Good afternoon, all of my followers and friends. What's going on since I last spoke with you a couple of hours ago on Saturday, August 11, 2018? I got a little nap in, which was convenient, considering that I have to go to work in less than two hours. I hope that this shift is easy, just like the last one, because there'll likely be many teenagers at my movie theater, and that will likely equal many messes for me and my fellow usher to clean up. Oh, and I just made it to page 199 of my current story on Word Document, and I've written over 94,000 words so far. It won't be long now. Well, the next chapter of my story will act a lot like the Corellian hovertrain mission in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, with some ship action in there to keep it interesting, and it'll have Hock's control chip extracted from his brain. Anyway, that's enough chatter, back to work for me.
(Sunday, August 12, 2018 Addendum.) Hey, guys. Sorry for not writing last night, but I was on call for today, so I had to go to bed around 11:30 pm last night, which prevented me from writing anything but the first addendum. But, the good news is that I don't have to work today, freeing up my afternoon. So, how are you doing on this blessed Sunday? I'm doing all right, as it's just me and my dad at home right now while my mother and sister go out for a few hours to hang out with friends. Also, my brother will be home later tonight, and we'll go out to dinner. Oh, and, I can't decide what book to read next, because I'm deadlocked between three riveting books. But, no worries, I'll figure it out soon, I just have to keep two of them away from other people, considering that they're written by Newt Gingrich and Dinesh D'Souza, two big-time conservatives, which makes it dangerous in this inflammatory environment. Well, back to writing.
(7:29 PM addendum.) Good evening, everyone. How are you doing on this moderately cool evening? I'm doing all right, considering that I spent $28 on dinner with my brother, and had a sip of beer, at my brother's behest. Oh, and I've played a couple hours of Dragon Age II today, and I've killed the High Dragon, reached level 20, and given Fenris all of his extra armor, increasing my Gamerscore by one hundred points. It won't be long now before I begin Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I'll love playing that game for the third time. Well, I guess that I'd better get back to writing, considering that I have several days before I go back to work, and since I go to bed in under four hours. May the Force and Iluvatar be with me.
Eight Minutes Later
Twenty-Two Minutes Until Hovertrain 245 Explodes
Just Outside Coronet City
Onboard the Second Chance
"All right. We don't have much time, so I'm only going to say this once. Since the hovertrain's guarded by a squadron of Black Sun fighters, we need to knock them out of the equation before we can get a team in there to help Vega. Kal, once the fighters have been dealt with, you'll be taking the team on the train from the closest cart to the front. From there, you'll split up into two teams in order to work with Vega and Mysta in disarming the bombs. Any questions?" Tau brusquely briefed his companions and allies on the plan.
"No? Good. Ventis, you, Ahsoka, and I are too noticeable, so we'll pilot and man the guns of the Second Chance until the job's done. Now, let's get to it!"
Everyone, knowing the stakes, quickly prepared to move to their stations, but Butch stayed at his master's side, not desiring to leave his side.
Tau, understanding his friend's stance, and knew that a Tuk'ata hound would make people conclude that he was here in the system, putting it on lockdown, said to Butch, "All right. Help me on the ship. Your job is to alert me if Arnine needs help on the systems. Can you handle that?"
Butch licked his master in confirmation, and Tau patted his companion on the head before he quickly headed for the cockpit to take over for Akku, who would then join the strike team on the hastily-assembled mission.
Two Minutes Later
Nineteen Minutes Until Hovertrain 245 Explodes
Onboard Hovertrain 245
"That's two more bombs down!" Vega shouted to his brother, who was in the process of hurling a Black Sun agent out of a broken window, sending him to his plummeting doom.
"Great. Three down, Force-knows how many more to go." Gabriel bitterly commented while snapping the neck of a Human Black Sun mercenary, her corpse clattering to the ground after he let go of her.
Before anyone could head for the next cart, the three fighters witnessed three of the Black Sun starfighters get blasted out of the sky by the Second Chance, another two destroyed by the YT-1200 that Mysta bought from Uub, and one more obliterated by a SoruSuub Luxury 5000 that belonged to Team RWBY, with Ruby, Blake, and Arseven on the top of the yacht before they leapt through the window to join the three family members.
Vega, in utter relief at the reinforcements, gratefully said, "Man, I have never been gladder to see you ladies."
