Coruscant was burning. Fires blazed high as mountains, casting pillars of great smoke into the sky. Ash choked the air, blown like curtains of gusts of hot wind. Great towers, miles high, slanted and fell, crashing, spreading more destruction. The world reeked of scorched death beyond measure.
Then, as quickly as it had come, the vision vanished and Allana Solo Djo was back where she'd been a moment ago: the communications center of the Jedi Temple on Ossus.
She felt a heavy, clawed hand rest on her shoulder. "Are you all right, Jedi Djo?"
She jerked at the sound but the pressure didn't lift. She looked up and saw the ancient Master K'Kruhk, staring down with soft concern in his small eyes. The tusked, shaggy Whiphid was even older than Lowbacca and been left in charge of the Order in the Wookiee Grand Master's absence. He'd been alive a century ago and survived Palpatine's great Jedi Purge; for that reason that he'd reacted swiftly when new first came of Imperial Head of State Veers moving against the Jedi Temple on Bastion. As many knights and masters as the Temple could spare were now en route to Bastion, though they were still many hours away and an interdiction field had been erected over the planet, preventing direct access. The lives of her Aunt Jaina, her cousins, and the other Jedi under siege were entirely in the hands of Davek Fel.
Wide-scale sensor jamming prevented all but rumor and scraps of observation to escape Imperial space, and it was those alone that Allana, K'Kruhk, and the other remaining Jedi were crammed into the comm station now. Only the apprentices were left outside to ponder what was happening; Allana had done her best to assure Kol and Nat and the other children but after what vision that had overwhelmed her, she doubted she could do even that now.
"Coruscant?" Allana croaked. "What's happening on Coruscant?"
K'Kruhk's eyes narrowed. "What should be happening there?"
"Just check, please."
A younger knight working the comm station immediately acted on her request. The young man looked up at her with a confused frown. "We just pinged our comm satellite over Galactic City. Everything's normal."
K'Kruhk's claws dug lightly into her shoulder. "Did you feel something, Jedi Djo? Or did you see it?"
"The second one," she whispered.
K'Kruhk nodded like he understood, but he couldn't grasp the whole of it. Visions of the future granted by the Force were dangerous things. They'd brought ruin to Allana's father; his attempt to prevent the dire futures he'd seen for the galaxy and his daughter had twisted him into a Sith. When she was a child Allana had been blessed and cursed with a few visions. In acting she'd saved her mother and her friends, but never without cost. Those visions had stopped after Abeloth's apparent defeat and she'd been relieved to think them gone forever.
Now Abeloth had returned. Maybe that was the connection; she didn't know. Those flashing images of fire and ruin upended everything and case her into more uncertainty than the events on Bastion.
"Do you wish to contact Coruscant and tell them what you've seen?" asked K'Kruhk.
Allana didn't know what she'd say if she did. Kyrr Esch would trust her Jedi intuition more than most beings, but all she could tell him was that she'd seen death and destruction on the capital world. She had no idea of the cause or the timing, even if she'd seen visions of the past or the future. Coruscant had been ravaged by many wars over its long history. It had never wholly recovered from the Yuuzhan Vong invasion and fifty years ago Abeloth had caused massive groundquakes that had toppled towers and killed millions, for which the Jedi had taken much of the blame. It was one of the main reasons her uncle Luke had severed formal relations between the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance and moved the headquarters to Ossus.
Esch was now as frustrated and captivated by the events on Bastion as she was. He wouldn't appreciate the extra worry. Still, vague warning was the only thing she could do.
"Yes," she said, "Please. Get me the Chief of State."
-{}-
Clouds dark with rain rose like mountains high above Ravelin. Lasers streaked and explosions burst around their vaporous peaks as blocky landing craft fell through the twilit sky and tore through the cloud cover on their way to the city below. Starfighters swarmed around the troop ships, attacking and defending, but even to those in the middle of the fight it was hard to tell who was doing which. This wasn't a normal battle where you could know your enemy by the make of his ship. All the fighters in Bastion's atmosphere were TIE fighters. All the pilots killing and being killed were loyal soldiers of the Empire, pitted against each other.
