From Flames, I Soar

by Kurenaino

With the Empire at the height of its power and the shadow of a greater threat hanging above all those who would oppose Palpatine, the Specters, led by former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus, are forced to contend with the Sith Lord that set the galaxy ablaze. Sequel to In Chaos, I Thrive.

68. Zero Hour

AN: Well. Didn't think you'd get this chapter so quickly, did you?

Well, as it so happens, this chapter's been bouncing around in my brain for a long, long time and when it came time to write, it went relatively smoothly. I know we've all been waiting for this for a very long while, and I'm so happy to have it out to you guys. I hope you enjoy this absolute disaster as much as I enjoyed the planning and writing of this unholy mess! It feels so great to be bale to pay off the buildup that's been happening since the start of this monster. Let me know what you think, kids, and where you think we're going next!

Also, I'd be really remiss not to mention that part of the reason this chapter got done so quickly was because I needed a distraction for Awful Life Events and belted the vast majority of this out in two days flat. Yesterday, I had to put down my dog Apollo, and I'm not at all okay. So this chapter goes out to my dog. I love you, baby. So, so damn much.

That's all. Get reading, kids. See you on the other side.

Chapter 68: Zero Hour

"The Chimaera has left Lothal!" Ezra near shouted as he burst into the command room where the strategy briefing was taking place, and every eye in the room shot to stare at him, including the telltale shiver on the back of his neck that always accompanied Kenobi's touch upon the Force. Ezra had, of course, been invited to the meeting, but opted out with Zeb and Kallus so they could assist in running the final checks on the ships and equipment they needed to take back his home world. And, since Luke had called from Mandalore, he had been keeping an especially close eye on the scouting activity around Lothal so that he could give his friend as much warning as necessary.

"How long ago?" Ahsoka asked the heavily breathing boy.

"Not long," Ezra said quickly. "It's not just the Chimaera either, he's brought a whole mess of ships with him. Half the blockading fleet, the scout said."

"Half?" General Dodanna's projected image said with a scoffing laugh. "That was careless. The battle was tricky before, but at half strength, these Imperials don't stand a chance."

"It certainly shifts things in our favor..." Hera said thoughtfully, her fingers slowly drumming upon the table. "Looks like things are working out exactly as we hoped." She frowned, casting a sideways glance at Kanan and Obi-Wan, both men more uncomfortable than their good fortune should have allowed. "I don't like it. It's too perfect."

"Agreed," Obi-Wan said quietly, his eyes narrowing as he looked over the holodisplays projected over the table. "Have we heard from Mandalore?"

"Not since they began the attack on Sundari," Ahsoka said, her eyes roving over the information and maps in the holofield before her. "At the time, Fett reported the arrival of a Star Destroyer over Mandalore, which is when he decided to launch the attack. He thought defending from a fortified position would be an easier fight than an invasion after the Imperial reenforcements arrived."

"Not a bad strategy," Obi-Wan said quietly. "But that should have been Bo-Katan's call."

"She led an infiltration team with Sabine and the Gemini to bring down the palace defenses and destroy the weapon the Imperials unleashed upon them at the outpost," Ahsoka said gravely, and the room fell uncomfortably silent.

That had been one of the hardest pills they had to swallow in their efforts against the Empire. In an instant, nearly the entirety of Clan Wren had been slaughtered by a weapon of devastating power. There had been no survivors, nor any bodies left behind, the nature of the weapon having atomized all organic matter that had been connected to the beskar that attracted the weapon's energy. The recordings they received had been horrifying, a hundred Mandalorian warriors reduced to little more than ash and empty armor, a thing that Kallus, Kanan and Kenobi instantly recognized as one of the visions they had seen in their journey through the Force. It was grim and unsettling, enough to send Kallus away from the meetings in favor of maintenance for the nausea of the inevitability of what they had seen, not visions of what could be, but visions of what would be.

"The Mandalorians have the largest army of Force sensitive warriors since the Jedi Order," Hera said, snapping everyone out of the grim thoughts of the losses they have already suffered before their attack even truly began. "Maybe that's threat enough to draw such a large force away from Lothal. It's not unreasonable for them to think you're leading them, Kenobi."

"Maybe I should be leading them..." Obi-Wan said as he stood from his seat. "It won't take long to get to Mandalore. If I leave now, maybe I can keep Thrawn's attention long enough for you guys to take Lothal."

"I know you're worried about Luke and Leia, but we need you here," Ahsoka said in a tone that brokered no argument. "Destroying the Empire's ability to create the TIE Defender is the highest priority."

"No," Kenobi snarled, his golden eyes flashing red as he glared at Ahsoka. "Nothing is more important than-"

"This is more important," Ahsoka interrupted, cold and unyielding as the Sith Lord. "Thrawn knows that too, and as soon as he hears that Lothal is under attack, he'll have to return. Luke and Leia can hold up until then." A wry smirk crossed her lips in the face of the Sith Lord's anger. "Don't you trust them?"

"Of course I trust them!"

"Then trust them," Ahsoka said, more gently than before. "The most we can do for them now is attack Lothal quickly." She turned her attention to the holographic images of Dodanna and Sato. "How much longer before the fleet is ready to go?"

"Most of my men are reporting ready, but we will need twenty minutes more for the bigger ships to complete preparations," Sato said stiffly. "The Subjugator is reporting ready and is already in high orbit awaiting orders."

"We're forming up around the Subjugator now. We should all be reporting ready for launch within thirty minutes," Dodanna said.

"Then it sounds like we're ready," Hera said, looking around the table. "We have one shot at this. Let's make it count. I'll see you all up there."

Just as they stood from their seats to go to their positions, the holofield flashed red, an alert of a ship that had just entered the system, and everyone sat back down, their eyes glued to the readouts that flashed before them. It only took a few seconds for the initial analysis to tag the ship an Imperial, a Lambda class shuttle heading in at top speeds on a vector aimed right at the base and broadcasting a signal that Phoenix Squadron had used on more than one occasion. Sato and Dodanna both barked commands to their bridge crews, and the rebels in the command center watched as the projection of their gathering fleet over Lothal shifted slightly as the Subjugator, Phoenix Home, and Dodanna's Vanguard rose higher into orbit and turned its weapons upon the incoming ship.

"Unknown ship," Ahsoka said firmly when Dodanna reported a solid lock on the target and opened communications. "Identify yourself or be destroyed." There was static for a moment, a tense lack of response that only grew worse when the Lambda showed no sign of slowing, before the open channel screeched with feedback noise.

"Chopper Base, this is Spectre Five," a shaking, familiar voice responded, and the tension immediately left the room before it returned worse than before. Sabine Wren should have been fighting on Mandalore. Whatever it was that pulled her away from the fight couldn't have been good. "I have urgent news, I-"

"Bring yourself in, Spectre Five," Ahsoka interrupted. "We're in the command center going over last minute preparations for Lothal."

"Luke and Leia and Bo-Katan were captured!" Sabine blurted out frantically, and Ahsoka quickly reached over and laid her hand upon Obi-Wan's when she felt the sudden snap of bitterly cold fear lance through the Force. The Sith's hand shook violently beneath her own, grasping the table so hard that she thought she could hear the metal groaning beneath his grip. Even still, his face showed nothing, though his eyes bore into the tactical display projected over the table.

"We tried to get through to Boba Fett," Sabine continued. "To tell him what happened, but our communications were jammed and the Imperials were after us! We had to run, or we'd be captured too, and Luke told me to warn you! W-we tried to contact Fett after we left Sundari," she continued, her voice raising in pitch as she became more frantic. "But we couldn't get through!"

"Calm yourself, Wren," Kenobi said calmly, his voice flat and expressionless and dangerously cold. "Who is we?"

"Me," Sabine responded. "Me and Rex. Rex helped me escape. We left..." She paused, and they could hear the girl nervously exhale. "Cody stayed behind to guard Luke and Leia and Bo-Katan. I-I'm sorry..." she stammered, panic and guilt returning to her voice. "We didn't...we knew we were walking into a trap, but we thought...h-he knew we were coming, Kenobi. He knew exactly where we'd be and when we'd be there..."

"Thrawn's on Mandalore..." the Sith Lord snarled in a deep, low voice that sent tremors of ice through the Force.

"The Seventh Fleet only just left Lothal," Sato quickly retorted, and he fell silent when Kenobi shot him a vicious glare.

"I didn't say Thrawn's ship was on Mandalore, fool, I said Thrawn was! Do try and pay attention!" Obi-Wan snapped, the golden glow of his eyes swiftly shifting to blazing red when he shifted his attention back to the tactical map as Sabine's stolen Imperial ship passed the rebel fleet and entered Atollon's orbit. "You saw him there, Sabine?"

"N-no..." the Mandalorian stammered. "But I know it was him. It had to be."

"Report to the command center, Spectre Five," Ahsoka cut in, shooting the Sith a glare that sent the furious man cursing from his chair to pace restlessly at the back of the room. "We'll get the full story from you then."

"I'm leaving for Mandalore!" Obi-Wan snapped before Ahsoka even managed to cut to com. "I never should have left to begin with!"

"Attracting Thrawn's attention was the whole point of our actions on Mandalore, Kenobi," Ahsoka said calmly, her face impassive and expressionless even when the Sith turned his fury upon her. "We always knew it was possible that he'd take a direct hand in things there."

"We thought he'd be smarter than that!" Kenobi shot back. "The TIE Defender is the winning piece on his board, and now that we know about it, he knows he has to defend it! It's too important to entrust to anyone else, he's not supposed to leave Lothal! He's not supposed to be on Mandalore!"

"You can't go, Kenobi," Ahsoka said just as calmly as before, and with a screech of tearing metal, one of the empty chairs around the holotable was torn from the ground and went flying at the Togruta's head. Ahsoka didn't move, didn't look away from the Sith Lord, the chair freezing in the air just before it struck her head, and with a slight gesture of her hand, she set the chair gently down upon the ground.

"Those are my kids, Tano!" Obi-Wan shouted, his face red and furious and streaked with unrestrained tears that fell from molten eyes. "Thrawn has my kids! He has Bo-Katan! Maybe he has Cody too, or maybe he's already dead! I can't sit here and do nothing!"

"We aren't doing nothing," Hera said, quiet and commanding and unflinching when furiously hateful eyes turned on her next. "We're attacking Lothal and ending the threat that Thrawn represents. We're ending this today, Kenobi. Now. Within a few hours, it'll all be over. All going to Mandalore will accomplish is depriving us of an ally we desperately need."

"I don't care!" Kenobi snarled. "I will not lose another Kryze! I will not lose another child! And Cody-"

"It just doesn't make sense..." Kanan muttered, his eyes closed as color splashed before his vision. "The timing's all wrong. Why would Thrawn be on Mandalore?"

"It doesn't matter!" Kenobi reflexively spat.

"I think it does," Ahsoka said, her eyes on Kanan. "We'll try contacting Mandalore. Sabine said she couldn't get through, but maybe we can. We need a report on their current situation."

"No..." Kanan said under his breath as Ahsoka opened the com channel. The shifting colors that rose and fell in erratic waves slowed to a crawling ooze until they fell completely still. He opened his eyes, blazing silver as he gazed into the Force and saw the two headed serpentine beast from the vision, both draconian faces staring right at him and hissing as they opened their fanged mouths. "We're too late..."

"Fulcrum!" a voice called through the com, and Ahsoka reluctantly looked away from Kanan to the holodisplay to see a small image of Boba Fett projected beneath the tactical.

"Your situation, Fett," Ahsoka quietly said, casting a glance at the restlessly pacing Sith Lord at the other side of the room, who was staring intently at Kanan.

"Sundari's ours!" Boba said triumphantly. "The second our forces swarmed the city, the cowards withdrew!"

"There aren't any Imperial ships there?" Hera asked, and Fett quickly shook his head.

"We had a Star Destroyer show up before, but it jumped out of here with the rest of them."

"Well, expect company," Hera said firmly. "The bulk of the Imperial fleet around Lothal left not too long ago."

"We'll be ready for them, ma'am," Boba said confidently. "We-"

"No," Kanan said again, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the tactical display. "We're too late. Ezra, call Zeb and Kallus, get them to raise the shields. The big ones." The teenager started to protest, but quickly broke off his question when Kanan sent him a hard glare. "Now, do it." Ezra quickly pulled the com from his belt to do as he was told, and Kanan met Hera's eyes, the woman's face grim as she silently understood.

