According to the Kaleesh flight records, the planet was called Olmarak, though who gave it that name and for what reason was just the first of many mysteries Jodram expected he'd have to live with. The ship he and three other Jedi shared was called the Ossus Explorer, an unremarkable-looking Koensayr light freighter that would, they hoped, allow them to slip close to hostile planets without attracting attention. It had been almost five full days from Ossus to this planet past the edge of the Unknown Regions and when the time finally came to decant from hyperspace everyone was on edge and eager to get things moving.

Jodram was a good pilot, but he stuck himself in the co-pilot's seat and ceded the Explorer's flight controls to Ayen Qemar. The Nautolan Jedi wore her long fleshy head-tentacles bound at her back and as the clock ran down to the target time her pupil-less black eyes narrowed to watch it. Jodram had already run through full checks: Explorer was ready to throw up shields on a moment's notice, fire its twin heavy blaster cannons, and if absolutely necessary deploy the concussion missiles it kept in a secret sensor-shielded compartment below the chin of the jutting cockpit.

Eyes still on the counter, Qemar reached forward and grabbed the throttle that controlled hyperdrive. She counted aloud, "Three, two, one," then pushed it forward.

The blue-white blur flashed and dwindled to nothing: blackness and scattered stars. For a second Jodram thought they'd come out too far at the edge of the Olmarak system; then Qemar nudged the flight controls a little and the view from the cockpit panned down.

From the very first he knew that something was wrong. The planet was a great red-brown sphere, the kind you'd expect from a world with high iron content and no atmosphere to nurture vegetation. The galaxy was full of dead docks but this one was different; as Explorer drew closer he could make out with his naked eye over a dozen massive impact craters dotting its surface, as though a whole herd of comets had smashed into the planet at once.

As they got even nearer Jodram began to make out the small distant engine-flares of starships moving in and out of the planet's orbit. Many, he saw, were dropping down to the surface.

"How many ships are out there?" asked the team leader, Master Sothais Saar.

Jodram checked the scanners. "Picking up seventeen unique drive signatures, and that's what we can see from this angle. Looks like most of them are big ships too, based on the energy output from their engines. They look like the ones escaping orbit are moving pretty slowly too. Implies lots of inertia."

"Can we identify types?" asked the fourth member, the Bothan Jedi Kath Mey'lya.

"Not yet. We need to get a little closer."

"At least they don't sound like combat ships," Mey'lya muttered.

Qemar gave only a mild grunt in reply as she edged Explorer on further. The rust-colored planet filled their viewport and Jodram could see in full detail the staggering size of the impact craters. Even one of those would have been enough to end all life on this planet, if there's been any to begin with.

As they dived toward the surface Jodram watched the tactical scanner. The nearest ship was still far away and didn't seem to be paying attention to them as it climbed slowly out of the gravity well. It looked to be a massive cargo hauler, barrel-shaped and probably of Stromma design.

"At last nobody's getting in our way," he muttered.

"What kind of readings do we have on the atmosphere?" asked Saar.

Jodram checked the sensors. "Looks like…. Huh…"

"Huh?" asked Mey'lya.

"Some oxygen. Some carbon dioxide. It's all very thin. Outside surface temp looks very cold on the nightside, above freezing on the dayside. Makes sense, with the weak atmosphere."

"Ayen, get us close to one of those craters," Saar said. "Jodram, scan for heat signatures."

He frowned. "Are you expecting some kind of volcanic activity? Those are clearly impact markings."

"I know. If there's residual heat we might figure out how old they are."

If there was any heat left over from the explosive impact then the comets- or whatever it was- must have hit recently. Given how many had hit the planet at once, Jodram didn't like the sound of that. As the planet's desolate surface crawled by beneath them, he turned Explorer's sensors downward to pick up the chemical content of the dust and ridges. As expected, high ferrous content. Something flashed and disappeared, he said, "Wait, slow down and circle back."

"Did you find something?" asked Qemar as she shut engines.

"Maybe. Just edge back a little. And drop lower."

As they dropped nearer the surface and pivoted back the light from Olmarak's primary glared in their faces, undamped by thick atmosphere or cloud cover. Qemar adjusted their angle a little more and dipped their nose so they had a good view of the planet's surface a mile below.

