The first hostile ships to appear over Ossus numbered nearly two dozen and ranged from heavily armed freighters to corvettes to refitted Galactic Alliance frigates. All in all, it was a modest complement, especially compared to the Mandalorian vessels sitting in lower orbit. Mandalorians, as a rule, did not go in for heavy sluggish cruisers. The largest ships in their fleet, four Teroch-class assault frigates, were comparable in size to their Alliance-built counterparts but packed more firepower, shields, and armor.
Mandalorian ships were built for fast hard attacks. Defense was not their usual mode, but the mere sight of them was enough to stop the charge by the incoming vessels. Instead the rouge fleet spread out in upper orbit and held position, facing off with the Mandalorians across hundreds of kilometers of void.
Deep within the bowels of the Jedi Temple, a collection of Masters watched the scene play out via tactical holo. It took great effort for Kol Skywalker to project composure, on his face and in the Force. The Mandalorians had arrived promptly, sooner even than Arlen Fel had promised they would. It was good they had, because the attacking fleet showed up early too. The Jedi hadn't had time to evacuate the younglings or the special archives from the Temple as planned, and as he watched the holo Kol could feel his son pulsing anger and anxiety in the Force. Cade hadn't been happy with being sent to the secret chambers beneath the Temple with all the other children; he'd wanted to do his part and fight. Kol had told him someone needed to protect the younger children in case of emergency, which had mollified Cade only a little.
If these attackers really did get to the younglings, then the whole Temple would already be lost.
"They're not budging," the aged Neti master T'ra Saa observed. "Perhaps they're reconsidering."
Kol shook his head. "I was told they'd have at least fifty ships, including an old star destroyer. This is just the first wave."
"The Mandalorians seem to have taken them by surprise." Nat sounded faintly hopeful.
"They are not the only ones," said K'Kruhk.
Kol's mother, standing small beside the Whiphid, muttered, "I just hope we can trust them."
Kol had a feeling they'd learn the worth of what they paid very soon. The Jedi watched the holo in tense silence for what seemed like forever; in truth, only a few minutes passed before more lights appeared on the display, marking new arrivals.
One big wedge sat at the heart of the formation. It could only be the old Predator-class destroyer the Rodians had found. Kol counted around fifty ships, as much as his ex-wife had predicted. She hadn't contacted him since that encrypted call to his shuttle. He hoped that meant her intel hadn't changed, but her actions were frustratingly unpredictable.
In any case, this ragtag angry fleet would mean little if the Imperials decided to get involved.
"Now they're hailing us," Nat reported.
"Not the Mandalorians?" asked T'ra Saa.
"No. They're asking for us directly." Nat looked to his brother. "They want you."
"All right." Kol stiffened. "Open a link."
Beneath the tactical holo, a second, smaller image speared. The image of a Rodian projected in front of Kol, and the alien's snout twitched angrily as she said, "I am Admiral Keelu of the star destroyer Recompense."
Kol wondered if there was anything official behind that title. "I am Jedi Master Kol Skywalker, leader of the Jedi Council."
"I know who you are," Keelu snarled. "We have come here to seek justice."
"The Jedi seek justice as well." Kol tried his most reasonable tone, knowing it wouldn't work.
"Then stop shielding those who have savaged our galaxy and despoiled our worlds, two times over! This is your last chance, Jedi Skywalker. Hand over your Vong or we will take them ourselves."
Kol glanced at Nei Rin, who stood silent and stoic at the room's dark edge. "Our Yuuzhan Vong had no part in the ruin of your world. Killing them would only be another injustice."
"You Jedi and your righteous lies," Keelu shook her head. "In the name of forgiveness you shield mass murderers. Your 'good intentions' wreak untold horrors on the galaxy!"
Kol had heard that accusation more or less constantly over the past weeks but it still stung. Deep down, he wasn't sure it was wrong.
He said, "Punishing the innocent will solve nothing. Please, power down your weapons and we will work together to find the true culprits. The Jedi are willing to negotiate."
"Stall for time, you mean."
"I am willing to come to your ship and discuss this personally, right now."
That took Keelu by surprise. The other Jedi radiated shock too, especially Jade and Nat, but none of them interrupted as the Rodian seemed to consider this offer.
But instead she said, "We will accept the Vong, none other. If you will not give them to us, we will take them by force."
"As you can see, we're defended."
"Yes. That was unexpected. But we are prepared to fight."
"I don't doubt it."
"You've left us no choice, Master Skywalker." Keelu shook her head, and for a moment sorrow diluted the anger in her voice. "History will condemn you for what you've done here. It could have been otherwise."
"I would say the same to you, Admiral."
"Only one of us will be right. I await our vindication. Recompense, out."
The Rodian's holo disappeared. Kol looked to his brother and said, "It's time. Get our fighters in the air."
"Gladly." Nat began giving orders on his personal comlink to the thirty-six Jedi-piloted starfighters waiting in the Temple's hangar bay. Three squadrons of Twintails would help slow the advancing tide but couldn't turn it, even with Jedi pilots. Ultimately the fate of the Order was in the hands of their hired protectors- Mandalorians, of all the damned people.
Defending the temple instead of fleeing was an incredible gamble, but to have abandoned it would have plunged the Jedi into darkness not known since Palpatine and the Yuuzhan Vong War. Kol would not allow his good intentions to wreak such damage. Admission of weakness was admission of defeat. The Jedi had to make their stand.
Less than a minute after the Twintails launched, the attacking ships lurched into motion. Half of them merged into formation around Recompense and plunged toward the planet, while other spread out to guard the group's aft and flanks. As for the Mandos, their Teroch -class frigates and Crusader-class corvettes moved swiftly to block the advance. Two minutes after that, new lights sparked on the holo denoting laserfire and missiles exchanged.