"If we leave fast, if we leave now, we might have a chance to get at Lothal while it's relatively undefended," Hera said as she pushed herself away from the holotable and stood. "Get to your stations, I want us cleared out of here in-"

Every Force sensitive in the room shuddered at once, from Kanan's expectant twitch to the much more unprepared Ezra's visible wince at the sudden feeling that gripped them, tearing their gazes to the tactical moments before the images in the holofield flickered as Boba Fett's visage disappeared, the com suddenly cut just as the tactical display lit up with the red flashing lights of incoming ships, a dozen at first that quickly multiplied with each passing second until the tactical map of Atollon was surrounded by an Imperial fleet.

"Phoenix fleet, set defense formation!" Sato snapped to his bridge crew, his projected image still present in the room, which meant that the Imperials had only managed to jam their long range communications. "Captain, we have Imperial Star Destroyers! A lot of them!"

"The fleet from Lothal, I take it?" Dodanna growled, and Sato was silent for a moment before he turned his attention back to the occupants of the command center.

"Captain," Sato said grimly. "The Chimaera is at the head of the fleet."

"Call of the mission!" Hera snapped. "Evacuate all ground staff, we're getting out of here! Sato, Dodanna, get the fleet to hyperspace and meet up at our planned rendevous point. We'll meet you there!"

There was no argument, Sato and Dodanna quickly barking orders to their crews and the greater fleet and Ezra sounding the base alarms and issuing the evacuation order. Within seconds, the display showed the rebel ships beginning to move, one by one disappearing from the tactical display.

They reappeared only seconds later.

"Something pulled them out of hyperspace..." Dodanna muttered as he watched the frigates he sent first reappear in space before the Imperial fleet. "Something pulled them out of hyperspace!" he repeated louder, more furious than frightened.

"Hera..." Ezra said quietly as he moved to stand beside her and Kanan. "If we can't jump to hyperspace, we don't have a way to escape..."

"We might not," Hera quietly agreed. "But that doesn't mean we aren't going to make them work for it. Get to a ship. Any ship. Thrawn wants a fight, he'll get one."

Before any of them had the chance to move, the tactical flickered, the holofield cleared of all information, and with another flicker, they found themselves looking at Grand Admiral Thrawn, the man's face stoic and entirely unreadable, his eerie red eyes quickly taking in the faces of the people surrounding his projection, each one of them seething with fury and emotion, not just from their current predicament, but for countless deeply personal defeats before this moment. The death of Sato's nephew, the capture of Mon Mothma, the death of Cham Syndulla and so many more written in every line of rage that marred their faces.

Just as he had wanted.

"I greet you, leaders of the rebellion," Thrawn said in a chilling, monotonous voice. "At last, we meet in this theater of war, however briefly. There is no escape, and your forces are badly outnumbered." Red eyes shifted to stare directly at Obi-Wan, the Sith Lord's eyes a mirror of the glowing Chiss. "This rebellion ends today."

"We will never surrender to you, Thrawn!" Hera snapped, and the Admiral's gaze shifted to the Twi'lek, a brief flash of amusement on his face.

"You misunderstand, Captain," Thrawn said quietly. "I am not accepting any terms of surrender at this point."

"Do you really think we'd surrender?" Obi-Wan said, a wide grin upon his face and his voice sickly sweet, again dragging the Chiss' glowing gaze to him, the Sith's manic grin met by a sly smirk. "Oh, darling, for all your talk, you really don't know us at all, do you?"

"I have you here, at your base of operations, at the precise moment the majority of your forces have gathered together," Thrawn calmly replied. "I do know you, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Better than you know. I know you would never surrender," the Admiral said, stepping to the side and allowing the projection to show the room as he gestured to the four bodies suspended behind him. Kenobi's breath caught in his throat, his heart pounding in his chest as he stared wide eyed at Bo-Katan, Cody, Luke and Leia, bound and unconscious in the hands of his enemy, and nothing else mattered.

"I eagerly await the opportunity to see what you will bring to this battle, Shadow King," Thrawn said in his slow, measured voice. "Let us begin."

Obi-Wan was storming out of the command center before Thrawn's image even disappeared from the holofield.

"Kenobi, wait!" Kanan called after the Sith Lord as he ran after the man, the others following quickly after them.

"I'm going to kill him!" Obi-Wan snarled, a savage growl in his voice that didn't sound entirely his own, the walls around them groaning and creaking and bending beneath the oppressive wrath of the untamed Dark Side. "I'm going to ruin that magnificent bastard! I'm going to peel his beautiful skin right off his body and make a jacket out of it!"

"You're playing into his hands!" Kanan snapped at the raging Sith. "He wants you mad, he wants you emotional!"

"Well!" Kenobi reeled on the Jedi, slowly clapping his hands, his veins glowing blue as lightning arched across the space between his fingers. "You're doing so well, Thrawn darling! I am mad and emotional!"

"Thrawn's wound him up, Kanan, and I think it's best we let him go," Ahsoka said as they all started running down the hall after Obi-Wan again. "We aren't getting out of here without a fight and I think this might be our best chance."

"But-"

"We get up there and give the Imperials as much hell as we can," Ahsoka interrupted. "Let Kenobi deal with Thrawn. Without their commander, they're just Imperials."

"...yeah," Kanan reluctantly conceded, and Hera grabbed hold of his hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

"I will get us to safety," Hera said in a low, grimly determined voice. "We don't need to beat them, we just need an opening." They exited out into the chaos of the airfield, pilots and mechanics and base personnel running in a mad dash for starfighters or for safety, and out of the corner of her eye, Hera spotted the bright, distinctive colors of Sabine's armor as she and Rex ran for the command center. She called to them, and within moments, the Mandalorian and the clone were running beside them.

"Back in your ship, you two," Hera said in a tone that was more flippant than the situation called for. "Thrawn's here."

"Well, this day couldn't get any worse..." Rex grumbled as he took Sabine by the arm. "You'll brief us on the situation on our way up, yeah?"

"Ezra will go with you back to your ship before he goes to his own," Hera said stiffly as she pushed the boy toward the pair. "He'll fill you in."

With a nod, they were off, and as Hera and Kanan sprinted toward the Ghost, she looked overhead just in time to see the Umbra rise from the airfield and rocket full speed toward the fight above them, the Atollon sky a deep red and alight with the flaming streaks of destroyed ships falling through the atmosphere.

---

The hologram flickered off as the com connection was cut, and with a quick glance around the observation deck to check that everything was in place, Thrawn entered the turbolift to take him down to the bridge. Less than a minute later, he was walking down the command walkway, listening to the commanders of the other ships in his armada report into Commodore Faro that they were standing by and ready for battle. It was a familiar, comforting cadence, like the slow breath and even heartbeat of a living being, a thing that almost seemed at odds with the death that he had come here to bring.

"All ships report ready, Admiral," Faro said in her clipped, even voice when Thrawn took his place at the forward viewport, his eyes scanning the spread of rebel ships in space before them before he glanced quickly down at the tactical.

"Thank you, Commodore," Thrawn said absently as he returned his attention to the rebel fleet, one faction taking a defensive formation high in Atollon's atmosphere, the other pulling out ahead into an attack vector toward the blockading Imperial ships, and leading the group as it rose from a position in high orbit, was the Imperial Star Destroyer Subjugator. "If you would, Commodore, sound the alert for all personnel to report to their posts, staging areas, or quarters and remain there until I give the order."

"You're sure about this, sir?" Faro asked, and without taking his eyes from the viewport, the Admiral gave her a small but definitive nod.

"I am," Thrawn said quietly, which was enough for the woman to briefly stand at attention before she turned on her heels and strode down the command walkway to speak to the com officers in the pit. Thrawn silently surveyed the distant movements of the rebel fleet for a moment more before he touched the com switch on his tactical, connecting him to his fleet.

"Stand ready and hold positions," Thrawn said calmly into the fleet-wide broadcast. "Task Force Three, it appears you will have the best shot at Target One." A faint smile touched his lips, his eyes tracking the approach of the rebel Star Destroyer. "We have the distinct advantage of having intimate knowledge of its configuration and capabilities. Concentrate fire on the primary and secondary hangars. If possible, I would like to keep them from launching their TIE Fighters to eliminate any confusion caused by rebel Imperial assets."

"Acknowledged, Admiral," the voice of the Dark Omen's commander came from the com, and Thrawn glanced down at the tactical, watching as the seven ships in Task Force Three angled their weapons toward the rebel commanded Star Destroyer. For a moment, the bridge was silent, the tense anticipation of battle hanging over the officers of the bridge crew, each one still and focused and awaiting their orders.

"Task Force Three," Thrawn finally said. "Fire at will."

The dark of space lit up with the green flash of ion cannon fire that poured from his designated ships toward the Subjugator, the ionic energy splashing against the Star Destroyer's strong shields and the enemy ship swiftly returned fire with it's own ion cannon spread. There was little damage reported to the enemy ship, the formidable shields absorbing the vast majority of the ionic energy, but it wouldn't last forever. With the full spread of the five Star Destroyers in Task Force Three pouring fire into the enemy ship and able to shrug off the negligible damage done by return fire, the shields wouldn't last for long, vastly outnumbered as it was.

Even if their concentrated fire was mostly absorbed by the shields, the overwhelming power of five Star Destroyers' full battery made it impossible for the enemy ship to launch their TIE Fighter compliment without them being destroyed the moment they left the hangar. The other ships in the rebel fleet leapt to come to the Subjugator's aid, driving hard toward both the besieged ship and the imposing wall of the Imperial armada, but even the largest of their ships was dwarfed by the mighty Star Destroyer and had correspondingly less powerful weapons and therefore had to be much closer to be in effective firing range.

Much, much closer than the Imperial ships needed to be.

"Task Force Five, hold position," Thrawn said as he glanced at the tactical. "Task Force Three, continue your barrage. Task Force One, Two and Four, fire at will."

It was a slaughter.

Before the rebel ships could even get in range of the Imperial fleet, laser fire and ionic energy raked across the empty space and slammed into the attacking ships, damaging the shield integrity of the larger ships and outright puncturing through the hulls of the smaller ships unfortunate enough to get caught in th line of fire, sending showers of flame and debris into space as some exploded and others cracked open to the vacuum. There was brief hesitation in the rebel ranks, the ships that were able flinching back in a slight retreat out of the range of fire in order to regroup, but several were too damaged or too slow to make it, the turn away from the Imperial line exposing their flanks and causing critical damage to half a dozen more of their ships.

"Task Force Three, what is your status?" Thrawn asked, his eyes focused on the tactical as he watched the Subjugator begin to change tactics.

"Target One's shields are critical," came the answering reply from the Dark Omen's commander. "It looks like they've finally noticed they're outnumbered and stopped trying to fire on all of us. Looks like Shyrak's their target."

"Shyrak?" Thrawn prompted

"We're alright, Admiral," came the Shyrak's reply. "I don't think it will be much longer before we punch through their shields, but I wouldn't say no to help."

"Understood," Thrawn said calmly, his eyes darting to the tactical as it lit up with a flurry of tiny indicators. The rebels, it seemed, had finally launched their starfighters and were flying toward the Imperials in a bold, highly aggressive attack formation in front of the rest of Dodanna's charging fleet. "Task Force Five, launch TIEs into defensive array. Commander Hammerly," Thrawn called over his shoulder, and spotted the woman's head peek up from her combat station. "Launch the TIE Defenders."

"Yes sir," Hammerly said, the slightest excited edge in her voice as she keyed the orders. On the tactical, Task Force Five's TIE Fighters streamed out of the hangars and took up defensive positions between the ships of the Imperial fleet. And less than a minute after the command was logged, two full squadrons of TIE Defenders shot out in front of the Chimaera's bridge.

"Defender Squadron Two, engage and destroy the rebel starfighters," Thrawn commanded evenly. "Defender Squadron One, destroy Target One's weapon clusters and point defenses."

"Want us to help Task Force Three take the ship down?" Defender Squadron One's commander asked, and Thrawn was silent for a moment, his eyes on the tactical, then shook his head.

"I think not," came Thrawn's confident reply. "Target One is already in critical condition. Neutralizing its defenses will be sufficient, and then you may join Defender Squadron Two."

"Copy, sir," the commander said, and the two Defender squadron's separated, one shooting off to engage the swiftly approaching rebel attack force, the other peeling off toward the Subjugator. For the briefest moment, things continued on their course, and suddenly, the larger corvettes and frigates in the rebel fleet jerked upwards when their starfighters opened fire on the incoming TIEs to no effect, their laser fire striking harmlessly against the Defender's powerful shielding as the Imperials shot past the line and looped around to fall in behind the larger ships and began opening fire on them.

