A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
STAR
WARS
THE ONCE AND FUTURE SWORD
It is a time of rebuilding for the Galactic Alliance and Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order. The Sith Lord Darth Caedus, once Jacen Solo, is dead. His twin sister, JAINA SOLO, has secluded herself in the aftermath of their fateful duel aboard the Star Destroyer Anakin Solo. She has been granted succor within the borders of the IMPERIAL REMNANT, both to separate herself from the recent trauma of the Second Galactic Civil War and to aid her dear friend, once lover, and the new Imperial Head of State, Jagged Fel.
Sensors have detected a mysterious anomaly within Imperial Space, responsible for interrupting communications and threatening hyperspace lanes connecting the Remnant with allies in the Unknown Regions. With few options and fewer resources to deal with the anomaly, Head of State Fel has deployed Jaina to investigate. Armed with her starfighter, her lightsaber, and the Force, the SWORD OF THE JEDI hopes her errand will only be routine…
I
shii-cho
Two months after the end of the Second Galactic Civil War
41 Years after the Battle of Yavin
Seventeen standard hours from Bastion via hyperspace
Near the edge of Imperial Space
A single starfighter dropped out of hyperspace, nearly invisible against the dark map of stars. Shaped panels of dark grey, matte black, and white blended against distant space as the fighter's four engines switched to sublight power and kicked up to half burn. The snub fighter, a heavily modified T-65XJ3 X-wing better known as the StealthX, powered ahead for seventy meters before banking left and departing its entry vector. Sensors within the cockpit whirled as light poured through the transparisteel canopy.
The pilot raised a hand to cloak her eyes in shadow.
A large pool of white came fully into view, dense enough to disturb the space around the locality. It drew in her StealthX, hungry as a black hole. Jaina Solo shifted in her seat, staring at the white pool. She could feel it washing over her, pulsating in the Force. Something about the light called out to her, inviting her to pass through its event horizon, even as the hand around her flight stick tensed. Before she could worry further about whatever disturbance was before her, her comlink pinged.
Right on time.
She clicked on her personal comlink, a soft smile already pulling at her lips. Before the other side could respond, she said, "This is Twin Suns One."
Jaina ignored the pleased warmth she felt at the short, breathy snort of remembrance from the other side. "Have you reached the anomaly yet?"
"I can see it." Jaina closed her eyes and reached out with the Force. She made contact with the anomaly and immediately flinched back. Biting her lip, she said, "It's worse than you feared, Jag. I'm surprised Imperials were able to detect this. What I'm seeing, what I'm feeling, is a wound in the Force."
"A wound?"
Jaina thought back to her training as a teenager on Yavin IV, searching for a way to describe what she had come upon. Her heart ached, reflecting upon those days before the wars of her time, thinking they were upon the verge of lasting peace under the guidance of a new Jedi Order. Nearly every memory she had of the forested moon was tarnished and haunted by the presence of her twin, Jacen. But that was before he became Darth Caedus. Before he had gone on his journeys. Before the fallen Jedi Vergere tutored him. Before he made a decision that led them down the path of fulfilling the Yuuzhan Vong's prescription for twins: to fight to the death.
She slew him, and thus decided the fate of the galaxy.
She remembered the others, those who had been at her uncle's praxeum before the Vong invasion, before the Killiks, before the recent civil war. It was a place they could never return to, destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong during their crusade against the Jedi. Certain names echoed harshly as she tried to stuff away those old, painful memories.
Anakin Solo, their younger brother, whose fate was not that of their grandfather, to fall to the dark side, but to die as a Jedi, as a hero, aboard the Vong worldship over Myrkr.
Tahiri Veila, who had grown past her torture at the hands of the Vong, yet manipulated into a willing apprentice by Caedus.
Zekk, who had been her friend for so long, assumed dead following his efforts to ensure she boarded Caedus's Star Destroyer, the Anakin Solo.
It was bittersweet how those who survived those seemingly carefree days were scared by the recent tragedies. Tenel Ka, her good friend and her brother's eventual lover, had been forced to become the Queen Mother of Hapes during the Vong War, and now suffered as she pretended her daughter had perished. They both knew it was a lie, for Allana Djo Solo was hidden in plain sight, raised by her grandparents under the guise of a war orphan.
