Viewed from the bridge of the Thrawn, the ancient ice drifting particles that surrounded Shedu Maad looked like layers of a silver veils, and the only black space marking clear passage lay dead ahead. The planet itself was dead in the center of that channel, a tiny blue dot that looked almost inviting.

Marasiah knew better. Though they weren't visible from this distance, the Thrawn's sensors had picked up over a thousand proton mines clogging the passage. They were spaced enough apart that starfighters could easily maneuver around them to reach the planet, but the fleet of star destroyers gathered outside the icy veils had no hope of avoiding them.

Still, what lay ahead looked more welcoming than what lay behind. Admiral Jaeger's ships arrived quickly in the Maad system to prevent the Sith from evacuating their base, but the Hapans had responded quickly too. Battle Dragons and Nova cruisers had micro-jumped to their position from behind gas giants further out in the system and were now ringing the Imperial fleet. The Imperials possessed a numeric advantage, and their enemy had nothing near as mighty as the eight-kilometer Thrawn, but the Hapans were fiercely throwing themselves against the destroyers on the outer edge of Jaeger's formation.

Marasiah stood beside the admiral as both stood at the tactical holo, taking it in. She muttered, "I wish we could get a better reading on what's near the planet."

"We're not detecting any capital ships so far."

"No, but they might be behind the planet's ecliptic."

"Perhaps." Jaeger looked at her. "Your Majesty, now might be as good a time as any to take your people down the passage. The Hapans haven't reached the Thrawn yet so you can launch unmolested."

Marasiah was wary of what their sensors were missing: more mines, some hidden Battle Dragons, or snubfighters whose heat signatures were washed out by the icy veils. At this point charging into the unknown really was the best option. Jaeger and his fleet would hold the Hapans as long as possible while she and the Jedi did their part.

"Thank you, Admiral," she said. "I'll go down to the hangar and get ready to deploy."

"Good luck, Majesty."

Marasiah pivoted to face him. Over the past eight years she'd gradually gotten used to the formal, obeisant vows people gave her, but she'd known Jaeger for much longer than that. Just when it looked like the admiral might dip himself forward she snapped a salute. He blinked, paused, and saluted back, soldier to soldier, equal to equal. Just like it had been, when all this had started.

Marasiah lowered first, turned, and hurried from the bridge.

-{}-

Arlen had been strapped in Starlight Champion's pilot seat for the past several hours but gone nowhere. The interior of the Thrawn's main hangar was getting to be a pretty boring sight and he was more than ready to get this mission underway, but at least he felt good beside with his old Master again. Lowbacca had squeezed into the co-pilot's chair and his son Karrash was strapped in behind him. Yeris Ular, the Mirialian Jedi who'd helped his mother on Zonama Sekot, rounded out the cockpit crew, while more Jedi were crammed in the main hold.

Lowbacca had been recounting his experience with Shedu Maad in a series of thoughtful moans and growls. The Jedi had first come here to hide from the combined forced of the Empire and the Alliance, as led by Arlen's uncle after he'd become Darth Caedus. The Jedi and their Hapan friends- commanded then by a Jedi queen- had lured Caedus to the Maad system and it was there he'd been killed by Arlen's mother. The entire experience had been heartbreaking for Lowbacca, almost as bad as for Jaina herself, and the sixty-year-old pain shone through in the Wookiee's voice.

Arlen was struck by how the current battle was a weird inversion of the one before. He'd never liked irony when it hit so close to home.

Shortly after Lowbacca finished his tale, the Grand Master let things lull into a quiet. That quiet was broken by a light on Arlen's comm console. He opened the link himself and said, "This is Champion."

"We're clear to deploy," Marasiah said. "Start your engines and prepare for launch."

"About damn time," Arlen breathed. "Will comply."

As he turned off the link Lowbacca was already working the co-pilot's controls and warming the thrusters and repulsorlifts. The Wookiee had been quite a mechanic in his youth and he seemed to relish the chance to run through Champion's systems and start them up one-by-one. For Arlen it was a reminder of much simpler times when he'd been a mere apprentice and Lowbacca just his teacher. He hoped that old optimism and energy would be with them as they slipped and wound their way through the mine-choked passage.

