Chapter 21: Unfavorable Odds
August 22.
News from the front were ever more encouraging. After the defeat at Rhen Var, Vader had completely abandoned the offensive, leaving the imperial front in a state of absolute chaos. The Imperial Navy was crumbling and the Coalition had started a counter-attack, with the Federation pushing down the Perlimian Trade Route and the New Republic doing the same along the Hydian Way.
Now it was the perfect time to strike at Korriban. Jaral had now returned on Lianna and was in the room of Darvos' new apartment in the capital, his private lodgings as Colonel of the ICO. The Ghost was now heading toward Lothal both to allow Sabine to join a convoy of supplies that the Federation was sending to Pantora and because Hera had just been assigned to oversee a new project, called 'Starhawk'. Jaral only knew that it was a ship, to be built with the many Star Destroyers they had captured in the last two months, because otherwise it would have needed the effort of every single dockyard and arms factory in the New Republic.
Also, over the skies of Lianna the fleet of volunteers that had arrived to help the Jedi General in her odyssey was waiting for the order.
The departure was set for the next morning, when Cal, Nimbus and Ahsoka were supposed to arrive aboard the Stinger Mantis along with the Tau and Geth fleets.
Right now she was sitting on the far edge of the bed, fiddling and looking at Kanan's lightsaber when the door hissed open and Darvos walked in, coming directly from the HQ.
"Hey." he greeted gently.
Jaral turned her gaze toward him and smiled a bit. "How was at work?"
"Surprisingly refreshing." he simply quipped, leaving a couple seconds of pause before the next question. "What are you doing?" he asked as he saw her looking without a purpose at her Master's lightsaber.
Jaral held it with a hand and slowly moved outward, as if she prepared to dispose of it. "Just making sure all components were functional." she simply said before lifting it with the Force and directing the weapon on the drawer next to her side of the bed, where her real lightsaber was also laying.
"Better account for everything before start running." she concluded with a sigh as she leaned with her elbows on the mattress and turned her head toward the window in front of her. The apartment was quite high, and there was a nice scene of the night skies of the capital, with two skyscrapers sticking out from the sides as if to create a frame.
"Right." said Darvos. "And do you feel ready for this?" he asked frankly.
In that atmosphere, Jaral didn't feel like making it up just to reassure him. She knew that he would be able to see through her and that lying would just make him more worried.
"How am I supposed to be ready for something like this?" she said as she turned her eyes toward him.
Darvos quietly walked and went to sit next to her. "Through absolute dedication. Every day you take on everything scary so that the people around you can live safely."
Jaral wasn't sure if those words helped her, but what certainly helped her was when Darvos gently took her hand and they intertwined fingers before giving her one of those gazes that could make her forget about the universe.
"You remember that time when we stared at the sky on top of your tower on Lothal?" he asked.
She chuckled. "This view doesn't exactly give the same vibes, but I appreciate it nonetheless."
He returned the soft laugh. "Yeah, but thinking about now...I thought I was taking the biggest risk of my life and I was simply trying to leave the planet. Compared to everything we went through from that point on…"
"We always came on top anyway." she commented.
"And this time will be no different." he reassured her. "You will kick whatever Sith butt dares to get in your way and we will come back home. Maybe by that time the fleet will have already won the war."
"You really sure about that?"
"Ok, I might be exaggerating, but I know that you can do this. No matter how scary it looks."
Jaral shuffled a bit toward him so she could lean her head on her husband's shoulder. "I'm so glad you're here, Darv."
He turned his head and gently kissed her forehead, then lowering his own toward her. "I'll never leave you alone, Jari."
"Prove it." she said before jolting a bit and kissing him on the lips, bringing her hands on his shoulders.
A dark room, illuminated barely by the flame of two torches.
"You shouldn't have come, Jedi."
Red lightsabers hiss as they emerge from the dark.
A head in a black hood, covered by a metal mask.
"I need to make up for everything…"
A silhouette fades into nothingness.