Alema Rar had fallen to the dark side and had died to restore the honor of Jagged Fel and his house among the Chiss they depended upon.
Even Lowbacca, their Wookie friend and companion for so long, had suffered just as his homeworld had. The Anakin Solo had fired upon the wroshyrs of Kashyyyk. Green turbolasers burned the ancient forests of the Wookie homeworld, a place now of immense pain. Once her family had gathered there to mourn Chewbacca, whose death at Sernpidal nearly tore the Solo family to shreds.
But then, it had been in Kashyyyk's orbit that Jacen revealed to the galaxy how far he had fallen.
Jaina shook away terrible thoughts as she fell back upon her lessons on the nature of the Force. Despite how much had been lost with the destruction of the old order, her uncle and others had recovered enough information she understood what was before her.
"A wound is a place where the Force has been violated by major death and destruction," she began. "The Alderaan system still has the feeling of a wound, even if it never developed into one as what I see has." Jaina sighed. "While a wound in the Force emerges from a place of great tragedy and death, there have been…anomalous cases, like this. In ancient times, there was a rumored Jedi Exile who was a wound in the Force. She carried it within herself for many years, before returning to the Order following an even greater tragedy."
Jag remained silent for several seconds, long enough for Jaina to draw even closer to the wound before her. "How do you close it? If this has been interfering with comms into Chiss space, then it has to be dealt with. We don't know if it'll affect hyperspace travel. If it does, it's proximity to Bastion alone—"
"Could threaten the Remnant's integrity." Jaina grimaced, glancing at the bright white. "I understand, Jag. I don't know how to close it, but I believe the Force will guide me. I doubt Uncle Luke would know how to handle it any other way." She hesitated for a moment, before adding, "You should be thankful any of the Chiss are on speaking terms with you. After what happened with the Killiks…"
"I've had time to come to terms with the past, Jaina," Jag said. "And the Remnant is too important an ally to completely distance themselves from." She hated that she didn't fully believe him, even if he believed his own words. "My family will be coming to visit in a few standard months, or so Wyn said when we recently spoke. A diplomatic mission, just like the one where the Millennium Falcon spent two days on Bastion."
Jaina closed her eyes and reached out with the Force, seeking Jag. She smiled, feeling how strong he felt despite not being Force-sensitive. The thoughts of his family lent a warm feeling to him, one she drew into herself.
She was grateful he was the first to find her following her brother's death at her hands. His warning through the Force to Tenel Ka had horrified her, and Jaina had been left tired in ways beyond just physical fatigue. While her parents were busy helping 'Amelia' Solo get situated on Coruscant, she had accepted Jag's invitation to come with him and find respite in the Imperial Remnant for as long as she needed.
Bastion had recovered since it was attacked during the Vong War. She spent several hours in the gardens tended to carefully by the late Gilad Pellaeon, meditating or working through several lightsaber forms. Jaina only wished her spirits would heal, for she was separated from every reminder of her brother Jacen and of the monster he had become.
And it was all under the guise of keeping the Moffs in line. Jag had successfully sold that story to both her uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, and to the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, Natasi Daala. The latter had protested Jaina traveling across galactic borders, while the former had several questions she had been unwilling to answer in the wake of Jacen's secret funeral on Hapes.
Jaina hoped, once back in Bastion, she might be able to work with Jag and find a way to aid Boba Fett and Mirta Gev. The nanokiller created by one of the Moffs prevented them from returning to their home of Mandalore, and affected all who shared Fett's blood. She would find a cure to repay their aid in preparing for Caedus, and bring whichever Moffs were responsible to justice.
"Will I still be around when they arrive?" Jaina asked, teasingly, "Or am I to be shipped back off to Coruscant like a good little Jedi?"
"Finish out there and make it back to Bastion," Jag said, straining to keep his voice serious. "I may introduce you to my mother. She'll enjoy stories about Uncle Wedge and I know you will secretly love stories from her holo days."