Once they were sure everything was good to go- repulsors, engines, shields, weapons- they had to wait five more minutes before Marasiah hailed again. "Arlen, you're with the first push. Are you ready to launch?"

Lowbacca trilled loudly and Arlen translated, "More than ready."

"Excellent. You may clear out when ready."

Arlen kicked in the repulsors and lifted Champion off the flight deck. He retracted the landing gear and edged them forward to the hangar's broad open mouth. Six other ships similarly-sized to Champion were also ready to deploy, each one packed with over twenty Jedi. When he reached the exit Arlen dove out into the vacuum, extended Champion's slanted wing, and adjusted pitch so his nose faced the entrance to the passage. He hung off the Thrawn's flank and watched as six more Jedi ships emerged from the hangar behind him.

Lowbacca told him that Champ's sensors were picking up the mines, albeit with difficulty. They hadn't detected any enemy ships in the passage, but there was not telling how accurate that reading was. Behind him, Karrash added that if there was a trap waiting, the only way to know was to spring it. Not what Arlen wanted to hear, but what he'd expected.

Marsiah hailed them again with an all-ship broadcast. "Jedi vessels, you're clear to appear Shedu Maad. Approach carefully and if you can destroy a mine without damaging your ships or others, do it. We'll be right with you."

"Glad to hear it," Arlen muttered. Then he kicked his engines to full and sent them right down the icy throat.

-{}-

As Jade Shadow plunged into the mine-choked passage, Jade kept one eye on the five-light formation that marked Champion's thrusters. It was no surprise that Arlen had volunteered to be the first Jedi ship into the minefield, and while she trusted his flying skills she wasn't quite comfortable knowing that the Grand Master was in that ship with him.

Shadow and the other Jedi ships followed Arlen and Lowbacca closely. Ships their size had to make only small adjustment to avoid the mines that choked the passage, and whenever possible they took long-range potshots to detonate the warheads safely. It was slow going, but the Jedi pilots were careful, their minds attuned so the seven craft moved fluidly through the danger zone.

Jade had handed Shadow's controls to someone else for this. Ayen Qemar was one of the Order's best pilots and the blue-skinned Nautolan had flown this ship before. The blonde woman Ceynar Valliss took the co-pilot's seat and manned weapons and comm. Jade was strapped in behind them, right next to Darth Terrid. The Sith had done nothing but sit in silence for the past few hours but Jade still had to watch him, with her eyes and with the Force. She didn't sense him trying to communicate with the Sith on Shedu Maad, but she could feel his other emotions: the simmering anger, the cold determination. He was remarkably free of the anxiety pulsing from ever Jedi on this ship. He seemed to be exactly where he wanted, and Jade didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

She hoped it was. She'd discovered that she wanted to trust Terrid. She didn't let that desire lead her or cloud her actions, but it was there. The memory of the young man he'd been was still with her, and it would be tragic if everything good in Wharn really had been irrevocably lost. She hoped and prayed that Jaina had been right, that Terrid was acting out the will of the Force in his own way.

Shadow and the other Jedi ships had passed more than halfway through the passage when Valiss reported that they were getting a clearer sensor-view of Shedu Maad.

"What do we have?" Jade asked, leaning forward a little in her crash webbing.

"Looks like a localized shield on the surface. Right where we thought it would be."

"Any ships in the area?"

"Not yet, but we can't tell if anything on the other side of the planet."

"I'm more worried about what's on the ground," Qemar said.

"No," Terrid whispered.

It was his first word in hours. Jade looked at him. "What do you mean?"

His red eyes narrowed. "There's Sith out there. In space. They're trying to hide themselves, but I feel them."

Valiss checked the scanners. "I'm only picking up those mines in the passage, but those ice particles are really… Wait-"

Jade reached out into the faint Force-meld connecting all the Jedi in the strike team. After she send a flash of vague warning, the best she had to offer, she asked Terrid, "Anything more?"

"No. But they're… close."

"Not what I want to hear," said Qemar.