"There is another path. I can teach you…"
A beam of energy piercing the stars.
August 23.
Jaral's eyes sprang open as she tried to decipher what those visions meant. But all she found was herself cuddled on top of Darvos. She was still sweating a bit. She turned her head toward the clock and noticed that there were around four hours left before the departure.
She decided she had slept enough for her own good. She gently slipped away from him, but Darvos noticed that immediately and started to open his eyes.
"Can't sleep?" he asked tenderly, grabbing one of her hands.
"No, but you should rest a little more." she recommended.
Darvos turned on his side to reach her and kissed her shoulder. "How am I supposed to keep sleeping without all of this?"
Were it for him, he would've probably gone for another round, and while she liked the idea very much, she had to deny that as she stood up, gathered her clothes and headed for the bathroom to take a shower.
After drying herself, she noticed that the orange paint of her nails needed a quick coat and she immediately provided it.
"I meant to ask for a while…" said Darvos as he peeked from the door, preparing to take his own shower. "but isn't that the color of our first date?"
Jaral smirked and inspected her left hand. "Yes."
"Is there a reason why you never change it? Just for curiosity."
"Well, I never told you, but...it was Ezra who gifted it to me."
"What?" Darvos asked, confused and somehow expecting that answer.
"When I told him that we were going on a date in a few days, I...probably...mentioned that I would've given anything for a little make-up. I was so happy that I forgot the situation we lived in. I let the matter drop, but a few hours before we met, Ezra arrived at the tower with a small bottle of this color."
"I don't believe it…" Darvos said, unable to hold back a laugh.
She smiled as well. "I never asked him, and I'm not even sure he remembers why he did it anymore. But it turned out that he had found a quick job just to buy me this. Just to satisfy a passing fancy of mine that I didn't even care that much for."
Darvos saw her face, smiling a bit melancholic at her own hand.
"You really miss him." he understood.
"Yeah. But he's doing his best for me, so the least I can do now is to give my all." she concluded. "Let's get going."
"Yes ma'am." Darvos said merrily and closed the door after she walked outside.
August 26.
"Constantinople you're clear to land. Head for landing bay 7-B." the control tower said.
"Copy that. Heading to landing bay 7-B." Rut calmly repeated.
As the frigate approached the docks, Ezra easily spotted the load of supplies that they had to bring back to the Amerigo, guarded by three pantoran policemen. But even if he couldn't see her, Ezra could feel her signature in the Force and a happy smile formed on his face.
The frigate touched down with her landing gear and a pressurized tube was put to allow them to exit from the main door next to the cockpit.
Ezra and Jordan, the former wearing his usual outfit and the latter his uniform, walked out as soon as the pressurized door opened. They did a few meters inside the tube before at the other side Sabine came out slowing down from a run.
As soon as Ezra spotted her red tips, those chestnut eyes and the colorful armor, he couldn't hold back a faint chuckle. She also smiled and jogged toward him eventually bumping into his open arms as he threw her own around his neck.
"I missed you." he whispered.
"You're here." she simply replied, simply too happy to make a sarcastic comment.
They exchanged a quick kiss before Sabine undid the hug to greet her in-law. "Hi, Jordan." she said say as they shared a friendly embrace.
"Good to see you again, Sabine."
They then helped and coordinated the transfer of supplies aboard the frigate, along with the evacuation of a dozen soldiers that had been brought away from the Amerigo to be replaced by reinforcements sent from the Systems Alliance with the supply convoy.
"Had any trouble during the voyage?" Ezra asked Sabine as they lifted a crate into the hangar.
"A small band of pirates tried to ambush us near Lok, but our escort beat them off easily. I didn't even get to do anything." she said a bit bored.
Ezra chuckled. "Well, you'll have a lot of chance to punch imperials."
"What about you guys? We haven't heard much from you since our call two months ago."