"I'll comm the retired Rogues for tales to pass along, along with my parents and Uncle Luke. They'll love embarrassing Wedge." Jaina blinked, surprised by how fondly she smiled. But as her fighter drew closer to the wound, the warm feeling slipped away. "I don't know how long I'll be gone, Jag, but I'll contact you once I'm finished." She hesitated before adding, "May the Force be with you."
"And with you." There was a pause, followed by, "Happy hunting, Twin Suns One."
The comm clicked off before Jaina could respond to Jag's final words. Even so, she grinned. Her grasp around her flight stick tightened as she boosted her acceleration by a few degrees.
It had been nearly a decade since he last said those words to her, when they had been partners in many ways. Most distinct in her mind was the Borleias campaign, following their victory at Hapes. Nearly lost in the thrall of the dark side, she had taken up the mantle of the Yuuzhan Vong's trickster goddess, Yun-Harla, to drive the Vong from Hapes. While he had not played up the illusion as Jedi Master Kyp Durron had, Jag played a key role in her victories back then and had fought alongside her through several battles across the galaxy, leading up to the final victory over the Vong, in the great Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, once and then again Coruscant.
Focus, Jaya, she told herself. Her heart stung, using Jacen's old nickname for her.
With a light touch upon her stick, Jaina shuttled aside her feelings and began her approach towards the wound. She swallowed thickly as the pulsing strength of the white mass drew her in. Were it not for her flight suit and helmet, her hair would be standing up from the power emanating over her. It felt odd, having returned to the black and gold piping suit of the GA, but she had forgotten her New Republic orange and white flight suits when she agreed to Jag's invitation.
The sole time she had worn the all black Imperial flight suit was with Jag, and he had been quick to relieve her of the oversized suit.
She fluttered the ethereal pedal of her X-wing, moving into a whirlpool orbit around the wound. The fighter shook and began to drift, as if a tractor beam had caught her. The Artoo-unit behind her canopy whirled and whistled, a translation appearing on a console before her.
"We'll be fine," Jaina said, even as her grip tightened further. Her knuckles had to be white under her gloves and her instincts as a pilot begged her to draw away. Yet the Force was telling her in its own way that it was imperative to pass through the wound.
After several seconds, she banked hard towards the white glow and aimed the nose of her fighter towards the center. Four heartbeats later, the X-wing was swallowed whole. It shook, the internal dampeners swallowing most of the turbulence. The bright whiteness of the wound nearly blinded her, and then vanished.
Jaina blinked away the glare as her X-wing settled. The stars before her were different from what had been around her upon reversion from hyperspace. Frowning, she scanned the pattern before her. A moment later, recognition came to her.
Coruscant.
Laser fire passed her cockpit by a few meters. Several more bolts of red and blue zoomed past her as she swerved through the edge of a battle. For the briefest moment, she wondered which conflict over the Galactic Alliance's capital she had somehow jumped into. Jaina reached out into the Force and felt a gathering of military strength unlike any since the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar.
She spun her X-wing over and looked up through the transparisteel canopy of her fighter. Her crash webbing held her tight in the seat. The planet below was as it had been in her childhood, a brilliant gem of metal and light. Jaina felt a great multitude of beings in the Force, enough Jedi to outnumber the couple hundred knights trained by her uncle on the eve of the Yuuzhan Vong War.
"When…" Jaina began as her gaze crossed over the capital ships engaged in battle. She recognized the various ships fighting below her, especially the sloping triangular shapes. The ships she stared at were ones from a great, terrible conflict.
Fierfek. I didn't just travel across the galaxy, but back through time. I'm in the kriffing Clone Wars.
16:5:20 GrS (Year 16, Month 5, Day 20)
19 Years Before the Battle of Yavin
Above the Republic Capital World of Coruscant
The Core
Two Eta-2 Actis-class interceptors, one with yellow paneling and the other red, carved their way through the tumultuous, chaotic naval battlefield hovering over the capital world of the Republic. Little more than long wings attached to pilot-sized pods, they zipped past dozens of triangular-shaped Venator-class Star Destroyers of the Open Circle Fleet, many of whom were in the midst of engaging the various capital ships employed by the Separatist Navy. One Venator, an SPHA-T loaded into its lower hangar, fired a striking beam of bright, searing blue plasma. They popped over the resulting fireball from the Separatist ship struck by the beam, the shields punched through and layers of durasteel vaped into space dust. The vessel survived the blow, though it would be crippled enough that a second or third strike of its kind would remove it entirely.