The battle was joined.
-{}-
By the time Nyna Calixte arrived in the situation room inside the emperor's palace, most senior officials had already joined Roan Fel and his wife at the central table. Seniac was there, as were and Veed and several more fleet admirals, though Supreme Commander Kaylac was notably absent.
Calixte took an empty seat next to Seniac, who didn't seem to notice her arrival. She glanced across the room to Veed, who acknowledged her with only a tiny nod before turning his attention back to the conversation between Fel and the holo-projected image of an alien admiral. Calixte was no expert at differentiating between Rodians, but she guessed this was Keelu, the militia-leader she'd already met in private. It hadn't taken much to turn her ambition into action.
Fel, however, was clearly displeased with her initiative. "You agreed to accede to my authority, Keelu. Mine." He pounded a fist against his chest. "That was the entire reason I very generously allowed your people to join the Empire."
"We seceded from the Alliance because they wouldn't take action against those who despoiled our worlds," Keelu said. "We joined you because you promised to back us."
"Any action should have been taken in consultation with myself and my supreme commander."
Calixte looked around the table again. Still no Kaylac. Keelu said, "We are acting, Emperor. You promised you would support us. Back up your promises or not, we don't care. We will press ahead either way."
The holo shut off abruptly, leaving Fel to wrestle his anger under control. What the Rodian had said was plainly untrue; the ragtag coalition of militias might be able to force its way to Ossus and attack the Jedi, but without Imperial help it would take heavy losses against those Mandalorians.
Calixte refrained a smirk; however the Jedi had gotten money to hire mercenaries, they'd gone with the best. Even after all this time, Kol could still surprise her.
Seniac cleared his throat and told Fel, "If we move in, it's more likely the Alliance will intervene."
"I'm quite aware of that," the emperor glowered.
"We made our pact with those people," Veed said. "We can't break our word after a week."
"They've already broken theirs."
"Yes, but we are the Empire, not some angry desperate band. Confrontation with the Alliance is a risk we'll have to take."
"A risk?" Fel's glower deepened as he stared at Veed. "That confrontation is what you've wanted, Admiral, isn't it? It's what you've been aiming for all this time."
"Whatever choice we make, we have to make it quickly," Seniac said, but it didn't draw Fel's stare away from Veed.
Calixte decided now was the time to speak. "I may have missed it, but where is the supreme commander?"
Fel exhaled sharply. "Standing by for further instruction."
"Then we shouldn't keep him waiting." Calixte held his eyes. "My Lord, I think we have no choice but to join in the attack."
His eyes narrowed, suspicious, evaluating. Calixte was confident she'd kept her liaison with Veed hidden thus far, but she still had to speak carefully. In her most measured tone she said, "We've publicly made these people our allies. If we don't stand with them, we'll look as weak as the Alliance does right now."
"I'm quite aware."
"More importantly, sir, if we can't control the situation at Ossus without a fleet. You've refused to allow Imperial Knights on the front lines and you're trying to avoid a direct confrontation with the Jedi. We understand that. We all know you have relatives among the Jedi."
"My decision will not be dictated by family ties. I would not have our Empire replicate Palpatine's purges. We are better than that."
She didn't believe his judgment was free of personal considerations; hers certainly weren't. When interacting with Fel she normally put a mental wall around herself, shielding herself from his senses as she'd sometimes shielded herself from Kol's. Now she allowed herself to exude honesty as she said, "Sir, I do not desire the destruction of the Jedi any more than you do. If Keelu's people break past the Mandos and reach the surface, it could be a massacre, and your name will be attached whether you like it or not. If you want to save those Jedi, we must join the attack."
She kept her eyes on Fel as he thought on that, but at the corner of her vision she caught Veed smirking. The fool thought she'd tossed out a lie to hide her real motives.
Seniac said, "Moff Calixte has a point. We either take control or we lose control."
But it was more complicated than that, especially for Fel. Calixte could see it in his eyes. He knew he'd been outmaneuvered by the Moff Council vote and knew the same had happened here. He knew that by sending ships to Ossus he would contain this current battle but lose control of the larger war.
And she knew that her words to him struck home. As a child, before the Imperial Knights even existed, Roan Fel had been trained as a Jedi, and he would not stand by and allow his former kin to be slain in his name.
Deliberately, slowly, Roan Fel tapped the comm panel on the table and said, "Admiral Kaylac, do you read?"
A half-second later: "Standing by, Your Majesty."
"I hereby authorize the use of our troops at Ossus. Priority One is to drive the Mandalorians from orbit. Priority Two is to interdict the Jedi Temple. Do not use lethal force against the Jedi. Surrounded the temple and prevent their escape, but no not send stormtroopers to engage them directly."
"Understood, Majesty. Is there anything else?"
"Once our fleet arrives, Admiral Keelu is subject to our authority. Make sure she understands that."
"Very good, Majesty."
"That is all. Thank you, Admiral." Fel tapped off the connection and looked around the table. "It is done, then."
"You've made the right choice, sir," said Veed, which only earned him another glare.
"How long will it take for our ships to reach Ossus?" Calixte asked.
"Elements from the Second Fleet left Celanon the moment the attack began," Fel said. "Admiral Fenel should arrive within the next thirty minutes."
-{}-
The disparate beings who'd joined together to attack Ossus could be faulted for many things, but a lack of daring was not one of them. Four thousand kilometers above the Jedi Temple, space blazed with explosions and laserblasts and swirling missile thrust-trails as their ships tried to force through the Mandalorian blockade. They seemed to have scrounged up every kind of attack ship imaginable, from ancient Corellian blockade runners and X-wings to refurbished TIE-X interceptors and KDY Kontos -class frigates. A trio of swift Corporate Sector marauders had even joined in. The Mandalorians fought with blunt-faced frigates and corvettes and T-shaped Beskad fighters that could outmaneuver anything their more numerous opponents wielded.