They finished putting down the crate, and noticing that the crew was almost done anyway, Ezra brought her into the strategic room of the Constantinople, bringing up a map focused on the Trailing Sectors. There was a highlight line between the Outer and Mid Rim, signaling the defensive line of the Empire.
"Iulius has created a fortified line of worlds to protect the Mid Rim, where the worlds are usually more loyal to the Empire. Curiously, it doesn't revolve around Star Destroyers: the most vital worlds are being fortified in orbit with Golan stations and satellite defense grids. Honestly, it seems impossible for us to even think of doing anything on Sullust."
"I see." said Sabine. "With no help from the outside and with the Empire now being much more flexible, an uprising wouldn't stand a chance."
"Exactly. We've being running recons for the last few weeks and honestly, I don't see a way to liberate Sullust. Not without the support of the Republic or the Federation."
"So what are you doing here?" Sabine asked quite surprised.
"There are still worlds like Pantora, here in the Outer Rim, that we can turn into allies. If we help them shake off the last imperial influence on them, they might help us down the line. Also, I still believe that we should find a safe location to gather our strength in this sector. In the future, we might use it to try an actual offensive toward Sullust."
"Ah-ah…" Sabine whispered looking at him.
"What's that?" he asked confused.
"Nothing." she replied as she stepped closer to him. "I'm just impressed to see how much of a leader you've become." she said with a smile.
Ezra made a lopsided grin at her, but he had something more to happen. "We also have a problem, actually." he said before bringing up the dossier about a woman with imperial uniform and the rank of Commander. "We stumbled upon this lady a couple times. Commander Zahra."
Sabine leaned in to take a better look at the hologram and was surprised to find a note of the ICO.
"Tarkin's protege?"
"Yes. Though, apparently she fell out of favor right before the battle of Yavin. For better or for worse, she wasn't on the Death Star when we blew it up. However, it seems that Iulius saw her fit to try and hunt us down."
"What's your impression about her?"
"She's not on par with Iulius and Thrawn, to be honest. But that doesn't mean she's dangerous. One doesn't simply stumble a group of stealth ships by chance."
"So it's us, wandering the stars with a small fleet, looking for a base, hunted down by the Empire...just like old times." Sabine concluded with confidence.
Ezra couldn't hold back a short laugh. "How did you come up with that?"
"It's all like poetry: it rhymes. And I'm an artist, I can recognize poetry." she said with a proud smile.
Ezra just shook his head and turned off the holo-table. They then returned into the CIC, where Jordan had just taken his place in front of the Galaxy Map and was already setting the route to regroup with the Amerigo and TF Magellan. For now, the ship was still going through preliminary checks and waiting for the spaceport authority to give them permission to depart.
"This might take a while so, here." Jordan said taking a small card and throwing it at Ezra. It was his cabin's magnetic door. "Go catch up and relax and little."
"Go catch up and relax a little…?" Ezra said with his grin.
Jordan rolled his eyes but smiled at him. "Sir."
Ezra waved the card. "Thank you, Captain." he quipped.
Sabine looked at her father-in-law with a raised eyebrow and a half-smirk. "Don't tell me he got even worse while I was away."
Jordan shrugged. "He has done a great job, so far. I've no qualms in showing him some more respect."
"Mark my words, father." she joked while starting to walk backwards into the elevator. "You're raising a snotty brat."
Jordan chuckled and turned again toward the map while Ezra smirked and shook his head. The elevator quickly brought them at the upper deck, the one of the captain's lodgings and they gained easy access to the fancy cabin of Jordan, who had now put some exotic Andromeda fishes into the aquarium and gathered some small models of ships from the two galaxies. Ezra spotted something he had only heard but never saw: right above the desk there was a decorative poster of a soccer team of Earth, named 'Arsenal'.
"It's even better than I remember." Sabine commented as she looked around the room.
Ezra huffed. "Right, even I still sleep on the Silver Bullet." he joked.
"I remember you saying you didn't like all the fancy stuff." she quipped back.
"Sure. Besides, the Bullet is my ship. I understand why Hera and Han are so attached to their own." he turned toward the small fridge of the cabin. "Want something to drink?"
