Along the way to one of the space station's escape pods, Ralan made a brief trip to his auxiliary office, which had been established for extreme measures such as this, so that he could set the self-destruct for the station. He set the timer for ten minutes and didn't hesitate before he continued the rest of the way for an unoccupied pod.
A little more than two minutes later, the docking master managed to make it to a pod and simply launched for space. During that time, he managed to catch glimpses of explosions as he saw other pods and ships, either coming from Tenupe or from the station itself, ending up destroyed by the invading Star Destroyers and clawcraft. Paying no more mind to the deaths of his friends and comrades, as it would undoubtedly lead to his own demise, Ralan steered his escape pods for a nearby shuttle that, so far, had avoided the attention of the invaders.
But just when he was less than a hundred meters from the shuttle, a trio of clawcraft flew in and destroyed Ralan's hope of rescue with a few well-placed laser shots. Still a military-minded individual, though, Ralan didn't pay a microsecond more for the lost shuttle before he turned away to find some other means of salvation; otherwise, he'd be a sitting duck for those clawcraft, what since he didn't have any weapons nor was the escape pod all that maneuverable.
A few minutes later, Ralan felt all control for the escape pod cease when he found, on his vessel's sensors, that it was caught in a tractor beam. He retraced its origin and his stomach sank; he was now being pulled in by one of the Star Destroyers.
Ralan's comm beeped. Not knowing what else to do, he opened up the connection.
"Docking Master Ralan," Formbi's stilted tone came from the other line. "We see that you decided not to take the easy way out of this situation."
"By easy way out, I suppose you mean let myself and all the other Chiss troops here join your hive mind?" Ralan spat.
"Of course," Formbi replied simply. "And seeing as how you decided to take your pathetically noble approach of 'saving' all your friends and comrades from an oh, so disastrous fate, we feel that you should be spared to join us after all."
"You sought me out through the Force, didn't you, just for this, huh?" Ralan asked. He knew that the Killiks would be headed by a Jedi like Raynar Thul if they were to take over an entire fleet of ships from the Chiss Ascendancy. "I'm flattered you think so highly of me," he concluded sarcastically.
"Consider yourself lucky, Ralan," Formbi replied. "The resistance that your troops offer against us give them nothing but death."
"I think they prefer that," Ralan countered. "I know I certainly would."
"The closed-mindedness of individuality; what a folly you all have," Formbi commented in a pitying tone.
Ignoring that remark, Ralan asked, "Can you at least tell me how long it is going to take you to bring me aboard."
There was no response for a few seconds before Formbi came back with, "Approximately two minutes and eighteen seconds. Why do you ask?"
Two minutes and eighteen seconds, Ralan thought. He'd been counting how long the space station had before it would self-destruct.
Just enough time, he concluded with a smug smile.
"Take your time," Ralan replied neutrally, not betraying his thoughts outwardly.
Sure enough, a little more than two minutes later, the station glowed from a brilliant explosion that threw off the Star Destroyers and the rest of the ships nearby, whether they'd be Chiss- or Killik-inhabited. Ralan then found himself flying all about the interior of the escape pod as it spiraled out of the tractor lock and away from Tenupe. The pod hadn't stopped spinning before Ralan fell unconscious.
.
Darth Plagueis exited his bunker quickly with Ford and Five-U on his tail. He didn't stop when he noticed the corpse of a teenage human female lying outside the bunker and paid her no more attention as he continued for the YT freighter model up ahead. When he got close enough, he saw at the side of its hull an inscription that gave it its name: Faux Harla.
He stopped a few meters from the ship and turned to Ford and Five-U, who only just caught up with him. "Can either of you pilot this?" he asked.
"We both can," Ford said. "But we already have another ship-"
"We can take that, too," Plagueis interrupted. "The more resources, the better." He looked to Five-U. "You, take the other ship and follow us." Without another word, he turned back to the disk-shaped freighter and used the Force to open up its boarding ramp.
As Plagueis jogged up into the ship, Five-U looked to his captain for confirmation.
"You heard him," Ford said hastily before following his master into the YT.
Five-U then turned for his captain's vessel and ran for it.
A few minutes later, the Faux Harla was up in the air and was soaring for the skies of Sojourn. Captain Ford's own ship wasn't far behind.
.
When Ralan awoke, he found himself laying in a bed of an Ascendancy medical bay. He took in his surroundings and noticed a young female nurse walk in.
"Oh, good, you are awake," she said. "You suffered a minor concussion. You should stay in here for at least another hour."
"We got out, didn't we?" Ralan asked, almost completely ignoring what the nurse just told him.
She nodded patiently. "Yes, thanks to you," she said. "One of the shuttles about to depart the Tenupe system found you and pulled in at the last minute. You were one of the lucky ones."
Ralan suppressed a snort, recalling when Formbi said that he should consider himself lucky when the Killiks thought he would made an addition to their hive mind. Instead, he nodded curtly. "How many managed to make it out?"
"From what I know, at least... eighty-seven percent of Ascendancy forces made it out of the system," the nurse told him. "We're all on our way to Csilla, just so you know."
"Good, good," Ralan nodded. He then sighed in muted sadness. "It's still a shame we lost people there."
"We could have lost a lot more if it weren't for you," the nurse assured him. "And to a fate worse than death, I might add."
"It still doesn't change the fact that fellow soldiers of mine died back there," Ralan said, frustrated. "Even after you fight so many battles and lose so many friends, it never gets any easier."
"I could only imagine," the nurse said sympathetically. Then her tone became more serious. "Like I said, you need to stay in here for at least another hour before the doctor sees you." She then turned and left the medical bay, leaving Ralan alone with his thoughts.