In the midst of all this chaos were thirty-six Jedi starfighters. Formed together in pairs and trios they darted through the fray, attacking targets and falling back or picking off the few snubfighters that slipped through the Mandalorian line. To the Mandos and attackers alike, their actions must have looked like an incoherent jumble. To the Jedi themselves it was an elaborate, deadly dance choregraphed through the collective awareness of all the pilots in the battle meld.
Lowbacca, squeezed tight in the cockpit of his Twintail, felt all those thoughts flowing through the meld and tried to keep them all in steady equilibrium. Like his uncle Chewbacca, flying had come early and naturally to him. Right now, it barely required conscious thought to weave around a flight of enemy D-wing bombers, circle back on their rear, and pump laserfire through the closest one's shields. More difficult was moderating the thoughts and emotions, actions and reactions, of all his Jedi pilots. He'd first been exposed to battle melds during the Yuuzhan Vong War, when Jacen Solo's natural empathy had opened the minds of young Jedi Knights to each other, but that had exposed division as much as it fostered unity.
So he tried to smooth our anger and calm aggression. Even as his laserfire lit up the D-wing ahead of him, sending the others to scatter, he was reading Wolf Sazen's anxiety while under fire and wordlessly ordering his son Karrashchakuk to help.
At the same time he felt another cry in the battle-meld, closer by, and veered to find it. He spotted two Twintails darting after an armored shuttle as it slipped past a Mandalorian corvette and dove straight toward the planet's surface. Lowbacca dove after it, joining the two Jedi and a handful of Mandalorian Beskads in pursuit.
The two closest ships were the Twintails, but the shuttle was pumping out heavy laserfire from an aft cannon. He recognized Ayen Qemar, a Nautolan Master and one of the Order's best pilots, along with her apprentice. A Rybet, Lowbacca remembered, but he couldn't remember her name. He could feel determination emanating from the two Jedi pilots as they kept up their attack, but their laserfire couldn't break through the shuttle's shields. The ship seemed to have shunted power from engines to aft defenses as it let gravity and inertia pull it toward the surface.
If Qemar and her apprentice didn't have any missiles left in their Twintails, it was up to Lowbacca. He sent a message to them both in the Force, telling them to fall back so he could get a target lock. Qemar slipped back but her apprentice hung tight on the shuttle, still stubbornly pumping laserfire into its shields. He felt Qemar's agitation, and her insistence that the apprentice obey orders.
Then a laserblast from the shuttle took the Twintail head-on. The starfighter simply burst into a blossom of flame that quickly disappeared, leaving only raining shrapnel behind. Ayen Qemar's shock and grief rippled through the Force and Lowbacca did everything he could to prevent it from overtaking the battle meld. The apprentice's death had not gone unnoticed, but Lowbacca forced his pilots to concentrate on the threats ahead, the problems they could solve.
The Wookiee did just that. He dropped his targeting reticule on the shuttle, kicked his engines to speed his plunge, and waited as the range-marker counted down, one claw on the missile trigger. Just as he unleashed his shot and sent one warhead streaking forward, three more joined. Lowbacca glanced to his flank, saw the Mandalorian Beskads had released missiles of their own, then looked back to the shuttle. His warhead hit the shields first and impacted in a flash of light; then the Mando missiles joined in, and the next flash was an explosion that combusted the shuttle's aft section and sent what was left tumbling wildly through the atmosphere, where flame and friction devoured it.
An unfamiliar voice crackled over Lowbacca's long-silent comlink. "No need to thank us, jeti, just doing our job."
Lowbacca sent a roar of thanks anyway, not that he expected them to understand.
As the Mandalorians turned around and gunned their engines back to orbit, Lowbacca sidled along Qemar's fighter and sent her a note of bittersweet victory through the Force-meld. What he got back was deep sorrow, and the knowledge that there was still more fighting to be done.
One Jedi dead, the first of the day, and probably not the last. Gone forever, just like Lowbacca's daughter, like so many friends, like countless Jedi he'd watched grow up, grow old, and die. He felt ashamed to have forgotten this apprentice's name, then wondered if he'd ever known it at all.
As he and Qemar began their climb back to lower orbit, the battle above looked more congested than ever, clogged with more numerous and larger ships than he recalled. He reached deeper into the battle meld and felt a fresh wave of surprise run through his pilots.
Shock made their disparate minds a jumble and he struggled to make sense of it. He flicked on his comlink to request audio clarification when Nat Skywalker's voice scratched in his ear.
"All pilots, this is ground control. A fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers has just entered the system."
-{}-
They stared at each other from across a distance of lightyears: one man and one blue electric ghost. Kol knew that, far away on Bastion, this tableau reversed itself in Roan Fel's situation room, but with one crucial difference. Emperor Fel was safe on his capital; Kol and his Jedi had two angry fleets pressing down from above.
As Kol stared at the Emperor's holographic face he tried to remember the conversation he, his mother, and Arlen had had with the man aboard Starlight Champion. He knew that Fel had pledged to avoid conflict with the Jedi, but it felt so long ago he could barely recall it.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Master Skywalker," Fel said. "Admiral Keelu was overambitious and acted without my authority. I am here to restrain her."
Above Roan Fel's image, holo-markers still signaled clashing ships. "Make her pull her fleet back."
"I will, but only if you command your Mandalorians to do the same."
"I will not leave the Jedi Temple undefended. We have younglings, Emperor Fel. Would you slaughter children like our ancestor, Darth Vader?"