Marasiah wrenched the controls of her TIE Saber and peeled away from the fat swell of a stormcloud. For a second something lit it from within an explosion or a shudder of lightning, she couldn't tell. She swung the nose of her ship back toward the darkening sky; with her naked eyes she could see the thrust-trail of more troop transports falling inbound. According to her ship's computer they were directly above the besieged Jedi academy and the transports were dropping faster than stones toward the surface. Her computer also delineated TIE fighters from Davek's fleet from hostile snubfighters, but to her eyes they all looked the same.
As she hurried to meet the transports she checked her console; shields still strong, six torpedoes still in the tubes. She'd had to release two pairs already to get past the hostile fighter screen that had blocked them in the upper atmosphere. Through the Force she'd felt the hesitation in her pilots and in the enemy as well; for all their training they'd never expected to fire on fellow Imperials. They'd never wanted to kill their own.
But when the torpedoes started flying and lasers started flashing, adrenaline and instinct started taking over. No one was holding back in the sky over Ravelin; it was kill or be killed and the hardest part was telling friend from foe.
A flash of green lasers scattered over her port shields; Marasiah snapped away but the TIE-X soared past her and looped around; she checked her computer and the fighter was green, friendly. She swore as the TIE-X joined two more of its kind and raced toward another flight of the same ship. The flights collided, broke, and began dogfighting.
She pressed ahead toward the transports. TIE-Xs were harassing the front three ships with their laser cannons and Marasiah waited until she got a target lock to unleash a single torpedo. She watched as the TIE-X broke from its pursuit and divided sharply toward the clouds to evade. The pilot was good but not good enough; he spun his ship in nimble spirals but the torp caught up and burst hot light over the roof of the stormclouds. No eject signal; it was over in a flash.
"Knight One, I see inbound Sabers," Katrin Mull's voice called over her headset. "Coming on your six."
Marasiah glanced at her sensors; Knight Two and Knight Three had darted in fast behind her and were settling on her wings. And up ahead, diving down from the upper atmosphere, was a full squadron of twelve TIE Sabers. All hostile.
"They'll tear up the transports if we let them," Knight Three warned.
"Then don't. Get weapons lock. Fire when ready."
"Single or double torps?" asked Mull.
"Your choice." Marasiah let her targeting computer get a lock on the nearest enemy Saber, the one at the edge of the wedge formation. The sooner she fired the more time it would have to evade; she waited, waited until she was close enough to see the green flare from its laser canons reflect on the eight-sided portal of its viewport.
Her wingmates fired first; the Sabers held formation long enough to fire their own volley of torpedoes at the transports, then broke and scattered. The three Jedi scattered too. Marasiah held onto her single torp and gunned it toward her target. He was with his wingman; Marasiah fired a burst of lasers at the second ship that splattered on its shields, then tapped the other button and fired the torp. It took the first Saber by surprise; the pilot tried to outmaneuver but at that range there was no outrunning the warhead. The pilot was good; he shunted full power to his aft shields and managed to absorb most of the explosion, but the effort overwhelmed his defenses. Marasiah shifted her laserfire to the first TIE and a second later it exploded.
The second ship dove toward the clouds to evade. Marasiah took after it and saw one transport in the corner of her vision explode. She forced her attention on the diving Saber. Flashes- definitely lightning- echoed through the billowing black clouds but the pilot seemed ready to dive into them anyway to get away from Marasiah.
She wouldn't give him the chance. She popped off another torpedo, bringing her down to four. The torp came from above, forcing the TIE to duck closer to the clouds. She tapped the firing button a second time, detonating the warhead just shy of its target. The explosion blinded the pilot, buffeted his shields, and forced him to ride the roof of the clouds. Marasiah was on him, plunging through the torpedo's explosion, cannons blazing. Green lasers tore through shields and metal and reduced the TIE to burnt scraps falling through the clouds.