What they saw was unmistakable, but no one said anything at first. They all just stared at the clearly artificial rings, straited by dozens of straight lines spanning out from the center, all of them glinting with the reflective sheen of smooth metal surfaces jutting out of layered red dust.

"I'm taking us lower," Qemar said, and no one objected.

When Explorer lowered to an altitude of less than one thousand feet it became clear that they were looking at the ruins of a city. The buildings themselves seemed to have been rent open by a concussive force rather than burned or bombed out. The street-lanes themselves were all covered by dust but the tall metal buildings seemed to denote a reasonably sophisticated civilization, maybe even a spacefaring one, snuffed out in its prime.

"And idea how long ago this city was destroyed?" asked Mey'lya.

"Can't tell with these sensors. We'd have to go down there and do something more thorough." Jodram looked a question as Master Saar.

The white-haired old Chev shook his head. "No. Qemar, keep us going toward the nearest impact crater."

"Yes, sir," the Nautolan said with a new gravity in her voice.

As Explorer rose higher and accelerated Jodram swiveled his chair back to face Saar. "Is there a reason to think this destruction is recent?"

"There's no reason not to. It makes sense if it was. What do you think all those ships are doing, coming in and out of the atmosphere?"

"Stripping it of resources, I'd bet," said Mey'lya. "If those asteroids- or whatever hit this planet- broke through the crust they might have opened access to all kinds of useful minerals."

Jodram nodded. "Which the raiders have clearly been harvesting to fuel their war machine. Or whatever kind of machine they've got. I wonder if there's a method they're using or if it's just a free-for-all."

"That's one of the big questions we're here to solve," said Saar. "Ayen, how much further to the nearest crater?"

"Almost there. Jodram, does it looks like we'll have company?"

Jodram checked his scanners. He didn't pick up any ships in motion yet but there were thrust traces in the atmosphere. "Looks pretty likely," he said. "How do we want to go about this, Master Saar?"

"Ayen, set us down on the rim of the crater if you can. You can cool down engines too. Just put us someplace where we can get lots of good readings and watch what's going on."

When they reached their destination Qemar did just that. She extended the landing gear and set them down on the crater's rim, then cooled sublight engines to standby mode. After that, they settled in to observe.

The crater itself was vast, some seventy kilometers in diameter and fifteen kilometers deep. The impact had indeed broken the planetary crust, and the crater's broad dish had clearly been artificially pierced dozens of times. As they watched one heavy hauler- Jodram's sensors marked it as a Pal'shoran ship- was sitting on the opposite side as them, halfway between rim and nadir. As Jodram scanned closer he saw the massive craft wasn't just a cargo ship; it was some kind of mobile miner with a refinery section and a deep drill used to bore deeper into the planet.

Looking closer at the other excavation sites revealed different methods had been used, presumably by different minters. One whole chunk of the crater looked to have been stripped away; by his estimated more than one thousand tonnes of minerals.

"It's clear what's happening here," Saar told them. "The asteroids' impact destroyed all life on this planet and cracked it open. The raiders have been stripping its carcass clear of meat."

"Like scavengers," Jodram muttered.

"Maybe." Saar's expression darkened. "Unless they killed it themselves."

"Wait, what?" Mey'lya's fur bristled. "Do we have any evidence of that?"

Saar looked to Jodram. "What do your sensors show? Any residual heat from an impact in this crater?"

"It's possible." He shrugged noncommittally. "The temperature is notably higher inside the crater but that could be from lots of things. Residual impact heat, yes. Also heat coming from inside the planet. We don't know how stable or unstable it is beneath the crust."

"How would someone even do that?" asked Mey'lya.

"I remember what my grandparents told me about the Vong war," Jodram said. "They used some kind of gravitic bio-weapon to drag planets' moons down, crack open the surface, then tear the planets to pieces for resources."

"This wasn't one moon, though. Someone must have hijacked a bunch of asteroids and thrown them into the planet."

"There are ships designed to tug and shove asteroids," said Qemar. "They're mostly for clearing space-lines, though. I guess someone could modify them to drop into a planet, but they'd still have to haul the asteroids through hyperspace from somewhere else. I didn't pick up any space rock in this system when we entered."