"Hey, that's what friends are for." Blake nonchalantly replied. "Now, don't we have a city to protect, and some fanatics to kill?"
Right after Blake spoke, a squad of seven Black Sun troopers swarmed in from the next cart, and prepared to open fire on the new reinforcements.
However, before they could fire, Blake, with the swiftness of a Howlrunner, unsheathed her Gambol Shroud, and jumped at the new assailants. As she flew, she swung her blade in a blinding arc and caught them all in the chest. Blood gushed from the deep lacerations as they fell to the ground, screaming in agony and clutching their wounds as they did so.
The last standing agent, seeing the carnage that a mere teenager could unleash, did the only sound thing that he could think of: He dropped his weapon and raised his hands in the air, while Blake smelt a new scent in the air, and disgustedly commented, "I think that this guy needs a new change of pants."
Mysta, impressed by Vega's friends' abilities, but keeping his mind in the here and now, walked up to the standing agent, and tensely asked, "How many bombs are on this hovertrain, and how many Black Sun agents did Xizor task with killing us?"
"Ten bombs, seventy men and a Magnaguard to deal with the carts further back." The agent terrifyingly answered before he was punched into unconsciousness by Mysta.
Everyone looked at him as if he had just ripped the man's head off, and he defended himself, "What? I didn't kill him. Now, let's-"
He couldn't finish that order, given how the Second Chance flew close enough to the hovertrain to allow Kal, Celebion, Jaing, and Akku, to jump next to Mysta.
Before Mysta could question whether or not these new arrivals were attackers, Vega beat him to it. "It's about time you got here. Let's get to work."
Arnine quickly pulled out a hologram of the train, and showed blinking red dots to reveal where the seven remaining bombs were to be found. Four were to be found in the last three tram, while the last three were found in the control tram.
"Well, that simplifies things." Kal muttered. "All right, here's the plan. Vega, you, your brother, and your Remnant friends go to the control room. The rest of us will take care of the four other bombs."
"No. You'll need me with you. There's a Magnaguard where you're heading, and we can't afford to lose anyone." Vega argued, while Mysta looked on in confusion at how well Kal Skirata, a fierce despiser of the Jedi, was getting along with his younger brother.
"Damn! That changes things!" Kal cursed. "Fine. You come with us, and Akku can go with Mysta and the others to the control center."
Finally agreeing on a plan, Kal took Vega, Jaing, Arseven, and Celebion to the back cart, while Gabriel and Mysta led Ruby and Blake to the front carts, where they found another five enemies caught unprepared for their arrival, and quickly fled the tram to the next one.
In hot pursuit, the four fighters ran into an ambush with twenty additional Black Sun henchmen guarding the only entrance to the control tram that contained three of the seven remaining explosives.
Ruby, figuring out how these men were on a suicidal course due to their assignment, innocently asked, "Uh… don't you guys realize that, if you keep us from disarming the bombs, then you'll all die from the explosion unless we stop it? Why throw your lives away so carelessly, especially since we've destroyed your fighter support?"
That naïve, but accurate question caused all but six of the Black Sun agents to look at each other in utter horror at the realization.
One of them fearfully asked, "Uh… do you have a way off of this doomed hovertrain?" He was quickly blasted in the head by the leader of these Black Sun goons, and that silenced any further insubordination.
"Enough of this pointless babbling! Kill them all if you want to get off of this floating tomb!" A shrill, but very familiar voice to Mysta, hollered to all of her troops.
Everyone quickly followed their captain's lead, and opened fire on their five adversaries.
Immediately taking cover behind whatever they could find, Ruby and the others returned fire with pinpoint accuracy, gunning down four of the Black Sun henchmen before the twenty surviving enemies took cover.
"We need to end this now, before time runs out, and that miserable schutta bails on her own men!" Mysta snarled out, disgusted at the corruption that the enemy leader exemplified.
The bounty hunter pulled out a special grenade from his pouch, quickly armed it and threw it a handful of meters from the Black Sun's leader. She took cover, however, it did not even go off.
Thinking that the detonator was a dud, the enemy commander pulled off her helmet to reveal the smug face of the traitorous CorSec captain and Black Sun agent, Danielle Ragar.
