"Sir, that large cruiser is heading in our direction", the Spearhead logistics officer stated with trepidation in his voice.

Caine was well aware of this fact even before his crewman spoke, but he remained silent. He simply watched the New Republic starship that had been hovering in orbit above the shining blue-green globe of Nuldarra fire its engines and turn to accelerate towards them. His officer certainly was correct about the size of the ship. It was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, massive. Caine knew that the newer Raddus class cruisers were the largest ever built by New Republic shipyards, but the descriptions and images he had seen failed miserably at conveying just how gigantic they really were.

The ship had a resemblance to the old Mon Calamari cruisers that were instrumental in the defeat of the Empire at Endor. It's main hull had the same oblong shape as the older Mon Cal vessels, but towards the bow was a hammerhead structure that reminded Caine of a Corellian Corvette. The entire ship was covered with laser turrets, making it look like a far more formidable warship than any vessel that the Rebel Alliance had ever deployed. It also had enormous wings with what looked like gigantic cannons on them that could fire straight forward and most likely packed a powerful punch. The wings combined with the command bridge on the top side of the structure made the cruiser look like a shining, blue-striped aquatic creature cutting through the black ocean of space.

"Give me a channel to Commanders Wolfe and Khallis.", Caine calmly ordered.

"Channel open, Sir.", the comm officer announced.

"I want Ion Cannons from both of your vessels to target both the bow and stern of that cruiser before it's facing us head on.", Caine bellowed. "It's shielded and sizable but I think we can disable it for at least as long as it takes for our demands to be met."

"Fire on them immediately.", he demanded after a short pause.

Within a minute two bright blasts rendered the New Republic vessel a lifeless drifting hulk, no longer a threat to Caine's small armada. One way or another, he would soon have what he needed.


"Give me a report.", Han Solo barked loudly as he, Lara and BB-8 entered the command room.

"Admiral Solo", Poe Dameron replied as he met them upon their entrance. "The Ackbar has been hit with two large EMP blasts and it's currently adrift without power"

"Was it from the ships that just arrived?" Han asked

"Affirmative.", the pilot confirmed. "And they still aren't moving any closer to our airspace or replying to any of our hails."

"What are your orders, Sir?", Poe asked.

The Admiral never had a chance to answer.

"Han-!", came a concerned call from across the room. It was Leia who had pivoted her attention towards them and away from the large viewscreen in front of her.

"Come over here.", she implored.

All three of them along with the spherical droid wasted no time in moving over to the where the former New Republic President stood. As Lara drew closer, she noticed grave concern in Leia's eyes. She hadn't seen an expression like this on her mother's face since she was a child and Leia was presiding over the stressful reconstruction of the Republic.

"You Ok?", Han said to his wife as he idled right up to her side.

"The Dark Side of the Force surrounds those ships.", Leia said staring at the viewscreen.

Han immediately scowled and rubbed his forehead wearily. He knew better than to underestimate the innate ability with the Force that his wife had developed in the years that they had been married. Her keen senses had saved both of their lives multiple times since she had first trained with Luke to harness her Jedi powers shortly after Endor. That she seemed so agitated now, was making him feel like they were all staring into a black hole that they were destined to be swallowed into.

"It's focused strongly on that smaller one.", she continued as she pointed to the craft holding position in the center of the formation.

Leia turned towards her daughter. "Lara, do you sense it?"

She hadn't sensed anything through the Force a few minutes ago when her father asked her the same question, but now standing with her mother she DID feel a dark side presence. It was as if Leia was somehow acting as kind of a Force prism, shining and focusing her abilities into Lara.

"Yes", she answered coldly "I can feel the Dark Side"

"Wonderful", Han interjected.

"I thought the Dark Side of the Force was gone. DIdn't Luke see to that?", he continued.

"Luke helped eradicate the Sith.", his wife countered without taking her gaze from the unmoving, unresponsive starships on the control room screen. "But the Dark Side can never be destroyed, neither can the Light Side. Both of them are intrinsic to the Force, to all life. They have always existed and always will exist. We can only try to keep balance."

Han shook his head. "No matter how many times you explain this stuff to me, I still don't get it."

Leia and he daughter both allowed themselves to smile at the Admiral's frustration, but Lara's quickly faded.

"These were the ships we evaded at Anoth.", she said with a chill still in her tone. "and there's something else."

"I feel a familiar presence on the small ship."

Both of her parents looked at each other with concern on their faces, but neither said a word. Nothing needed to be said. All three of them were silently dreading what could happen next.


"The transponder information we downloaded places the Corellian freighter right here.", an officer told Caine as she opened a holographic representation of the surface of Nuldarra. With some manipulation of the image, she zoomed into a mountain range with a high plateau that showed what looked like a small fortress.

"Here is the exact location. It's sitting on this landing pad.", the subordinate continued while pointing to a red dot in the holo. "Shall I send it's coordinates to our bombing team, Sir?"

"No", Caine replied as he analyzed the hologram. "We need to extract someone from that mountaintop area, first."

"I don't understand.", she said, sounding puzzled.

"You don't need to.", he replied calmly.

"But I do have something for you to relay.", Caine said as he pointed to the hologram. "Do you see those two cities near the base of the range, just to the south of the plateau where the freighter is?"