"Unless they threw them all into Olmarak," Mey'lya muttered, clearly confused what to believe and unhappy with every prospect. Jodram understood that completely.

A pinging from his console grabbed everyone's attention. Jodram looked at the tactical scanners and swore. "Multiple targets inbound fast. Looks like a bunch of little ships in the lead and one big one behind them."

"Tylonian drones?" asked Saar.

"Looks like."

Qemar immediately began warming engines. It would take at least two minutes for the sublights to get back at full operating capacity; by that time the Tylonians would almost be on them.

"Master, we're not going to be able to run," he told Saar. "We'll have to fight."

"We didn't come here to brawl all the raiders at once."

Qemar started, "But Master-"

The Chev held up a hand. "Jodram, once we get off the ground bring up shields to full and charge weapons, but do not fire. Ayen, lift us off from the surface but do not run. When they get within range send them a hail."

It was the smart option. It was, frankly, the only option to get out of this alive. Jodram still didn't like it and his heart pounded in his chest as their kicked up from the surface with a cloud of rest dust. He could feel Qemar bleeding anxiety in the Force too, anxiety she kept off her blue-green face as she leveled Explorer at an altitude of two thousand feet and swung their nose around to face the Tylonians. The small drones were on them in a flash. Instead of splattering laser-blasts on their shields the drones began to fly tight circles around Explorer while the mothership, a black-hulled oval-shaped craft about the size of a Corellian corvette, caught up with them. When it got close enough the mothership killed its engines and shunted power to repulsors so both spaceships hung over Olmarak's red surface, staring each other down.

Qemar tapped the comm console and announced with a shaking voice, "Hail is sent."

Saar nodded. Jodram gripped the armrest of his seat and tried to breathe slowly. They waited for five drawn-out, agonizing seconds before the speakers clicked on and they were greeted with what sounded like three nek battle dogs barking at the same time.

Explorer's computer had been loaded with translation software for a dozen languages common in this part of space, but Tylonian wasn't one of them. Instead Saar leaned over Qemar's shoulder, close to the comm console, and replied in a language long on consonants interspersed with sharp precise vowels. Sy Bisti, Jodram knew. The old Chev had been a Jedi for half a century and spent most of that time on the Outer Rim, including the edges of the Unknown Regions where the trader's tongue was commonly used.

Tylonians, best Jodram knew, weren't physically capable of speaking Sy Bisti but they might be able to understand it. After another five painful seconds of waiting a tinny mechanical voice replied to Saar in the same tongue. Saar replied at once; the language seemed to come naturally to him. Jodram and the other two Jedi watched, understanding nothing but feeling the calming sensation he was emanating in the Force. Whether he meant to calm them or was projecting his own relief Jodram wasn't sure, but his heart was no longer about to punch through his chest, which was something.

The conversation went on for several minutes; Saar betrayed no alarm the whole time, in his voice or the Force. Their talk ended as abruptly as it began. The Tylonian mothership recalled its drones, turned around, and soared away. As it left something lit up and Qemar's comm console and she bended in to look.

"That was amazing, Master," Mey'lya breathed as her fur finally settled flat against her face.

"Jedi have a long history as diplomats," the old Chev said. "Ayen, do you have it?"

"Have what?" asked Jodram.

"Nav coordinates," Qemar said. "Coordinates to where?"

"The Tylonians were actually quite helpful," Saar said. "I told them we wished to serve the King of Storms but had not been told where to find him, only that a Pal'shoran had directed us here. The Tylonians said it wasn't far, and that everyone here was gathering more resources for the King's next great push."

"They volunteered his location? Just like that?"

"Apparently they're more sociable when they're not stuck in an Imperial interrogation cell."

"Or they've been so brainwashed they think everybody's in love with their Storm King," Jodram muttered.

"There's only one way to find out," said Saar. "Ayen, take us up. Start warming the hyperdrives."

"Wait, that's it?" asked Jodram. "We're just… going where they say? Should we bring Masters Qel and Saav'etu?"

"Not yet. Ping their ships, leave a message as to where we're going, but warn them not to follow right away. If this is some kind of trap we don't want to drag them along."

Jodram nodded; it was a good idea and would have been comforting except for the part about jumping into a potential trap.

