The journey back through hyperspace was much more relaxing than the journey over, albeit crowded due to the hundreds of new mouths to feed. Barriss tended to the wounded for hours, using her own life force to fix the cuts and bruises among the necks of the children first, it was a tiring job, but no one on this ship was more qualified than her. She preferred being in the medical bay, it allowed her to keep an eye on Windu in the bacta tank, he hadn't fought against the Vong in close quarters before, they move like no other being in known history, they're fast, cunning, strong and universally hate driven, that made them more dangerous than any Sith. She figured her own species natural agility tributed to her being able to keep up with them. Even the Sith hadn't wronged the force in such a way that it stripped the powers from them, let alone used such painful methods of torture on slaves. They had to be stopped.
Korkie rushed into the medical bay. "Barriss!" He shouted, almost out of breath.
She quickly rose to her feet. "What? What is it?"
Korkie swallowed his saliva before answering. "It's Cayde. The Empire has invaded."
"How far are we from Balmorra?"
"About five minutes."
She opened her comm. "Cayde? What's going on?" She asked, trying her best not to appear distressed.
"Barriss! They came out of nowhere. The Brotherhood is holding their own against them so far, but we've got another problem! They've sent someone to burn down the Brylark forest! It's all up in smoke!" He screamed over the comm.
"Hold on, we're coming." She reassured her friend. "Have the men move the liquid coolant to the gunships as soon as we come out of hyperspace. Then get to Chorus and defend out home!" She ordered every soldier around her.
Around a quarter of the forest was already up in flames when they arrived, the thick black smoke blocking visibility on the extent of the spread. The pilots got to work fast in order to distribute the coolant over the vast extent of the fire, but there were still so many flames to extinguish. Barriss had taken it upon herself to head down in the middle of the blaze in an attempt to contain it using the force.
When she jumped from the last gunship, she landed swiftly on her feet in the hot yet damp section of the forest where the coolant had just been deployed. She coughed and squinted her eyes as the smoke began to engulf her, she then used the force to push a bubble around herself creating a pocket of clean air to safely breathe while she looked around for the center of the fire.
A blaster shot narrowly missed her face, causing her to break concentration for a mere moment, enough for the smoke to block her vision once more.
"You're not getting away like last time, Offee!" A familiar voice came from the trees, amplified by some sort of speaker system. When Barriss turned to the origin of the sound, she was struck in the face with a stun baton. She spun around in an attempt to gather herself and focus on her opponent, when her vision cleared, she was certain of who was standing before her. It was Firebrand.
"There'll be no Emperor to bail you out this time, Barriss. You'll die here in the ash and rubble, like the many good people you killed." He fired his flamethrower into the air as a demonstration of power.
Barriss didn't even ignite her lightsaber. "I'm sorry, Boz."
"What?" He slumped his shoulders briefly.
"I'm sorry for everything that I did to you and every single one of those in the temple. I can't change what I did and I regret it every single day of my life." She said loud enough to hear amongst the crackling fires.
"Nrrrgh Shut up! Boz is dead! You saw to that!" He shouted as he used his jetpack to fly towards her, his flamethrower raised in one hand and his baton in the other.
Barriss brought her hands forward and pushed the smoke surrounding her towards Firebrand, blocking his vision and covering his visor in pitch black ash. He wiped his mask with his hand and quickly found his target through smeared glass. "Just die!" He yelled as he unleashed a storm of fire towards her, but she pushed back with all of her might.
"I don't want to fight you!" She pleaded, taking steps back so that she could bare the brunt of the heat.
"You don't get to have wants! Not anymore!" He shouted back, walking closer and closer to Barriss so that she could feel the full brunt from his attack.
She couldn't hold back for much longer, she drew in all of her inner strength and let out one last push with the force to knock Firebrand back, if only slightly, enough to make him let go of the trigger for a moment which gave Barriss the time she needed to retreat deeper into the burning forest. The smoke was unbearable, seeping its way deep into her lungs as she coughed and sputtered, struggling to catch her breath, she stopped and rested against a rock. When she placed her hand upon the boulder, her hand sizzled at the touch, the heat from the forest had conducted through the stone and onto her hand, she didn't have the time or the energy to heal herself, so she continued to run.