Fel couldn't hide his wince. "My intention is to land troops on the surface of Ossus. We will not step foot inside the Temple."
"No, you'll just lay siege to it and trap us inside."
"Until those behind the failure of the Ossus Project can be identified and brought to justice. The Alliance is too weak and confused to reach proper judgment. The Empire will carry it out instead, on behalf of all the victims."
A good line for a press release, Kol thought. "I wouldn't hand over our Yuuzhan Vong friends to Keelu. I won't hand them over to you."
"You may change your mind with time. I am prepared to wait. I'm also prepared to cooperate." He let the harsh regal mask slip just a little, showing some of the man Kol had met a few long weeks ago. "If you resist it will only make things difficult for us both. I am not your enemy. I can be the Jedi Order's protector."
"The Jedi will not submit to any government, not even yours."
"Anyone can be made to bow," Roan said, resigned. "Goodbye, Master Skywalker. I hope we can speak again."
The holo disappeared, and the Jedi watched with wordless tension as the Imperial ships fell to join the ones already attacking. It was is large fleet- Kol counted five Pellaeon-class star destroyers, six more Ardent-class frigates, and a dozen gunships- but the Empire could have fielded much more. He expected Fel was holding more ships in reserve in case the Alliance showed up. He doubted that would be necessary; despite sending out emergency hails, Ossus had received no response from them since the battle began.
"The Mandalorians," Jade whispered, "They're still holding."
"I guess we got what we paid for," Nat said.
The Mandos were tough, resilient fighters, but they had nothing that could match six star destroyers; nothing close. Kol felt a slight tug of hope as he watched Admiral Keelu's star destroyer edge back to the Imperials could take the lead. Strange as it was, he'd rather fight Roan Fel's stormtroopers than a swarm of revenge-crazed irregulars. If Fel could be believed- a bigger if than he'd previously thought- it would not even come to that. Ossus would stay under siege but it would end the violence, at least temporarily.
The battle rejoined. The frenzy of lights on the holo-display indicated little of the actual horror going on above their heads. Jedi and Imperials, mercenaries and zealots, were engaged in ferocious brawl, all in the name of a justice none of them could provide. It was a battle without villains and all the more tragic for it. Knowing that made Kol feel sick. He wondered if the true saboteurs of the Ossus Project, whoever they were, had predicted an outcome this grievous. If so, those unseen puppet-masters were as monstrous as the extinct Sith.
"The Mandalorians are still holding," Jade said. "They've blunted that last attack."
"Barely," grunted K'Kruhk, "They will not last many more."
"Look at that." Nat raised a finger and pointed at the holo. "One landing ship got through."
"Imperial?" asked Jade.
He paled. "No."
It took a half-second for that to sink in, with all its awful ramification. Then Kol said, "Alert all Jedi in the temple. Prepare for battle."
-{}-
The method of deploying ground forces against a stationary target protected by a short-range energy shield dome was considered standard galaxy-wide. The umbrella erected around the Jedi Temple spanned a radius of five kilometers outward from its center point and, like all such shields, its rim hovered approximately fifteen meters above ground level, or in this case, the tops of the densely-gathered trees that had recently sprung up to cover the planet's once-arid landscape. Standard deployment procedures meant landing craft set down outside the shield's rim and sent out ground forces that slipped beneath the umbrella and marched five kilometers through dense jungle to attack the pyramid.
When the enemy lander slipped through, Kol sent nearly half of the Jedi into the forest with the aim of using traps and Force-tricks to slow the advance. It was not the perfect defense. The temple had no artillery installed because it had never needed them. Still, the Jedi prepared the best they could for a standard ground attack.
They couldn't have anticipated what happened. The landing ship that slipped past the orbital defenders fell to the planet's surface, dropped to absolute minimum altitude, and instead of landing cut a charge straight for the Jedi temple. The drop ship crashed into the forest canopy, kicked in its repulsors, then tore through the treeline and it raced for its target. It just barely skirted the underside of the shield umbrella, in the process tearing up its lower hull in the forest. As it approached the temple it barely decelerated; its mad approach only faltered when the underside repulsors failed, but the madly determined pilots managed to crash-land their ship against the base of the temple's lower pyramid, cracking open both their ship and the ancient stone walls.
And then, too suddenly to prepare, the enemy was among them. Half the Jedi had been sent into the forest, anticipating a fight that never came, and those left behind were wholly unprepared for the attackers suddenly swarming the temple. They were a mélange of species- Rodian, Duro, Faleen, humans most of all- wearing miss-matched armor, carrying nonstandard weapons, shouting to each other in a confused frenzy as they charged through the halls. Some shouted demands that the Jedi turn over their Vong. Others just started shooting.
Jade and her sons had to hurry down from the command room in the upper pyramid, and by the time they reached the lower half of the temple the enemy had fanned out to all corners. The Jedi, despite being caught miserably off-guard, had the Force to help coordinate their response, and they quickly set up choke points at key locations to contain the attackers.
"We've shut down all the lifts leading to the upper half," reported an Omwati Jedi whose name Jade didn't know.
"Very good," Kol said. He was trying to project strength and assurance in the Force but his mother- and hopefully only her- could feel the uncurrent of self-reproach, panic, and most of all fear for his son, stuck in the lower pyramid with the other younglings.
"There's still stairwells on either side of the lift shafts," Nat said. "We've got to defend them."
"I just sent three to the north stairs," said the Omwati.
"We'll take the south. Thank you." Kol gave the younger Jedi a shoulder-squeeze, then hurried to the south stairs. Nat joined him and Jade followed, running as fast as she could to keep up, but by the time they reached the long, spiraling stairwell she was breathless.
"Are you okay, Mom?" Nat asked as Kol bent halfway over the railing and peered down the well.