"Just keep steady. Follow Arlen. Valiss, tells the Imperials to-"

"Damn," the woman snapped. "They're coming from the ice-fields!"

Jade caught the first flash of lasers spearing toward Starlight Champion. The ship ahead dodged them and fired back, and Jade traced the path of its lasers until she spotted the far-off engine-flare of what looked like two starfighters.

"More coming out!" Valiss announced, right before a spray of lasers hit Jade Shadow and buffeted its shields.

Qemar swore and wrestled with the controls. Valiss took control of the turret cannon and tried to track the ships. Jade leaned forward and peered out the cockpit to catch two starfighters that looked vaguely like angular versions of Hapan Miy'tils.

"We call them Furies," Terrid said.

"How wonderfully Sith," said Valiss.

"They may be using shadow bombs. Watch for them."

"Understood," said Qemar.

Jade lost track of Starlight Champion as her own ship took a series of wild turns and dives. More explosions rocked their shields, but defense held. A lighter tremor shook the ship next and something on Valiss' console lit up.

"Damn," the woman breathed, "Just lost the Warrior."

"Shot down?" asked Jade.

"Looks like they triggered a mine while evading. Ayen-"

"You don't have to remind me," the Nautolan said. "Just shoot!"

"I am shooting. Those Imps had better get here soon."

Jade glanced at Terrid. He was still eerily calm, and he'd closed his eyes as though dropping into meditation. She felt him reaching out with the Force, but not into the Jedi meld. He could only be reaching out to the Sith and she was about to slap him on the arm and jar him out of it when Valiss announced, "Got two! They just flew into my shots!"

Terrid's eyes opened. "They got distracted."

"What did you do?" asked Jade.

"Only alerted them to my presence. The surprise was enough to make them loose concentration," Terrid said coolly. "They did think I was dead."

"Yeah, well, thank for the help," Valiss laughed nervously. Qemar seemed relieved too; like most of the Jedi she'd suspected Terrid's motives the whole time.

Jade wasn't surprised by his actions, only that he seemed to take no joy from killing two Sith. Maybe his lust for vengeance was localized on Krayt and Wyyrlok; maybe revenge wasn't as fulfilling as he'd hoped.

"Two more coming up behind us," Valiss announced.

"How's Champion doing?" asked Jade.

"They've got clear backs. Looks like they're almost at the end of the passage."

Jade looked out the viewport. As stars and silver ice-veils swung back and forth with their maneuvers she tracked the sphere of Shedu Maad, now tantalizingly close.

Something harder than laser blasts slammed into their shield. As the cockpit shook Valiss announced, "That was a warhead!"

"Shadow bomb," Terrid said simply.

"How many behind us?" asked Jade.

"Two."

"Hard to dodge a torp if you can't see it coming," Qemar muttered. "Shields might take another but not more."

"Keep bobbing and weaving," Terrid said. "It will be harder for the Sith to land bombs."

Qemar did just that. The view from the cockpit was dizzying and she wove Jade Shadow into convoluted twists and turn to evade a bomb that might not be coming. At the same time the Furies were launching volleys of laserfire that impacted on their aft shields without taking them out. Valiss struggled to land shots with the turret and the Sith pilots didn't seem to be falling for Terrid's distraction this time.

Help came from another direction. Valiss announced that one Sith ship had just exploded, and then another, and then three new fighters soared past Shadow's bow. With four dagger-shaped solar panels stabbing forward from each spherical cockpit, each TIE Saber looked like a fistful of knives. Jade was glad they were on the Jedi's side.

Valiss flipped on the comm. "Thanks for cleaning off those Furies."

"The path ahead appears open," Marasiah told them. "We'll go ahead and see if we can get beneath the shield perimeter."

"The canyon running past the Sith Temple is wide enough for any of the ships we've brought," Terrid said.

"We will take our fighters first," Marasiah said simply and killed the link.

Terrid settled in his chair, not bothered by her distrust. Now that they were through the passage, Jade sensed he was back to calmly waiting, almost like he was conserving himself for the greater challenge ahead. For once, she conceded he might be on to something.