"What? You all out of tricks, so you've thrown a dummy grenade at us? That's just pathetic!" Danielle mockingly asked, before she heard a hissing noise come from the grenade. Not a minute later, she, along with ten of the guards that were within a ten meter radius of the grenade, began to hack up blood from their lungs.
Mysta, motioning for his four teammates to stay within cover, calmly walked up to the eight unaffected adversaries, and gave them an ultimatum, "If you don't want to end up like your demented leader, lay down your weapons, call off the rest of your boys throughout the tram, and help us disarm the bombs. Do this, and you'll get a fair trial, although I can't say the same of for your worm of a captain."
After a moment's hesitation, and seeing their captain keep coughing up blood on her knees, the eight remaining Black Sun soldiers dropped their weapons, and the de facto leader of the men opened their comlink. "This is Lieutenant Jax Pavan. All forces, stand down. We're beaten."
Nothing but static came back, indicating that the thirty remaining Black Sun forces were either decimated or destroyed by the remaining forces.
Mysta then smugly smiled underneath his helmet, and contacted Kal, "Colonel, you there?"
"I'm here. Two of the bombs are disarmed, but Vega's having trouble with the Magnaguard, and the enemy is still putting up a fierce resistance. There's ten minutes left, tell me that you guys are close!" Kal sternly responded.
"We're just about to disarm the bombs, and then we'll send support your way. Civilian casualties?"
"Minimal. No more than twenty!"
"Good. None on our end." Mysta ended the communication, and spoke to his comrades. "Gabriel, you and Ruby go support Vega and the others"
The three companions came out, with Ruby disturbed at Mysta's ruthless pragmatism, and the elder Ryal and Blake held Jax and the seven other healthy combatants at gunpoint as they led him to the control room.
"Help us disarm the bombs." Mysta ordered, and Jax and one Ithorian helped him and Vega disarm the last four bombs.
After three tense minutes, with Blake sweating from the unspoken fear of dying by terrible explosion, sighed in relief when Jax cut the last wire and the timer on the bomb stopped ticking. Jax rose to his feet, removing his jacket and wiping his brow as he snorted, "There. The bombs are disabled. You'll hold up your end of the bargain?"
"I'll speak to CorSec on giving you a fair trial, provided that you cooperate with them, and help take down your former comrades." Mysta promised, earning a nod of reluctant understanding from Jax and the seven of his men.
Five Minutes Later, In Cart 8 of Hovertrain 245
Why can't anything ever be easy?! Vega bitterly thought while he parried the lightning quick strikes of the Magnagaurd, counter striking with his blade to try and stab it in the chest but it just as parried and quickly swung its blade low. He had to step back to avoid the incoming strike but the Guard was just as quick to press its advantage and come at him stabbing.
As Vega struggled to keep up with the droid's combat proficiency, Kal and his team were having their own troubles trying to disarm the final two bombs while avoiding the fire from the ten surviving Black Sun henchmen.
Before the enemy could fire another salvo, they saw a high-powered blaster shot come out of nowhere, and blow up their cover, killing two men from the shockwave of the explosion, and knocking three others out cold.
Everyone, including a bewildered Magnaguard and relieved Vega, turned to see the furious form of Ruby Rose, and a serious Gabriel Jade.
Kal, ever the professional, took this opportunity to gun down four of the last standing foes, leaving one petrified Falleen woman as the sole survivor of the failed terrorist strike before she was stunned into unconsciousness by Jax.
Then suddenly hovertrain began to descend, making Mysta and Vega suspect that CorSec must have overridden the controls in order to evacuate the passengers.
Outside of the transparisteel windows of the side of the hovertrain, the three Shadow Alliance ships fled the area as several patrol vessels came into vision, and one authoritative voice spoke out from his ship's speakers, "This is Corellian Security Commander Rostek Horn! Your hijacking attempt has failed! All forces are to surrender themselves at once!"
Jax, reactivating his comlink, keyed it into Rostek's frequency, and obediently said, "Understood. My forces will surrender ourselves to your custody, and we will cooperate with you to the fullest extent of the law."
The Magnaguard, seeing that he could not win this fight, and, desperate to survive to fight for Black Sun another day, pointed his fist at a door, and launched a mini-rocket at it, blowing it up. This unexpected move allowed the droid to activate his jet-boots, and escape the crime scene.