She checked her scanners. Knights Two and Three were still flying. Two more transports had been destroyed but three had just dropped into the clouds, following the trail of a half-dozen more that had already gone through. They'd be landing at the Jedi academy now and they'd need cover.
She tapped her comlink on and addressed all ships from Nightwatch's air group. "This is Knight One. All ships to stage three. Go through the clouds. Go now!"
As soon as she ended the call laserfire rocked her dorsal shields. She snarled back a curse and jumped to port. She checked her scanners; another TIE Saber was behind her, slightly above, its speed reduced to keep her in firing range.
Then a voice said, "You haven't changed that much. I'd know that flying anywhere."
She knew that voice; of course she did. In the rush to get here and the frenzy of battle she'd somehow forgotten that she knew the CAG on Invincible; that she'd once flown on his wing and placed her life in his hands.
"You don't have to do this, Korosh!"
"I'm not the one leading a mutiny," Vull snapped.
He fired another set of laser blasts. She kicked in her speed, letting them cut through her wake, and tried to pull up, but Vull was there, spraying more lasers against her dorsal shields. He'd never let her rise and the only way left was down.
She didn't give him warning. She tipped her fighter's nose skyward, like she intended to make a break, then shunted power to the shields and shut off the engines. Her stomach jumped into her throat as her TIE dropped like a stone into the storm-clouds.
Dark vapor swallowed her whole. Water ran in upward streaks across her viewport as her TIE dropped and dropped; a burst of lightning, pure white, jumped out of nowhere and spread across her shields. Her fighters rocked violently and the brightness blinded her even through the light-reduction of her visor. She squeezed her eyes shut, waited two awful seconds for the red to fade, then popped them open.
She was clear of the clouds and falling with rain toward Ravelin sprawled in the night beneath her. City streets were rivers of light, buildings like clusters of stars. She saw fires down below, burning all over the city too hot for rain to drown.
She knew Ravelin. She knew its geography and she knew where she was, over the southwest section of the metropolis. Her engines turned on just in time. She spun her TIE around and screamed straight east toward the Jedi academy.
In the night she could spot the lights ahead but make no sense of them, so she had to rely on her scanners. Vull hadn't dropped out of the clouds that she could see, but he wouldn't be put off long. Starfighters were dogfighting fiercely over the port southeast of Ravelin where the Jedi academy was. They were battling over the city center too. When she spared a glance to the north she thought she saw one of Ravelin's great skyscrapers furling fire, and maybe a wall of black smoke drifting from the residential district where Davek had grown up.
But she couldn't do anything about that. She had four torps left. When she got close to the Jedi academy's familiar pyramid she got a lock on two TIE-Xs her computer marked hostile and let the warheads fly. Then she dove low, barely caring whether the torps hit. Fighters arrived before her had gone after the tanks and walkers encircling the Academy. The armored units had fought back with anti-aircraft fire, and a few shot-down TIEs had left still-burning streaks when they crashed in the fields around the Academy. She dipped lower still and slowed to see with her own eyes. She saw some fighting on the steps of the main promenade leading to the pyramid's entrance; flashing rifle-blasts, bursts from E-web tripods, and multi-colored lightsabers bobbing and blazing.
She reached out with the Force, seeking a familiar mind to touch. Someone sensed her and touched back, she couldn't tell who. Another Jedi's emotions washed over her; exhaustion, grief, gratitude, relief. Whatever losses they'd taken, the battle was winding down. Davek's troops had secured the Academy, preserved it.
She flew past the Academy before she could try and ask what had happened to her sons. She pulled away from the battle zone, higher into the sky but still below the storm-clouds, and tried to reach out to them. They weren't at the Academy; she could tell as much. Neither of them had died; she knew she'd have felt that agony. They were down on the planet, somewhere and not far but too distracted to notice her searching.
Then she remembered: the emergency tunnel, the hidden exit in the industrial zone west of the Academy. Without hesitation she gunned for it. Her TIE Saber would get her there in moments.
Then the alarm sounded: torpedoes locked on. She swore, glanced at her scanners, saw another TIE Saber dropping down on her with two warheads blazing the trail.