As they continued along their forward vector, they emerged into a wide field of open space in the center of the battlefield. Several kilometers before them was an all-too-familiar sight: their target, the slippery and evasive Providence-class dreadnought, the Invisible Hand.
The astromech droid of the yellow interceptor whistled, its blue and grey photosensor head turning to face the cockpit. [Chancellor's signal is nearby.]
The pilot smiled grimly. "Lock onto him, Artoo," he commanded.
Artoo whistled again. [Ahead of us, 3.7 kilometers. Aboard the Invisible Hand. FLEETCOM intel was right.]
The pilot nodded as he turned his attention to his comlink, pinned to his forehead with the Force. "Master. General Grievous's ship is right ahead of us," said Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight. "The one crawling with vulture droids."
"Oh, I see it. This is going to be easy," snarked Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master.
The vulture droids swarming together upon the Invisible Hand's hull turned towards the distantly approaching threat. Their wide, triangular heads stared out, beady red photosensors scanning the incomers. After a few seconds, their four pseudo-legs disengaged from the hull, shifting ninety degrees to form into wings. A few flights of droid tri-fighters, ball structures surrounded by three arms binding the ion engines to a front mounted droid face, moved from elsewhere in the battle to join the impending wave of enemy fighters.
"Oddball, do you copy?" Kenobi said into his comm.
High above their position, one of three clone pilots within an ARC-170 starfighter responded. "Copy, Red Leader."
Kenobi flipped a switch as he said, "Mark my position and form your squad up behind me."
"We're on your tail, General Kenobi," Oddball replied. He turned to his comrades and their squadron comlink. "Set S-foils into attack formation."
Oddball and his squadron, two dozen strong, descended from above. Long wings, bearing laser cannons, were held tight to large engines set aside a body almost equal to the wingspan. An Arfour unit was set between the rear facing clone and the rear pilot. Small wedge-shaped flaps rose, opening a slight gap in the wings of the ARC-170s as they came down into position behind the Jedi interceptors.
Anakin smiled at the approaching threat, the S-foils of his own fighter opening. "This is where the fun begins."
"Let them pass between us," Obi-Wan said preemptively.
As the blue and grey droid fighters came within a dozen meters of the Jedi starfighters, a rogue something cut through the enemy. Anakin narrowed his eyes, scanning for the cause of the sudden attack. A starfighter, akin to the ARC-170s following them, moved quietly against the stars and loudly across any other ship. Quad lasers upon the wings blazed, firing upon the Separatist fighters. Red bolts in close groupings vaped several of the vulture droids.
Half of the droid fighters left broke away from their charging onslaught, their programming reacting to the sudden attack. It also drew them away from the Jedi currently en route to the capital ship they had been launched from.
"Who was that?" asked Obi-Wan, nearly losing his focus as he weaved through the shattered enemy formation.
"I don't know," Anakin responded, grinning. He jinked around a vulture droid struck by a single laser bolt. It was burning, though hadn't yet exploded. "Let me find out." He opened a broad Republic comm frequency. "Unidentified snub fighter, this is General Anakin Skywalker of the Galactic Republic. Identify yourself."
There was no immediate response. There was no sign that the strange fighter had even picked up his message. Anakin was about to repeat it when he felt a presence, familiar yet foreign, brush against his mind. A woman's voice, clear and crisp, spoke into his mind. This is Jai—this is the Trickster's Sword. It's an honor to fly with the Anakin Skywalker.
How are you—are you a Jedi?
I am. There was a moment of hesitation, one he could feel, before she asked, Should I add Master Kenobi to the meld?
Anakin nearly asked what she meant by meld, but then remembered a lesson that Obi-Wan would assume he had forgotten. It'd be nice to rub it in his former master's face that he remembered one boring lesson.
You may, he replied.
A moment later, he felt Obi-Wan as well through the Force. All three of them were connected, moving in tandem. Anakin could already tell that the woman flying the Trickster's Sword was accustomed to establishing and perhaps even maintaining melds in the midst of battle.