Caught now in a crossfire between the Star Destroyers and the twelve Defenders, Dodanna's attacking force had nowhere to go.

"I wonder if they have any idea what they're dealing with," Pyrondi scoffed from her station, and Commodore Faro, recently returned from her task and now pacing the command walkway, gave the woman a wry, false admonishing look.

"They have the schematics, remember? Of course they know what they're dealing with." Faro said. "But I doubt they've managed to work out how to beat them. Especially not since the Admiral's made those final adjustments."

"A little overkill, don't you think?" Hammerly replied from her station. "It was already the finest ship ever made. How badly do you want to crush these rebels?" she asked, peering up out of the pit at the Chiss standing at the viewport.

"Completely, Commander," Thrawn responded flatly, his face expressionless as he watched Task Force Three finally punch through the Subjugator's shields, the entire mid-section of the ship buckling and cracking under the sustained assault, spraying smoke and flame and debris into space as the barrage continued, the shots swiftly pitting and blackening the hull now that the shields had failed. On the tactical, the points representing Defender Squadron One shot away from the now disabled and doomed Star Destroyer and swung back to join the other squadron in their assault on the swarming rebel starfighters.

"Task Force Four, redirect your fire to Target Two," Thrawn said cooly, his eyes flicking briefly to his datapad before he focused once again on the tactical, as if he were anticipating something. "Task Force Three, initiate any necessary repairs and standby to cover your assigned vector in the event that any of our rebel ships venture into your range of fire. I find it unlikely, but they are desperate and may decide that an attempt at revenge is more important than survival."

"Understood, sir," the Dark Omen's commander replied, and Thrawn returned his attention to the viewport as Task Force Four concentrated their fire on General Dodanna's Vanguard, the large heavy cruiser leading the bold attack on the Imperial ships suddenly finding itself under heavy bombardment.

A small smile touched Thrawn's lips. Yes, there it was. Just as he suspected.

"Task Force One, it would seem that Commander Sato will be joining the battle," Thrawn said calmly. "I believe he will attempt to offer himself as a target to draw fire away from the attacking fleet." His face hardened. "Maintain your position. Should he wander into your attack vector, open fire, but take no action against Target Three unless I say otherwise."

"Yes sir," came the immediate reply, and with a deep breath, Thrawn folded his hands behind his back and watched his battle plan unfold. They would obey, of course. He knew they would. He had spent a great deal of time adjusting the command structure of his fleet, removing arrogant or glory-seeking officers from their commands, like Admiral Konstantine, and replacing them with more promising officers.

The results were exactly as he intended. A cohesive fleet joined together by common purpose, not fractured by the personal ambition of their commanders. Despite the efforts of Dodanna's bold offensive or Sato's new attempt to bait them closer, Thrawn's ships remained exactly where they were ordered to be, and in doing so, the rebel ships were left wide open to slaughter.

"I'd have thought that Commander Sato would be playing more reckless since you killed his nephew at Mykapo," Faro said as she finally rejoined the Admiral at the viewport."

"Such losses often create recklessness or the abundance of caution," Thrawn said quietly. "In Commander Sato's case, I believe it may be both."

"He doesn't look like he's acting very recklessly to me," Faro countered, and Thrawn gave a brief shrug.

"The day is not yet over. Have the hallways been cleared?"

"Yes, sir," Faro said briskly, a frown on her face as she looked out the viewport at the destruction of the Subjugator. Rebels, she knew, but seeing a Star Destroyer be taken down served as a grim reminder none the less. "All non-combatants have been restricted to quarters, and all troopers and patrols have been recalled to their staging areas to await further commands." Thrawn nodded, but said nothing else. "You think that will be enough to protect them?" Faro asked quietly. "We've kicked a hornet's nest with Kenobi. Who's to say he won't go through the whole ship and murder everyone first?"

"It is certainly a possibility," Thrawn muttered absently. "Though an unlikely one. I have his closest companion, his clan mate, and possibly his children. He is single-minded in his determination. Those in his way will be destroyed, but I believe he will come directly for them." He gave the Commodore a small, tight smile. "The revenge killings will wait until after he has ensured their safety."

"Which won't happen," Faro said, the statement sounding more a question than she would have liked, but this particular trap was far too close for comfort, should something go wrong. The whole thing had been insane, from start to finish, as missions with Thrawn often were. However, this one proved to be in a league of its own when they had unmasked Kenobi's two mysterious allies and found that one of them was none other than Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. The political implications were bad enough, very directly linking Senator Bail Organa to the rebels, but even worse had been Thrawn's observations of his captives, and how the two teenagers acted defiant, but out of sorts, as if they had suddenly lost something vital to their being. At the time, Thrawn had said it was merely a precaution, though Faro knew the clever Chiss never did anything without good reason, and the inclusion of a Force suppressing containment field into their trap turned out to be critically vital.

The teenagers were both Force sensitive, and, as Thrawn determined after a brief interrogation, likely twins, a thing Faro had no doubt that Thrawn would use like a weapon against Kenobi when the time was right.

"Governor Pryce called again, Admiral," Faro said stiffly with barely concealed disdain after a moment of contemplative silence. "She's furious that she was left behind."

"Let her be," Thrawn said quietly, his eyes flicking between the tactical displays and the viewport as he watched for the rest of the rebel's expected forces as they now entered his predicted time of arrival. "The woman is a menace, and civilians have no place in the theater of war."

"I'm not disagreeing, sir," Faro said with a disapproving scoff. "But as you said, she's trouble, and she'll go out of her way to create problems for you."

"I am a Grand Admiral," Thrawn said absently as he surveyed Sato's latest maneuver, pitching high upwards and angling right up to the line of the Imperial's effective firing range, but not crossing it. None took the bait, remaining exactly where Thrawn had placed them. The rebels were well and truly trapped, and soon enough, they would close the gap, where even low orbit wouldn't be safe from the Imperial assault. "My victory here will speak for itself. And I would think that Governor Pryce would be pleased that I have rid her sector of her rebel threat."

"I think she'll be more bothered you didn't fall over yourself to do her bidding," Faro countered. "Just don't be surprised if she sends political trouble your way."

"Noted," Thrawn muttered, his eyes darting away from the viewport when the com officer called to him from his station about an incoming message with top level encryption. Beside her, Faro could hear the Admiral give a tight, agitated sigh. "Governor Tarkin, most like," he quietly explained, giving her a small, suffering smile. "I do not suppose we can simply ignore it."

"Better not..." Faro grumbled, and Thrawn gave the com officer a quick wave to patch the message through. A moment later, and the small display on the console before them lit up, displaying the Grand Moff's less than pleased face. Thrawn, Faro noted, kept his eyes fixed on the battle.

"Mandalore has fallen into rebel hands," Tarkin snapped coldly, and Faro quickly averted her eyes. "Certainly your plan involves more than handing over entire star systems to rebel insurgents!"

"Mandalore is irrelevant," Thrawn said in his infuriating calm, and Faro didn't need to look at Tarkin to know his forehead was creased with lines of anger.

"It was Bo-Katan's men who took Sundari!" Tarkin bit out. "Her closest men! They wouldn't turn against her, so they must be acting on her orders! This is treason, Admiral! Don't tell me Mandalore is irrelevant!"

"Mandalore is irrelevant," Thrawn said again, finally looking away from the battle to stare directly at Tarkin. "I have the ability to deal with the Mandalorian warriors, swiftly and decisively, should the need arise."

"Yes, I heard about Gar and Tiber Saxon's weapon," Tarkin said stiffly. "And I also heard the rebels destroyed it. Certainly you've heard they are dead. And, in the Mandalorian uprising, the insurgents destroyed the entirety of the database there, including the necessary research to recreate the weapon!" At that, Thrawn gave the Moff a hard look.

"Do you really believe, Moff Tarkin, that I would allow such a vast collection of information to be destroyed?" Thrawn asked coldly, a tightness in his voice that sounded to Faro like disdain. "The Mandalorian archives have been uploaded to the Chimaera. Should the need arise, I have everything I need to rebuild the weapon the Mandalorians destroyed."

"Well," Tarkin scoffed. "Be that as it may, allowing Mandalore to fall into rebel hands will give others the idea that they can attack the Empire with impunity!"

"They will believe no such thing," Thrawn said quietly, his attention shifting once again to the battle. "I am currently engaged with the rebel fleet. In a few hours, this rebellion will be over."

"...you are?" Tarkin asked, the anger vanishing from his face. "Right now?"

"Right now," Thrawn confirmed quietly. "General Dodanna's Massasi group and the Phoenix Squadron led by Commander Sato, Captain Syndulla, and Obi-Wan Kenobi have all gathered in the region to launch a major military strike against the most important Imperial instillation in the region." He paused, his eyes narrowing as he watched yet another of the rebel corvettes fall to Imperial fire in its attempt to protect the Vanguard. "I have intercepted them and I have them pinned, with no hope of escape."

"And all of the commanders are there?" Tarkin asked, and Thrawn gave a curt nod.

"They are, as are others. The Phoenix cell currently houses the central hub of their Fulcrum network, and their leaders are present as well. Their destruction will dissolve the cohesion among other rebel factions, making them easier targets, should they chose to continue their resistance."

"I want you to capture their leadership," Tarkin said harshly, his previous anger making its way back into his voice. "All of them, including Bo-Katan, after you are finished and return to Mandalore to take the system back. If we are to crush this rebellion, we must make examples of its leaders."

"In battles such as these, taking prisoners may not be a possibility," Thrawn said absently, and Faro kept her eyes fixed on the tactical, hopefully enough to hide the tension in her jaw from the Grand Moff. For whatever reason, Thrawn was choosing to keep information from the powerful Imperial Governor, though why, she couldn't begin to guess. Telling him that Bo-Katan was already in their custody would have gone a long way to placating the furious Moff, but Thrawn had never been cognizant of the political blowback of his actions.

"I'm sure a man of your talents can manage," Tarkin said with a roll of his eyes, and Thrawn's shoulders stiffened for a moment, his eyes tracking something out in the battle before them that Faro didn't yet see, before his attention, cold and focused, snapped back to Tarkin.

"I have no intention of accepting surrenders or taking prisoners, Governor," Thrawn said quietly, a hard edge in his voice. Before Tarkin had a chance to respond, Thrawn gestured to the com officer, and the transmission was cut, Tarkin's holographic image disappearing from the console. Faro couldn't help but wince. No matter how decisive this victory, her Admiral would certainly be called back to Coruscant to face another disciplinary board for angering the wrong person. Again.

"There," Thrawn said as he pointed at the tactical, his finger tracing the faintest distortion in the readout of the battle outside. "The Umbra has finally arrived."

"That's the Umbra?" Faro asked, squinting at the tactical. "Are you certain it isn't just distortion from the ion cannons?"

"I am certain, yes," Thrawn said in his usual measured confidence. "I had Pyrondi reconfigure our sensor calibration to detect ultraviolet radiation." A slight smile twisted the edge of Thrawn's lips. "The exact frequency utilized by Chiss stealth systems."

"And since Kenobi sent you a Chiss," Faro said as she understood, "we can now confirm his upgraded stealth system is of Chiss design."

"Just so," Thrawn muttered as he looked back out the viewport. "Alert the primary hangar bay that our guest will be arriving shortly," he said as he turned from the viewport and walked down the command walkway to survey the crew pits, his finger working over the tactical display on his datapad. "All ships, I am sending you the coordinates for the second phase of this fight. Log them into navigation and move to them at my command." The cascading cadence of acknowledged orders came one by one from the ship commanders as Thrawn stopped beside the weapons station and looked down into the pit. "Commander Hammerly, as soon as they arrive, I shall be tagging the Ghost and any other ships that come into battle beside it. Please direct our Defender Squadrons to those targets."

"Yes, sir," Hammerly replied from her station, and Thrawn sat down in his command chair, his fingers steepled before him, as he surveyed the destruction he brought to Atollon.

---

It was, Hera thought as the Ghost broke free of Atollon's atmosphere, much, much worse than she had feared.

