"Can you sense anyone in the bay right now, honey?" Han asked his wife as he prepared to dock the airspeeder on the hovering platform outside the upper entrance to the private spaceport ahead. Inside the port was the Millennium Falcon, no doubt being impounded and guarded by how many Alliance of the Galaxy officials since this new Jedi purge began.
"No, but I can't sense anyone or anything else in there," Leia answered. "So they probably readied it with ysalamiri. Han, watch out!"
Han quickly swerved the speeder out of the way of an incoming blaster bolt from an AG X-wing, which was then attacked by a StealthX. The two starfighters began a dogfight while their respective wing companions also engaged each other.
"Jaina's up there," Leia said as Han finally put the speeder down outside the spaceport entrance and cycled the speeder's engines off.
When Han looked up, one of the AG X-wings was overwhelmed by its StealthX opponent's concentrated laser bursts and fell as a flaming ball of destruction down into Coruscant's underworld. The triumphant StealthX then moved on to help its companion in taking out its own opponent.
Han smiled, recognizing his daughter's piloting skills. "That's Jaina, all right," he mused. He then pulled out his commlink and activated it for his surviving offspring's frequency. "Jaina, you there?"
"I'm here, Dad," Jaina said. "Need anything else?"
"Can you and your friend blast through this spaceport?" Han asked. "Your mom's thinkin' there's an ysalamiri in there; and can you make sure the Falcon's not damaged, either?"
"No problem," Jaina replied as the two StealthXs above circled around for a pass at the spaceport.
Each Jedi fighter launched a concussion missile right toward the wall of the port ahead, blowing a sizable hole in. Once the flame had settled into dust, the StealthXs entered single-file. The Solos, and their accompanying droids, all heard horrified death screams and rattles coming from inside the port before the StealthXs left through the same hole.
"Hostiles neutralized inside, Dad," Jaina reported. "And don't worry, the Falcon's safe and sound."
"Glad to hear it," Han said. "Solo out." He replaced his now-deactivated commlink back into his pocket before he, his family, and their droids headed toward the entrance.
Once inside, Leia quickly shielded Allana's eyes with her hand as they all carefully proceeded through the flaming and smoking ruins of the private, and otherwise empty, spaceport littered with debris and dead AG soldier bodies, one of whom had an ysalamari, as Leia had suspected.
"Allana, don't look," Leia told her granddaughter once she had her eyes covered.
"Okay, Grandma," Allana responded obediently, with only a trace of nervousness and confusion in her tone.
"Oh, my!" C-3PO exclaimed as he looked out among the bloodied and burned corpses of the soldiers who had been waiting to ambush all of them. "Look at all of these-"
A squeal from R2-D2 silenced Threepio immediately.
"Oh, yes, yes, I'm sorry, Artoo."
"Thanks, Artoo," Leia said as the Solos and the droids continued toward the docked Millennium Falcon.
Once they were all aboard and the Falcon was prepped and ready to go, Han launched the ancient YT-1300 out through the hole that Jaina and her wingmate created and joined the StealthXs as they headed toward the embattled skies of Coruscant.
In the copilot seat next to Han, Leia activated the ship-to-ship comm with her daughter's StealthX. "Jaina, what's going on up there?"
"It just came through while you guys were heading to the Falcon," Jaina explained in a hurry. "Several AG ships are now turning against the others; from what we're gathering on the comm frequencies, the Jedi Order's friends in the military aren't liking what's going on, it seems."
.
Chief of State Daala's Office
"Admiral Darklighter, what are you doing?!"
"We knew it was a mistake to have you in charge, Daala," Gavin Darklighter's embittered hologram said. His seated form, set in his commanding chair of his Star Destroyer orbiting Coruscant, gazed back at Daala with the same fury and intensity she was now leveling at him. "We figured you'd do something like this, but we never thought you'd actually be stupid enough to pull this off."
Daala did her best to resolve her composure from the shocked indignation that she had when she heard what several of Coruscant's defensive Star Destroyers - all of which were commanded by former Galactic Alliance military personnel, like Admiral Darklighter - had turned against the others, many of which were commanded by former Imperials.
"Admiral Darklighter," Daala began in a diplomatic yet strict tone, "I'm commanding you and your rebellious forces to cease these treasonous actions or every single soldier under your command will face a severe court martial."
Darklighter's smile was one of total loathing for Daala. "Good luck with that. And good luck with not looking like another Palpatine in the eyes of the public, Empress." He said that last line with such vile before signing off abruptly.
Daala growled before she activated another frequency.
"Chief Daala," Nek Bwua'tu's seated hologram asked, "what is it?"
"Admiral Bwua'tu, make sure that the forces that are still under your command obliterate every last vessel under Admiral Darklighter's rebellious, with no survivors, even if they issue a surrender. We cannot afford the remnants of the Jedi here to leave the system, much less Coruscant itself."
Bwua'tu's furred features were stretched from inner turmoil, but he nevertheless settled them to reluctant confidence before nodding. "Understood, Chief."
Daala then signed off for him before standing up, turning, and looking out through her office's viewport to the Star Destroyers firing away at each other with their turbolasers beyond Coruscant's skies.