A seed of jealousy burned in him.
Quite impressive, was Obi-Wan's first words within the meld. And you're protecting your own mind from us. I would love to learn how you became quite talented with forming mind melds.
Another time, Master Kenobi. You have a battle to win.
She had a point, for a target lock had just pinged. Anakin watched as a vulture droid fired four missiles, all followed by streaking blue tails. He swerved away, two of the missiles following him. The other two streaked after Obi-Wan, while their mysterious friend was left alone.
Instead of pressing the attack against the droid fighters, she tracked the two missiles following Obi-Wan. With a few stuttered blasts of laser fire, she eliminated them both and jinked around the few buzz droid capsules which survived the explosion.
Anakin allowed his to chase him for several seconds before turning to his trusty astromech. "Surge all power units, Artoo. Standby to reverse all thrusters." The console to his left beeped as the target locked missiles drew closer.
[Thrusters ready.]
"Burn. Ten seconds." He leaned left, pressing the flight stick in the same direction, and his fighter went into a spiraling barrel roll. Behind him, the missiles began circling each other as they sought to hold onto the point the target lock had grabbed. A half-minute later, they collided, exploding, and he ended the roll.
"We got 'em, Artoo," Anakin said proudly.
Artoo whistled back to him, just as pleased.
Obi-Wan and the Trickster's Sword formed up with him, his master upon his right and the other Jedi just behind them. Anakin peered over his shoulder at her fighter and whistled.
It was mostly deep grey and black, though there were spots of white set in a manner that mimicked a star field. The long nose of the chassis was nearly equal in length to his fighter, and that had to be roughly half of its length. Anakin mentally worked through every starfighter he knew of. The closest match he had was the Incom/Subpro Z-95 Headhunter, though the one flying with them was modified to the point of being a separate class of fighter.
You can think of it as an X-wing, supplied the pilot of the Trickster's Sword. Surely you can guess where the name comes from.
Anakin nearly laughed and definitely grinned. Whoever this pilot was, there was something strangely familiar about her. There was a feeling in his gut, and in the Force, that told him he should know who she was. Yet he had never crossed paths with a female Jedi who could outright challenge him as a pilot.
Don't think so hard, Skywalker. We'll meet again, and sooner than you think.
A moment later, the X-wing pulled up, vanishing against the few patches of stars poking through the bright flashes of lasers, fighters, and capital ships. The mind meld faded almost as swiftly as her fighter had banked up. Anakin was left with an empty feeling in his mind and in the Force.
"You know, Anakin," Obi-Wan began, "there's something about her that reminds me of you, and it's not her flying."
"Yeah," Anakin said as they neared the Invisible Hand. "I think I noticed that as well." He flicked the stick of his fighter, somersaulting over Obi-Wan's fighter, and fired upon the hangar shield generator, bursting them with a few precise bolts.
Within a minute, they were aboard the capital ship, slicing through the group of battle droids waiting within.
Jaina wanted to squeal like a silly Coruscanti schoolgirl from the bad holovids she'd watched as a girl. While it had been brief, she had flown with her grandfather, the Anakin Skywalker, and her uncle's first Jedi Master, Ben Kenobi, through a battlefield of the Clone Wars. They were men she knew only from stories, though the latter was more like the one her Uncle Luke knew than the former.
Focus, Jaina, she told herself.
She flew along the ventral hull of a Venator-class Star Destroyer, trailing a squadron of unwieldy ARC-170s. Several vulture droids had gotten between her and them, and she had vaped them all. Jaina knew the Separatist commanders would be at a loss for who was picking off some of their fighters. Unfortunately for them, the modifications within her X-wing came from technology and tactics sixty years distant from their current battle. She had the advantage upon this field of battle, just as the Yuuzhan Vong had over Helska IV.
She pulled away from the Venator as two squadrons of ARC-170s started a run against a Munificent-class star frigate. The bulbous top was alit with laser bolts, and returning turbolasers flew into the precise lines of the Republic fighters. Several fighters crumpled when struck by the turbolaser bolts, wings and engines tossed away as the central chassis was consumed by fire. Jaina plunged from her heading towards the frigate, weaving around the same fire that consumed her unaware allies. With small flicks of her wrist, her fighter jinked around a trio of converging shots before juking back onto her prior vector.