Ruby, however, was not so willing to allow the droid to get away with threatening her love, and took aim at the former Confederate droid.
With the precision of a Jedi and master sniper, she shot one of the Magnaguards feet, and caused a small explosion that blew off the droid's legs, causing it to plummet to its doom from a kilometer in the sky.
Ten Minutes Later
"Take the scum, and this treacherous worm, back to CorSec for processing! And throw their leader into maximum security until I can interrogate her!" Rostek disgustingly said before he slapped the incapacitated Danielle, who, as she was taken away, could only look at Mysta in pure hatred for his part in her betrayal being uncovered.
"Well, Ghost, not only did you uncover a few Black Sun moles in Coronet, you helped prevent a terrorist attack on the city itself, saving thousands, if not millions, of lives. Not to mention your associates took out a Magnaguard that escaped the Clone War. I'll be sure to generously compensate you for your troubles, if you'll just come with me for a debriefing. Oh," Rostek then whispered, "You'd better bring your Jedi friend with you, given that the Empire will be hunting for him and Tau Palpatine after the Black Sun men testify."
Mysta was prepared to throttle the CorSec commander for what he perceived as a threat towards his brother, but stayed his hand when Vega walked up to him, and shook his head, indicating that he trusted Rostek, or was at least willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Trusting his brother, he restrained himself, and cordially told Rostek, "Very well. Just make it worth our while. I've got to get him back to his family on Alderaan soon."
The commander chuckled at the bounty hunter's mercenary attitude, and promised, "I'll give you enough to make your day, sir. I'm always a man of my word."
Rostek then went to a landspeeder, and the two Ryal brothers cautiously followed suit, with their friends and allies following in CorSec landspeeders.
Thirty Minutes Later
On the Malsuum's Farm
"Hold on. You actually let a deserter go free after discovering him?!" Telia nearly exclaimed, amazed that a fiercely loyal GAR Captain like Rex would allow such a blatant disregard of the rules, no matter how unjust they were.
"It was the right thing to do. He belonged there, with his family, not in a pointless war where no one but Sidious won." Rex adamantly replied, looking back fondly at the memories of Cut Lawquane and his adopted family during the pursuit of General Grievous around the time of the Siege of Saleucami.
Before Telia could speak any further, she heard her husband groan as the sedatives wore off, and she rushed to his side, all the while carrying a giggling Elain in her arms.
Jarael finished putting her now-dirty equipment away, and, while she and Nagme undid the straps that held down Hock, calmingly spoke to an anxious Telia, "Don't worry, Mrs. Malsuum. Your husband will fully awaken any minute now. The extraction was a complete success. He no longer has that filthy control chip in his brain."
Telia breathed a sigh of relief at the prognosis from the Iskalloni, and Hock slowly rose from the bed, holding his head as he examined the area where his control chip was removed. He felt a small incision there that appeared to be the length of an inch, and saw a pinkish mass sitting on the table, covered by two plates of glass.
Feeling a sudden dread come over him at seeing that piece of flesh, Hock asked Nagme, "Is that it?"
The disguised Yuuzhan Vong, seeing what Hock was hesitatingly pointing to, she confirmed, "Yes. That is that disgusting control chip. You're free of it now, though, so you can rest easy. You were in good hands."
"Good." Hock gratefully said, before he added, "Thank you for helping, Nagme."
Nagme smiled in appreciation, "You are very welcome, Hock Malsuum."
The ex-Clone Trooper looked around, and, seeing a near-vacant farm, asked, "Where is everyone?"
"They left to help some of our friends save a hovertrain from a Black Sun terrorist attack. They contacted me a few minutes ago, and they're all right." Rex explained, making his brother's eyes widen at the blatant attack by the galaxy-spanning criminal organization.
"Clearly, your friends can't go anywhere without inviting trouble." Hock joked as he got off of the table, and took Elaine from Telia and held his daughter in his arms, her cooing as he rocked her back and forth.
"It's our curse from being such high-profile individuals." Nagme played along.
"Now, I would advise not removing the stitches, as the need to fade on their own in order for your scar to heal naturally. And, I'd prefer if you relaxed for at least twenty-four hours so that you can recuperate from any adverse effects that the surgery might have induced on you. Oh, and, ten minutes ago, we applied the cure for your accelerated aging." Jarael professionally said.