A tightness around her ankles caught her by surprise as they were suddenly brought together by a grappling cable and pulled on, bringing her to the floor facing down on the smoldering ash, the heat seeping through her clothes and armour. She winced at the pain and turned to her side, her armour on her arms taking the brunt of the heat, giving her a moment to focus on healing her burns. She looked up to see Firebrand walking through the fire and smoke towards her.
"There will be no rescue for you this time, Barriss. You will die here today, along with the rest of your friends." He monologued as he kneeled over her, holding her down with his weight, he drew his dagger and drove it down towards her. In a last ditch effort to save herself, Barriss brought her free arm up to try and block the attack, but only succeeded in directing it into her stomach.
She screamed and coughed as she struggled with the pain, Firebrand quickly removed the blade, causing even more pain to the Jedi Knight, only to strike down once more for a killing blow. But before he could finish what he started, a sudden pressure caused him to drop the knife as gallons of coolant fell upon the two of them, hissing at it hit the burning ground. Barriss kicked desperately to free herself from him, the water giving her the wiggle room needed to slip free from between his legs. As she did so, she kicked him in the chest knocking him back as she swam frantically for the surface only a couple of feet above her head.
She emerged and took in a deep breath, the stretching of her lungs causing the cut in her stomach to expand, she winched at the pain as she struggled to remain afloat. As the water quickly dispersed, she looked up through the smoke and steam to see a grappling cable shoot straight into the ground between her and Firebrand. The water seeped into the ground and the surrounding area, leaving a damp patch of mud and ash for Slick to sink his feet into as he descended down the cable and drew his blaster at the temple worker, his cable disconnected from a gunship above their heads as it flew back to the Resolute II. "This is your only chance, mandalorian. Stand down or be put down!" He ordered.
"He's not a mandalorian." Barriss wheezed and she struggled to her feet. "He worked at the Jedi temple…he was hurt because of me..." She shamefully admitted, unable to look either one of them in the eye.
"Hurt… HURT?! Nah… You did so much more than that, Offee. You murdered us! Burned and buried us alive! Boz Addle is dead, you killed him!" He lectured loudly as he slowly rose to his feet, Slick's finger tensely waited on the trigger of his rifle.
"Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't." He warned.
Firebrand stood tall, grunting. "What stands before you now is the culmination of all your sins!" He boasted as he removed his helmet and tossed it aside, revealing his burnt and scarred face. His hair burned away, his left cheek covered in dents in his skin from shrapnel, his left eye covered in a cybernetic patch.
"I am Firebrand… And I shall avenge Boz Addle by ridding the galaxy of you once and for all!" He shouted as he launched a rocket from his jetpack directly upwards and raised his flamethrower.
Slick made a decision in that moment, to either follow the rocket and prepare for where it hit, or to end the threat of Firebrand once and for all. He chose the latter and pulled the trigger, aiming for his head, but hitting the flamethrower instead, the arc pulse from the Czerka rifle came into contact with the gas release, igniting the chamber within. The resulting explosion sent Firebrand back into the burning forest, he didn't scream, he didn't make any noise, his body merely went limp as it was thrown away.
The former prisoners didn't have time to check for a pulse as they both focused their attention on the rocket above their heads, it was heading right back down towards them. They didn't have a chance to hide, not a moment to figure out their next move, in that instant, Slick wrapped his arms around Barriss, prepared to die alongside the girl he came to care for. He had only known brothers for his entire existence, but he was now content knowing that he had found a sister. Barriss returned the gesture with her left arm while her right hand continued to cover the wound in her stomach, if this was the end, she couldn't think of a better friend to have at her side.
The heat and sound of the explosion was felt by both of them as they held each other, but it did not kill them. Two seconds had passed and death never came, they opened their eyes and looked up to see a cloud of fire and smoke above them, suddenly a ship flew directly though the smoke, creating a clean line straight through, clearing a space for them to see the blue sky of Balmorra above them. Their radios buzzed. "Barriss! General! Are you alright?" It was master Plo.
Barriss almost cried with delight as she couldn't help herself from smiling. "We're alive, Master… we're alive." She breathed out in relief, falling down on her behind and sitting on the warm, damp ground beneath her, dirtying her robes and armour.