The Subjugator, the largest and most powerful ship in their fleet, had been reduced to flaming debris, as had several corvettes, and a dozen more sat helpless in critical condition. It hadn't been ten minutes since Thrawn began his attack, and already, their rebel fleet had been cut down by a third. Sato held a strong defensive line, but against an Imperial armada, which looked a great deal bigger and imposing from here as it did on the base's tactical, there was really no chance. They were vastly outnumbered, with no hope for escape, and even worse, Hera spotted a TIE Defender shoot past her starboard bow, rebel fighters peppering it with fire that bounced harmlessly off its powerful shields.

They had all known that ship would spell the end of the rebellion, but Hera hadn't thought it would be ready now.

Cursing under her breath as she quickly checked that Sabine and Rex in their stolen Imperial Lambda and Ahsoka and Ezra each flying their own fighter craft were present beside her, she threw full power to the Ghost's engines and shot forward into the fray, Kanan in the gunner's seat taking shots whenever he could. He had more opportunities than he would have liked when three TIE Defenders flew past them and doubled back to follow close behind them.

Teeth grinding together, Hera reached over to activate her com and stopped when she caught sight of Ahsoka and Ezra's ships, each with three Defenders following them as well. Nine TIE Defenders - nine - dedicated exclusively to chasing them down, revising that number to twelve when she banked around to see Sabine's Lambda being trailed by an additional three, and even then, she counted at least ten still swarming Dodanna's embattled and badly battered fleet.

How had Thrawn produced so many of these ships right under their nose?

She once again reached over to switch on the com. Ahsoka beat her to it.

"Well, it's official," Ahsoka said with a heavy sigh. "I really, really hate the Defenders."

"I hate everything about this," Hera said between clenched teeth, and hissed a curse when one of the Defenders following behind her shot past her to attack a nearby X-Wing. She glanced down at her console, a deep frown on her face, her readouts reporting the Ghost as flying at top speed. "And on top of everything, they're faster than me! We need a way out of here. Fast."

"Agreed," Ahsoka said, her own A-Wing pitching hard to the left and spiraling upwards in an effort to shake the pursuing Defenders. It didn't work. "We need to find out how they're keeping us from jumping to hyperspace."

"I think you and Ezra have the best shot at that," Hera said, pushing the yoke forward hard and sending the Ghost diving away from the battle before she pulled back, shooting past her trailing Defenders to give Kanan clear shots at the ships. All his shots hit true, but glanced harmlessly off the shields. In the gunner's seat above her, Hera could hear Kanan cursing. "Wouldn't be so bad either if Kenobi makes good on his end and deals with Thrawn. Think he got through?"

"I'll have a look while I check out the Imperial fleet," Ahsoka said gravely, her A-Wing visible through the Ghost's viewport as she turned hard toward the vast battlefield between them and the looming Chimaera at the head of the enemy armada, Ezra's X-Wing appearing behind her a few moments later and shooting at Ahsoka's trail of Defenders. The Imperial starfighters scattered quickly, looped around, and fell in behind Ezra. A hard knot twisted Hera's gut. Six of the Defenders were following the two Force sensitive pilots, and while they had the best chance of making it out to their objective, even the Force could only keep them safe for so long. After all, the Force hadn't saved the Jedi from falling to overwhelming firepower.

The Ghost shuddered, the consoles and monitors blaring red with warning, and Hera's hands tightened around the yoke as she took evasive maneuvers toward the Vanguard. The shields were holding, but were steadily being drained by her trailing Defenders, and that last shot had taken out her sensor array. She shot a cold, hard glare out toward the Chimaera. Chopper would have had the sensors back online within a few minutes. As it was, she'd have to deal with flying partially blind. She opened up a tight beam transmission to the Vanguard when she flew up beside the heavy cruiser, shooting behind one of the attacking Defenders and giving chase as she wove between the rain of ion fire striking the hull.

"Dodanna, you need to fall back!" Hera snapped as she fired at the Defender, chasing that one away from the Vanguard, only to have two more fall in and take its place. "We aren't going to last long out here! Retreat to the defensive line and make what repairs you can while we come up with a better plan!"

"There isn't a better plan, Captain," Dodanna growled, the cruiser turning hard and making a break toward the Imperial line, a squadron of their reclaimed B-Wing bombers following in their shadow, protected from the Star Destroyers' barrage by the larger ship. "We need to punch a hole through the Imperial line to give us an opening to get away!"

"We can't get away if we can't jump to hyperspace!" Hera snapped, pulling the Ghost in front of the Vanguard to take point against the Defenders making flybys at the Vanguard's bridge. "Those Defenders are faster than any ship we've got. Even if we can punch through the blockade, there's nowhere to run to!" Silence. Gritting her teeth together, Hera's hands tightened around the controls. "Fulcrum's gone out to see if she can find how they're trapping us," she tried again. "Once we know-"

She was cut off by a flash of light, another of their larger corvette's exploding beneath the sustained assault by the Star Destroyers.

"What's to keep these thrice cursed starfighters from following us back there?" Dodanna said harshly just as Hera spun the Ghost around to escape one of the Defenders on her tail.

"I don't know," Hera snapped back. "But we've got a lot of ships back there, and I'd rather take my chances with the Defenders while we're out of the Star Destroyers' firing range."

"...alright," Dodanna ground out, the Vanguard breaking hard and making a sharp turn to face its bow toward Atollon, full power to its thrusters sending it quickly toward Sato's defensive line. "Fall back and regroup behind the defensive line!" he ordered, and the larger ships broke off their attack as quick as they were able, their retreat covered by their remaining starfighters.

For several, the move proved fatal, their damaged systems unable to turn them quick enough to prevent their flanks from getting hit hard by the Imperial barrage or exposing their engines allowing the Imperials to take them out and set the disabled ships to floating helplessly through space. The pursuing Defenders finally fell back from the fleeing ships, instead looping back to systematically deal with the ships that hung disabled between the defensive rebel line and the blockading Imperials.

By the time they managed to fall back, less than half of Dodanna's fleet remained.

"Spectre Two, this is Spectre Four," Zeb's voice came over the com, and Hera sighed, her hands running over her face in the moment of reprieve their retreat had granted them. "The evacuation ships are loaded and we're ready to get out of here as soon as you give the signal."

"Might be a minute on that..." Hera muttered, her gaze flicking over her shoulder when a frustrated Kanan entered the cockpit and dropped into the copilot's seat. "We're still working out a way to get us out of here, but I will find a way."

"Right..." Zeb quietly growled, sounding somewhat distracted for just a moment. "Well, in case you don't, Kallus has rerouted all of the base's power into the shield generator. If we need to stall for time so Kenobi can cut the head off this snake, I think it can hold up against pretty much anything they can throw at us." He paused. "For a while, at least."

"Good to know..." Hera said as she looked over her displays, frowning at the static caused by the damaged sensor arrays that she only now had the opportunity to attempt to fix, a steady light blinking over the com indicating an incoming transmission. "Standby, Zeb. I want you ready to evacuate the second I give the signal."

"Will do," Zeb said. "Stay safe up there."

"We're certainly trying to," Hera said, reaching over to flip the switch to transfer her to the waiting transmission. "Talk to me, Fulcrum."

"I might have good news," Ahsoka's calm voice came over the com. "It looks like Thrawn brought ships with built in gravity well generators. He's got two of them at the back of his formation."

"That doesn't sound like good news," Hera said, pitching the Ghost upwards and over their defensive formation to get a look at the Imperial line. They were too far away to really see, but with her sensors flicking back into focus, she got a much clearer picture. Just as Ahsoka had said, hanging back behind the forward line were two battle cruisers, big enough to boast solid enough defenses to protect them against most anything they could throw at them, if they could even get close enough without being completely destroyed.

"At this point, this is a number's game," Ahsoka said, grim and cold and hard in a way that sent a chill up Hera's spine. "We have no chance at victory, and only a slim chance at retreat. We need to take it. No matter the cost. A few of us surviving is better than none of us."

"...what's your plan?" Hera asked, a tight knot in her stomach as she looked down at the rebel fleet beneath them and already knew what the plan had to be.

"Our two biggest, most well defended ships," Ahsoka said evenly. "We evacuate them, save for the bare minimum skeleton crew we need to fly them, and-"

"And send them on a full speed collision with the two ships keeping us pinned," Hera said through grit teeth, her gaze fixed evenly on the flight console and deliberately avoiding the look of shock she knew was on Kanan's face.

"It's our best chance," Ahsoka said quietly, the slightest edge of sorrow and regret in her voice. "Failing that, we go to ground and hope we can - hold on..." Ahsoka muttered a sharp hiss, and the distorted sound of screeching engines could be heard over the com. "I'm not sure these Defenders are trying to kill us so much as mark us," Ahsoka bit out after a few moments.

"I had the same feeling," Kanan said grimly. "I don't like it. Something's up."

"Something's up," Ahsoka agreed. "I saw the Umbra on final approach to the Chimaera a few minutes ago. Maybe our luck will start turning around."

"Took him long enough..." Hera grumbled. "Under the circumstances, you'd think he would have hurried. He didn't have an escort, did he?"

"He didn't, the ship is stealthed," Ahsoka said. "And flying slower than usual to keep drive emissions low, I suspect. Maybe we can-"

"Fulcrum, get back here. Now!" Hera snapped, her eyes darting between the viewport and the sensor display, her eyes widening with dread. "The Imperial fleet is moving!"

"Oh, good," Ahsoka hissed. "You contact Dodanna and Sato and bring them into the plan. Ezra and I are going to see if we can take out some of the weapons on these Destroyers before they're in range of the fleet."

"Be careful..." Hera cautioned as she brought the Ghost around and flew as quickly as she was able toward Phoenix Home. "We've lost too much already."

"We'll come back if it's too much to handle," Ahsoka promised as she cut the transmission, and Hera quickly punched in the com frequencies to link her with Dodanna and Sato.

Once the Imperials closed the gap, there would be nowhere left to go, no safety out of the range of fire. They couldn't retreat further back than they already had without entering Atollon's atmosphere and going to ground, an option that was looking more and more appealing with each passing second, though Hera knew that was only a temporary solution. As strong as the base's shields were, she knew very well that they'd only stand for so long if Thrawn decided to launch an orbital bombardment, and with them closing in as they were, it would only be a matter of time before they were close enough to do exactly that.

Outside the viewport, she could see a swarm of escape pods pouring from the damaged ships taking cover behind Sato's defensive line and, she realized with sinking dread, that Phoenix Home was evacuating as well. Either Ahsoka had contacted Sato, or he had drawn the same conclusion on his own.

"Talk to me, Sato," Hera said when her transmission connected with Phoenix Home.

"We are saving as many lives as we can," Sato replied after a few moments of silence, his voice grim and determined. "The Imperials are closing in. If we don't move quickly, we will have to push through the Imperial line before we have the chance to escape, and we will never make that."

"Fulcrum has an idea about that," Hera said firmly.

"I know," came Sato's calm reply. "She sent us the data she gathered." With a deep breath, Hera nodded, feeling a heavy weight on her shoulders. Sato knew, and he had come to the same conclusion. "If we can destroy those two ships, the rest of the fleet can escape, but we must move quickly, or Atollon's gravitational pull will have us trapped just as well as those ships do."

"And you're going?" Hera asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"I am," Sato replied grimly. "Thrawn murdered my nephew. I can think of no better way of getting back at him than this."

And that was the end of it, Hera knew. Thrawn had taken something from all of them, ships and lives and deeply personal loss. With so little left to rely on, with the end of everything they had all worked so hard to achieve staring down at them from the imposing bridge of the Chimaera, revenge was as good a motivation as any.

"Contact Zeb and tell him to get those evacuation shuttles into low orbit," Hera said to Kanan. "I want them ready to run at a moment's notice."

"Think this'll work?" Kanan asked as he activated the com, and Hera flashed him a tight smile, her hands gripping tightly to the yoke as she shot the Ghost out in front of Phoenix Home as the massive carrier began to move, Dodanna's attack fleet falling in behind them.

"Since we're very quickly running out of options, I'm going to say it has to," Hera said, her determined gaze fixed out the viewport at the Imperial fleet closing in around them.

"Hera!" Ezra's voice came over the com in a burst of static just as Kanan began to make the call to Zeb. "Hera, our run on the Star Destroyers was a bust! We're coming back as fast as we can, they're trying to-"

The com cut off with a burst of static, then there was nothing but silence. With a hissed curse, Kanan worked to reestablish the connection, and Hera ducked beneath the shadow of Phoenix Home as the carrier began to pick up speed, and a moment later, the Star Destroyers opened fire once again, space previously filled only with the scattered debris of destroyed ships now filled with green lines of powerful turbolaser fire and shots from ion cannons that slammed hard against their battered fleet, destroying some of their ships outright and leaving others slowed with damage. But Phoenix Home withstood the initial barrage, and was now angling at top speeds toward the Imperial blockade.