.
In Orbit of Coruscant
Along with the Star Destroyers that blasted away at each other with their giant laser cannons, X-wings, TIE fighters, and various other starfighters of different make and design had already been launched from the Destroyers' hangar bays to engage the opposing forces' fighters in destructive, seemingly-anarchic dogfights that only the efficiency of a droid brain could process in so much time. Explosions and debris of starfighters, concussion missiles, proton torpedoes, and the likes littered the space above the capital of the inappropriately-named Alliance of the Galaxy to send burning projectiles, whatever they may be, through Coruscant's atmosphere, even with the planetary shields in place.
The only way that anyone could tell friend from foe in the dogfights and overall chaos that swept the space surrounding Coruscant's orbit was strictly in the war vessels' friend-or-foe computers; the Star Destroyers that had fired first and the accompanying starfighters that had first launched from their hangar bays at the beginning of the battle were all deemed as traitors to the Alliance of the Galaxy. Those that had launched in the wake of this surprising treachery were those that had been loyal Chief of State Daala's regime.
As if to show just how much power that the Galactic Empire had regained, at least in spirit, over the galaxy, there were so many more TIE fighters than X-wings or their former Rebel ilk that had remained loyal to the regime. And, as if to show
The Third Galactic Civil War had all but begun.
That was the last thought that Acting Grand Master Hamner had before he refocused himself on the mission now, which was just for him and the surviving StealthXs to retreat out of the Coruscant system and find shelter elsewhere, wherever that may be at this point. In the desperation and chaos following the orbital bombardment of the Jedi Temple, which now lay razed and utterly leveled in smoking ruins thousands of miles below, neither Hamner nor any of the Masters had any idea as to how the Jedi would be able to survive to even get off the planet, much less the Coruscant system.
But now, with a new civil war springing up so closely on the heels of the previous one, it was an unfortunate convenience, as Hamner wanted to think of it, that the Jedi still had their non-Force-using allies in the Alliance of the Galaxy willing to sacrifice their careers, lives, and, most importantly, the mending peace of the galaxy itself for the survival of the Order.
Alas, however, if that peace was to be maintained under a brutal dictatorship of a despot no better than Palpatine or Darth Caedus, then the Jedi had no choice but to aid in the propagation of a new galactic war for the freedom of all.
"Admiral Darklighter?" Hamner called on the frequency of the admiral's Star Destroyer. He had a feeling that he was one of the former Rebel-New Republic-Galactic Alliance commanders leading the military revolt against Daala's loyalists.
"Master Hamner?" Darklighter's voice returned. "How many of your Jedi are left?"
Hamner sensed that Darklighter could be trusted; the man wasn't asking as if to ascertain how many Jedi still needed to be killed. "There are only a little more than two dozen of us left. Master Saba Sebatyne was one of those who perished today."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Master Hamner," Darklighter returned. "Listen, my forces and I will help you and your surviving Jedi out of the system, and we'll follow with you. The forces still on Daala's side are too strong for us to fight back right now; I'm sending you the tactical data to separate friend from foe right now."
"Thank you, Admiral," Hamner replied before said information appeared on one of his StealthX's consoles. He then activated the StealthX comm frequency to all of the Jedi survivors. "All Jedi, are you receiving the information as to who we can trust?"
The subsequent clicking and vocal affirmatives that followed told Hamner that every one of the Jedi survivors knew who they could follow.
"By your lead, Admiral Darklighter," Hamner said in his connection to the other man.
.
The Millennium Falcon and her escort of two Jedi StealthX fighters - one of them piloted by Jaina - followed the ascending, spread-out stream of StealthXs up to the skies of Coruscant; with the battle going on up above in orbit, the difficulty now would be to get through all that fighting to leave the system.
Once the last of the surviving StealthXs had escaped Coruscant's atmosphere, all of the AG war vessels marked as traitors to the government, and allies of the terrorist Jedi Order, began to turn away and retreat to escape the system's gravity well for hyperspace. Their turbolasers and projectiles covered their retreat, without a single vessel on either side of the government - treacherous and loyal alike - ceasing firing unless they were snuffed out of existence.
"Leia, get into one of the turrets!" Han exclaimed as they picked up a couple of TIEs blasting away at their rear shields. Their dual escort of StealthXs had been led away by enemy starfighters that they were now dueling away in their attempt to leave the system.
"Already on it," Leia said as she hurried to the rear of the Falcon.
Soon, the YT-1300's lower turret blasted away the TIEs that were nipping at their rear shields, and they soon shifted to some more TIEs - and, unfortunately, X-wings and other vessels - that were hooking up on their tail. Nevertheless, as Leia did her best to keep the Falcon's trail as clean as possible amidst a storm of destruction and death all around, Han executed the best maneuvers he could manage to make sure that their shields didn't drop to the point that they'd be rendered completely useless.
Eventually, the Jedi StealthXs and the remaining ships marked as enemies to the AG had finally cleared Coruscant's gravity well and launched into hyperspace without looking back. The Falcon was one of the last vessels to escape, and just before a concussion missile from a Y-wing detonated in its wake.