"I'm fine." She drew breath, drew on the Force. "I'm not decrepit yet."
As soon as she said it sounds echoed up from the bottom of the stairwell. Kol ducked away from the railing just as laserfire shot past. He grasped his lightsaber but didn't ignite it, not yet. From the sound of them, from their distinctive swell of anger in the Force, the attackers were still minutes away.
Those minutes would run down fast. Jade asked, "How many?"
"Two dozen, at least." Kol scowled.
Nat flicked on his golden lightsaber. "We can cut through portions of the stairs. Drop them. That'll stop their advance dead."
"Unless they have fibercables or jetpacks."
"It'll still slow them."
Jade could feel her younger son's indecision. Nat's idea was the best way to keep the attackers from reaching the upper half of the Temple, but it did nothing to help Kol reach his son.
"We have to deal with the problem in front of us," Jade said. "There aren't enough Jedi to fight them off here."
"I know." With a scowl, Kol switched on his blade. "Can you keep them distracted?"
Jade nodded. "Let's get to work," Nat said.
The enemy was getting closer, rushing up the spiral stairs as quickly as a disorganized mob could. Jade stepped away from the railing, pressed her back against the shaft's curved outer wall, and closed her eyes. She felt all those angry minds, united only by their determination to do harm to the people they thought had wronged them. They knew next to nothing about the Jedi Order, or the design of the temple they were storming. They only wanted justice, or revenge; two words for the same thing. Jade felt those minds- vicious but pliable- and knew what to do.
Jade Skywalker had never been a fighter. She could use her lightsaber to battle and to kill; she had used it to do so more often than she'd liked. Her first teacher, a Bimm named Revli Mjalu, had refused to carry a lightsaber at all. Despite her diminutive size and innate gentleness, Master Mjalu had battled a powerful Sith Lord to a standstill and very nearly killed her. She'd set an example Jade had always tried to live up to.
She was a Skywalker, daughter of Ben, granddaughter of Luke, great-granddaughter of the Chosen One who'd been conceived by his own midi-chlorians. She had an immense reservoir of Force-power on which to draw. She pulled on it now- easily, effortlessly, with seven decades' worth of practice- and took hold of those two-dozen angry minds. She took their anger and paranoid and swung it in a different direction, literally pulling their attention behind them and feeding them conjured images of Yuuzhan Vong charging up the stairs, amphistaffs swinging.
Laserfire resounded on the lower levels of the well while Nat and Kol got to work. The older brother stabbed his lightsaber into the place where curving wall met descending stairs, then walked downward, along the curve, until he'd made one full circle. Kol cut one neat line at the start of the circle, severing metal stairs from duracrete landing. Nat, one level down, cut the stairs on the other end.
The hideous scream of twisting metal finally broke the attackers' attention away from Jade's conjured delusions. They looked upward just as the chunk of spiraling stairs fell down, smashing into the ring below with a hideous crunch. By that time Nat had already sprung. Kol and Jade called on the Force to pull him upward, through a sudden blaze of laserfire from below, then set him down on the landing with his mother and brother.
The attackers kept firing, but there was little they could do now. Some attempted to climb over the rubble of the crashed stairs but others held back, afraid the weight might send more chunks crashing down. Unless they'd brought jetpacks or fiberchord, there was no way they could reach the three Jedi on the landing. Jade felt frustration and confusion from them and was satisfied.
She could feel Kol's thoughts too. They'd fast veered away from this problem and onto the one he really cared about: his son. With the stairways blocked and the lifts shut down, he was calculating ways to reach the younglings in the lower pyramid. A climb down the exterior, perhaps, or a jump down a lift shaft.
Jade put a hand on her son's arm and said, "We'll handle the rest. Go help Cade."
-{}-
When he'd returned from Zonama Sekot a part of Khat Lah had been expecting this, even hoping for it. He was a warrior of the Yuuzhan Vong, sworn by his vows to the Ganner to honor the Jedi Knights and defend them against their enemies. The enigmatic conversation with Sekot, assuming it had not been a dream, had left him confused and directionless. Now, in combat, there was simplicity and purpose.
Besh Lah and Vua Yaght were with him. The three warriors stood guard outside the underground chamber where the Jedi younglings, including Eli Horn, were kept. One master, the squat furry Tili Qua, remained inside, apparently using his Force magic to calm the panicked children. For defense, there was only the Yuuzhan Vong.
The Jedi had shut down all lift transports but the level with the children could be accessed from two auxiliary stairwells. Besh Lah went off to guard the east stair and Vua Yaght the west. Khat Lah ranged in the halls, tracking the noise of fighting in levels above. Through the ceiling he heard pounding feet, laserfire, and the dimmed hum of lightsabers, but it was difficult to tell how many beings were moving above him. Despite the confusion he felt confident, even happy. His senses were on full alert, adrenaline hummed in his body. When fighting came he'd be ready, and he'd fight well.
He heard attackers heading for the west stairs and a shout from Vua Yaght sent him sprinting to assist. He reached the other warrior's side just as an explosive blast pushed the locked doors open and sent smoke spilling into the hall. Vua Yaght already had an explosive thud bug in hand, arm cocked. He hurled it into the smoke as Khat Lah grabbed one from his own bandolier and threw it. They saw two flashes of light in the billowing black, then got their response: a hail of laserfire. The warrior's vonduun armor caught the first volley, but the impact staggered Vua Yaght before he could charge. Khat Lah ducked low, beneath a second spray of lasers, and with a barked command ordered the amphistaff coiled around his forearm to uncoil. Its long razor-tipped tail extended a half-meter past Khat Lah's fist, and he swung it as an extension of his arm. The smoke was starting to clear as he spiraled among his enemies, cutting one human across the throat and stabbing a Rodian in the thigh. At the same time he snapped an armored elbow into the face of the human behind him and used his free fist to punch another human in the gut. Every strike was instinctive, every motion effortless.
