Chapter 1

"This is going to be a bad day."

"What did you say sir?"

Kyle Katarn was starting to get annoyed with C3-O8, the new droid that his students had decided to get him for his birthday. And since that had only been yesterday, that was saying something. He really didn't think he needed any droid except WeeGee. But apparently his students had decided otherwise.

"I said that this is going to be a bad day."

"What are you basing that assumption on, sir?"

"Mainly that I have a supernova class headache." He sat up, groaned and flopped back down. "I'm getting to old for these late night parties."

"Sir, you went to bed at 0116 hours this morning. That is only 46 minutes later than you usually go to bed."

Kyle looked at the droid with a curious expression. "How did you know that?"

"WeeGee was kind enough to inform me of your normal routine."

"Great."

"I believe it is sir."

Kyle decided not to comment on that. He didn't really need to, because he noticed a presence in the Force approaching that he recognized as one of his most senior students, and the closest thing he had to an apprentice, Jak Blacron.

When Jak got to the door, he knocked and called, "Is everything alright Master?"

"No," he replied. "But then, there's a war going on, so what can you expect."

"Of course Master. The other students and myself were just getting worried that you weren't in the gym at your normal time."

He looked at C3-O8.

"What time is it?"

"It is now 0934 hours and 15 seconds."

Kyle groaned again.

"It's OK Jak. Is everyone ready to start?"

"Yes Master"

"Then tell the others to review drills, and I'll be there in about fifteen minutes."

"Yes Master."

He turned to WeeGee, who was behind C3-O8. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You needed to rest and recover from your ordeal last night."

"It was a party WeeGee."

"As I said." WeeGee let the thought trail off as Kyle got up and headed to the refresher.

He emerged a minute later, showered and ready to go. He then sat down cross- legged on the floor and began the meditations he did in the morning to help him loosen up and keep fit. He had to cut them short, because his students would be waiting. So he got up, threw a robe over his exercise clothes, and jogged to the gym.

He found his students running drills, just like he had instructed, with one exception. And she was talking with Jak about something. When he entered, all twelve students turned to him, and saluted with their lightsabers. He drew and ignited his own saber and returned the gesture. He then gestured for them to continue.

As ten of his students went back to work, Jak and the student he had been talking with, Miana Larayen, approached him.

They both bowed and Miana spoke. "Master, I'm having difficulty with one of the maneuvers you taught us yesterday."

"Alright. Show it to me."

She looked at him oddly for a second with her dark green eyes, and he simply raised his graying eyebrows a fraction and waited. So she took a step back and went through the movements she was having difficulty with. At the different spots where her timing was off, or she was moving wrong in some way, he would stop her and show her the right way, and she would change the motions. Eventually, she got it right.

"Good," he said. "Now, join the other students. We're going to go through some new drills."

"Yes Master," both replied

He and his students spent the next hour doing new drills, parries, strikes, and some general techniques for fighting with a lightsaber. When they were finished with that, Kyle had them break into fencing pairs and duel with training sabers.

He walked among the dueling students and encouraged them, telling them how to improve on what they were doing. He had just finished keeping a pair of his More frustrated students from taking it out on one another by making them sprint 10 laps around the gym and telling them to meditate and calm themselves before continuing, when he got a strange feeling. It was one that he got when something was about to go wrong. He had never figured out if it was some quiet manifestation of the Force, or if it was just some sixth sense he had picked up from his life, but he knew one thing. It was never wrong. He looked around, trying to pin down what it might be, and when nothing presented itself in the training gym, he walked over to the comm-panel on the wall and called the sensor station (which was, interestingly enough, being manned by C3-O8) and asked him to run a scan of the entire installation, and see if there was anything unusual going on. C3- O8 reported that everything was proceeding normally.

"You're sure?"

"Quite sure sir. There is nothing that is outside of the ordinary occurring in the immediate vicinity. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen." They never heard the rest, because C3-O8 immediately broke into a high pitched wail that was ended with what sounded like C3-O8 crashing down in a heap. In several pieces. There was a brief pause. Then, the comm-channel burst into static, as if someone had destroyed the transmitter on the other end.

Kyle whirled to find his students already looking at him rather strangely, though whether it was because they had heard, or they had just felt their instructors anxiety through the Force, he could not tell. Jak spoke first.

"What is it Master?"

Instead of answering just Jak, Kyle addressed all his students saying, "Get your lightsabers and get ready for a fight. The Vong have found us."

The response was immediate, in both the Force, and his student's actions. They all immediately felt fear, but most quickly got it under control and traded their training sabers for their real lightsabers. The younger ones needed some help, but soon, they all had sabers at the ready.

And just in time. Because as they turned toward the door, they saw that the enemy had arrived.