"So what's the plan, Master?" Qemar asked as they pointed their nose toward faded stars and accelerated. "Go to this planet, scout it out, and see if we can find this Storm King's location?"

"Given his apparent preference for a giant Erath warship he shouldn't be that hard to find. Getting to him, and learning what he's really about, is going to be the tricky part."

"Well," Mey'lya muttered, "It's good we've got a diplomat aboard."

Saar nodded at the complement, but for one second his confident Force aura weakened and Jodram sensed the anxiety beneath. At least, he thought, the Master and his knights were all on the same page.

-{}-

It was a homecoming Darth Terrid had never expected to make. Even now it felt unreal. He'd never been to the Cam'co Colonial Station before but everything about it brought back memories of his long-ago childhood in the Chiss Ascendancy: the wide low hallways, the unique hiss the pnuematic doors made on opening, the way the blue-skinned red-eyes beings always walked quick and straight and staring ahead, even when walking in groups. None of them paid him any attention at all. To them, to their quick and casual sidelong glances, he was just one of the thousands of spacers who pushed traffic large and small through Cam'co.

The station was located on a system at the edge of Ascendancy space and swung around a distant white dwarf star. It was mostly used by civilian traders but also acted as an auxiliary outpost for the Expansionary Defense Fleet. As such all visitors who set down in the station's docking bays were required to show an identification pass and ship register issued by the central government on Csilla.

It would have been possible to forge those things and get aboard, but the Sith had an easier method. The Intruder, Darth Kheykid's black flying wing, had simply slipped up to the station unnoticed, attached itself to one of the auxiliary airlocks, and opened it.

Kheykid stayed aboard his ship, of course. Darth Avanc and Serissa Lohr would have been able to pass as Chiss with a little make-up and red eye-lenses but they too had remained; Terrid was all they needed for this mission.

On their way here he'd allowed himself to wonder, with a touch of apprehension, whether his returns to Chiss space after twenty years would unearth buried emotions. As he walked the station's halls, anonymous and unremarked upon, he found that while they stirred memories they stirred nothing else either. All these little things he noticed, the trademarks of Chiss society that he'd taken for granted his first thirteen years, were little more than curiosities. They felt like relics from another life, which they very much were.

He was relieved by that because it allowed him to concentrate on his mission. It was easy enough to find out which parts of Cam'co station were off-limits to non-military personnel. It took only a little more effort to find a place far-off from the crowded sectors where a single guard stood sentinel in front of a door marked for authorized personnel only. Terrid noted the single holo-cam placed above the door, blurred it with a pulse of Force energy, then walked toward the guard while feigning confusion.

"Excuse me," he said, "I think I'm having some problems. I think I'm lost."

The guard, all stern Chiss discipline as expected, snapped, "This is a restricted area."

"I know, I'm very sorry. You see, I'm supposed to meet someone at the administrative annex, wing 17."

"The administrative annex is on the rimward side of the station," the guard said.

"Can you be a little more specific?" Terrid took another step up, close enough.

"You can find a map of the station at any of the public information terminals." The guard betrayed a hint of annoyance he showed more clearly in the Force.

"Can you direct me to the nearest one? Please, this is my first time off Rentor and I'm a little overwhelmed."

The guard opened his mouth for a few more terse words but Terrid held up his hand. The guard froze. Terrid stepped very close and whispered, "Give me your identicard."

Force suggestion did the rest. The guard's hand went to his uniform pocket. He steadily drew out his card.

Terrid said, "Open the door for me." The guard pressed his palm against the DNA scanner, then tapped his card against the reader. The door hissed open. Terrid plucked the card from the guard's hand and said, "At your post, soldier."

The soldier did as he was told. Terrid slipped into the hallway beyond and reached out with the Force. He sensed no other presences nearby and continued forward. He had no idea what the layout of the military wing was and finding a proper node might be difficult; he stayed alert at all times and followed signs where he could find them in the winding corridors.

Most of the CEDF staff were clearly off on ships patrolling the border; it was the only way to explain how empty this wing was. When he felt a dim sentient presence- two beings, by his guess- he stalked carefully toward it. As he worked his way through the corridors the signs marking a data access terminal seemed to follow him. All the better, he though.