The attackers panicked. Likely none of them had seen a Yuuzhan Vong warrior in anything except nightmares. They spun on him and opened fire, most of their shots taking down each other as he let his legs fall out beneath him. Khat Lah dropped and lashed out with his amphistaff again, cracking through two sets of legs. He reared back to his feet just as several laser blasts impacted on his armored back, pitting the vonduun shell and knocking him off balance. Another impact- a hard boot- slammed into his back and pitched him face-down onto the body-strewn floor.
"You karking monster!" he heard someone shout, only to be cut off by a gagging noise.
Khat Lah pushed himself off the ground and scrambled to his feet. The space around the broken doors was littered with bodies, all on the ground except his own, Vua Yaght's, and the purple-faced human grasping vainly as the amphistaff coiled around his neck.
"Wait," Khat Lah panted, "Disable him. Do not kill."
"He tried to kill you!" Vua Yaght hissed.
"The Jedi say not to kill... Unless we have to."
Vua Yaght looked at the surrounding bodies. Some would never rise again, and some by Khat Lah's hand, but in the heat of battle some deaths were inevitable.
Vua Yaght gave a very human-like shrug, loosened his coiled staff enough for the human to pass out, then lowered the body to the ground without breaking its throat. As mercies went, it was all Vua Yaght was in the mood for. He quickly began smashing all the infidel blasters. Khat Lah was about to join in when he heard another explosion from the direction of the younglings' chamber.
"Besh Lah?" Vua Yaght called for his comrade but got no response.
The two warriors sprinted back to the chamber, just in time to see the backs of eight armored Falleen commandos plunging through the broken doors.
Vua Yaght was ready to plunge straight in, but Khat Lah pulled him back by his armored collar. They watched as the Falleen marched into the chamber, weapons raised at the mass of younglings cowering against the far wall. Master Tili Qua, no larger than the children, tried to put his furry body between the apprentices and the attackers.
"How dare you," the Chandra-Fan chirped. "These are children. They're no danger to you."
"We won't hurt them unless we have to." The lead Falleen glanced over his shoulder. "Call the boss. Tell him we've got the kids."
As his assistant got out his comlink, the leader looked back to Tili Qua. "Nothing's going to happen to the children if you hand over the Vong."
"The Yuuzhan Vong are not your enemies."
"And you wonder why half the galaxy hates you." Khat Lah could hear the contempt in the Falleen's voice. "All your nobility just makes you accomplices to those freaks. Do you know what they did to our world?"
They were angry, distracted. "Let's go," Khat Lah whispered.
Together, he and Vua Yaght charged fast and silent. The children in the back- watching the Falleen, watching the door- went wide-eyed and gave them away. Khat Lah smacked the first Falleen in the face with an amphistaff, then kicked him hard enough to crack ribs and drop him. Vua Yaght took out another while Tili Qua, lightsaber suddenly blazing in his hand, jumped into the air faster than possible for the short-legged, furry creature. With the Force as his aid he cut through the lead Falleen's blaster, then bounded to his assistant and knocked him to the ground.
Khat Lah took out a second Falleen and Vua Yaght his third. The sound of lasers filled the chamber as the last standing Falleen sprayed indiscriminate fire at the children. It went over the smallest one's heads but Khat Lah saw a hammer-headed Ithorian drop. A trio of lightsaber sprung to life, deflecting a few more shots. These came from some of the older younglings: a blue-skinned Twi'lek, a red-haired human girl, a boy with messy blond curls Khat Lah recognized as the son of the Jedi leader. They looked terrified but they interposed themselves between the other children at the Falleen, both the one on his feet and the commando leader, who'd sprung up on his knees and grabbed a hidden pistol.
Tili Qua, seperated from the younglings in the fight, looked to the Yuuzhan Vong. In the tense silence he tilted his head toward the standing Falleen, designating a target. Khat Lah nodded. Then an invisible hand wrenched the pistol from the leader's hands. The other Falleen fired again at the younglings, but the three in front caught the blasts. Vua Yaght got to him first. Sparing nothing, he stabbed the razor-tip of his amphistaff deep into the Falleen's guts. The commando released a gurgling noise as his legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor in an expanding pool of green blood.
For a long moment, silence reigned in the chamber; silence and the horrified looks from the children. Khat Lah searched all those faces for the one he cared about. He found it in the back corner: Eli Horn, staring at him with shock, recognition, and- he thought, he hoped- awe and gratitude.
A tinny voice sounded from a comlink left abandoned on the floor. It said: "Zeevid, are you there? What happened? Hold on, we're sending reinforcements!"
Khat Lah crushed the metal cylinder under his heel. He looked at Eli Horn, then Tili Qua, and told the little master, "They will be coming soon."
The Chandra-Fan gestured to the door. "We have no barricade. And no place to run."
Khat Lah told his comrade, "Find Besh Lah. If he's alive, get him back here. Hurry." Vua Yaght darted off without a word. The warrior looked back at the Jedi Master, at the frightened adolescents bravely gripping their lightsabers, at the terrified children, at Eli Horn.
And deep down, Khat Lah knew there was no place he'd rather be, nothing he'd rather do than stand in defense of these children. He felt like he was completing the fate he'd devoted himself to; more, like he was finally redeeming his failure at Duro.
"We will honor our debts." Khat Lah grasped his amphistaff in both hands. "None shall pass."
-{}-
Pressured on all sides, the defense of Ossus gradually descended into the planet's upper atmosphere. In blue-white skies, above an emerald curve, Jedi and Mandalorian starfighters fought an increasingly frantic battle against every Imperial shuttle and landing craft trying for the Temple.