"Thank you for everything, but that won't be necessary. I've got to start writing the Shrouded Offensive now if I'm to join your Shadow Alliance in the next couple of days." Hock declared, shocking or disbelieving everyone with his intentions.
"Hock, are you sure about this? You swore that you'd never kill anyone ever again." Telia protested, not wanting her love to be filled with hate again.
"And, I won't. But they're going to need combat instructors to learn how to fight effectively against Stormtroopers and farmers if they're going to figure out how to grow their own food for our forces." Hock assured his wife, while Rex walked up to Hock.
"Well, I know that Tau and Kal would love to have you on board." Rex thankfully said while placing a hand on his shoulder in gratitude, before he turned grave, and asked, "Do you want any help in writing the Shrouded Offensive?"
"No. I need to face my demons alone. But I thank you for the offer of support, brother." Hock appreciatively declined.
He began to walk into his hut to gather the flimsi for the horrific memories that he would be forced to relive, with a worried Telia looking as he walked towards his past.
She turned to the three Shadow Alliance members, and warned, "I hope that you know what you're doing, for all of our sakes."
"So do we all, Telia. So do we all." Rex concurred.
Two Hours Later
In Coronet City
CorSec Headquarters
"I read the reports that each of your associates gave regarding the attack on you two. They answered most of my questions, but not all, Jedi Ryal." Rostek sternly told the Ryal brothers.
"How did you know my name?" Vega asked, seeing no point in lying to a professional investigator.
"Your name and face are all over the Holonet, especially after the stunt that your Shadow Alliance pulled on Lah'mu." Rostek explained, before he positively commented, "Nice work sticking it to those Imp schmucks, by the way."
Neither brother was expecting such a friendly response, Mysta uttered curtly, "Get to the point. What do you want, Commander?"
"Is your friend always to the point?" Rostek inquired to Vega.
"He's a serious individual." Vega neutrally answered.
"Anyway, what I want is to give you two a few gifts, given how obvious it is that you're a Jedi sympathizer, given who you're aiding in escaping the Empire's so-called 'justice.'" Rostek continued to say to Mysta before he handed the bounty hunter several datachips.
"What's on them?" Mysta questioned, doubting that this was a generous gift due to the strong anti-Jedi sentiment that Sidious and the Empire was fostering across the galaxy.
"A list of surviving Jedi that I've managed to relocate or hide from the Empire's clutches, including Djinn Altis's clan of Jedi followers, along with the Empire's political enemies, and a small library's worth of Jedi teachings that an old friend entrusted to me before his death." Rostek honestly replied, shocking both Ryal brothers with the resources and information that they were being given.
"Why would you do this? You don't owe us this much." Vega questioned, not ungrateful for their gifts, but wondering what this man's angle was.
"You're not the only one who wants to keep the old ways alive, in spite of the lies that the self-appointed Emperor and his toadies in the Senate say." Rostek cryptically replied, earning a nod of downright appreciation from Vega.
Mysta, on the other hand, was more skeptical, and asked, "Still, it's a lot to risk by giving us this knowledge. Why us?"
"I can't be seen actively aiding the Shadow Alliance, or Corellia will be razed. But, if you were to escape from this place, then suspicion would be laced on the local Imperials and Black Sun, weakening both factions a little more." Rostek explained, before he handed a comm device to Mysta, and told him, "Make sure Tau gets this. I'll be his inside man inside CorSec and Corellia."
"Of course." Just after Mysta uttered those words, a series of explosions were heard throughout the building, and several alarms went off.
"That's your cue to leave. Oh, the credits for your heroics have been transferred to a private account that the Imperials can't track. Just one more thing," Rostek said before he prepared to aim a blaster at Vega. Mysta, perceiving it as their opening to escape, reacted even quicker, and fired a quick shot at Rostek's left shoulder.
The CorSec commander struggled to hold in his screams while Mysta led Vega out of the commander's office.
Go, and restore freedom to the galaxy! Rostek resolutely thought as he struggled to pull out a bacta patch for the new wound.
The two brothers used their blasters and special talents to incapacitate any CorSec agents that dared to stand in their way, clearing a direct path for them to attempt an escape from the gundarks' nest.