To get into the data center he had only tap his stolen identicard; security was more lax past the outer firewall. The door opened and he walked in on the backs of two CEDF technicians who were facing their consoles, one male, one female. They swung in their seats to face him as one; they'd clearly not been expecting a visitor. Surprise was good; they dropped their guard as Terrid reached out to touch both their minds at once.

He flashed his identicard too fast for a good look and said, "I am Subcommander Shank'narl'csapla, intelligence division. Please provide me with a datacard containing the most recent hostile fleet movements outside Ascendancy space."

The male technician frowned. "Can we see that identification again, sir?"

"You already saw it once. Do you always need to see things twice, lieutenant?" Terrid said it with an authentic-sounding haughtiness and a touch of Force suggestion.

"You're right, it checks out," the tech looked to his partner. "Prepare a data report for the subcommander."

The female tech got to work. Once he used the Force to suppress their suspicion he barely had to use any more effort; the natural obedience drilled into Chiss soldiers did the rest. When she was done the tech handed him the datacard and asked, "Is there anything else, sir?"

"No. Take your stations."

"Yes, sir," they snapped quick bows and went back to their seats. Terrid considered using the Force to clear their memories but decided against it; a memory-wipe required effort and he wasn't certain he could do two at once; it wouldn't matter either way. In fifteen minutes he'd be away from Cam'co station and away from his old people forever.

Not that they'd ever been his people in the first place, he thought as he retraced his steps, exited the military wing, and returned the guard's identicard. Even as a youth he'd felt bound-in by the strictures of Chiss society. He'd longed for more power, more freedom, and when the shocking offer had come to leave the Ascendancy and train as a Jedi he'd took it. He'd been just thirteen at the time, an immature boy, but he'd known his own mind. Terrid respected that, at least, of the person he'd once been.

When he returned to the auxiliary airlock Intruder was still there. Kheykid warmed the engines for takeoff as soon as he was aboard. The stealth ship was not large; all it contained was a command section, a small cargo chamber, and a barracks barely big enough for two sets of bunk-beds. The cockpit felt crammed when Terrid joined the rest of them to explain what he'd found.

"The information seems to be in Cheunh," Darth Avanc observed when Kheykid plugged the datacard into the ship's main computer.

"Of course it would be," Terrid said. "Give me time. I'll translate it all and find the important information."

"What qualifies as important information?" asked Serissa Lohr. The former princess still bore fading bruises and scars from her encounter with the strills; they darkened her pale face and added something dangerous to her otherwise beautiful appearance. She'd been resentful and sullen the entire trip and hadn't the skill to hide her feelings in the Force. It was for that reason that the three Sith could also sense her grim resolve and were not worried. Even if the girl was still struggling with the ramifications of her choice, she knew there was no turning back from the one she'd made.

"The Chiss never attack preemptively," Terrid told her, "But they also have extensive intelligence. They'll know what systems and hyperlanes the raiders having been using to move around. We need only decide the right place for an ambush and set ourselves to wait for the right prey."

"And what will our prey gain us?"

"They will lead us to their masters," Darth Kheykid hissed. "Then we will find the truth."

Serissa nodded. "I understand. What do we need to do before we act?"

"I will translate the data and select our best target," Terrid said. "You will undergo combat training with Darth Kheykid. When we make our ambush you will fight along with us."

The girl nodded stiffly to hide her fear. On Hapes she'd had no experience with non-humans, especially not ones as fearsome in appearance and naturally lethal as Kheykid.

The Barabel rose from the pilot's seat. "Come," he said, "We will work in the cargo hold."

Kheykid led; Serissa followed. Very soon they'd hear the sound of metal practice poles clacking against each other, and shortly after that the sound of the girl's body smacking hard on the durasteel deck. The ceremonial combat training she'd received as princess had taught her fine form, but she was only slowly finding the inner fire that marked a true Sith.

"It is a start," Darth Avanc said in a low voice. There was too little privacy aboard this ship.

"The information, or the girl?" asked Terrid.

"Both. Did you kill anyone aboard the station?"

"I only used Force suggestion." He felt like Avanc was judging him and added, "It was not for sympathy with those people. It was simply the easiest way to get things done."