"They're jamming all our transmissions!" Kanan said with a frustrated huff as he threw himself back into his seat, his hands swiftly tightening his restraints as Hera banked hard downward to dive out of the way of the Imperial's fire.

"Guess Thrawn's tired of us communicating with each other..." Hera said between clenched teeth. "Think he was trying to goad us into taking action and cut off our ability to coordinate once he saw he got what he wanted?"

"That sounds distressingly like him..." Kanan grumbled, taking hold of the forward weapon station. "So what do we do?"

"We hope he made a mistake," Hera said between clenched teeth. "We protect Phoenix Home for as long as we can. What do you suspect Ezra was trying to tell us?"

"Could be the attack," Kanan said between clenched teeth, a frown on his lips as he activated the forward cannons, even though the space before them was absent of any target he could shoot at, the Star Destroyers far out of range and the TIE Defenders suspiciously absent. "Could be some plan or trick or-"

"There!" Hera said sharply, the Ghost shooting upward and out in front of Phoenix Home, deft touches to the controls weaving the freighter between the Imperial fire toward exactly what Hera had spotted. There, out in front of them, a Star Destroyer pulled away from the perfect, unbreakable Imperial line, not just breaking formation, but exposing the ship with the gravity well generator that had been taking cover behind it.

Somehow, Imperial arrogance and glory-seeking had infected even Thrawn's fleet and had provided the opening they so desperately needed.

It was too perfect.

"No..." Hera muttered beneath her breath, a sinking pit in her stomach as the Ghost slowed and the rest of the fleet shot past them toward their vital target. "This is why he jammed all our communications. He let us talk, he let us come up with a plan, and now he's baiting us!" An angry scowl upon her face, she pushed the Ghost forward after the fleet, coming up beneath Phoenix Home. "This is a trap, and he's making sure we can't spread the word if we figure it out."

"Do you think they'll see it?" Kanan asked quietly, and Hera's hands tightened around the yoke.

"Dodanna and his fleet don't know Thrawn like we do," Hera whispered. "And Sato's already committed to die. He won't pass up this opportunity."

"...so what are we going to do?" Kanan asked. "They're all going to die."

"We'll try to warn them another way," Hera huffed, the Ghost shooting out from beneath Phoenix Home and angling toward the Vanguard, her hand reaching over to Kanan's weapon station and lowered the power of the ship's lasers. "Let's see if we can get their attention. As soon as we're in range, fire on the Vanguard. At this point, any chance to give them pause might let them see what they're rushing toward."

"They won't see it..." Kanan growled, opening fire as Hera said as soon as they were in range of the Vanguard, a burst of color filling his vision as he was dropped into the Force, spikes of red and uneven slashes of yellow against deathly still ice blue. "They're desperate, Hera. All they see is hope and opportunity, just like Thrawn wanted..."

Out the viewport, they could see Phoenix Home flying full speed beneath the out of place Star Destroyer that Dodanna's fleet was swiftly closing on, the Imperial attack breaking off for a few seconds that seemed to drag out for eternity. When they began shooting again, every Star Destroyer fired at Phoenix Home, the carrier now caught in a crossfire it couldn't escape from. Hera counted three seconds under her breath before Phoenix Home's shields failed and the battered hull broke open to space in a swell of flame and debris, less than halfway to the target it had been speeding toward.

Biting back the bitter sting of grief and shooting out in front of the Vanguard and the rest of Dodanna's remaining fleet, Hera flew her ship past the viewports of every ship she could, as close as she was able in the efforts to get their attention, but to no avail, and she quickly saw why. Shooting out from the stray Star Destroyer's hangar were the missing TIE Defenders, the deadly starfighters swiftly swarming the ships and bringing their full force to bear upon the battered rebel fleet, launching torpedoes and missiles that punctured through hulls and caused critical system failures on ships that weren't outright destroyed. Some of the smaller ships still fought, weaving between Imperial fire on their way toward their chosen targets, but it was only a matter of time before the Defenders turned their sights on those ships too.

The Ghost's cockpit was bathed in a flash of impossibly bright light as the Vanguard exploded, marking General Dodanna beside Commander Sato as the second rebel leader to be killed that day.

The stray Star Destroyer returned to its position in the Imperial array, once again guarding the ship that had once been Sato's target, the gravity well generator now hopelessly out of reach, along with their chance for escape.

All the while, the Imperial fleet continued to close in, the space around them filled with the debris of the rebel fleet that was slowly caught in Atollon's gravity well and sent burning through the atmosphere to the planet below.

With an irritated snarl and a hissed curse, Hera pulled back on the yoke, spinning her ship in an erratic pattern between the diminishing rebel ships for just a moment before she dove hard and fast into Atollon's atmosphere.

"If they're smart, they'll follow us..." Hera muttered the answer to Kanan's unspoken question, and she exhaled a slight sigh of relief when she looked at her sensors and saw that the ships that were able were quickly turning from the destruction and heading toward Atollon. It was a dead end, but at least back at their base, they would have some protection for at least a little while. With any luck, long enough for Kenobi to deprive the Imperials of their genius Admiral.

"Do you think he was trying to force us to ground?" Kanan asked, his voice sounding as weary as he looked, and Hera reached over and laid her hand over his.

"I don't think I much care what Thrawn wants," Hera said, her voice steady and firm in a way she didn't think it would be. "It's better than dying up here, and so long as we're alive, this fight isn't over."

"I know..." Kanan sighed, his eyes closing for a moment before he flashed Hera a tight grin. "Who knows. Maybe we'll get lucky and Kenobi will finally pull through."

"That's certainly the hope..." Hera muttered, her gaze drifting out the viewport at the fire of the destroyed rebel fleet that filled Atollon's sky.

---

The Chimaera's hangar was empty when Kenobi strode down the Umbra's ramp and headed in toward the bowels of the ship. He had seen the TIE Defenders launch from here not five minutes earlier, and by all accounts, the hangar should have been swarming with pilots and techs and officers preparing for their return, or sending the launch reports to the bridge. Save for one officer, a senior lieutenant hangar master, judging from her rank insignia and the way she snapped at the intruder, there was nobody in sight, and the unfortunate officer died quickly with a brush of the Sith Lord's hand when she crossed his path.

After that, there wasn't anyone else.

His long stride carried him through the empty corridors, his red saber ignited and held in the hands of the Force at his side as he breathed deep the waters of the Dark Side and followed its swift currents toward his captive family. Beneath his feet, he could feel the soft thrum through the deck as the Star Destroyer's weapons fired and the more steady vibrations as the ship increased speed to move forward, and through it all, the whispers of the Force in his ear as he was led to where he needed to be.

The transmission had been limited in scope, but what he could see had been clear enough. Luke, Leia, Cody and Bo-Katan looked to be held not in a prison cell, but in a much bigger room. An office, he had originally thought, or an observation deck, if the Chimaera had one, and knowing Thrawn as he did, it was likely the ship did have one. It wasn't where Thrawn would be, of course. Even now, he could feel Thrawn's presence, cold and alien and unreadable, distinctly separate from the faint stirrings of Luke and Leia's loose hold on the Force. They were unconscious or their Force abilities suppressed, but clearly and distinctly alive and somewhere high above him, and no power in this galaxy would keep him from reaching them.

Not as if anyone was coming out of the wood works to try and stop him.

It was a trap, Kenobi knew. It had to be, given the nature of his opponent. The Force screamed with warning and the Dark Side roared with amused rage at the arrogance of this alien who thought a mere trap could contain the full wrath of the Sith. There had been a trap at the Spire prison, one baited with the body of his dear friend Luminara, and he had long suspected Thrawn to be behind that as well. It had been a containment field, uncomfortable, but one he easily escaped, a thing he knew Thrawn would have learned from. It would be different, certainly, harder to beat, but he had escaped from the TIE Defender factory on Lothal, the beating heart of Thrawn's operation in the Outer Rim. The Force was with him then, as it was with him now.

He couldn't lose.

And once his family was safe, well, there would be plenty of time to deal with Thrawn after that. Hera wouldn't be happy with him, and the rebel fleet would certainly take heavy casualties, but Obi-Wan would have it no other way. It was short-sighted, perhaps, a decision driven by emotion and rage, but his family - his children - had to come first. If they were lost, if one of the devilish Chiss' plans saw the deaths of everyone he loved carried out in an instant-

No. He couldn't think about it. He would save them first, and then deal with Thrawn. They would be fine. Obi-Wan would make sure of it.

He reached the end of the long central hallway, and with a flick of his hand, he summoned the turbolift, the door sliding open with a smooth hiss just as he approached and he walked inside, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he sunk into the Force. It was chaotic, the waters stirred with panic and chaos and death encircled by the unshakable ice that was Thrawn's touch, and there, at the very heart of it, was Luke and Leia, only the slightest flicker beneath a turbulent sea, but he knew their presence well, had known them before they had even come into this world, when they sat small and fearful and hidden from Anakin Skywalker's wrathful gaze, much as they were now.

Kenobi reached out, feeling for Luke and Leia as his shaking fingers brushed over the turbolift controls, and with a pull of the Force, he pressed down, opened his eyes as the lift began to move, and saw that he had pressed the topmost button. A faint smile tugged at the edge of his lips as he looked over the ship's navigational display posted beside the turbolift's switches and indicators. The destination he had selected was, indeed, an observation deck, higher up than the bridge, but not by much. His fingers drifted slowly over the indicator for the bridge, a flash of rage rushing through him.

Soon enough, he would finally face Thrawn..

The lift beneath him slowed to a stop, and with a soft hiss, the door slid open, a dark, almost serenely beautiful view spread out before him as he stepped out on to the observation deck, the panoramic transparisteel walls giving him a clear view of the battle raging outside, the entire room lit only by flashes of turbolaser fire and the sudden and violent explosions of rebel ships. It was as beautiful as it was terrible, an almost unreal calm hung over the room like the eye of a vicious storm, even the turbulent Force seeming to hold it's breath as time slowed to a crawl.

And right in the middle of the room, hung suspended before him, was Bo-Katan, Cody, Luke and Leia.

A scratching buzz clawed at the back of his mind as he slowly stepped toward them, his eyes darting around the room to find the outline of the trap waiting to snap around him. There was a containment field active here, not closed around him, but certainly built into the suspension field that held his family, but other than that, he saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing but the roar of the Dark Side demanding he take what was his and deliver violent, bloody vengeance upon the one that dared cross him. All in all, Kenobi decided as he sent his lightsaber spinning toward the suspension field's control panel, it was as good a plan as any. May as well set off the trap and see what Thrawn had in store.

The spinning red blade sliced effortlessly through the console, damaged electronics and wiring sparking and sputtering as their power gave a final flicker and died, but the bodies remained suspended, the field still active. Instead, all around him, blast shields slammed closed over the transparisteel windows and the clawing at the back of his mind increased in intensity. A gesture of his fingers called his saber back to him, the blade quickly responding and snapping into his hand, his fingers closing around the hilt as he raised the weapon over his shoulder and prepared for the worst.

For a moment, he thought that the containment field had expanded to effect him as well, but his saber had returned to him without delay and he could still feel the blistering heat of the Dark Side howling through his veins. Instead, with a sharp, electronic hiss and a reverberating thud that sent vibrations through the ground, a dozen hatches in the ceiling around the room opened up and dropped large, heavy sentry droids to the ground, the glowing red eyes of the mechanicals looking down upon him through the darkness as they drew to their full height and raised their weapons.

A tight grin spread across Obi-Wan's face as his second lightsaber snapped to his other hand and ignited in a blue flash. The suspension field, still active in the center of the room, would protect the people trapped within from any stray fire that happened their way while he dealt with this, and he did so love tearing droids to pieces.

The sentry droids opened fire, and though Kenobi could see the flash of the weapons firing, there was no accompanying bolt of laser fire, no glowing charge of energy to mark its passage through the air, but it didn't matter. The Force guided his blades where they needed to be, the Dark Side snarling with rage and destructive need as his sabers effortlessly intercepted the droid's shots.

But it was only intercepted, not stopped.

In the glint of the flashes of the droids' weapons, Obi-Wan could see the light reflected off small, metal shards, bullets, not the far more common energy charges, and as the metallic slugs struck his saber, they hissed as they melted into glowing molten liquid that splattered against the ground and burned holes through his robes and sent him recoiling in pain as it made contact with his skin.

