Heavenly Mountain
The Nibu'i had been on the path to total victory against their ancient foe, the Terrans. With nearly the entire galaxy on the Nibu people's side it had only been a matter of time. But then Supreme Warmaster Shotel Za had seen fit to use a portion of his cache of Aether missiles to wipe out that Sith fleet at Kesh, and the whole war effort had gone to the Eternal Nightmare. The cursed fool! Za should have known that merely using an abomination created by the Aether would turn many, including High Warmaster Tosi Karu, against him.
And surely Shotel Za hadn't forgotten about Mortis, the infamous scientist who'd studied the Aether, and had become irredeemably corrupted by it. Za had personally executed the man. Za should be the last person to dabble in something so dangerous.
The High Warmaster brought her full attention back to the battle. Shotel Za continued to lose ships. Karu blew out a disgusted sigh. The people of Nibiru destroying each other was exactly what the Terrans wanted. At some point the murderous tailed devils would once again try to exterminate Tosi Karu's species. We must kill them before they kill us. It was all wrong, fighting alongside her enemies against her own kind. But what else could she do?
It had been several minutes since any Aether missiles had been fired. Za certainly knew that when he ran out of those missiles that he was doomed... "Put me through to Warmaster Za," Karu ordered her communications officer.
"Yes, my lord."
"Supreme Warmaster, it appears you're out of those cursed Aether missiles."
"They are no more," Shotel Za confirmed.
"Those monstrosities should never have existed from the start," Warmaster Karu said, with a subtle edge. "If you can give me your word that you will never again dabble in the Aether, then you will have my support. But if you ever break your word, we will forever be enemies and I will never forgive you."
"You have my word," the Supreme Warmaster promised. "May my soul descend to the Eternal Nightmare if I break it."
"Indeed," Karu agreed. "Now how shall we do this?"
The two Warmasters' forces continued to exchange fire as they both repositioned their ships, though the firefight was low powered and merely for show. And then within the span of a few seconds, this false battle ended and Tosi Karu's vessels diverted their fire to their former allies. First to fall, in explosions of fire and crystalline shrapnel, were a pair of Terran war cruisers. Their crews had thought they were relatively safe among allies, and thus had their peripheral shields at low power. The next victim was one of Macua Huitl's Tho Yors. Warmaster Karu's forces also attacked other vessels when the opportunity struck.
The bowl formation Admiral Bwua'tu had assembled began to fracture as Warmasetr Karu's ships continued to fire on their new enemies. All this took quite a bit of pressure off of Shotel Za and Atlatl's forces. The latter two Warmasters' attackers began to fall as they began to focus more on offense.
Minotaur
"Warmaster Karu has just joined forces with Warmaster Za," Admiral Bwua'tu's voice announced grimly. Well that was a surprise. Or was it? Karu simply wanted to fight alongside her own people, not... aliens. Moff Drikl Lecersen understood completely.
Lecersen felt the dark shadow over his mind falter, for a brief moment, yet again. The Sith were clearly struggling to maintain their battle meditation. The Sidious, on which Darth Plagueis was stationed, and one of Lecersen's Star Destroyers, the Tierce, were currently trading heavy fire with one of Karu's Tho Yors.
"Yage," the Moff said, addressing his tactical officer.
"Sir?"
"In your assessment, who do you believe will come out ahead in this?"
"Warmaster Za, sir."
"I thought so," Lecersen murmured. "Comms, put me on with the Tierce. Private channel."
"Go ahead, sir."
"Tierce, cease fire on the Tho Yor. Fire on the Sidious."
"Yes sir," responded a slightly perplexed, but obedient voice. The Tierce immediately switched its fire to the Sith fleet's flagship, causing the already besieged Star Destroyer's deflector shield to heave. Lercesen was confident the Sith wouldn't be able to get to him at the moment. But even if they could... they had enough other things to deal with right now.
"Comms, get my fleet," Lecersen ordered.
"Go ahead, sir," the woman repeated.
The myriad streamers of energy, along with proton torpedoes and concussion missiles, from Lecersen's small fleet changed direction to slam into a pair of Terran war cruisers. The Imperial vessels shunted extra power into their port deflector shields just before the war cruisers could return fire. This had been a mildly risky move, but strengthening the shields prematurely could have roused the Terrans' suspicions. The Imperial vessels' shields rippled angrily under the war cruisers' weapons, but prevented any serious damage. The swarms of Tho Yads assailing Lecersen's fleet broke off their attack, making it clear that his message to Supreme Warmaster Shotel Za had been received, while Terran Lightningbirds and Alliance fighters proceeded to attack.