"I believe you," said the Keshiri, and Terrid wasn't sure if he lied.

"They were as they always were," Terrid added. "Rigid. Ordered. Cold. Obedient. There's little ambition or passion among them. It's no wonder Sith are so rare here."

"Indeed," Avanc sniffed. "I'll leave you to your translations, Darth Terrid. I'd like to see if our former princess is finding her passion."

He rose and stepped out of the cockpit, leaving Terrid alone. The first crack of metal on metal resounded through the ship. He set it in the back of his mind and went to work.

-{}-

The plan had been to use a slow and cautious approach on the planet the Chiss had identified as Karn'Erath. There was no telling what kind of armaments this world, apparently central to the raiders' mysterious crusade, might have. Yet even before Allana's Hapan shuttle first dropped out of hyperspace beyond the edge of its solar system, she had a feeling something was off. It was more than just the Force; the thought that had been nagging at her this whole time was how strange it was that the apparently flagship of the enemy fleet was the only Erath vessel they'd encountered. It made no sense that she could find, unless the raiders had somehow hijacked the ship for their own purposes and no actually Erath were involved. That seemed unlikely, but as they edged closer to the planet through a series of cautious micro-jumps she began to suspect it might be close to the truth.

When it became clear that no mighty warships or defense stations were circling around Karn'Erath, Master Rovurn Qel gave the permission to take the final micro-jump into the planet's orbit. Rollranarra, to whom Allana had ceded the controls of her ship, gave an affirmative Wookiee roar and sent them skipping ahead one last time.

From orbit, Karn'Erath looked like a relatively hospital planet. Allana could see great swathes of ocean, especially in its northern hemisphere, and several distinct continents with broad washes of desert-browns but also the greens of forest and plain and dotted white of ice-capped mountains.

Allana glanced at the sensor feed. "Atmosphere is within breathable limits. We're picking up artificial metals too, in large clusters. Looks like cities and scattered towns, especially on the big southern continent."

"I can't see any ships in orbit. Is anything in the atmosphere?" asked the fourth member of their team, a young human knight named Cenya Valiss.

"Nothing I can see. Should we get closer, Master?"

Qel nodded, the leathered brown skin of his face crinkled in a frown. "Take us toward the largest city."

Rollra pitched them into an atmospheric dive. As they got closer to the city Allana began to run more thorough sensor-readings. To her surprise, there were no significant heat emissions from the city, which would have been expected from a major industrialized urban settlement. She didn't pick up any stray energy readings either.

"It's almost like the city's been abandoned," Allana muttered.

Rollra roared a question. Qel said, "Take us as low as you can. We might have to rely on our eyes for this."

"And the Force?" asked Valiss.

Qel turned his eyes on the young blonde woman. "What does the Force tell you?"

She blinked. "Nothing yet. I don't sense anyone down there."

"Nor do I. That could mean there's do one down there. It could also mean the Erath are invisible or near-invisible to our senses like the Yuuzhan Vong."

Rollra grunted that it could mean just about anything.

"Exactly," the Weequay said. "Allow nothing to cloud your judgment. Wait, watch, observe."

As the shuttle soared low over the city they did just that. It had clearly been a major settlement for a modern, high-tech civilization. They soared between great towers that rose almost a kilometer high and dipped low over roads so broad a dozen landspeeders could fit side-to-side. Yet for all of that they spotted no glowing lights, no people, no speeders on those roads. The buildings' once-fine metal surfaces seemed tainted by rust and weather. Many of their windows were shattered but there were no overt signs of violence.

"It's like someone just abandoned the place," muttered Valiss.

"How long ago do you think?" asked Allana. "A few years, maybe? It's hard to tell..."

Rollra trilled in alarm and kicked the shuttle in a tight circle. Allana barely held on to the back of the Wookiee's pilot chair and yelped, "Whoa, hold on! What do you see?"

"Something on the ground," Qel said. "I saw it too."

"Something or someone?" asked Valiss.

Rollra implied the latter as she killed the shuttle's engines and kicked in the repulsors. She circled low over what had once been a public plaza the size of a star destroyer's hangar deck. The shuttle lowered landing skids and rattled as it set down but no one moved for the exit.