It only hurt for a moment. After that, pain turned to howling rage and fury and destruction was all that mattered.

The Dark Side tore at him, each jolt of searing pain fueling the strength of the Force as he reached out toward the droid in front of him, his saber given over to the hands of the Force as he opened his hand, took hold of the droid and closed the wrath of the Dark Side around it to crush it to scrap as he had a thousand times before.

But nothing happened.

Hissing in irritation and snatching his lightsaber out of the air, the Dark Side's outrage roaring in his ears, Obi-Wan threw the red blade, the Darksaber snapping from his belt to his hand to take the thrown saber's place, and directing the thrown spinning saber toward the droid. This time, it connected, the blade slicing almost effortlessly through the sentry's chest and severing it in two, the broken pieces falling with a heavy thud to the ground. A wicked grin touched Kenobi's lips as he turned his sights to the next droid and threw his blue saber and called his red one back to him with an extended hand, watching in satisfaction as the second droid fell in pieces to the ground as well.

He turned his attention to a third, the Darksaber effortlessly slicing through the slugs fired at him, his arm flinching and his skin prickling with every splatter of molten metal that splashed upon him. It was then that he belatedly realized that his red saber hadn't returned to his outstretched hand, and casting a quick glance over to the first droid he felled, he could see his saber laying still upon the ground, refusing to heed his call.

Sinking realization tied a hard knot in his stomach as everything fell into place. The increased incessant buzzing in the back of his mind, his inability to crush the droid, and now his saber's failure to return to him. He had been right before. A second Force suppressing containment field had turned on, but instead of trapping him inside of it, he stood outside of it while the field stood protective guard around the outside edge of the room where the sentry droids stood.

His hand tightened into a fist, his veins glowing blue with electricity as he shot bolts of Force lightning at the first droid in his sights, the lighting passing through the invisible line of the containment field effortlessly and slamming into the droid's chest, only for the electricity to harmlessly dissipate across it's shell. It was expected, but it was infuriating none the less, the experimental blue armor of the Stormtroopers they encountered on Lothal apparently had been applied to the sentries, though far faster than Obi-Wan had expected.

Gripping the Darksaber tighter, he rushed forward at the droid and felt his entire body be engulfed with pain, a searing, agonizing emptiness exploding in his mind at the feel of the Force being torn from him as he crossed into the containment field. Two quick cuts saw the droid effectively dismembered, and he sprinted to the next one, diving out of the containment field like rush of fresh air before he was plunged again into the maddening emptiness of the Force's absence.

Four droids down, and as he ducked back into the center of the room in preparation to deal with the next, a wave of nausea and fatigue hit him, his vision unfocused and his thoughts slowed to a lethargic crawl. He deflected one shot, then another, but the third hit him square in the shoulder, staggering him backwards with the impact. He moved quickly around the suspension field's console, ducking behind it for a moment of reprieve as he touched his shoulder, and to his surprise, felt cold, thick liquid, not the hot, sticky blood he had expected. If the shots the droids were firing were metal, it was the softest, least stable metal he'd ever seen, the slug dissolving into liquid at the slightest provocation.

His fingers burned from the contact with the silver liquid, a sharp, prickling tingle spreading quickly through his hand, and his slowed thoughts stumbled upon the realization that whatever these bolts were composed of, it was poisoning him. Huffing an irritated breath that quickly turned into a soft chuckle, Kenobi closed his eyes, called upon the Force to purge him of the toxin, and found the Force unresponsive, the pounding in his head growing worse with each passing second. Not just toxic, then, but whatever it was that was drugging him, it was blocking his connection to the Force.

And he had been hit with the first splash of this drug nearly five minutes ago.

Kenobi reached deeper, his eyes tightly shut as he grasped hold of the Force and demanded it clear Thrawn's insidious drug from his body, but the tighter he clutched for the Force, the more it slipped through his fingers, the aching void in his mind growing wider and deeper with each beat of his heart. It was too little, too late, his connection too disrupted to purge himself faster than it was taking hold. His hand tightening around the Darksaber, he plunged the weapon into the floor, the blade hissing as it cut through the metal in his efforts to carve a way out. If he could escape, if he could retreat somewhere he couldn't be found and wait for the toxin's grasp over him to fade...

With an unsteady exhale of breath, Obi-Wan slumped over, his grasp on his weapon loosening and sending the hilt clattering to the floor, the blade hissing as it shut off. His vision was swiftly becoming darker as consciousness finally began to leave him, only vaguely aware that the droids had stopped shooting and their heavy footsteps echoed loudly in his ears as they drew closer. Kenobi looked up, focusing on the faces of the family that he had so thoroughly failed, and the bittersweet void of nothingness took him.

---

Kallus stood silently on the overlook, his gaze fixed upon a darkening sky lit up by a thousand flaming meteors as they fell to Atollon's surface or burned up in the atmosphere. They weren't really meteors, he knew, but there was little point in focusing on the grim reality of their situation, here at the end. He had taken a terrible risk in joining the rebels and turning his back on everything he once belied in, but now, knowing he had gambled and lost, he was more certain than ever that had he the chance to choose again, he wouldn't have changed a thing.

He looked back into the large, auxiliary room and down at the powerful shield generator that Sabine and Zeb were working on, a hologram of the rebel leaders leading the defense of the base projected nearby so Zeb could keep them all updated on his status. They had lost communication up there, from the sound of it, a thing that led to the final destruction of the bulk of the rebel fleet, and Hera was making certain now that they weren't all killed because of a communication error. Everyone was in on the plan, everyone was connected, and she had implemented survival contingencies in the event that the Imperials managed to cut their base communications as well.

Kallus scoffed to himself and looked back up into the sky. Survival. That's what this boiled down to now. There was no victory here, no chance of winning. They had already lost to Thrawn, and the best they could now hope for was that some of them could slip out from under his thumb and live to fight another day.

It wouldn't be many, he knew. Most of the larger ships had put the majority of their crews on escape pods and launched them back down to Atollon when things started to look dire, and while most of their rebels were alive, they lacked the ships to take them off Atollon, should the opportunity present itself. The latest count tallied eighty percent of their total fleet entirely destroyed, and of the twenty percent remaining, only ten percent of those were combat ready, and even less were relatively undamaged. The rest were freighters, transports, evacuation craft or just too damaged to stand a reasonable chance of even being able to make it to hyperspace.

Most of the people down here would die, Kallus knew. He knew what was coming. He had already seen it.

Again, he looked back at the holographic circle. Ahsoka stood there, as did Hera and her Spectres, but the other leaders of the rebellion were gone, and their absence was keenly felt. Sato and Dodanna both died aborad their ships in a failed attempt to release the Imperial stranglehold on them, and Kenobi, as reported by both Ahsoka and Ezra, had disappeared inside the Chimaera and hadn't been heard from since. If the Sith Lord was at all successful in his efforts to take down Thrawn, it hadn't shown, as the Imperial fleet even now sat high above Atollon, presumably preparing for the attack Kallus knew was coming.

With a heavy sigh, Kallus turned away from the sky and came in from the overlook, grabbed a wrench from a tool bench after he had come down the stairs and handed it to Zeb with a tight smile. Grinning widely, the Lasat took it, his fingers brushing against Kallus' hand and lingering just a bit too long to be considered casual, but Kallus didn't mind. He welcomed it, really. Now, here at the end, modesty and tact meant very little at all in the face of that which made him happy. And in the course of the last few weeks, Zeb really had made him very, very happy.

"If we're unlucky," Ahsoka was saying, "then he'll send those Defenders down here. I don't think we have anything in terms of ground defenses that we can use to deal with them, but maybe the worst of their arsenal was used in the destruction of the fleet."

"The torpedoes and missiles, at least," Hera grumbled. "Our shield should be able to withstand most of the laserfire they throw at us, even coming from the Defenders."

"Actually, Kenobi's girls have an idea on the subject of airstrikes," Kanan put in. "They seem to think that they have a shot at pulling Imperial starfighters out of the sky."

"Really," Hera said flatly, and Kanan gave a slight, non-committal shrug.

"The Force has certainly let people accomplish feats greater than that," he said calmly. "And recently, I've certainly experienced stranger at the hands of the Force."

"An interesting idea, but unfortunately not one we can rely on," Ahsoka muttered. "Though should it come to that and they're successful, I'll be suitably impressed."

"We'll be better off if he just launches a ground assault," Ezra said. "I mean, we've got the resources to hit him pretty hard. We've got Kenobi's very angry rancor, an assassin droid, an entire droid army, five Force sensitives-

"Which pretty much guarantees that he won't be coming down here," Ahsoka interrupted. "This is our ground. He may have forced the confrontation here, but I don't think he'd give up his field to come play on ours." She gestured up toward the sky. "You were up there, Ezra. You saw how he played his hand. There are seventy TIE Fighters in a Star Destroyer, and he didn't launch a single one to engage our fleet. He didn't need to, he just baited us to destroy ourselves. He isn't throwing away Imperial lives when he doesn't have to, and he's not going to do it now in a ground assault."

"What about an assault from the Star Destroyers?" Kallus said, and they all looked at him, concerned frowns upon their faces.

"You think they're going to launch an orbital bombardment?" Hera asked, and Kallus gave a short, swift scoff.

"I know they're going to," Kallus said, pointing an almost accusing finger at Kanan. "We saw it."

"I...don't know what I saw," Kanan stammered, keenly aware of the eyes that were upon him. "What we saw in the Lothal Temple, Kallus...Force visions are rarely complete and often allegorical and without the right context-"

"I know what I saw, Jedi," Kallus interrupted, a hard, certain look in his eyes.

"Force visions aside, Kallus is right," Ahsoka cut in, the growing tension between them easing only slightly. "An orbital strike just makes tactical sense if he's not looking to take prisoners."

"And from how he conducted himself up there, it doesn't look like that's what he's trying to do," Hera said absently, her brow creased with thought as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Sabine, can your shield generator hold up against and orbital bombardment from concentrated turbolaser fire?"

"You sure are asking a lot of me..." Sabine huffed as she swung herself over one of the generator's railings and landed down beside Ezra's holographic projection. "I made some last minute modifications. It's a hell of a lot stronger than it was, but you're asking for is a lot."

"But can it hold?" Hera pressed, and Sabine sighed, wiping oil off her hands with a rag she snatched off a nearby work station.

"It'll hold," Sabine said as she tossed the rag back onto the work station. "But I don't know for how long, if he throws everything he's got at us."

"I'll take anything we can get," Hera said firmly, confidence and defiance and no small amount of anger working its way back into her voice. "I want us prepared for every eventuality. Orbital bombardment, starfighter airstrikes, a ground assault, whatever it is he can throw at us. There's a way out of this, and I'm going to find it. We just have to be creative. Sabine." The Mandalorian straightened up. "I have an idea that requires your expertise. Leave Zeb in charge of the generator and get up here."

"Lucky you," Zeb said with a grin as Sabine grabbed hold of a tool kit from the bench and started off. "Whatever it is that Hera's having you build, you better be sure it gives those Imps hell."

"Oh, it will..." Sabine said quietly, a dark, bitter edge to her voice. "After the past few days, I owe them big time." She stopped beside Zeb and laid her hand on his arm. "You gonna be alright here with the generator?"

"Yeah," Zeb said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You did all the hard work for me. All I gotta do is flip a switch." Flashing him a small, tight smile, Sabine patted the Lasat's arm and left for the command center.

"You may as well get it turned back on now," Hera said grimly. "We don't know when the next attack's going to happen. Need me to send Rex down to help you out?"

"Nah..." Zeb said. "You better keep him on the evacuations. I got a feeling you'll need him." He shrugged. "And I've got Kallus. We'll be fine."

"Alright. Keep in contact and let me know if you change your mind."

"Will do, boss," Zeb said, and flashing the Lasat a small smile, Hera cut the transmission, and the holographic projections faded, leaving Zeb and Kallus alone with the generator.

"You know what bothers me most?" Zeb growled as he stepped up to the generator's activation console and began the start-up sequence. "If this were any other Imperial, we'd be running circles around them."

"It's a testament to what a threat Phoenix Squadron is to the Empire," Kallus said, slowly making his way to his own console and monitoring the readings as the generator began to hum with power. "You should be proud."