This low over Ravelin there was no place to run. Even with shields on full she couldn't take two torpedoes impacting at once.
There was only one thing. She pointed her fighter in the direction of the industrial zone and cut a straight fast line through the air. Vull's torps would be on her in a second. She directed her shields to the upper-aft section of the ship, right where the missiles would hit, then groped to find the ejection button beneath her seat. She watched the cityscape rush by beneath her, half-familiar and shrouded by dark. She watched the torps on her scanners, almost there.
No more time. She pulled the ejection button. The roof of her cockpit blew off and the charged beneath her seat blew too, but she gave herself an extra push in the Force. She threw herself clear just in time; explosive heat washed over her and shrapnel whistled lethally past. Vull's fighter screamed over her and then she was falling.
-{}-
They'd almost gotten back to Roan and the other apprentices when the next Sith fell on them. After using so much of the Force in the last attack Jaina was weak and Vitor and Treis had had to half-carry her back through the alleys toward the warehouse where the rest of the young Jedi were hiding. Maybe they should have been able to sense where the next Sith would come from but they were all too tired, too hurt, too panicked.
They emerged from one alley and saw warehouse where they'd started across a broad street. Vitor spotted a few figures in the open doorway, half-formed figures peering out but blurred by rain.
"Get back inside!" Vitor shouted as he and Treis tugged Jaina into the open street. "Back to the tunnel! Now!"
Then the Sith appeared. They fell from rooftops like they'd dropped from the sky, two on either side. Four figures, shrouded by shapeless black cloaks, lightsabers crackling in the rain, advanced at once. Vitor and Treis pressed against Jaina; Alar, still clutching her wounded side, rose as straight as she could and ignited her saber with her free hand.
"Get back!" Vitor shouted at the watching apprentices, then ignited his saber.
Four Jedi barely strong enough to stand couldn't last against four Sith. In an instant he knew he was going to die. He'd never see his parents again, never see Marin, never become a real Jedi Knight. He could try and buy time for Roan and the others to escape but all they could do was flee back into the tunnel and seal the armored hatch that would only hold the Sith back for a minute more.
The realization could have crushed him, but the Sith didn't give it time. They jumped forward. Alar held up her saber and staggered under heavy downward blows. Treis jumped forward, shouting with incoherent rage, and caught the nearest Sith so surprised the black-robed figure jumped two steps back to escape the boy's wild swings.
Two more Sith came for Vitor and Jaina. The old woman ignited her saber again and moved lightning-fast to block one red sword, then another. And then she let her saber dip to her side and an invisible wave rippled out from her. It spared the Jedi but picked up the Sith, throwing them into the air and dropping them onto the pavement ten, twenty meters away.
Jaina went limp on her feet. Vitor grabbed his grandmother with his spare arm and she wilted against him, so fragile. "Grandma!" he shouted, knowing the Sith were even now scrambling to their feet to attack again.
Jaina's free hand clenched his tunic. "Get out, Vitor. Go. I'll hold them… one more time..."
The old woman was so weak; when she called on the Force she made herself a vessel to energies her body could barely handle. She'd wear herself down to nothing, die under the blades of four Sith, just to give him and the other apprentices a chance at escape.
It wasn't right. It wasn't fair.
It was the only thing left she could do.
The Sith were on their feet. Alar and Treis faced the enemy, sabers held up, ready to defend and die. Jaina's hands dug deeper into Vitor's shirt. He opened his mouth to order the other apprentices to run.
Then thunder boomed low overhead; echoing off the blank walls of the warehouses. Everyone looked up, even the Sith, to see a fireball streak over the industrial zone. Vitor spotted the burning metal sphere and sheared-off pointed solar panels of the TIE fighter; then he felt something familiar but so unexpected at first he didn't realize what it was.
He heard a hard metal crunch on the roof of the warehouse behind him. He spun, looked, saw nothing over the edge. By then the Sith were charging again: three running toward Vitor and the others while the fourth bounded up to the warehouse roof with a Force-assisted jump.