"You okay, kid?" Slick asked as he knelt down and gently patted her on the back, not sitting down entirely as they still had to get back to Chorus.
"I'll be okay, just need some time to heal. How did you know I needed help?" She asked as she turned to him.
"Didn't. Something just didn't feel right, you were down here too long, I got worried." He slightly chuckled to deflect his sincerity.
"Well, thank you for worrying about me." She smiled.
"… -an anyone hear m-…"
"What was that?" Slick asked as he opened his comm link on his wrist to clear up the signal.
"It sounded like Cayde." Barriss assumed aloud as she kept her ear to her comm.
"Chorus is under attack! I repeat, Chorus is under attack!"
Barriss and Slick had managed to find Firebrand's Republic shuttle not long after the distress call and were soon in proximity of Chorus, as they approached, they could see a battle in the sky above the city. Both the Brotherhood and the Resolute II were in low orbit fighting against a cruiser similar in design, but clearly Imperial.
"I thought you made a deal with them!" Slick said as he flew them closer.
"I did! But if Firebrand was with them, then maybe it's Pryde coming to correct his failures." She concluded.
"Pryde?! That murderer in charge if the prison block?" He asked in shock.
"Long story, I promise I'll tell you everything once this is over. Damn it! Where is Fon with the Katana Fleet?"
"We've got a pair of fighters coming in alongside us, they must think we're Firebrand. Plo, disengage and come around from the other side! We can't let them know we're here." Slick announced as he looked at the radar and the schematics of the new TIE fighters coming in nearby. Plo Koon took his Czerka Spirit fighter and circled back, just out of radar from both Slick and the imperial fighters.
"Operative Firebrand, we weren't expecting you to join us so soon. We shall give you an escort to the Vengeance." One of the pilots said across the comm.
Slick almost panicked, knowing he sounded nothing like the former temple worker, he just grumbled into the microphone and turned off communications. He then looked back at Barriss who stared at him with wide eyes that could only portray the question 'What was that?'
It seemed to work as the tie fighters did not pull back, instead they continued to escort them over the two venators and up into the shielded hangar bay of the Vengeance. As they parked the ship, Slick darkened the tint on the cockpit lowered the pilots chair to the ground level. Both Jedi and clone outcast stood at the closed door of the cargo ramp and looked to each other. "There's nothing we can do for our people by just sitting here, kid. If we can get to the bridge and take care of Pryde, we can end this before it escalates."
"Taking him out will only create a vacuum for the next in command to take charge. No, we need to take out the power core." Barriss concluded. "Any idea how to get there?" She asked in a joking tone, though in all seriousness, she wasn't familiar with the layout of this ship. She had been a prisoner aboard it for only a few hours, and in that time, she saw very little to help map out where to go.
"Not really…" Slick admitted. "But the design of this thing does look pretty similar to the venators… if we're lucky, then the basic layout should be the same. Hangar Bay in the center, power core all the way at the back through a series of hallways, barracks, mess hall, you know."
The front of the shuttle opened, giving Barriss and Slick the chance to run towards the back of the hangar bay where the entrance to the main hall passage should be. But as soon as they stepped outside, they were already surrounded by hundreds of eight foot tall droids, with thick torsos and thin arms, they resembled malnourished undead wanderers. Two of the droids mere inches before them had used their strength to carry the duo off their feet.
The sound of multiple clunking footsteps coming from ahead of them drew their attention to the droids all stepping either side, creating a narrow passage for a man in black armour and a cape to waltz through. "Well, I take it Firebrand failed." Reyes said casually.
"Reyes." Barriss spat, unable to free herself from the mechanical restraints of the security droids.
"Miss Offee." He nodded. "Don't take this personally, my attack has nothing to do with you or your fellow escapees, I just want the Czerka foundry."
"Your attack?" She then asked.
"Please, you may have us up here, but we outnumber you." Slick cut in boasted before the new captain could explain himself.
Reyes drew a pistol from his hip, it looked ancient compared to nearly every gun they'd ever seen. He noticed Barriss eying up the weapon. "Oh, this? This is a collectors item, cost me a pretty penny. A kinetic firearm, so awfully primitive, yet it is immune to the arc dampener that will render your Czerka weapons useless." He then turned to Slick, gesturing for the droid to release him. "Go ahead, clone. Shoot me. I'm begging you."