"I am, but I wouldn't mind the Imperials noticing us just a little less..." Zeb said, casting his eyes out to the horizon and the bits of falling debris from space that continued to leave flaming streaks in the sky.

Kallus couldn't say anything to that, only monitored his station as the generator kicked on and rapidly ramped up to full power, all the indicators showing green and stable as the shield expanded to cover the entire base. Zeb chuckled to himself in delight as he set to work running the various checks necessary, and with a slow, deep breath and a final glance outside, Kallus left his station, crossed over to join Zeb at his console, and gently scratched his fingers along the back of the Lasat's scalp. Zeb's ears twitched slightly before they flattened against his head, a low, deep purr rumbling in his chest as he leaned into Kallus' touch.

"I'm going to die today," Kallus whispered, and Zeb twitched beneath his grasp, his ears flicking upwards to full alertness as he turned to look down at the human.

"Hera's gonna get us out of this, Alex," Zeb said quietly, a deep rumble in his voice filled with so much certainty that Kallus almost believed it. "You'll see. This isn't over yet."

"It is for me," Kallus muttered, a faint smile upon his lips. "I saw it. In the Temple on Lothal or...or in the caves here on in the space between, I don't know. I saw how I die. I didn't know when, but now that it's here, I-"

"Oh, this is a Force thing," Zeb scoffed dismissively as he pulled the man into a tight embrace. "Listen you. You aren't even supposed to be able to experience spooky Force stuff like that. Your brain probably just...didn't know what to do with all of it."

"I know what I saw..." Kallus insisted, and Zeb held him tighter.

"Kenobi sees all kinds if stuff too, and even he's wrong about a lot of it," Zeb growled. "He saw his death too. He knew it was coming, and when it passed..." He shrugged, and held the human out at arm's length, flashing the man a wide grin. "Well, he's still with us, ain't he? What he saw was incomplete, he said. He didn't have the full picture, and neither do you."

"...maybe I do," Kallus said meekly, and Zeb's hands kneaded into the tense muscle of Kallus' shoulders.

"You don't," Zeb promised. "I won't allow it."

"Zeb!" the com on the Lasat's bet crackled, and with a deep, frustrated growl, Zeb took it off his belt and held it between him and Kallus.

"I hear you, Hera," Zeb said. "What is it?"

"You got those shields on line just in time," Hera said, her voice tight with apprehension. "We're getting readings from the Imperial fleet, they have a lock on us. Looks like Kallus was right about the bombardment. Get ready and keep me posted on everything that happens. This is going to get messy."

"Right..." Zeb growled, his gaze shooting to the sky and his chest tightening when he saw the clouds highlighted with green light. "See you on the other side, Hera."

He shut the com off, returned it to his belt, and a second later, the first line of green energy pierced the clouds and struck the shield. Zeb and Kallus both flinched, even as the energy splashed harmlessly against the shield, and quickly squeezing each other's hands, they ran off to man their respective stations on either side of the massive generator.

After that, the sky opened up with deadly green rainfall.

It was an onslaught, hundreds of bolts of green turbolaser fire filling the sky and bursting in showers of light as they struck the shield or sending up pillars of red earth when they hit the ground. But the shield held, the generator shaking slightly with the immense strain of the necessary power to withhold against such an assault.

Right up until the strain became too much and the generator began to fail.

"Oh, no no no no no..." Zeb growled under his breath as he quickly worked his console, redirecting power away from damaged parts of the generator and trying to keep it as stable as he could, but the electricity arching between the massive generator couplings was becoming erratic, the electronics heating so quickly that the metal casing began glowing a molten red as the internal mechanisms began sparking and smoking. The generator was quickly overheating, and there wasn't anything Zeb could do to keep the impending critical failure from coming.

"Hera!" Zeb snapped into his com as he launched himself over his console and hit the ground at a full sprint toward Kallus' station. "The shield generator's overheating, we can't-"

Zeb felt the rumbling in the ground before he saw the blinding flash, and as pain and unbearable heat shot through his body, he heard the deafening sound of the shield generator exploding.

For a long while, Zeb's vision was nothing but bright, indistinguishable light and dark, bleeding spots, the pain and the searing heat slowly fading as he tried to push himself up from the ground where he fell, but a sharp lance of pain kept him from getting to his feet. He took a deep breath and immediately fell into coughs that wracked through his whole body and sent small spikes of pain through his back. Gritting his teeth, he began to crawl across the ground, his hands shaking with each movement of his arms, the bright spots in his vision slowly fading away to expose the burning auxiliary building around him and Kallus laying limply among torn and twisted metal not ten feet away.

The pain returned when he pulled himself up beside Kallus, tears pricking his eyes as he looked down and saw the man covered in blood, a large, jagged piece of metal sticking up through his torso and blood gushing in thick, uneven spurts from torn flesh. A soft whimper slipped past Zeb's lips as he carefully took hold of the shaking man and covered him with his body, his forehead pressing firmly against Kallus'. It was only when he looked down at Kallus that he saw that his own leg was missing, torn muscle and splintered bone hemorrhaging blood at an alarming rate.

Kallus had been right. It was over for them. For both of them, he knew, but even now, as he felt his life ebbing away, his only regret was that he wasn't going to be around to see how Hera managed to turn things around and save the rebellion. There was so much that he had wanted to do, so much that he and Kallus were going to do, and he had no doubt that his found family would make the Empire pay dearly.

Holding Kallus close as he took a few wet, uneven breaths, Zeb looked up into the sky, his vision quickly fading as he saw the rain of turbolaser fire continue to fall toward them.

---

Consciousness returned to Obi-Wan with a dull, throbbing ache in his head and neck, with stiff shoulders and with raw knees. He groaned softly, shifted only slightly, and swiftly stopped when the ache became sharper and more insistent. His hands were restrained behind his back, the binders far too tight and pinching into his wrists, and he could feel something strapped tightly behind his head and covering his mouth. He slowly opened his eyes, but the world remained dark, and it took him far too long to realize he had been blindfolded as well.

He gave an irritated groan, his head dropping to his chest as he shifted where he knelt, his knees aching and complaining with every movement. For a moment, he tried to rise, but the sharp pain in his head made him quickly give up the effort, the throbbing becoming an incessant, vacant ache that scratched deep gouges into his consciousness. There was a containment field active here, or he was still under the effects of the Force suppressing drugs, or both, the bitter pain of the Force having been ripped away from him making his every nerve raw.

He didn't know where he was, how long he had been out, if the battle was already over and the rebellion ended in a swift, brutal stroke. But Obi-Wan did know he failed them. All of them. The Phoenix rebels who had counted on him to deal with Thrawn to shift the battle in their favor, when he instead was driven by his own rage and fear. Bo-Katan, who had trusted him to see her people through to victory, and he abandoned them to answer the call of the Force. Even Luke and Leia, who certainly believed he would come to their rescue, only for him to fail them when it mattered the most.

Just as he had failed Satine once.

There were a hundred times over in the past few days when a different decision could have led to a different outcome, a hundred paths he could have chosen that would have led to victory instead of this bitter defeat. But, as always, the Force had guided him, and it had led him here.

And it had to have done so for a reason.

Behind him, there was the soft, smooth hum of a door sliding open and swiftly closing again, the quiet echo of slow, even footsteps drawing closer to him, and then the irritated hiss of exhaled breath. A second later, he flinched when cold fingers brushed the back of his neck.

"My deepest apologies," an even, monotonous voice said, and with a soft electronic chime, the coverings over Kenobi's mouth and eyes loosened and dropped to the ground in front of him. He closed his eyes tight for a moment and blinked the vision back into them as he clenched and opened his jaw, the darkness falling away into a dimly lit office and the glowing red eyes of the blue skinned being before him.

"Well..." Kenobi said in a breathless whisper as he looked at the Chiss kneeling in front of him. "Hello there, beautiful..."

"I told my men," Thrawn continued as he stood from where he had knelt in front of him, as if Kenobi hadn't said anything at all, "that the restraints would be sufficient. But there is a great deal of mythology surrounding you. There are many that still believe your words can poison minds and you only need to look at a being to supplant their will with your own."

"Aw, baby, you should know better..." Kenobi drawled, a devious smirk on his face as he looked up at the Chiss. "If you know me as well as you seem to, you know very well that those things are true..."

"The work of the Force," Thrawn said flatly. "A thing that I have temporarily removed from your power. The rest," he said with a slight shrug, "is the work of charisma and a talent for being uncommonly persuasive. Talents, certainly, but mundane ones, not the work of magic."

"I'll give you that..." Kenobi muttered, the smirk dropping off his face as he stared the Admiral in the eye. "So what now?"

"Now," Thrawn said as he gestured to the chair in front of his desk, "have a seat, and we will discuss the terms of your surrender."

Kenobi eyed him for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he instinctively tried to reach through the Force to touch the Chiss' mind, and winced at the answering howl of the painful void. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to get to his feet, failing the first time entirely but managing on the second, and slowly made his way toward the desk, his gaze roving around the room.

The room was sparsely decorated, but what was there was vastly interesting. The mask of a Jedi Temple Guardian, the painted helmet of a Clone Trooper, a carved wooden art piece he recognized by description as the family heirloom he had stolen from Hera, one of Ezra's helmets Sabine had painted, and off to the side, a large slab of permacrete covered in graffiti he recognized as Sabine's work. Art, as they had said, appeared to be chief among Thrawn's weapons.

"What makes you think I want to surrender?" Obi-Wan asked, defiantly drawing to his full height despite the complaining ache in his body. A thing, he realized sourly, that still put him nearly a full head shorter than the imposing Chiss.

"Your fleet is in ruins," Thrawn said calmly. "The survivors of the engagement so far remain pinned down on the planet with no hope of escape or survival, and I will continue the orbital assault on your base until they surrender, or are utterly destroyed." Again, he gestured to the seat. "Presently, the only rebel leader capable of surrender is you. You may, of course, refuse, but be advised that the shields have failed and every second that passes claims more of the lives under your command." He shrugged. "You may take all the time you like to make a decision, but their time is short."

"Alright..." Kenobi ground out between clenched teeth, his eyes narrowing and missing the welcome bitter sting of the Dark Side's power. "Alright, Thrawn, you win this part of the battle..." he said as he carefully lowered himself into the indicated chair, wincing at the uncomfortable angle of his arms behind his back as they pressed up against the back of the seat. "Any chance I can get you to remove these restraints as a gesture of good will?"

"Not a chance," Thrawn said, a faint smile on his lips as he tapped a key on his desk's computer. "Commodore Faro, cease the bombardment of the rebel base," he said into the com unit. "Run a full scan of target areas one through four and keep watch for any signs of attempted escape. Report the results to me when the scans are complete, and inform the gunners that they are to keep to their stations and be ready to return to the attack on my command." There was a brief acknowledgment from the com, and shutting the device off, Thrawn sat down in his chair, his hands folded on the desk before him.

"So, if I don't accept the terms of surrender, you'll finish them off," Kenobi said almost casually. "That sound about right?"

"Indeed," Thrawn said gravely. "If that should prove insufficient motivation, be aware that I still have in my possession your clone companion, your Mandalorian clan mate, and your children."

"I haven't forgotten," Obi-Wan said, calm and controlled, and the Admiral's head tilted slightly in interest. "Obviously you don't want my life or you would have already killed me. So what is it you want?"

For a long moment, Thrawn was silent, his finger tapping upon the desk as he examined the Sith Lord's features, the dull yellow of his usually vibrant gold eyes, the lines of his face and the even, unchanging heat of his temperature. Then, taking a deep breath, he inclined his head.

"I suspect you already know," Thrawn said quietly. "When I observed your ship at Batonn, I had wondered if you managed to make contact with Nightswan before his death. It would seem as if your arrival was timely, and your departure equally so."

"What happened down there at Creekpath wasn't your doing, I take it?" Kenobi asked, and Thrawn's features hardened.

"Indeed, it was not," the Admiral said gravely. "Tell me, what did Nightswan say of the offer I extended to him?"

"His people would be spared if he left to join the Chiss Ascendancy," Kenobi said slowly. "The people that supposedly exiled you that you still secretly serve." A wry smile touched the Sith Lord's lips. "The same offer that you now extend to me."

"Indeed..." Thrawn said quietly, leaning forward in his seat slightly. "Even now, my people battle against evil and are in need of assistance."