-{}-

As Shedu Maad filled Marasiah's entire viewport its surface features resolved in detail: light-blue oceans, dark-blue mountain chains and dusty deserts, clusters of green forests, no cities at all. Her sensors marked the active shield generator on the northern hemisphere as the only sigh of civilization.

She also hadn't encountered any enemies since passing through the ice-field, but she was certain more laid ahead. Yarin Sept and Katrin Mulk formed tight on her flank as all three TIE Sabers plunged into the atmosphere. Ten more Sabers were behind them, helping the remaining Jedi ships fight their way clear of the mines and Sith fighters. She wished she had a lot more ships behind her- say, every last fighter on the Thrawn- but she'd work with what she had.

She tapped her comm system to Starlight Champion's frequency and told Arlen, "We're beginning our attack run now. Stay back until we've neutralized their defenses."

He response was a Wookiee roar. Arlen said, "Understood. Good luck." Translation or addition, she'd never know.

She'd been told to drop to surface level a hundred kilometers east of the shield perimeter rather than approach it head-on. Supposedly she could put her fighter in an ancient canyon and ride it beneath the shields, all the way to the Sith temple, but she didn't trust their hostage to tell them the truth.

As the three Imperial Knights dove toward a landscape of green tree-patches and dark-blue rock, no missiles locked onto them and now alarms wailed in her cockpit. She spotted the canyon and it looked easily wide enough to fit three TIEs in side-by-side, but it might narrow later on.

"Skies look clear," Katrin said from her left flank. "No missiles either."

"Think intel was right?" asked Yarin.

"We'll find out either way," Marasiah said. "Dive in on my lead."

She pointed the tips of her solar panels toward the canyon and gently dove in. Her wingmates followed. Walls of layered blue stone rose steep on either side. They passed through at a steady speed that made it easy to follow the canyon's curves, most of which weren't very tight.

Just when she was starting to think this might be easy, Katrin reported, "Enemy fighters, coming in behind us."

"How many?"

"Three."

Marasiah checked her forward sensors. They'd be under the shield perimeter in moments. Once inside they could pull out of the canyon and begin dogfighting with the Sith fighters, but Darth Terrid had warned that missile towers scattered through the forest could shoot them down.

It might be a gamble they'd have to take. Yarin reported that the Sith fighters had dropped into the canyon behind them and were approaching fast. Haste might make them reckless but there were no sharp turns ahead.

Just seconds after they slipped beneath the shield, the Sith Furies opened fire. Laser blasts splattered against Yarin and Katrin's shields but they held, for now. The canyon boxed them in and a sudden, sharp turn only helped them dodge the Furies' fire for a few seconds.

"Shields can't take much more," Yarin growled. "We need to pull up."

"Where's the damn generator?" asked Katrin.

"Intel says it's right by the Temple. It'll be guarded."

"Damn it, I need to pull out," warned Yarin.

"Watch out for the missile turrets."

"Anything's better than this. I'm going up!"

"Knight Two, with me," Marasiah said and pulled her joystick back.

She pulled up, out of the canyon, and followed Yarin's Saber as it roared skyward. Alarms sounded in her cockpit and she saw a set of missiles flare out from a patch of forest. They headed right toward her and she dove to meet them, spraying laserfire that caught and burst one warhead, then another. Her forward shields caught the flak from the explosions and she began strafing the forest with her lasers, cutting up rows of trees before hitting the missile tower, detonating its magazine, and turning it into a geyser of flame.

According to Terrid there were a lot more like it. Instead of soaring clear into the sky she kept low over the forest to evade the missiles towers' sensors and checked her own. Katrin had pulled low too and was following the bend of the canyon's edge as it wound toward the Sith Temple, still too distant to see. Yarin, however, was up high, being chased by two Sith Furies that prevented him from dropping down.

He was probably as good as dead but she had to at least try. "Two, stay on target, I'm after Three," she said, and peeled skyward. Alarms sounded in her cockpit: more missiles from the ground. She waited before evasive maneuvers and tore a clear, straight line toward Yarin his two pursuers. The Imperial Knight was boxed in with nowhere to go but up, where the energy shield waited to smash him.

