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Chapter

~29~

Just like his father.

Lasial knew it—the Jedi Master was one with the dark side. To allow an entire civilization to die to spare his own life and a few measly others was something only one other man would do—Darth Vader. Apparently, the son lived up to his father's namesake.

At that, Lasial signaled her stormtrooper-turned-Communications officer to cut the transmission—

"To the bridge crew of the Yarway," Skywalker's voice resounded through the room's speakers, "please don't do this. I feel the conflict within you, within all of you…"

"Cut the transmission," Lasial ordered, but the officer hesitated.

"…whatever good intentions Admiral Lasial had are gone," Skywalker went on. "The people of Ecsilan V are not your enemy, but they will be your sacrifice. And then you'll be no better than the evil you swore to destroy. The choice isn't mine now—it's yours."

"Shut it off!" Lasial screamed, but at that point Skywalker's speech was finished. The bridge was still, heads lowered like shut off protocol droids. Even the small cleanup crew paused in their task: dumping the former bridge crew into the hole Kyp Durron had graced the floor with just a short while before. Coldness gripped Lasial's spine, a sensation she was becoming too accustomed to, and she placed her hands on her hips.

"Call to Dr. Tovos in the Refining Room," she ordered, and the comm officer finally did as instructed. The channel was open, and Lasial spoke, "Dr. Tovos, has the Insurgent reached you with Durron yet?"

"He's arrived. I have Durron on a workbench, but—"

"But what?"

"I'm having a hard time keeping him sedated. Every time I turn down the imposer, he begins to wake, and I—"

"Leave it on, then. Just keep him grounded."

"It'll kill him."

"Then he'll be another resource for you to utilize. I'm sure his brain can show us what we need to control the others. Insurgent," she called out, "your next mission—locate Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Use any means necessary, but I want that Jedi either on a bench or in a bag in the next ten minutes."

Lasial motioned to cut the comm and then turned to one of her bridge crew. They'd had a minute to allow the shock from Skywalker's declaration to fizzle down. "Order all laser cannons on the Yarway's keel to target Ecsilan V," she ordered. "Any signs of civilization, I want it gone."

The Ensign at the weapon's station didn't budge.

"Did you not hear me?" Lasial demanded.

"Admiral," the shaky ensign spoke—one of ten crew members who had taken the bridge since Lasial had to discard of previous lot, "these are primitives. They have nothing to do with—"

"I gave you an order, Ensign. I expect you to carry it out."

From his chair, the man straightened up, and it was clear his motivation was lost. Setting her jaw, Lasial turned to another officer. "Send the order to target the cannons. Now."

The second officer didn't move, either, and Lasial wondered if she needed to have the Insurgent back to the bridge for another cleansing.

"I'm on it, Admiral," another officer from further in the crew pit stood and hurried to the ensign's chair. With a push, he removed the unwilling crew member and got to work.

Lasial tried to maintain her impassive stance, but inside, it felt like her gut was plunging into her feet. Things were falling apart, everything she'd so worked for. If they didn't regroup swiftly, this could be the day her New Alliance died. And then evil would win.

"Commander Teo," Lasial called to the TIE squadron, "you are ordered to target Ecsilan V. As many fighters as you can—wipe them out. All of them."

• • •

He wasn't sure what was happening until it happened. No, nothing could prepare him, as the Star Destroyer above Ecsilan V turned its laser towers on the civilization below it.

In the pilot's chair of the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo felt as his stomach hopped up to his throat, and he wished in that moment that he had the Force to steady his nerves. Green sparks shot from the bottom of the Yarway, lighting up the purple clouds in the moon's atmosphere as TIE fighters that had been encircling the vessel began to nose-dive towards all the innocent men and women on the surface below.

"Kam!" Han called. "Izaa—anybody out there! Whatever you're doing, plug it up and get yourselves on ten-mark-point-three! Get those TIEs off-world—now!"

"I am heading your way, Captain Solo," Kam spoke, his voice as typically monotone as always.

Then another voice popped in, "Not a chance, buddy. That's a suicide mission I didn't sign up for."