It was a strain to keep up the battle-meld, even for Lowbacca. There were too many targets to chase, too few Jedi to handle them all. They'd lost ten starfighters so far, almost a third of the Temple's complement, and only half the pilots had been able to eject. The TIE Predators were merciless and seemed to multiply every second, while the Mandalorian Beskads grew increasingly scarce.
It was the only way it could be. Against a full Imperial battle group, nothing the Jedi had could matter.
Lowbacca knew this, and he knew that a ship full of rogue commandos had already dropped down to the planet. No one responded to his attempts to hail the Jedi temple, and when he reached down with the Force he only sensed desperation and conflict. In the short moments when he wasn't chasing or being chased, he wondered whether it wouldn't be better to just give in, to order the Mandos to stand down and to let the Imperials land.
Roan Fel had promised to interdict the Jedi but not send in troops. He'd also promised to restrain the irregulars he'd allied with.
But even that was just a choice between a slow death or a fast one. Lowbacca felt despair well inside him, deeper than when he'd lost his daughter to Abeloth, deeper than anything he'd felt since the darkest days of the first Yuuzhan Vong War.
The only mercy of this new war was that it would be over quickly.
Even as he fought despair he fought the Imperials. His Twintail dropped down on one TIE Predator and blasted the thing out of the sky, then formed up on the back of Wolf Sazen's fighter. He sent the young Zabrak a quick query in the Force, and Sazen confirmed his ship was undamaged.
A voice, the first he'd heard in a while, came over this headset. "All Jedi, we have new contacts!" That was Master Qemar, still flying somewhere in this tangled mess.
"What is it now?" Sazen sounded more exhausted than afraid.
"I'm seeing…. heavy cruisers… Mon Cal ships."
"The Alliance?"
Lowbacca hardly dared hope, but he watched as sets of TIE Predators swooped upward, away from the planet, toward the starships invisible in orbit.
A less-familiar voice came on his headset. The comm officer of the Mandalorian flagship said, "We just got a hail from the Alliance flagship. Some jeti called Arlen Fel sends his regards."
Lowbacca heard a triumphant roar from his son Karrashchakuk but sent a warning through the battle-meld. This fight wasn't over yet.
-{}-
When the Alliance ships appeared over Ossus, the first thing Roan Fel felt was relief. Then knowledge replaced instinct; what was now a brief, messy skirmish stood on the precipice of full war.
"Incoming transmission from Resolute," Veed reported with barely-restrained glee. "It's a relay from the Alliance flagship. They're asking for you, Majesty."
Roan gave small thanks that the Alliance commander wanted to speak to him personally. Admiral Fenel was a fierce fighter, but he had the diplomatic skills of a Mantellian savrip. "Put him on, then."
Beneath the tactical holo relayed from Resolute, a smaller image appeared, showing the heads and shoulders of two figures. Roan recognized them immediately: The Quarren with mouth-tentacles dangling over the collar of his admiral's uniform could only be Lekhwash. That the Alliance had sent its supreme commander to personally oversee this fight belied their seriousness.
The other face belonged to Roan's uncle, and it was Arlen who spoke first. "Hello, Your Majesty."
There was deliberate coolness in his voice, and a hint of hurt. Roan couldn't blame him for feeling betrayed; he wanted to explain that had happened to his uncle, to Kol Skywalker and all the other Jedi, but he couldn't do that here.
An emperor had pride. An emperor commanded. An emperor did not back down, especially in front of his moffs. "The Empire is in the process of establishing a secure perimeter around the Jedi Temple." Roan said. "We are fulfilling our obligation as signatories of the Anaxes Treaty. You have no legal right to intervene."
"As partners to the Jedi in the Ossus Project, we have every right," Lekhwash said. "Stand down. Order your ships to pull back. Any forces you have on the ground must be withdrawn."
Roan's eyes darted up to the tactical holo. Despite fierce opposition from the Jedi and their unlikely Mandalorian helpers, a half-dozen Imperial drop ships had made it to the surface and started deploying walkers and landspeeders at the edge of the shield perimeter. The real issue, however, was the one mad drop-ship that had slipped under the shields and literally smashed into the Temple. They answered to Admiral Keelu if they answered to anyone, and he knew the Rodian would be unwilling to withdraw.
Veed didn't need the Force to read Roan's thoughts. "We can't turn back on our allies," he grumbled, "Not after we've come this far."
But Elliah was on his other shoulder. "We still have a tactical advantage," his wife whispered. "Use it to force negotiations."
He swallowed. To Lekhwash and Arlen he said, "The Empire will not abandon its allies."
"And the Alliance will not abandon ours," said Lekhwash.
Roan's mind raced for some way out of this impasse, but it ran in hopeless circles with no way out. He was legally bound to stand with Keelu and her undisciplined, vengeance-hungry militias. To abandon them would be to shame the Empire; to shame himself even more than he'd already been shamed.
"Look." Seniac said quietly, and pointed to the tactical holo.
Admiral Fenel had ordered Keelu's ships to outer orbit so the Imperials could engage the Mandalorian defenders directly. Now those same ships lay between Fenel and Lekhwash, and just as Roan had feared, they'd begun opening fire on the nearest Alliance vessels.
"One moment, sirs." Roan said with all the restraint he could muster. He stabbed his controls, suspending the communication, and snapped, "Get me Keelu! Now!"
A few long seconds later, the Rodian's face appeared where Lekhwash's had been. "What are you waiting for?" Keelu's snout twitched. "We are attacking the enemy! Help us!"
"Mind your tone!" Roan could barely restrain himself from shouting. "I am your emperor and I can feed you to the neks if I choose!"