The second that Slick had touched the floor, he had reached for his Czerka pistol and fired straight for Reyes' head, only the gun did not work. He pulled the trigger multiple times and the only sound that could he heard was the clicking of the trigger.
Reyes smirked. "Now, as we speak, every Czerka issued firearm that you and your friends own have been disabled. Unfortunately, the dampener also disables all existing handheld weapons, but these droids have enough brute strength to deal with any issues that we may have." He then turned to walk to the service elevator, but then stopped to address the droids.
"Dispose of them."
The droids then carried the two over to the central hanger opening at the base of the vengeance, they looked down at the Brotherhood firing upwards at them, the kinetic rounds being caught in the superior shields. There was no brief pull backwards before throwing them over the side, it wasn't a fluid motion, this was a droids core strength casually throwing them over the edge.
Both Barriss and Slick fell side by side, their arms and legs spread out to slow them down if only a little, Barriss angled herself and held onto him as she looked around for somewhere to land. She would have no problem landing on the Brotherhood by herself, her inner strength along with the aid of the force would cushion her fall, but she wouldn't be able to do that while also holding onto Slick. She couldn't hear him speak, the sound of the rushing winds had muffled her hearing, she only felt his arm tighten around her waist as he pulled his Czerka rifle from his back and fired a grappling cable at presumably nothing. Suddenly, Master Plo's fighter came into view and they were violently pulled along by the ship downwards to the Brotherhood.
Slick Let Barriss go so that she could perform her own landing manoeuver, Slick however, had no quick strategy and simply hit the cold metal and rolled multiple times until he eventually slowed down. Barriss ran over to the downed clone. "Slick!" She screamed as she ripped his helmet off. He was out cold, covered in small cuts and bruises.
She grabbed his wrist and held up the comm link to her face. "To Brotherhood control! This is commander Offee and General Slick! We need you to open your upper hangar doors to allow us in!" She screamed.
Slick was taken to the Brotherhood medical bay by several clones who had come to meet them in the hangar. Barriss was escorted to the bridge where several officers were scrambling turret controls and fighters. "Commander!" One of the senior officers saluted before identifying himself. "CT-8433. Spotlight."
"I need to know what happened, Spotlight." Barriss said tiredly as she rested against the communications terminal, still recovering from her earlier encounter.
Spotlight activated the holo table and several communications opened simultaneously. Cayde, Boil, Korkie and Plo all appeared before here in a bright blue array. "Barriss! Oh I'm glad your back!" The Director spoke first.
"Just… tell me what's going on." She winced at the sharp pains in her stomach.
"Right… Uh, Boil?"
"I led a team to salvage the computers from Sinker's escape attempt, tried to figure out where he was going. There was an S.O.S signal emitting from the crash site." The 212th lieutenant bagan to explain.
"Czerka satellites would've prevented it from reaching out, right?" She looked to Cayde.
"It should have done. But there was a virus encoded in the message, it disabled one of the primary hubs temporarily, enough for someone in the Empire to notice, it seems. But what do they want?"
"They want Czerka, Cayde. They want the cortosis and Brylark for the empire." Barriss said before following up. "Me and Slick tried to infiltrate the ship and disable it, but the captain, a man called Reyes, said he wants to use Czerka to strengthen the Empire. He has some sort of electrical dampener to disable the arc weapons."
"Then we have to destroy that ship!" Cayde urged.
"Shields are more advanced than ours. The Empire has had well over a year to focus its resources on its navy technologies." Korkie countered. "There's another problem." He added.
All eyes turned to the young mandalorian. "Without the liquid coolant, the Resolute II won't stay in the air for much longer. We can't risk running supply runs up to us in the middle of the battle."
"How are the colonists?" Barriss asked, trying to find any positive.
"They're frightened. Barriss, I don't know what to suggest. I've got them gathered in the hangar bay waiting to board the shuttles, but they'll be shot out of the sky if they try to flee." Korkie said with genuine fear in his voice. This was more than any of them were prepared for, with the decision to focus on fighting the Vong rather than building refugee centers, they had thought that they wouldn't need to worry about civilians, but things had changed.