It was a flurry of light and sound. Sabers crackled and hissed against each other. Treis' was knocked from his hand and went spinning across the street, scorching rain-wet pavement as it went. Alar collapse and cried out as a red blade sheared off her sword-arm. An invisible Force-burst from Jaina sent Alar's attack flying back before he could deliver the killing blow. At the same time she moved, so fast, to block the lightsaber coming down on her. Vitor saw the opening, knew it had to be taken. He came in low and thrust high, spearing the Sith through the stomach with his blade. He didn't even feel it go it; it was like stabbing empty air. The black-robed figure released a sound he hadn't expected, a sound that seemed so incongruous: a pained and high-pitched female scream.
He skirted away from the Sith; as he watched her fall something caught the corner of his vision: the pure-white blade of a new lightsaber. He pivoted, staying close to Jaina, and looked at the warehouse behind him. A figure jumped off the roof: short but thick for its vac-proof flight suit, long dark hair billowing upward as it fell.
When his mother's feet hit the street she charged. The Sith standing over Treis immediately moved to defend. His red blade caught Marasiah's white one; she struck again, blocked the counter-attack, then jumped aside to dodge a lunge. The Sith went off-balance; she cocked one elbow and snapped it into the face beneath the hood, stunning her attacker. A downward diagonal slice ended it, breaking the Sith in two.
The last attacker was charging; it raced right past Alar and went for Jaina, probably hoping to kill the old Master before it died. Marasiah couldn't get there in time but Jaina raised her saber to block low, and Vitor took high. The Sith jumped over them both and came down behind them. Vitor spun on his heel, faster than Jaina, but the old woman wasn't trying to block. With the Force she plucked Deir Sinde's lightsaber from the pavement, sparked it to life, and called it to her hand. It flew like an arrow, blade-first, slicing through the air, into the last Sith's back and out through his chest, until its handle smacked into Jaina's palm. The Sith still wavered on its feet, red sword lifted high as though it couldn't believe what had happened. Vitor didn't wait. He swiped out with his saber, slashed the Sith across the chest. Its body tipped back and hit the ground.
A second after it landed Marasiah leaped over it and bounded right into her son. She knocked him two steps back and wrapped one arm in a vice-grip around his back, pinning him against her.
"Okay, Mom, I'm okay!" Vitor gasped; she was trying to squeeze the life out of him.
"Oh, Vitor," she whispered, "I'm so sorry."
He didn't understand what she meant. "You're here, Mom, it's okay."
They heard two lightsabers shut off at the same time, disengaged from each other, and looked to see Jaina standing in the rain, a dead weapon in either hand. Lightning flashed overhead and light gleamed off her lined but water-slick face, the long white hair pressed against her skull. Jaina and Marasiah's eyes met and something electric passed through them, something that started with gratitude and went into something beyond Vitor's understanding.
Then, behind them, Treis rose to his feet and shouted, "Look out!"
They spun as one. Lightning flashed again, revealing more dark figures on the roof of the warehouse directly next to the one where Roan and the others hid. The light died but the figures remained; Vitor saw one, two, three more red lightsabers blaze to life against the night.
Thunder rolled across the sky, and something else: the low steady drone of starship engines. Suddenly wind rushed across the street and the drone became a roar. He heard the spark of heavy laser canons firing and suddenly the warehouse roof on which the Sith perched exploded. Fire and smoke leaped up into the rain and blinding electric spotlights turned the dark world bright. Vitor shielded his eyes but when he squinted through cracked-open fingers he could make out the familiar shape of his uncle's starship setting down in the center of the street.
"Unbelievable," he heard his mother sigh.
Jaina, though, starting hobbling toward the light. Marasiah came alongside her and hooked her arm with the older woman. Sinde was on his feet, walking toward Starlight Champion as it lowered its landing struts and came down with a mechanical crunch. Alar was on her knees, too weak to stand. A few apprentices peeked out of the warehouse shelter and Vitor spotted his brother's face lit up by the glare of Champion's spotlights.