About fifty meters away from the frigate, Jaina spotted a weak flicker across the bulbous top, and her eyes widened. She grinned at the sight of a gap in the deflector shields, a spot so brutalized by the passes by the ARCs that the frigate's generators could no longer compensate properly. She toggled her proton torpedo launcher and fired.
A shadow bomb—the propulsion-less torpedoes used by Jedi fighter pilots since the Vong War—rocketed forward, guided solely by the Force. It slipped past turbolasers and point defense guns, reaching the gap in the shields. With a gentle push, it slipped through. The bomb struck home, melting the durasteel hull once it exploded. A few droids spilled out of the hole as the rest of the shields began failing, breached by her blow.
The nearest Venator pounded the Munificent with turbolaser fire, smelting the hull into slag and eventually punching through the entire ship. It exploded shortly after the gutting ended.
Jaina allowed the Force to guide her through the battlefield, vaping droids as they crossed her path. The specialized modifications of her StealthX made her invisible to Separatist sensors and allowed her to strike their formations with impunity. Soon she came upon a new target, one blocking a pair of Venators from approaching the capital ship her grandfather and Obi-Wan had boarded: a Lucrehulk-class Droid Controller Ship.
"Jace. Shadow bomb count."
Jace, her astromech, whirled before the transponder screen read: [THREE IN LEFT TUBE, FOUR IN RIGHT]
Should be enough, she thought, flexing her hands and readjusting her grip.
Jaina stayed high as she approached the crescent-shaped capital ship. A few flights of ARC-170s, backed by angular, arrowhead-shaped Y-wings and odd fighters that reminded her of compact A-wings. The Lucrehulk's turbolasers blazed. After suffering several losses, the wave of Republic fighters was turned back.
Unlike the Republic attack, she passed through their sensor sweep undetected. Jaina leaned forward, bringing her X-wing into a slow descent, and aimed for the towers and dishes serving as sensor and communication arrays upon the spherical center. She opened fire, using the same stutter shots as she once used against dovin basals, the Yuuzhan Vong's singularity shield/flight system. It wouldn't break through the shields, but her attack would create enough confusion that one of her shadow bombs could be slotted through a gap in their shielding.
Someone elsewhere in the Republic fleet seemed to have caught on to her presence, for more fighters were sent out. They came from every direction, split into flights of two or three. Some were taken out by repelling fire, but most made it through the screen of turbolasers. Point defense guns activated, but they were too slow.
A pair of Y-wings fired their ion cannons upon the towers at the point where the Lucrehulk's neck, binding the two sections of the massive ship together, connected to the crescent outer area.
That brought the shields down. Grinning, Jaina followed the neck through the oddest barrel roll she'd ever flown. When she came up, the towers and relays that had been struck by ion cannons were close before her. Already the point guns around them were firing, having been placed on a separate power system. Even so, it was too late. She launched a shadow bomb from each tube and guided their course with the Force.
They struck home, blasting the primary shield generator into slagged metal and vaporized atoms. Several minor explosions followed, ruining much of the area around the connecting neck.
Jaina disengaged from the combat zone around the injured Lucrehulk as one of the Venators being held back pressed forward, turbolasers firing in waves of blue fire. Eventually it vaporized the central spherical hub. The shattered circular body drifted away, but appeared that it would only be caught in Coruscant's orbit. Salvage teams would eventually reach it, so Jaina didn't trouble coming around to aid the Republic fighters moving in.
And then a cold feeling washed over her, coming through her connection to the Force. Jaina felt what had happened, despite being over a kilometer away from the Invisible Hand. At the prompting of Palpatine, the Sith Lord who would become the Emperor, Anakin Skywalker had slain the Dark Lord's useless pupil, and thus set himself one step closer towards becoming Darth Vader.
Fear struck Jaina. It was the same fear she had experienced, realizing what had become of Jacen. Yet could she sit back and allow another Sith Lord rise?
Was she not the Sword of the Jedi? Wasn't it her duty to safeguard the Order against threats?