Marasiah got her lock, tapped her trigger, and unleashed two torpedoes at one of the Furies. The missiles from the ground were almost on her and he broke into a dizzying spin. The missiles had to slow to track her and she broke straight again, right for Yarin, just in time to see his Saber, and the Fury she'd fired at, both explode simultaneously.

Even through surprise and grief she knew what to do. Marasiah leveled herself out and flew straight across, right toward the falling debris from both fighters. She slipped past just before the wreckage came down but the missiles behind her were caught by it and detonated.

She tried to decrease altitude and get back to forests and the blue-stone canyon. Katrin had gone on ahead and retreated back into the pass, but more missiles were locking onto Marasiah. Two Furies had appeared behind her and slightly beneath, pounding her aft shields and preventing her from getting low, just as they'd done to Yarin. The missiles were coming up from beneath too and she did the only thing she could. She pulled up straight toward the invisible, lethal energy dome and tried to put the Furies between her and the missiles. The Sith ships matched her steep climb and, just like her, didn't slow even as she approached the shield wall. She watched those missiles on her sensors and prayed the steep climb would burn through their limited fuel before they could reach her.

And, just in time, they did. Marasiah killed power to engines and dropped. The g-force of the maneuver threatened to black her out but she saw the Furies jerk aside and appear in front of her as she dropped. She kicked in repulsors to soften her fall and fired a spray of lasers, followed by a single torp, that streaked out to one Fury, overwhelmed its ventral shields, and turned it into a fireball.

One left. She was still dropping, but slower than before. The Sith fighter followed with a dive, and she could see barely spotted something small drop from beneath its nose section. Her sensors, however, registered no approaching warhead.

Shadow bomb.

As all three feel toward the surface- Saber, Fury, unseen warhead- Marasiah reached out with the Force and found the last one. The Sith had grabbed it with the Force too and was nudging the bomb toward her as it fell.

She tilted her laser cannons and locked onto the Fury. The spray scattered across its shields and jarred it just hard enough for the pilot to lose concentration. Marasiah caught the shadow bomb with the Force and slowed its fall. The Sith fighter was falling faster from straight above and the shield-scatter over the cockpit cleared just in time for the pilot to see his own shadow bomb smash through the transparisteel and detonate.

As the explosion flowered above her, Marasiah restarted engines before she hit the ground. She came out of her dive and into a level run as smoothly as possible. She oriented toward the Sith Temple and accelerated over the treetops.

She was almost feeling confident when she saw her scanners. A full dozen Furies were approaching from the Temple and she couldn't spot Katrin. She might already be shot down. Marasiah tapped on her comm system to hail her other Knights but those Sith fighters would be on her in seconds. There was no way she could take twelve.

Then a rain of laserfire slanted from the sky and intercepted the Furies. A few Sith ships exploded. The rest scattered. They were pursued by a cluster of TIE Sabers coming straight from above. She checked her sensors and saw the shield dome was no longer above her.

"Knight Two, are you there?" she called. "Do you read?"

"I'm here, Knight One. Shield generator is down."

"Knight One, this is Champion," Arlen's voice sounded next. "We've cleared the perimeter."

"Understood," she sighed in relief. "There's still lots of missiles towers. Get your ships into the canyon and ride it to the Temple. We'll clear the air."

"Got it," Arlen said, and shut off the link in the middle of a Wookiee howl.

Marasiah switched her commlink to the Imperial Knights' channel and said, "All pilots, finish off the Furies, then drop altitude and take out those missile towers. Let's pull the Sith's teeth out one-by-one."

-{}-

Darth Kheykid stood beside Darth Wyyrlok on the Sith temple's highest balcony. They watched explosions in the distant sky and heard the far-off thunder.

"I had hoped our defenses would hold longer," Kheykid admitted.

"We've convinced the Jedi we are serious. We've accomplished our main goal. Now come, Lord Kheykid. We must be ready for them."

The Barabel hissed agreement, but his eyes lingered on the flitting shapes and engine-flares of the approaching ships. When he followed Wyyrlok inside, he wondered if the Jedi were also ready to die.