Vitor started toward the ship too, then froze. The body of the first Sith he'd stabbed was right in front of him, lying face-up, the black hood pulled away. The face was plain in the light from Arlen's ship: a human face, female, probably barely out of her teenage years. Black hair pooled around a face that looked so normal despite the jagged tattoos that marked it. Two eyes, a normal blue, stared at the night sky without blinking, without seeing.
"Vitor!" he heard his uncle call. "Come on!"
Suddenly it was hard to feel relief. He turned away from the first person he'd ever killed and hurried to the ship. The apprentices were there too, and Marasiah had dropped to her knees to give Roan a cheek-to-cheek hug. Arlen was there with his arm around his mother. People were already starting to head up Champion's lowered landing ramp.
When Marasiah detached from her son she asked Arlen, "How the kark did you get here? Where did you come from? How did you-"
"I dropped out of hyperspace just a little before you did," he said. "I was monitoring the news-nets so I knew what I was getting into. I held back, waited to see what would happen-"
"And then slipped in after we did."
"Right. I had a little trouble finding you at first, but then I got some help." He squeezed Jaina's shoulder.
His mother, however, looked unrelieved. "What's the situation at the Academy?"
"Davek's troops broke the siege barrier and secured it. I'm not sure about causalities but it might be heavy." He looked at Marasiah. "We've got air superiority too. Cleared out the fighters over the Academy and most of Bastion, but I think some ground fighting's still going on."
Carefully, grimly, Jaina asked, "What about Davek?"
Arlen looked up at the night sky. "I don't know how much longer he can hold. We need to get off the ground. We might need to run."
"Wait, what's happening?" Vitor asked. He'd been so caught up in the battle on the ground he hadn't even thought of what might be going on above. "Isn't it over?"
Jaina's head bent low; a curtain of wet white fell over her face. "No, Vitor. It's just beginning."
-{}-
Where they stood now was inevitable from when they'd fired the first shot. Davek had known that when he'd given the order, and every second since had been like watching a holo-drama whose plot he already knew. When Nightwatch and the other eight destroyers in his fleet had unleashed their TIEs and landing craft, Invincible had unleashed all of its own. The fighters and transports had punched through the initial defensive screen with high attrition rates, then plunged down into the atmosphere toward Ravelin. The two Compellor-class destroyers closest to the capital had moved to engage Davek's ships first. Though Nightwatch was a mighty vessel it was designed as a carrier rather than a pure combat vessel, and he pulled his flagship back to allow three of his own destroyers to engage.
At the same time, Renwar's three ships had been right behind him. He redirected one of Nighwatch's fighter wings to help Maelstrom and Conqueror defend the rear of the line. They fought bravely, desperately, but Renwar's Tempest was a mighty ship. When Conqueror cracked and burst under the bigger destroyer's cannons, Davek called on Maelstrom to fall back and broke his fleet in two in an attempt to keep from getting everyone pinned down and slaughtered in low orbit.
They'd barely reorganized when Invincible finally entered firing range. Veers' long sword of a star destroyer had pivoted to fire with its full spread of starboard cannons. The mighty broadside was a wash of pure destruction. One of Davek's Predator-class class destroyers was torn to pieces within minutes, and a fair of frigates didn't even last that long. Invincible's two supporting destroyers moved in on Davek's forced from either flank, then crept around the rear to prevent them from running while Invincible continued the slaughter.
The other half of Davek's fleet was faring a little better. Renwar still moved to engage them, but Maelstrom and the three other destroyers it had formed with were fighting back. When a squad of TIE Demolishers atomized the command deck of one of Renwar's destroyers, cheers rang out across Nightwatch's bridge. They'd died a second later, and expressions of embarrassment and shame rippled across the bridge crew.
Imperials were killing Imperials. Davek had known going in that there was only so much he could do against Invincible. His only hope had been to land troops on Bastion, protect the Jedi academy, and pacify the city if possible. The only thing left they could do now was hold out and, if necessary, cover the Jedi's escape from Bastion.