"We expected an emperor to honor his promise!" Keelu snapped. "Instead all you've done is sideline us! We want justice!"
"The Alliance is not your enemy. Stop attacking them. Now!"
"The Alliance stands with the Jedi and the Jedi stand with the Vong. An attack on one is an attack on all. That is what the Anaxes Treaty means, Emperor."
"Admiral Fenel is requesting orders," Elliah whispered.
The situation was rapidly falling out of Roan's control. He knew it, he watched it tumble step by step. He was the Emperor Fel, heir to his illustrious father and grandfather. He should have been able to stop this.
And then his choice was made for him. Two more Alliance task forces, as massive as the first, decanted from hyperspace at the same time, both on flanking vectors toward the Imperials and their allies.
There was no victory over a fleet like that. The only options were surrender or fighting retreat.
In surrendering, the Empire would be delivered its greatest humiliation in a hundred years. To fight would salvage its dignity but spread the fire at Ossus across the stars.
Admiral Keelu's face still hovered beneath the tactical holo, but she'd gone silent in shock. To her Roan said, "Withdraw your people from the surface if you can." To Veed he barked, "Pull up our drop teams! Now!"
The admiral didn't hesitate to comply. Keelu stuttered, "W-We will not surrender, Majesty! We cannot! We made a vow, together! Justice for our worlds! Justice against the Vong!"
Roan knew that. And he knew that Keelu thought she was fighting the good fight to gain recompense she deserved for historic wrongs. No one but a true believer could cause so much trouble.
"You will have justice," Roan rasped. "But not today. Stand by for orders from Admiral Fenel."
He tapped a button and killed the transmission. To Veed he said, "Tell Resolute to get out of there. Find a weak spot in their formation before they tighten it and punch out. How are our ground troops?"
Veed shook his head. "They need time to load their people and equipment back in the drop ships."
"They don't have it. Tell Fenel with withdrawal immediately. And make sure Admiral Keelu's ships are protected."
He waited for Veed to relay the order, waited for Fenel to begin his push out of Ossus' orbit. From the tactical holo, Roan saw that the Alliance had brought several interdictor cruisers with them, but as yet they hadn't raised their gravity wells. He prayed Lekhwash was offering him a mercy.
He tapped the control panel one more time and brought up the Quarren and his uncle. "My ships are withdrawing. Do not try to stop them and they will not engage you."
"Those who attacked the Jedi Temple will be held responsible." Lekhwash's tentacles twitched.
"The real ones responsible are the ones who ruined a hundred worlds." Roan let anger into his voice. "Have the Jedi or the Alliance found them? No. If you sit on your hands and refuse to solve a problem, don't blame the people who actually try."
"This is solving nothing," Arlen insisted. "You know that."
"Don't tell me what I know."
"Do you really think your father would have started a war with the Alliance?"
Roan's eyes darted up to the tactical display. Fenel's ships were pushing ahead, but Alliance vessels were gnawing at his flanks. They weren't trapping him here but they weren't letting him go without a fight. Roan looked back at Arlen and said, "This is not a war of my choosing."
"We did not choose this either," Lekhwash said.
"Then we have chosen this together, all of us," Roan said. As it snapped off his tongue the truth of it settled on him like a heavy burden; it seemed to weigh down Lekhwash and Arlen too. "We have said enough. Good day, gentlemen."
He turned off the connection. They did not try to hail him again. Veed muttered reports as the rest of the battle played out, and no one else added a thing. Fenel and Keelu's ships began slipping away into hyperspace. None of the troops on the ground made it off Ossus; the Mandalorians swooped down and seized them as prisoners. As the last Imperial ships jumped out of the system, they registered a short burst of uncoded transmissions between the Alliance flagship and the Jedi Temple. They amounted to: All clear and Thank you. Strangely, a tiny smile creased Moff Calixte's lips.
Roan should have been relieved; instead he felt nothing but anger. He spun and stalked out of the chamber without a word to his moffs. Only Elliah followed him into the hallway beyond.
"You need to contact Coruscant right away," his wife told him. "Talk to the triumvirate. You can still force a negotiation."
"With what? We were defeated, totally."
"Almost a hundred worlds still defected to us from the Alliance. Hundreds more worlds- Alliance worlds- are refusing to follow Coruscant. The Alliance had a bigger fleet today but they're weakened."
"And they still have three times our planets, our ships, our resources." Roan's hands curled into fists; he yearned for something to punch. "We cannot win a war against the Alliance but that is exactly what Veed threw us into. Veed and Keelu and Geist and whoever else has been playing us, playing me from the start."
"All the more reason to talk to the triumvirs. Explain that this situation is not full in your control."
He looked at his wife in shock. "Elliah, we are on the brink of war. You can be sure the Alliance has its hawks who want an excuse to break us. We can't afford any hint of weakness."
"But we are weak, you said it yourself. That's why we have to try and deescalate now."
"By turning our backs on our allies."
"Allies like Keelu are worse than enemies."
"I know that, but she isn't wrong, damn her. Hundreds of worlds, billions of galaxies, are crying out for justice. Someone should stand for them. If the Jedi and Alliance refuse to, why shouldn't we? Veed- damn him too- isn't wrong. This is a time for the Empire to make its name and stand for justice. This cannot become our humiliation."
Elliah regarded him carefully, as if she were judging a stranger. "What humiliation are you most afraid of? The Empire, or yours personally?"
He was appalled at her suggestion. Normally he trusted his wife's measured judgement, her outsider perspective, but now she couldn't have been more wrong.
"This is not about my pride. My father and grandfather wanted an Empire that was strong- politically, militarily, and morally. I will not let their dream fail on my watch." He lifted his head. "It was not our choice, but it has been made. We are committed."