Allana scanned the plaza and the surrounding buildings but found nothing. She was about to say so when a small shadow moved at the base of a dilapidated tower. Valliss pointed. The rest stared as a few more shadows moved at once. They sat and watched for another five minutes until four dark-cloaked figures began to creep across the plaza toward the shuttle. Their motions seemed jerky and hobbling; Allana spotted no weapons and through the Force she could, very dimly, sense curiosity without the intention to harm.

"We should go meet them," Valiss said.

Qel threw up a hand. "Stop. Allana, what do your atmospheric scans say?"

She glanced at her console. "Same as before. Oxygen-carbon dioxide-hydrogen mix, well within standard breathable range."

"Scan for toxins or poisons. Rollra, bring up enhanced visual scanning. Give us a better look at those newcomers."

As the Wookiee worked the controls Allana reported, "No toxins or poisons reported."

"Nothing the computer would recognize," muttered Valiss.

Rollra brought up the holographic viewscreen and showed and zoomed-in image of the four cloaked figures now crouching fifteen meters directly in front of them. They were from a rare Allana had never seen before, but even then she could tell they were sick. Only their mostly-humanoid faces were visible beneath the cloaks; as described, the Erath had skin with an almost liquid-rainbow sheen to it and bulging compound eyes like an insect's. What stood out where the ugly growths, different on each face, that looked like rough dark scar tissue swelled like tumors that tore through the skin. All four of the aliens kept staring straight at them, vague anticipation on their scarred faces.

"We should get in vac suits," Qel said. "Rollra, stay behind in the shuttle. Monitor all scanners and prepare a decontamination procedure for when we come back into the ship."

It took them almost ten minutes to strap into the bulky suits. They'd been designed to protect from the cold of the vacuum, not potential atmosphere-borne diseases, but they did the job all the same. Still, as they exited one-by-one through the side airlock and clambered down the ladder to the dusty plaza, Allana couldn't help but wonder how frightened they must look to the aliens there were approaching.

The Erath, however, did not cower. Whatever had become of their civilization they'd been space-farers once and they knew vacuum suits when they saw them. When the Jedi got close Qel said aloud, "Your turn, Jedi Valiss."

The young woman was from a small colony world on the edge of the Unknown Regions and had picked up some Sy Bisti as a child. It was the reason they'd brought her on the team despite her limited experience. She stepped up to the Erath slowly, hands held up in a sign she meant no harm. The aliens flinched when she got close but did not retreat.

As Valiss began talking to them over her suit's external speakers Allana scanned the broad plaza and the towering buildings around it. After ten or twenty standard years without maintenance those mighty structures would fall. This whole city would crumble.

Valiss was conversing with one of the Erath now, and back-and-forth that made Allana feel a little heartened against it all. The scene around them was grim but at least they stood to get some answers.

When the conversation seemed to lull Qel asked, "What have they told you so far?"

"It's a little tricky," Valiss sighed. "My Sy Bisti isn't great and I think theirs is worse."

"Still," Allana pressed, "What happened to this place?"

"A plague, obviously. They said there's no defense against it. Billions have already died."

"Are there more people in this city?"

Valiss took a broad looked around the plaza. "They say there's plenty more. Just hiding."

Being watched like this never put anyone at ease. Allana asked, "When did the plague start?"

"Less than two years ago. I'm not positive, but I think they're telling us we have nothing to fear from it."

"How do they know that?" asked Qel.

"I think they're saying it was made for them."

Allana understood the implication: a bioweapon. That would explain why only one Erath vessel was with the raider's fleet. At the same time it made no sense; the raiders possessed little visible finesse or technological skills. If they'd wanted to destroy a planet they would have simply bombed it to a cinder.

"Who?" she asked.

Valiss relayed the question. Instead of getting a simple answer a long awkward conversation between the Jedi and the Erath ensued. Allana understood nothing of the words but frustration leaked into both their voices.

Eventually Valiss sighed and said, "They're saying they did this to themselves."

"You mean it was an accident?" asked Qel.

"No. They talk about punishment. I think they mean that one of their own people did this to them. But who would genocide their own people?"

"Is it just one of them?" asked Allana. "A certain group? A faction in a war?"

"Can they give us a number, either general or specific?" Qel suggested.