Small things were working in their favor, somehow. Admiral Hallis' Sentinel was a mighty Legator-class ship, the same as the Makati and the biggest ship over Bastion besides Invincible. Hallis could end this fast if he joined the battle but the supreme commander was holding his ships on the outer edge of Bastion's orbit, like they were waiting for something, though Davek couldn't imagine what.
At first he'd thought it was reinforcements. The wide interdiction field Davek's fleet had erected around Bastion slowed the approach of ships from outside the system but didn't stop them. Despite that, no new ships had dropped into the Sartinaynian system: nothing from the First Fleet, and more surprisingly not from the Second. Veers had groomed Leonal Grave from early in his career and made him a valuable ally; if he was going to call on the young admiral for aid it would be now.
As another of his frigates exploded under fire from Invincible, Korak tapped his shoulder and delivered a rumor and a little hope. "We're picking up scattered talk on the comms, sir. Signals from outside the system about Yaga Minor."
"What about it? Has Grave left the system?"
"No, sir. From what we can tell he's bogged down there."
"Bogged down with what?"
"From the chatter, sir, there's been a general uprising among the Yagai." He let that sink in a moment, then added, "Word of what the Third's been doing to their colony worlds must have gotten out."
It was exactly what he'd been worried would happen since the crackdown on the Kaleesh had started. Other non-human peoples, one who'd traditionally been integrated into Imperial society, might start following the lead of the untamable warrior race.
He'd been anxious over the prospect for so long, but now he saw an opportunity, even a life-saver.
That was when the comm officer called, "Admiral, we're getting priority hail!"
"From the surface?"
The lieutenant's face scrunched as he checked the scanners. "Down below, sir. Looks like a ship in low atmosphere."
Davek hurried over. The jamming field Invincible had raised blocked out their sensor and prevented them from seeing what was happening on the cloud-covered surface. It had blocked most communications too, though sporadic message-bursts had kept Nightwatch updated on the apparently-successful troops landings at the Jedi academy.
"Do we have in ID on that ship?" Davek asked as he loomed over the comm console.
"Yes, sir. Transponder says-" the lieutenant checked his console, "Starlight Champion."
Disbelief, relief, acceptance. It wasn't the first time his brother had pulled a rescue out of nowhere. "Put it on."
The officer flicked the switch and the first thing Davek said was, "Arlen, you glorious bastard. How did you get down there?"
"He got into the system a little before you did," said a different voice, his wife's.
"Marasiah? How did you-"
"We have them, Davek. Roan, Vitor, your mother, all the Jedi apprentices. The Academy is secure too."
"The pyramid?"
"And the airspace. There's still fighting going on over Ravelin."
"What's happening? Our sensors are still jammed."
"We're not exactly sure, but there was a lot of street fighting. Veers landed troops to quell the riots."
"He used stormtroopers against civilians?"
"That's right. Davek, most of those people came out to support the Jedi."
Davek understood. It was what he'd hoped for but been afraid to believe. Veers had played old-style Imperial prejudice through and through, anti-alien and anti-Jedi. Suspicion of non-humans in the Empire was all too rife, especially after the actions of the Kaleesh and the alien raiders from uncharted space. Those same events had risen the Jedi to the status of heroes; Bastion's knights had been on the front lines of those fights and everyone knew it. This wasn't the old Empire anymore; in accusing the Jedi of working with the Kaleesh to kill Avaris he'd overplayed his hand and gone beyond what most Imperial citizens were willing to believe.
Veers wasn't an idiot. He'd have realized his mistake. With the area around the Jedi pyramid securely in Davek's control his only option was to annihilate the site from orbit. There was no doubt he could do it; the academy's shields would never withstand a few salvos from Invincible. But the academy was so close to Ravelin and there'd be no guarantee his precision strike wouldn't kill civilians, especially with the storm scrambling sensors.
He might be willing to press through, annihilate Davek and the Jedi Order, then waste months or years suppressing their sympathizers. He might also be willing to back away.
As for Davek, the choice was simple. His people were dying by the minute. Even if he ordered every ship he had to charge Invincible they would still lose. The only option was a cease-fire.