"Send THOSE coordinates to Commanders Wolfe and Khallis." he continued, not giving her a chance to reply. "Vaporizing them will guarantee we get what we came for."


The gigantic cannons below Caine's Dreadnaughts began to come to life when his command reached the ships. The space in front of and inside the nozzles of each one filled up with bright blue particles that formed what looked like swirling clouds of quantum fog and as the photons became brighter and more excited, the cannons themselves started rumbling. Over the course of about a minute, the growing buildup of power steadily turned to a brilliant white that was eventually too intense to look at directly.

When the order to fire was given each ship released, in perfect synchronicity, an impossibly thin burst of plasma that was about a kilometer long. The almost imperceptible to the eye, needle shaped bolts raced towards each metropolis below with such speed that within seconds they had already hit the upper atmosphere of Nuldarra. As they entered the wispy higher layer of planetary air, their color changed from white to bright orange and the needle shape inflated in thickness making the two blasts fan out and grow in size as they plummeted closer to their final targets.

Caine watched through the viewscreen of the Spearhead, noticing the orange circles appear above where devastation was soon to arrive on the planet's surface. He turned to the comm officer and spoke.

"Prepare to answer their hails.", he ordered as a smile appeared on his face.


"Madame President, two large energy disturbances have appeared in the upper atmosphere.", announced a logistics officer from his station in the command dome.

"What do you mean.", Leia Organa exclaimed. "What kind of energy disturbances?"

"I'm unsure what they are or where they originated", the officer answered with urgency in his voice. "But they are heading to the surface at tremendous speed and growing in size as they descend."

"Get tracking on the viewscreen and analyze their trajectory NOW-!", Han Solo barked harshly. "I want to see them."

Both Leia and her daughter now felt an amplification of the previous disturbance in The Force and they both simultaneously looked at each other with horror on their faces. Han noticed their gazes immediately and his gut turned to stone.

"What's the matter?", he frantically asked, hoping either would reply with something that would ease his sinking feelings.

"Something terrible is about to happen.", his wife replied. "And there is nothing we can do about it."

"Mom, Dad…I can't watch this. I JUST CANT…", screamed Lara as she turned away from the viewscreen and hid her face in her hands.

Han's feeling of dread was now changing to panic as he snapped his attention back to the viewscreen.

Data from multiple planetary sensors was being analyzed and combined to give a visual representation of the mysterious energy sources heading towards the planet. What they were seeing seemed impossible but nevertheless, there it was on the screen for all to witness. Their eyes were tracking what looked like two immense bell-shaped projectiles made of plasma, burning red hot as they screamed through the middle regions of Nuldarra's atmosphere. The true horror, though, was that they were GROWING as they got closer and the red color was getting brighter and brighter as the hellish infernos raced to the surface. It didn't take a master of science to realize that when these monstrosities of energy hit they were going to completely envelop whatever their target was and incinerate it and most likely hundreds of meters of planetary surface under the area of impact.

"Point of impact is confirmed.", the security officer informed them. "They're heading directly for Mandor One and Two."

The officer then turned towards the group, a somber look plastered on his face.

"Impact in 40 seconds.", he said.

"That will obliterate both cities and kill ten million beings.", Han shouted. Dreadful silence from the room, however, was all that was returned as everyone stared in horror at the viewscreens.

May The Force help us all, he thought.


An ear shattering blast of sound from above his head startled Finn back to reality. After arguing with Lara, losing his temper and storming out of the cockpit and off of the Millennium Falcon, he had wandered around aimlessly. Eventually he found a somewhat quiet area away from all the commotion on the busy landing pads to sit down and to contemplate the whirlwind of the last few days.

Upon hearing the deafening sonic crack, though, he shot his gaze upward and what he saw made no sense to his mind. The clear blue sky that he has seen just a few minutes ago was now filled with two giant red circles of flame that were growing perceptibly larger every second. After staring at the fiery plasma for another few moments, he processed the fact that whatever he was looking at was racing towards the surface of the planet at incredible speed.

If I can see them, then they are going to hit close to here, he thought, his brain finally composing a rational thought.

After being frozen in place for what seemed like forever, Finn's mind regained control of his body and he stood up. He immediately started sprinting towards the entranceway up to the command center that he had been inside earlier today. What kind of protection it could offer he wasn't sure of, but he certainly didn't want to be out in the open when those demons from the sky impacted the planet. If the domed building offered any kind of shielding at all, he knew that's where he needed to be as soon as possible.

About ten seconds into his sprint, he realized that the blasts would not directly impact the mountain plateau. They disappeared from his sight, below the cliff edge of the upper landing pads, plunging into the valley below the mountain range. Upon impact, Finn felt the ground shudder so violently that he was nearly knocked off his feet in mid stride, but he regained his balance and continued hopelessly running towards what he now realized he wasn't going to reach. The shock wave of sound that followed a moment later seemed to crack his skull apart when it reached his eardrums rendering him unable to hear anything other than a high pitched buzz. The worst, though, was the hot wind he felt beginning to hit his skin. As the temperature around him started to rise, Finn stopped running. There was no point anymore. Nothing was going to protect him and the others around him from their final fate this day. He simply stood, closed his eyes and waited for the incendiary fires of Hell to consume him.