"Please and thank you." she said as she flopped down on the sofa.
Ezra went, took two glasses and opted for a fruity asari liquor, which was relatively cheap and he didn't want to abuse his father's generosity. He reached the sofa, filled the glasses to half and the two drank a sip before starting to talk.
"So how's everyone back home?" Ezra asked.
"Pretty well. Mira and Wolffe are doing turns taking care of Jacen." she said a bit amused.
"Hard to imagine Wolffe or Rex taking care of a baby." Ezra chuckled.
"Yeah, well, he learned the basics at least. Good thing your mother is usually around."
"I hope Hera visits regularly."
"Relax, boss. Furthermore, when I left she was being assigned to a new project in a secret system, she should be able to make more visits from now on. Though, Jacen seems sometimes more affectionate to Jaral than her." Sabine joked.
"Well, I don't blame him." he quipped.
Sabine rolled her eyes and kept going. "Your big sis seems convinced that Jacen is Force sensitive, and that his attention toward her might be a sign that she's probably the closest link she has with Kanan. So, who knows what will happen when you will see him again."
"Sure. We will fight over who should train him."
They both chuckled, then Ezra sighed and leaned forward to put down his glass. He wanted to ask Sabine how she felt after seeing her world burn and the death of her mother, but after talking about Jaral so long, his mind was racing toward her.
"What's that?" Sabine immediately asked with a worried face.
Surprised at how his wife immediately sprang to comfort him, he still answered frankly. "I should be with her. Who knows what the Emperor is hiding on Korriban. Whatever I do here seems trivial in comparison."
Sabine gently but resolutely turned his head toward her with a hand and spoke severely. "Hey, she misses you a lot, too. If she didn't think that your work here is just as important as her own mission, she would've already come all the way here to bring you back home. So don't you dare self-commiserate."
Ezra made a slow nod. "I know, but I hate the idea of letting her fight the unknown by herself."
"She's not alone. There is Ahsoka, Nimbus and those new guys, Cal and his crew. Not to mention she has a fleet of robots way more powerful than your regular droids. She'll be fine."
Being reminded of that particular helped Ezra to regain some more trust and put his mind at ease. He leaned his back on the sofa and exhaled with his nose. "You're right. Nothing can stop my big sis, anyway." he concluded in an effort to show tranquility.
Sabine smirked, then she mindlessly leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Ezra immediately returned the gesture as both remembered that they had longed for each other's company for months.
"We're entering the Korriban system." the navigator announced.
Darvos made a silent huff and commented. "That's weird."
"What?" Jaral asked with curiosity.
"When I joined the Phoenix Cell, Sato wanted to make me a commander of fleets. Now here I am." he said as he stood in front of the holo-table on the command bridge of another Liberator-class carrier, the flagship he had been assigned from the New Republic to lead the fleet of volunteers.
He was a bit preoccupied, however. Even if he had been assigned some valid ship, like some assault frigates and a new Endurance-class heavy cruiser, the bulk of his force was still made up of corvettes and frigates coming from all corners of New Republic space, each with very different crews and with little coordination overall.
"Just listen to my thoughts and everything will be ok." she quipped as she prepared to go into the secluded room she was going to use to focus and use her Battle Meditation.
"Right." Darvos said nonchalantly, smirking as he appreciated the figure of speech.
A couple of seconds later, the hyperdrive started to disengage and the fleet left hyperspace. From the bridge, Jaral and Darvos could see the desert tomb world as it became closer. The warships assumed a defensive formations in front of the carrier group as the X-Wings already took off to go on recon as dictated by the new doctrine.
Darvos ordered the fleet to assume an offensive formation while the Geth and the Tau came out on the wings of the Republic fleet, ready to flank and bombard the enemy fleet from afar using their superior range.
Jaral entered the room and sat down with her legs crossed, closed her eyes and her mind quickly connected to the Force. She was now able to enter the Meditation much more quickly than before. In the span of a minute, she already had a visual over the entire battlefield.