"I can offer covering fire, the dampener doesn't seem to effect ships, but I cannot guarantee their safety." Plo added.
"Wait, I have an idea. Spotlight, have all fighters focus on defending the gunships! We're going to use the Brotherhood to shield the Resolute II while Korkie evacuates the entire ship." She ordered.
"The whole ship?! Barriss, its only the civilians and the injured who need evacuation." Korkie protested.
"No. All but a small crew on the bridge need to evacuate. Once you're done with that, you'll fly up right beside that cruiser and wait for the reactor to overheat, then head to the escape pod. Without the coolant, the Resolute II is a ticking time bomb."
Everyone looked to each other in suspense. This would be a monumental feat by any means, but similar strategies have been used before, even Skywalker had sacrificed his own cruiser to bring down a Seperatist blockade during the Clone War.
Before anyone could speak, the shadow of the Vengeance passed over both Venators as it moved over the city. Everyone looked through the available windows and saw dozens of small objects dropping from the Hull of the ship.
"Bombs?! That's insane! He'll destroy the foundry that he's trying to capture!" Cayde shouted in an obvious panic.
Barriss squinted her eyes to try and get a clear look at the projectiles dropping down onto the shield, they were caught in the plasma field but we're slowly passing through, not exploding on impact. "Those aren't bombs…" She said in surprise as she had already seen these objects up close before.
Cayde and Boil's holo feeds began to flicker in and out, as if the relay antennas within the city were truck by stray objects caught in the wind, the sounds of heavy thuds could be heard over the speakers. "By the force… Barriss, they're dropping droids!"
Suddenly, one of the droids broke through the glass ceiling of the citadel, falling limp before Cayde's eyes, deactivated. "The plasma must have short circuited them?"
He was wrong. The electronic field within the plasma dome had disabled the droids, but only temporarily, not even five seconds after it fell through the shield, it had reactivated and climbed to it's feet. "Target acquired." It said in a deep, synthesised voice as it reached for Cayde, grabbing him by his cybernetic arm.
The Director quickly pressed at two buttons on his shoulder simultaneously and disconnected the arm from its socket, freeing the rest of him from the droids grip as he ran past it and grabbed a Czerka pistol from his display wall and fired, but to no avail, the gun wouldn't fire. He threw the pistol at the droid in frustration as it slowly made its way towards him. He grabbed one more weapon from his display, significantly larger than a standard rifle, but it bore the Czerka insignia on the side, he then ran for the elevator.
"Cayde? Cayde?!" Barriss called for him, her voice got higher pitched the second time.
"They're all over the city! Our guns don't work!" Boil panicked.
"There's a high chance that these droids aren't armed either, they'll be relying on brute force… The vibroblades! The arc tech might be useless, but those swords still work!" Korkie said as he reached behind his back and activated his own vibro dagger, it's gentle hum could be heard even over the comm.
"Boil! With Cayde unaccounted for and Slick incapacitated, you'll be leading ground forces. If those Wolfpack troopers have recovered, then bring them too. Have all men and droids armed with as many vibroblades as we have, then head to the bunkers." Barriss ordered.
"Yes, sir!" He obeyed as he shut off his comm.
Barriss looked over to Korkie, both of them clearly frustrated that they would have to wait even longer to discuss what happened aboard the Resolute II. "When this is over, I promise." She smiled and repeated at the young man, who gave an unconvincing smile back. Deep down, both of them knew this was not the time or the place for attachments, even when this imperial siege is over, there's still the Vong to deal with, there just wasn't enough time.
She then turned to the commanding officer of the Brotherhood. "Spotlight, what's our status?"
"Master Plo is leading what remaining fighters we have against these hexagon ships, the capital ship seems to be completely ignoring us, they're fixated on Chorus."
"Good, that means the evacuation can begin. Korkie, have the pilots take the civilians to the underground bunkers."
"Have you forgotten about the hundreds of droids all over the city?" He asked with tension in his voice.
"You can already see that we vastly outnumber them, even with most of our armoury gone, we can do this. I'll be down to deal with the droids."