That set off another labored exchange. When they started getting frustrated again the lead Erath started gesturing with her hands, jutting one finger each up to the sky.

"Two?" said Allana. "Is that what she's saying? Only two people did all this?"

"I think she means… Two people were the leaders."

"A king and a queen," Allana muttered, remembering the intel Jaina had relayed.

"Ask them," said Qel. "Did two of their leaders do this to them?"

The next exchange seemed a little smoother. Valiss told them, "You're right. It was their leaders. One male, one female. They make it sound like they did this to the Erath to punish them. For disobedience."

"This is very important," said Allana. "Where are this king and queen now?"

After a few more words Valiss translated, "The king and queen rose from nothing. They were just two normal citizens and they took over the whole word, the entire Erath race, and ruled like tyrants."

"But what happened to them?"

Valiss looked back to the Erath and exchanged more, like she needed to confirm something. Then she said, "After they poisoned the planet they got in its greatest warship and left."

"How long ago?" asked Qel.

"Less than two years." Valiss didn't have to ask on that one. "Master, they must have started here, but we have no idea how they took over Karn'Erath, let alone all those different species that make up the raiders."

"Did you ask her?" said Allana.

"Yes, but I can't figure out what they mean. They just say the king and queen got everyone to support them. They make it sound like everyone went mad or got brainwashed and all they could do was obey."

"Sounds like that may be Force-users," Allana breathed.

"Very powerful ones," Qel nodded, "But the Imperial knights haven't reported sensing a Force presence from that ship."

"None of them got close and they were already in the middle of a crazy, chaotic fight," Allana reminded.

"Are we thinking Sith here?" Valiss spoke the name in a dreaded whisper; it made her seem even younger.

"The Sith have been trying to destabilize the galaxy for decades," Allana said bitterly. "This is exactly what they'd do."

"They'd also have to find two Erath all the way out here and train them. Maybe they're some other kind of Force-user. We don't know what kind of schools or systems they use out here."

"Remember what I said in the shuttle," Qel reminded them. "Observe and consider but assume nothing."

"If not Force-users then what?" asked Allana. "Some kind of telepaths?"

"Maybe. Or even just exceptionally charismatic leaders."

"Charismatic enough to unite a dozen species that normally can't stop fighting each other and turn them into an invasion force, all in about a year's time?"

"Point taken," Qel grunted. "We should keep our minds open, but act on the likelihood these leaders are Force-users."

"Great," Valiss said. "So now what? Hope Masters Saar or Saaev'tu find this ship?"

"I don't think we'll find it here. We should get back to the shuttle and contact the other teams. They're more likely to track the enemy down."

"And then what do we do? Will a dozen Jedi be enough against these… these things?"

"Observe, consider, don't assume, Jedi Valiss," Qel said tersely. "For now, let's aim for a sitrep."

"Wait," Allana said. "These people…"

"We can't do anything for them now. I'm sorry. When we get back to civilization, we can put together a mercy mission."

"I can do more than that," she said as she looked at the broken, pleading faces of the afflicted Erath. "I've still got pull on Coruscant. I can get Kyrr Esch to authorize an emergency medical response on Karn'Erath."

"Even if it puts Alliance personnel at risk from the raiders?" Qel asked.

"Kyrr knows his government had to show moral leadership. He'll do it." She added, "Maybe we'll have this king and queen taken care of before it gets to that point."

"We can only hope," Valiss said, like anything else was beyond them.

"Tell them we're sending help," Allana told her. "Tell them we can't promise miracles, but we won't forget about them either. We'll so everything we can."

Valiss nodded and she explained as best she could in Sy Bisti. The Erath didn't interrupt, didn't ask questions, didn't do anything until she made clear she was done. That was when they fell to their knees and prostrated themselves before her. The young woman's jaw dropped in shock; then her face flushed in embarrassment.

Allana, though, felt absolutely humbled. As Hapan princess, Alliance Chief of State, and Jedi knight, there had been many moments where other beings placed their deepest trust in her. This was different. She'd just been weighted with the life or death of an entire species. She felt weak at the knees herself.

As if he'd sensed it, Qel placed a firm hand on the shoulder of her vac suit and said, "Come, both of you. The hard work is just beginning."