"Champion, what's your position?" he asked.
"Holding in the air over the pyramid," Arlen said. "There's still a lot of Jedi and friendly troops on the ground. Should we call an evac?"
"Stand by but hold for now. Stay alert, keep defending, and wait for my next signal." Before ending the call he added, "Thank you, Arlen."
"Don't mention it."
The line clicked off, the comm officer said, "Call's over, sir."
Davek put a hand on the lieutenant's shoulder. "Can you patch in a line to Sentinel?"
He frowned and worked his console. "It's at the edge of the battle zone and there's some jamming, but I think so."
"Do it right now. Sent a priority hail. Tell Supreme Commander Hallis I need to speak with him immediately."
"Yes, sir."
As the lieutenant placed the call Davek glanced anxiously around the bridge. Korak was giving orders to the gunnery crews as one of the Compellor-class destroyers entered firing range. Through the viewport, he could see one of his own destroyers being pummeled by Invincible's turbolaser fire.
"Admiral, we have full connection."
"Bring it up."
Davek took a deep breath as the head-and-shoulders holo-image of Supreme Commander Hallis appeared. The old man's face was pinched in a scowl and the first thing he said was, "Admiral Fel, I hope you have a very good reason for this call."
"Yes, sir. I want you to relay my offer to parlay with Moff Veers."
"Head of State Veers," Hallis corrected. "If you're offering to surrender you can do it directly."
"This isn't surrender. My people have the Jedi academy secure, which was our purpose in the first place. I want to call a cease-fire so I can negotiate with the Head of State."
"He'll want a surrender, nothing else."
"He'll get what I'm offering. Imperials are killing each other, sir. I don't want to see this any more than you do. If we don't stop this here we're looking at a full-blown civil war. Please, extend my offer to negotiate. I'd be more than happy to meet him on your ship."
Even through the static-blurred holo he could see the emotions warring on Hallis' face. Davek recalled everything his father had said about the supreme commander. He was stubborn and staid, highly professional but often unimaginative, a loyal career man who never started a fight- martial or political- but always tried to end it on his own terms. Hallis hated that it had come to this, and for all these deaths he blamed Davek as much or more than Veers. Maybe he was even right to, but as a professional Hallis could see past his anger. He knew their best chance of stopping a war was right here, right now.
"Stand by," Hallis said at last. "I'll relay your offer."
"Thank you so much, sir."
Hallis killed the transmission without reply. Davek looked out the viewport; another destroyer was crumbling under Invincible's fire. Washes of green turbolaser blasts eroded its shields, tore through its starboard flank, and spilled fire and debris into space. Every second, Imperials were dying. Davek had ordered the first shot; history would never forget that, no matter what happened next.
Then, so fast, the comm officer announced another hail from Sentinel. The holo popped to life again and there was Hallis, glowering just as before.
"I've relayed your request to the Head of State. He accepts your offer for parlay on my ship on the condition you stop firing first."
Davek went weak with relief, then turned and called, "Tactical, issue a cease-fire order immediately! All ships, cease fire!"
Echoes rippled across the bridge, and from the bridge to the rest of the fleet. To Hallis he said, "I can't guarantee stopped hostilities on the planet. We're having a hard time talking to our troops."
"Understandable," Hallis sniffed.
Davek glanced at the tactical holo, then to the viewport. The star destroyers ahead of Nightwatch had stopped shooting though they kept their shields on at full. He watched the one destroyer further ahead, the one already crippled by Invincible's guns. As he watched the gush of turbolaser fire from Veers' flagship dissolved to a trickle and finally stopped. A few more explosions flashed, a few more lasers lanced, and then the space over Bastion was finally still.
"The cease-fire had been honored," Hallis said. "Now we need to start the hard part."
"Sir, I need to request you send a squad of TIEs to protect my shuttle. At least one. I need you to guarantee my safety when I come to your ship."
"You'll have it. Now please get over to Sentinel as soon as possible," Hallis said darkly. "You've much to account for."