A sizable explosion erupted from the side of the lead Terran vessel. A minute later that vessel was in its death throws. Lecersen's entire fleet, minus the Tierce, then focused their efforts on the remaining Terran war cruiser. Continuous explosions announced that the crystalline vessel was suffering major damage. But before the war cruiser could be finished off, the Minotaur's bridge shook violently. "Sir," Yage warned. "The Void Demon and four other Destroyers are hitting us. We could put the Disra between-"
"Do it!" Lecersen nearly snapped. The nearest Star Destroyer slid forward, taking a protective position to the Minotaur's upper left.
An enormous shaft of golden-orange wrath exploded from the Tho Yor, and tore through the center of one of Moff Gatterweld's Star Destroyers. The doomed vessel broke apart into two main pieces before both exploded. Another of Gatterweld's Star Destroyers surged forward into the fire, and reappeared on the other side with its deflector shield pulsating madly. The triangular ship careened into the Tho Yor, annihilating the two vessels in a great orb of hellfire. The Tierce's deflector shield quaked as huge pieces of shrapnel made impact. The badly damaged Sidious opened fire on its remaining foe. Geysers of flame started erupting along the Tierce's hull. There were more detonations as swarms of TIE Defenders and Avengers swooped over the Tierce. The TIEs blasted away just as their prey's shield winked out. Less than a minute later the Sidious had reduced the Tierce to a gray clump of slag.
Lecersen let out a curse as the Minotaur's bridge started shaking again. "The Sidious has opened fire on us, sir," said his tactical officer. "I took the liberty of reinforcing the rear shields."
"Good work, Yage."
Another explosion, larger than the previous one, rocked the Minotaur's bridge. "We just lost the Disra," Yage reported. Lecersen thought he could hear just the slightest touch of fear in the man's voice. "And the Minotaur's in rough shape," he quickly added. Seconds later the five remaining Star Destroyers of Lecersen's fleet were pulling forward, toward the safety of Shotel Za's forces, with the Nezzor at the Minotaur's damaged port flank.
Tharsis
Eta Carinae could see that the Celestial fleet was gradually falling into place around the ally fleet, in a suffocating golden net. The Terran Grand Admiral was about to contact Admiral Bwua'tu to warn him when the comm came to life. "Retreat. Continue to fire on Nibu fleet," Bwua'tu's grave voice ordered over the fleet wide frequency.
"Turn about to starboard," Eta Carinae ordered. A soft ringing sound began to fill the air as the engines fought to whip the Terran war cruiser around. The Terran admiral could feel the g-forces pushing her slightly to the left. "And have Apollo prepare the rift," she added.
"Yes, Admiral," responded the comms officer. "It's on standby," he reported a short moment later.
The Tharsis' laser batteries focused most of their red rage to port, against a pair of inquisitive Tho Yens. They somewhat resembled a trio of Star Destroyers joined at their sterns, with a pair of three sided pyramids joined at each other's bases filling in the gap. The Tharsis' shield pulsed under the Tho Yens' golden-orange fire. Small explosions began to erupt from all three ships. There were other, much smaller explosions as fighters soundlessly buzzed about, and blasted each other to pieces.
Many of the ally vessels had begun to turn, presenting whichever flank was less damaged to the Celestials. Other ally vessels which were either unable to turn or lacked functional hyperdrives would be left behind. Blossoms of flame sprouted from metal ground as ships began to suffer increasingly severe damage. Bits of the ships, and some of the people within, were sucked out into space.
Eta Carinae glimpsed a Tho Yor exploding as an ally ship rammed it. There would certainly be more of that to come. And another massacre like this to come. She sighed. The only way to save her species from the Celestials was to open the gates of Hades and potentially damn this entire galaxy. But Eta Carinae would never stop fighting for her people!
More and more ally ships were either destroyed or crippled as they traded fire with the gleaming Celestial fleet. Many of the stranded capital vessels attempted to ram their attackers, but most were ripped apart by fatal Celestial sunsets before such maneuvers could succeed. Ally fighters fought, many in vain, to protect the enormous capital ships which could flee.
One of the ally vessels, a Terran war cruiser finally facing in the general direction of Kuat, seemed to stretch before vanishing in a bright flash of pseudomotion. More ships and fighters began to follow suit. But seventeen Terran war cruisers, including the Tharsis, pointed themselves in a slightly different direction before disappearing into the protective embrace of hyperspace.
A/N: I've changed the description of the Tho Yens, as some may have noticed. They originally resembled 2 Star Destroyers joined at their sterns. I expect 2 or 3 more chapters to this. Then I'll move on to Fate of the Jedi: Oblivion.