Ten Minutes Later
"You're surrounded, there's no point in resisting any further!" An irate Hal Horn, accompanied by ten CorSec agents, shouted to the two suspected culprits of the bombing before he added, "Surrender now, or we'll be forced to use lethal force against you!"
Vega, sensing the man's strong connection to the Force, but not detecting any darkness in him other than the anger that he held towards those he believed to try and attack CorSec, denied the accusations, "We had nothing to do with this! We were just on our way when the explosions occurred, and your boss told us to leave before anyone mistook us for the perpetrators. Ask him yourself if you don't believe it."
"We will, after we question…" Hal ceased talking when he heard a ship's roaring engines from behind him. He turned around to see an YT-1200 blaze right past him, and Vega grabbed hold of his brother, allowing the two brothers to leap into the open ramp of the ship before it took off to the plains of Corellia.
"Agent Horn! Should we organize a pursuit of the ship?" A Selonian agent yelled out.
"Not yet! We need to secure the wounded first, and search the area for any more bombs. There's no telling just who the perpetrators are." Hal denied, which the other CorSec agents agreed with as they worked with arriving Imperial and CorSec medics to evacuate the wounded.
Sensing that his adopted father was still alive, he headed to the commander's office, and found him sitting next to his desk, putting his left arm in a makeshift sling after applying a bacta patch to the wound.
"Did you give it to them?" Hal asked, hoping that this gamble was worth it.
"They got all of it, son. Let's just hope that they put it to good use." Rostek assured his stepson as he got up from his spot to assess the damage that the family inflicted on their own organization's building.
Meanwhile, In the Jedha System
Onboard the Venator-class Star Destroyer Hound
"How soon will the ship be ready for departure?" Ferren demanded the nearest technician.
Gulping in air, no doubt from fear of possibly suffering the same fate as Captain Keeli for just speaking out of turn, the man urgently replied, "Within thirty-eight hours, High Inquisitor. The damage to the ship is finally repaired, the ship's fighter complement is replenished, and we just need to run a diagnostics of the major systems before we're good to go. Oh, and, by order of the Emperor himself, the Exactor has been rerouted to serve under your command for the duration of the mission."
The final sentence brought a smile to the Iktotchi, and he satisfactorily said, "Very good, Lieutenant. Carry on with your assigned tasks."
He then left the trembling human to exit his presence, and turned to Sarcev, "Our quarry has traveled to the Corellian System. They'll likely sell the ship there, and buy a used one in order to escape us and locate Elain Ryal. Did you implant the tracers where I instructed, right?"
"Give me some credit, Barr. I have been at this game longer than you, after all." Sarcev confidently replied, before he added, "Aurra Sing and A'denn's recoveries are proceeding as planned, and they'll be ready in three days, max."
"Excellent. Everything is proceeding as I planned it." Ferren gleefully stated, eager to face a Jedi again in combat after the disaster of Lah'mu, and to exact his revenge against the Mandalorian who dared place such a trivial thing such as honor over obedience.
Well, that ends the twentieth chapter of my story. So, what did you think? Not bad for just under forty-eight hours, huh? Don't worry, you haven't seen the last of Black Sun, and possibly Rostek and Hal Horn. They'll be included much more in the Corellia arc of the story. So, Hock's had his inhibitor chip removed and is beginning to write his account of the Shrouded Offensive, Black Sun's terrorist attack has been foiled, and Vega and Mysta found another ally for the Shadow Alliance. This story just has so many twists and turns in it, it's hard to keep up with them all. Anyway, how are you all doing on the evening of Monday, August 13, 2018? I'm pretty good, as I don't have to work until this Thursday, so I've got plenty of time to write most of the next chapter in that time frame. And, I'll hopefully be able to head to a comic book store then to trade in some comics, and hopefully get a few graphic novels out of the deal. Oh, and I'll buy the 32nd issue of Injustice 2 as well that day. Man, I hope that they don't stop pumping out issues for a long time, as that series is just that good. Oh, and, before I forget, the rest of the heroes, including Tau, Ruby, and Kal, will come back in the next chapter, and they will not be arrested. And, I'm almost at a hundred thousand words. I'll be so excited when I reach that marker. Well, I guess that I'd better get this chapter ready for publishing, so it might take a day or two to publish it online. May the Force and Iluvatar be with us all, and Long Live the Expanded Universe!