She was stunned to find not only a few Star Destroyers, but some ships of ancient design: at least an Harrower-class Star Destroyer, but equipped with the latest weapons, was waiting at a shipyard near the moon of Korriban and was now moving into the imperial formation.
Jaral had no chance to use the Meditation on the Geth, since they were synthetics, but she could use Jinx as a mediator, using the neural links with her AI to communicate with them. Still, in her tactic for the incoming battle, the Geth were to hit the enemy from afar and not risk their ships, as she needed them for the invasion of those areas of Korriban more infested with the Dark Side.
From the ships and the hangar of the orbital defense stations around Korriban started to come out swarms of Sith fighters. However, much like the TIE Fighters, they had no shields. They did have a good armor, but overall they weren't much of a threat for the allied fleet.
Still, the capital ships of the imperials were a problem, as they outnumbered the allies 2 to 1. Good thing that the Harrower was the precursor of the modern ISD and they shared the biggest flaw: exposed bridge and shield generators.
As the Republic and Empire fighters started to fight in the space separating the fleets, the capital ships started to fire. The Republic could only fire back with the Endurance at that distance, so Jaral called in the Taus to provide return fire while the main force moved forward to engage the Sith cruisers.
Bringing in the CR-90s, the battle between snub fighters turned in favor of the Coalition, but things got very dangerous when the cultists started to make suicide strikes on the allied ships rather than be simply blasted out. Jaral could not see that in time and at least two corvettes were blown up, but she managed to quickly adapt and destroy the last fighters before they could deal too much damage.
They weren't the last, as other fighters came out of the imperial hangars, but this time they assumed a defensive formation.
Jaral thus focused her energies on commanding the fighters and bombers. She ordered the Taus to launch their own while the Geth sent in their waves of remotely controlled fighters.
As the Taus' battleships and cruisers kept bombarding the imperial formation, the allied fighters moved in with lightning speed and agility. Since Jaral was focusing all her efforts on them, the pilots gained a sudden boosts in their own reflexes and sense of danger, allowing them to act before the enemy fighters could hit them. A hole was easily made inside for the bombers, who then moved in to strike at the shield generators.
It did work, and the Republic fleet moved in to engage the lighter ships of the Empire: ancient Foray or Hammerhead class assisting old Interdictor cruisers. Under the leadership of the Captain of the Endurance and with Jaral boosting them again, the republican fleet fought valiantly.
Still, other imperial ships suddenly came out of hyperspace. All minor ships, but they quickly reinforced the main imperial line, which was still suffering heavy losses. As republican corvettes started to shrink in number, Jaral called in her reserves as well and decided that it was time to satisfy the Taus' eagerness to prove themselves.
The Tau escort ships joined the fray while their dreadnought and cruisers provided cover fire and constant waves of torpedo bombers. It was a very harsh fight, but eventually, the allied fleet prevailed.
By now, the battle had been going on for a whole hour already, and with her connection to the entire fleet, Jaral could sense that the men were high in spirits, but they were starting to be tired, so she decided to call off the assault and take a few minutes of respite for the organics. So at this point, the Geth took the stage.
Using their long range weapons they insistently torpedoed the Star Destroyers, who had been left with little space to maneuver between their own defensive fortifications. They weren't enough to bring them down, but the constant bombardment that followed in the next half an hour severely damaged their main batteries, paving the way for the final assault.
After the damaged fighters had been repaired in record time, Jaral focused on them again. The weapons of the Star Destroyers were still too slow to be effective against small ships and thus the attack resumed. Using a more cautious approach, making quick and constant bombing runs while the allied capital ships slowly took out the orbital defenses, after three long hours, Jaral had finally done it. The imperial fleet was destroyed.
As she could feel the joy of her allies washing her heart, she finally turned off her meditation and smiled.
She tried to open her eyes, only to suddenly feel herself drop on the floor.