"Assistance that the Empire won't lend you, even at your lofty rank," Obi-Wan said flippantly, but the Chiss' eyes narrowed in a way that he knew meant he struck a nerve. "Well, so long as we're negotiating, let me offer you a proposal of my own," Kenobi said as he leaned forward as well. "I'll go help your Chiss Ascendancy to victory in the fight they're engaged in, and in return, when your people are safe from whatever it is that's threatening them, you return with me and lend your aid to my rebels in their fight against Palpatine's Empire."

"Interesting..." Thrawn muttered, leaning back in his seat and regarding the Sith with interest. "And why would I agree to such terms? I already have you defeated, and I have reached the highest rank achievable in the Imperial Navy. You ask me to throw all of that away, and for what?" He gestured dismissively. "You have little to offer, and less to negotiate with."

"Don't I?" Kenobi asked, a wry smile upon his lips. Thrawn was baiting him, he knew, but it was exactly what he wanted. He needed an opportunity to play the cards in his hand, and Thrawn had so graciously just given it to him. "I'm not talking about one man traveling to assist your people, I'm talking about all my forces. You're sadly mistaken if you think the entirety of the rebel fleet was gathered here today. We have other bases of operation we've been keeping in reserve to play when our war against Palpatine begins in earnest."

"Do you?"

"We do," Kenobi said firmly. "All of them. The sum total of the rebel fleet and its assets, my Mandalorians, whatever's left down on Atollon, and you better believe Hera and her crew are still alive." He tried to gesture, winced when his arms pulled hard against the restraints, and settled instead for stamping his foot on the ground. "This isn't a promise of future aid, Thrawn, this is a promise for now. Exactly when you need it, as soon as you ask."

For a long moment, Thrawn was silent, his brow drawn together and his fingers steepled as he fixed a hard stare on the Sith Lord, his eyes reading his face for deception. Then, as if he had come to a decision, he sat taller in his seat, his face frustratingly unreadable.

"Why?" the Admiral asked. "The Chiss Ascendancy is a very long way from here, and the enemy they face is cunning and powerful. Your resources are limited and you would expend them fighting an alien war. Why?"

"Well, frankly, Thrawn, I'm not sure how we're going to be able to win without you," Kenobi said with a shrug, though the severity of his tone was at odds with his carefree body language. "As you said, you've beaten us here, and I'm fairly certain you'd be able to beat us again. But," he said, a grin on his face as he conspiratorially leaned in toward the Admiral, "were we fighting on the same side, I'm not sure there's a force in this galaxy that can stop us. Not the enemies of the Chiss. Not the enemies of my rebels."

"I believe in the ideals of the Empire," Thrawn said flatly.

"As do I!" Kenobi said with quiet excitement, the faintest hint of a smile coming to the Chiss' lips. "I love the Empire! I love it so much I want to rule it! I am owed as much. It's what your Emperor once trained me to do."

There was a brief pause, the Admiral's ridged brows drawing together for just a moment before his head slightly tilted, a clear and knowing smirk upon his lips. "I had wondered how you and the Emperor were linked."

"A thing my former Master is quite loathe to admit these days, I'm sure," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "You know your Emperor as Palpatine, but I know him by his real name." He leaned in closer, his chest almost flat on the desk and a wide, sinister grin across his face. "Sidious."

"And you believe you would rule better than him?" Thrawn asked, and Kenobi leaned back in his seat and chuckled.

"I know I would, and I think my record speaks for itself," Obi-Wan said proudly, his voice full and confident. "Look at your own career, Thrawn. Sidious is markedly a human elitist, and your path through the navy has been difficult and met with resistance at every turn." Again, that knowing, wicked grin crossed his lips. "After all, you've been fighting tooth and nail to get the funding for that Defender project of yours, haven't you? And somehow, your allocated resources keep getting funneled elsewhere, don't they."

At that, Thrawn's jaw tightened, a clear flash of irritation on his face as his gaze flicked down to the smooth surface of the desk.

"Despite being an alien and a political outsider, I was still elevated to Grand Admiral," Thrawn said stiffly, and once again, Kenobi chuckled.

"Of course you were, your results are very hard to argue with. But had I been Emperor, and had you been in my service," Obi-Wan said as he once again leaned in, "I wouldn't have made you claw your way through political backstabbing and human supremacists to get there. I have a long history of working with a wide variety of different species because I don't hate aliens."

"That is irrelevant."

"Is it?" Kenobi asked. "When the situation becomes dire for your people and you ask Sidious to bring Imperial assets to their aid, do you really think he'd allow it? Or worse," he continued when Thrawn's eyes narrowed, "if you brought your fleet to bear on the enemies of the Chiss, do you really think Sidious would see it as anything short of treason?"

"A path I will cross when I come to it," Thrawn said evenly. "When that time comes, if I am not granted the aid I need, I will have gambled and lost."

"That's a lot of years to sink into a gamble, Thrawn," Kenobi chided. "Not what I'd expect from a tactician such as yourself, especially not when you have an alternative option."

"An irrelevant option," Thrawn said flatly. "You have been defeated, have you not?"

"Well..."

"You have surrendered, and you lack the position to negotiate," Thrawn interrupted. "More than that, I am not at liberty to offer you more than a place among my people, where your talents may be put to use against true evil."

"I've already offered you my talents and more!" Kenobi argued, but Thrawn's expression remained hard.

"I cannot leave my service to the Empire," Thrawn said quietly. "Not now. Not yet. And before you say it," he continued when Kenobi opened his mouth to speak, "you do not have an Empire." For a long moment, Obi-Wan was silent, his eyes locked with the Chiss' glowing red, and he took a deep, long breath, the faintest smile on his lips as he readied his final card to be played.

"Allow me to offer a greater incentive, then," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I know the weak point in the Emperor's secret project." That got the Chiss' attention, his narrowed eyes widening slightly as his interest was captured, and Obi-Wan knew he had him. "You've heard of it, yes? Project Stardust, they call it."

"Stardust is indeed what they call the project," Thrawn said, a slight, triumphant smile upon his lips. "But the Emperor and those closest to him call it the Death Star."

"...oh, you magnificent bastard..." Obi-Wan said, a wide grin on his face as he chuckled. "You knew the last card in my hand, you baited me into playing it!"

"I did not know what it was," Thrawn said calmly. "But I knew you did, in fact, have another card." A faint smile touched the Chiss' lips. "You would have been a poor tactician indeed to play your best hand at the start, and you are not a poor tactician."

"Tch, flirt..." Kenobi scoffed. "The Death Star, huh? That sounds...ominous."

"Yes..." Thrawn agreed. "But you already know the size and power of the device, do you not?"

"Not specifics, no," Obi-Wan said. "We don't have the resources to collect that information like you do. But we do know how the weapon works, and we know what it's capable of doing."

"Information I have been unable to obtain..." Thrawn said thoughtfully. "It would seem that we each possess the information the other lacks. Do you know where the project is located?"

"We know where it was started," Obi-Wan said quickly. "It's been relocated since, and we haven't yet been able to locate it. But!" he said quickly when Thrawn's brow drew together. "We know a guy who knows. Not just where it is, but everything about it, including how to destroy it. Information he will give to us as soon as we rescue his daughter."

"Why have you not yet done this?"

"Gee, I don't know, Thrawn!" Obi-Wan snapped. "Maybe it's because some big blue beautiful bastard has been keeping us just the slightest bit preoccupied!"

"You have my apologies for the inconvenience," Thrawn said in a flat, almost bored tone that expressly stated that he wasn't at all sorry. "Do you seek to destroy this weapon?"

"Absolutely," Obi-Wan said without hesitation, his arms straining against his binders as he touched his hands to his hip and rolled his eyes. "Do you have my lightsabers?" Obi-Wan scoffed as Thrawn arched an eyebrow. "Oh, stop it, I'm trying to illustrate a point." Staring at the Sith Lord for a moment, Thrawn nodded his head, reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out all three of Kenobi's lightsabers and laid them upon the desk. "Alright, pick one and switch it on." Again, Thrawn sat motionless for a moment before he chose one of the hilts and ignited the blade, the room bathed in soft blue light with a snapping hiss. "Lightsabers are powered by kyber crystals," Obi-Wan explained. "Little shards of semi-sentient crystal that channel the Force, which I'd show you if you hadn't slipped me drugs. Which is bad date behavior, I might add."

Thrawn simply shrugged. "These crystals cannot be overly large to fit inside this device, alongside its other internal mechanisms."

"No, they're very small," Obi-Wan confirmed. "And small as they are, the energy they expend is enough to create the blade of a lightsaber, and I'm sure you're familiar with the destruction a lightsaber in dedicated hands can cause."

"I am." Thrawn paused, his eyes flicking to the glowing blade for a moment before he shut the weapon off and laid it back on the desk. "You believe the Death Star's main weapon to be powered by such a crystal?"

"Not one crystal, Thrawn, millions of them," Obi-Wan said gravely. "Entire planets once held sacred to the Jedi for their wealth of kyber have been hollowed out. I've been there. I've seen it, and I know that's what's powering the weapon. I've been to the Empire's kyber refinement factories."

Again, Thrawn was silent, his gaze cast to the desk for a long moment before he picked up the lightsaber again, measured the weight of the hilt in his hands, and once again switched it on. He studied the blade again, moving the hilt just enough for the glowing blue energy to thrum softly as it cut through the air, and seemingly satisfied, the Admiral shut the weapon off once again, his eyes locked with the Sith Lord's.

"Early in my hunt for you, you intercepted a cargo shipment carrying kyber crystals," Thrawn said, and Kenobi nodded. "I used this shipment to track you due to kyber's reputed importance to Force sensitives."

"A good a thought, but I was after that shipment because of it's connection to Stardust."

"I had believed the size of the project would have a corresponding amount of fire power in the form of turbolaser clusters and ion cannons," Thrawn said quietly. "If the Death Star's main weapon is powered by the amount of kyber you claim, then it is far more dangerous than I anticipated."

"Powerful enough to destroy an entire planet," Obi-Wan said, and Thrawn's eyes darted to lock with his, a hard glint in the glowing red.

"Indeed, it could," Thrawn said gravely, his gaze once again flicking down to stare at the lightsaber in his grasp. "I had advised the Emperor against allocating such a large amount of resources on a single project, that a large, flexible fleet would be better suited to the defense of the Empire. But he insisted that fear of the Death Star would make a reaching presence unnecessary."

"Foolish..." Obi-Wan scoffed, a smirk coming to his lips despite Thrawn's thoughtful, uneasy expression. "One would think he's compensating for something, building a weapon that big..." He paused, a frown coming to his lips. "But you got him to fund your Defenders, didn't you? You sure brought a lot of them to the fight, and we didn't think the damn things had even been built yet."

"I was provided funding for the project," Thrawn said absently before his expression hardened. "That funding was then to be reallocated to Stardust."

"But you have your Defenders," Kenobi muttered, a frown on his face. "Surely...oh..." he trailed off as sudden understanding struck him. "Naughty thing, you burned through it to get the Defenders built before you lost it." Obi-Wan chuckled, leaned back in his seat and frowned at the discomfort of his restrained arms pressed against the back of the chair. "Bold move. Surely you didn't think there wouldn't be consequences."

"I believed a practical demonstration of their usefulness here would speak for itself," Thrawn said stiffly. "The Emperor cares for results."

"More than his precious Death Star?" Obi-Wan asked, and Thrawn slowly shook his head.

"I do not know..." the Chiss said absently as he laid the lightsaber back upon the desk. He stared at it for a moment in silence, his expression thoughtful, before he once again sat up straight in his chair, his confident command returned. "Do you believe yourself powerful enough to overthrow Sidious?"

"I do," Obi-Wan said firmly, without a moment's hesitation. "Mark my word, when next we meet, Sidious will die."

"I see..." Thrawn said quietly as he stood from his seat and folded his hands behind his back. "You offered me a deal. I wish to make an additional stipulation."

"Go on..." Obi-Wan said cautiously.

"You and your forces will travel with me into the Unknown Regions to aid my people against the evil that stands against them," Thrawn said solemnly. "When the Ascendancy is no longer under threat, I will gather what Chiss warships I am able, and together, you and I shall destroy the Death Star and the Emperor that created it."

Thrawn's fingers brushed upon the keys on his desk, and with a snapping hiss, Obi-Wan's arms went slack as the restraints fell off his wrists and clattered to the ground. Tentatively standing up from the chair, a tight smile crossed the Sith Lord's face when the Admiral held out his hand.

"Are we in agreement, Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Thrawn asked quietly, and stepping forward to the Admiral, Obi-Wan clasped the Chiss' hand.