is the legendary Luke Skywalker, is it not? How could anyone be a greater pilot than the hero of the Battle of Yavin?"
Luke turned and stared while Mara's hand dipped toward a blaster that of course was not there.
"As I said before, relax," Ronas said. "My real name is Rond Olarin, formerly with CorSec. I was hoping they would get somebody in, but I wasn't expecting you. That was dangerous, to be honest. Your face, Mr. Skywalker, is somewhat well known amongst the Imperials."
"Couldn't be helped," Luke said. "Mara here didn't like our first choice."
Olarin turned to Mara. "I'm afraid I haven't heard about you. Oh well, we've been cut off from outside communication since the Ori arrived." He nodded to the controls. "These fighters are the only safe place to talk. The Priors can hear anything within the same atmosphere. And I mean that literally. They can be on the other side of the world and hear you whispering. But with a vacuum, for some reason, they can't hear a thing. And this particular fighter has no automated comm. unit. We can talk for a few minutes while you keep flying."
"Great," Mara said, suspicious but not yet ready to act on it. Trap or not, the man obviously knew who they were. "Are there really ten thousand ships?"
"Pretty close," Olarin said. "And they really are building new Ori ships. They've established shipyards on Drall and Selonia. They've enslaved both races to build them. Evidently, these Priors don't think much of non-humans. Like the Empire."
"And the interdiction field?" Luke asked.
"Centerpoint," Olarin confirmed. "They took it over the moment they took the system. In fact, they took it first, and then followed up with the planets. You know Corellia didn't do very well under the Empire. And with all the other more important systems falling, we knew we wouldn't get much in the way of help. So, CorSec ordered its agents and officers to go underground. We pay lip service to the Ori to prevent worse catastrophes from hitting the planet. But make no mistake, our people are suffering."
"The supreme commander described some of what is happening," Luke said.
"Supreme Commander? Last we heard, Darth Vader was running the Empire. Who's in charge now?"
Luke and Mara shared a look and realized he really had been cut off. They explained the current state of affairs in the galaxy at large. Olarin listened attentively. "So Vader's dead. And the Rebels essentially won. Hmmm, if only the Ori had come sooner. Still, that name, Anakin Skywalker. Any relation?"
"He's my father."
"Oh. And he's the Supreme Commander even though no one has seen or heard from him in twenty five years. Must be good to have inside contacts."
Luke heard the derision in the voice but chose to say nothing. Mara, on the other hand… "Luke was the hero of the Battle of Yavin, like you said. But Anakin Skywalker was the hero of the Clone Wars. Each earned their place."
"Of course," Olarin said, without further apology. "So, I take it you're both here to get to Centerpoint?"
"We have to drop the Interdiction Field somehow," Luke nodded.
"That's the place to do it," Olarin agreed. "I don't know how you'll do it, but that's the place."
"Does CorSec have assets in Centerpoint?"
"Of course," the spy said, managing to sound insulted at the idea of there not being assets.
"And will CorSec assist the Alliance?"
"That's a better question. If the Ori didn't have Centerpoint, would the Alliance have even bothered looking at Corellia?"
"General Solo has been drawing up plans to take back Corellia almost as soon as the Alliance was formed," Luke said. "I will admit Centerpoint made us move up the plan, but we would have attacked within twelve months no matter what."
Olarin snorted. "Yeah. Solo. A general. That's funny." He nodded to the controls. "We'd better head back. Jade, you wanna fly her back? After all, you're both going to have to be able to handle these things."
Luke and Mara exchanged places. Her hands moved with the same seeming familiarity as Luke's had. The controls were as perfectly laid out as either could imagine.
"So, will we receive CorSec support?" Luke pressed.
"Yeah, you'll get it. The contact's name on Centerpoint is Thracken. He's not CorSec; he was a former imperial. Not the nicest guy in the world. But he despises the Empire." Olarin thought a moment. "Oh yeah, one more thing. Better not mention 'General' Solo to him."
"Why's that?"
"He'd probably try and kill you. Those Solo cousins don't seem to get along very well."