Han squared his shoulders. "Izaa, right?"

"My men and I are here to stall the Yarway. Saving some random primitives who happened to be on the wrong moon at the wrong time isn't in the contract."

"You listen to me, you little piece of—"

"You need to work on your people skills. Izaa out."

In the co-pilot's chair, Chewie belted out a wave of growls and grumbles, curses Han had never heard from his old friend before, at least not within a single run-on sentence. By that point, however, the comm had died.

"Perhaps we should take his advice," Threepio said from behind Han. "Unfortunately, the Falcon and one Y-wing are ill-equipped to—"

"Kam, you still there?" Han said as he set course.

"I'm here," the Jedi Knight said, his Y-wing approaching off the port side.

Han stared ahead, his brain racing. The Yarway was blasting its guns as the TIEs continued their plunder of the moon below. Ecsilan V's clouds danced with light as though there was a hurricane brewing.

Surrounding the Yarway, however, the TIEs that had attempted to keep Luke and the others from boarding had loosened up, on to their next mission.

"I have an idea," Han told Kam as the Falcon and Y-wing soared closer to the Star Destroyer.

• • •

"Split up!" Luke shouted to the other Jedi as they reached the end of a corridor, forking in two directions. "Corran, Kirana, go! Find Kyp and the others. Mara, you're with me!"

"Understood, Master," Corran said, and with Kirana, the two Jedi ran to the left, deflecting shots, Corran already pulling out his comlink to contact Whistler for any more schematics the droid might have obtained in the last few minutes.

"Hold them off!" Luke shouted to Mara, and then as she stepped in front, Luke whipped his lightsaber upwards. The white-green blade stabbed into durasteel and instantly brightened the dull gray into a glowing orange. The bright color dripped downwards as Luke used the Force to cut an opening into the metal with the blade. As the massive hunk of ceiling detached from the rest, it dropped, and with a Force push, Luke shoved the quarter-ton chunk of Star Destroyer at the stormtroopers honing in on Mara.

No time for politeness. Retrieving his lightsaber, Luke snagged an arm around Mara's waist. She flinched, barely having enough time to extinguish her saber before Luke Force-jumped them both to the level above. The Yarway's bridge was on the opposite side of the vessel from the docking bay where they entered—almost the entire length of the ship. One and a half kilometers. Even without any opponents slowing them down, even if Luke and Mara simply ran the whole way, it would take at least ten minutes to reach the bridge. All the while, Lasial was sending a wave of destruction and death to the people of Ecsilan V. Ten minutes in a battleground was worth two lifetimes.

It was because of Luke. He might have hesitated the onslaught but not the end result.

"Keep your head straight!" Mara said as she re-ignited her lightsaber to a stunned pack of stormtroopers ahead of them. "I need you here!"

Licking his lips, Luke pressed on, each deflected blaster bolt, each step back another second lost to the people of Ecsilan V.

• • •

"Move closer!" Han shouted to Kam. "We need to get our ships as close as we can if this maneuver's got a chance of working."

"I'm at your disposal, Captain Solo," Kam said from the Y-wing, now soaring just a meter or two above the Falcon and in perfect symmetry.

Ahead of them, the Yarway had breached Ecsilan V's atmosphere, almost out of orbit, ready for lightspeed at any time. Below the Star Destroyer, the clouds were still flicking with bright green, and Han couldn't imagine the level of bloodshed occurring. They couldn't do much about the TIE fighters, but the Yarway—

"Here we go!" Han shouted into the comm. A wave of TIEs shot by them, green laser beams zipping past the Falcon as Han forced the old freighter sideways, clocking all the way around in a solid three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, before reorienting the ship. Kam, in perfect Jedi fashion, had matched the move at every pace, keeping his Y-wing hovering just a few meters above the Falcon. Despite its smaller size, however, Kam's ship was a bomber and slower than Han's freighter, something Han had to keep in mind if he wanted this to work.

As the Star Destroyer grew on the Falcon's viewport, as the Ecsilan moon engulfed the bottom half of Han's vision, the density of TIE fighters accumulated. What was three TIEs soaring past them had swelled into twenty, and no matter how good a pilot Han was—no matter how much Kam was attuned to the Force—it was a number's game now.

Time to improvise.

"Keep up with me!" Han shouted and thrust the Falcon's controls forward. The ship plunged into the massive clouds of Ecsilan V, Kam managing to remain right above as if connected by an invisible cord. The visuals were gone, Han having to trust the Falcon's sensors as he dove further into the atmosphere.

"We need to get back—" Han started, but as the clouds cleared, the image in front forced all the words to get stuck on his tongue.

The surface of Ecsilan V was on fire. Trees burned, lighting up the twilight moon's purple landscape with bright bursts of orange and red. Villages had been blasted, and in the middle of it, civilians desperately trying to flee. As TIEs ripped past, strings of laser fire cast downwards…but it was mostly random. While some TIEs were targeting the villages, most were shooting wide, seeming to purposely avoid the civilians. Above, the Yarway shot at the surface, but again, the aim was off somehow, like most of the people at the helms were intentionally shooting poorly.

One of the TIEs dipped towards the villages and, unlike its counterparts, aimed squarely at the citizens. As the small vessel flew past the Falcon, Han's anger geared up, and he shot the blasted thing at almost point-blank range.

"Han," Kam spoke gently, but Han already knew what he'd done.

Suddenly, all the TIE fighters steered their attention to the Falcon and Kam's Y-wing, a new enemy to unite against. Great.

"Captain Solo!" Threepio screamed and pointed from the seat behind him, "they're coming straight for us!"

"Well," Han swallowed hard, "at least they're not shooting at the moon anymore."

Then, as a wave of TIE fighters enveloped the Falcon, Kam lifted from the top Han's ship, flipping over once before his turbolasers joined the fight.

• • •

"Target the Ecsilan villages!" Lasial shouted into the comm to her TIE squadron. "That's an order from your Admiral!"

"Admiral Lasial, please," another bridge crew called, and Lasial had enough of this. Yanking her blaster from her belt, she shot the Ensign and then aimed her weapon at the others.

"Continue firing!" she demanded of her soldiers—her followers. "We cannot succumb to evil. We cannot allow the dark side to rule this galaxy again. I won't let it—not when we're this close to victory!"

The bridge crew remained paralyzed, but Lasial heard the heavy breathing, the panic. Many had been brought to her from Imperial oppression—farmers, mechanics, medics, slaves—so many who lacked that military mind, and she'd taken them in regardless. She expected some weak spines in the pack, but on the bridge, half of those in the crew pit were from military backgrounds. How could even they, with their experience, not see the greater good?

Then, one of the crew snapped up, aimed his stormtrooper rifle at Lasial—

The officer beside him snagged the man's weapon with both her hands, forcing the blaster's barrel upwards as a red spark lit up the bridge. Another crew member jerked up from his chair, coiling a hand around the woman's neck—

Then everyone was fighting. Shots rang out, the red beams searing into everything, and Lasial fled between the crew pits, shooting anyone who attempted to aim her way.

"Commander Teo!" the comm officer shouted into his mike, "call off the attack! All TIE fighters—"

Lasial shot him in the head, his voice silenced. From her belt, she ripped out her comlink. "Insurgent! New mission—return to Dr. Tovos and secure…"

Everyone froze. The fighting in the crew pit, the blaster fire—Lasial. As she stood near the entrance of the Yarway's bridge, the viewport was hard to fully take in, but the picture wasn't difficult to see—in fact, it filled up the darkness of the space almost as much as the Ecsilan gas giant.

As it did, Lasial felt her hope for the galaxy lost within that single image.

• • •

Luke sensed the emotional switch from inside the Yarway to the battle outside of it. He didn't break his stride as he and Mara lurched forward, deflecting another set of blaster bolts from Lasial's never-ending troopers, but he felt a surge of confusion and relief within himself, of dread and excitement, a jumble of emotions that his mind could not process at once.

From Mara, the feelings were just as tangled.

Izaa's "overseers" had arrived.

End of Chapter 29