Luke felt the burst of the dark side, Kyp's pain and Mara's shock. Sarim is a dark Jedi. He really shouldn't have been surprised. It all made sense. Lumiya trained an apprentice. He felt the urge to abandon everything and rush to help Mara.
I can handle him, Skywalker, Mara sent.
Luke let it go. Mara was a Jedi, and if she thought she could do this, she probably could. And Kyp was there as well.
"Luke?" Han called out. "Something wrong?"
"No," he replied. "Just a nasty surprise. General Fel," he said.
"What is it, Skywalker?"
"Something you should know. Sarim is a dark Jedi."
"Then why aren't you going there—"
"Mara and Kyp are fighting him now. Unless he is as powerful as Palpatine, they can deal with it."
"Mara Jade? Weren't you—"
"She was a prisoner on the Conqueror," Luke said. "Han Solo too."
"Solo? Where is he—" Fel demanded.
"Flying with me, General," Luke answered. "You want to talk to him?"
He switched the channel, letting the two Academy classmates talk. Soon, however, that conversation was interrupted by Chewbacca's growl. Han had to open fire on the approaching fighters.
"Dammit," Han said. "And we were just getting to—"
Luke gasped as dozens of ships emerged from hyperspace around them and opened fire.
XX
Unable to stop the lightning, Kyp fell, unable to move from the pain. The Marines were stunned. Mara stepped forward, narrowing her eyes.
"You know who I am, Jade. The true heir to the Empire. The son of Palpatine himself. I offered you the prestige and power you once enjoyed..."
"Does the offer still stand?"
"Are you interested?"
"No."
"Then it makes no difference, one way or another, Jade. You declined my offer, and chose death." He sent a stream of lightning at her.
Mara raised her lightsaber and the lightning dissipated on the blue blade.
Morax Isard raised both hands, and hurled lightning. Mara gripped her lightsaber more tightly but didn't let go, and continued approaching the admiral.
He stopped. "I see," he said, almost to himself. Then he leaped up into the air and, as he spun, a lightsaber appeared in his hand, activating to a glowing red blade. He attacked Mara.
Mara blocked his strike and counterattacked. He threw another attack, forcing Mara to retreat. She did so, continuously parrying his blows. She then jumped backwards, leaping over one of the crew pits. He followed, meeting her attack as soon as she landed. They pressed their blades against each other.
"I am stronger than you Jade. Just like Palpatine was stronger than you."
"You are not Palpatine," she replied. "You combine the worst traits of your parents."
He tried to shove her with the Force, but she pushed him herself, and he fell over backwards. Getting up, he raised his lightsaber, blocking her strike.
At that moment, Kyp leaped up, igniting his own lightsaber. Isard blocked the simultaneous attacks of the two Jedi but retreated across the bridge centerline towards the viewport. Mara and Kyp kept pressing, hoping to pin him.
Isard leaped over Mara and continued fighting Mara. Kyp stepped back, and hurled his lightsaber at the closest viewport. The transparisteel shattered.
Kyp, grabbing onto the edge of the crew pit with one hand, held Mara's wrist with the other. However, Isard, as the air rush hurled him by, managed to grab onto Mara's ankle. Kyp felt his fingers being pried loose under the force of the pull.
Then the emergency bulkhead slammed down, and because he was in the way, cut Isard in half. The Admiral's legs were hurled out into space, while his torso, head, and arms, one hand still gripping Mara's ankle, lay covered in blood on the floor of the bridge.
A group of stormtroopers ran out of the elevator. "Nobody move!" one of them shouted.
XX
The new ships included one Star Destroyer, and several Dreadnoughts. Luke recognized one of the Dreadnought as the Peregrine. He breathed in relief. Garm Bel Iblis would be on their side.
"This is General Fel," a general announcement came over his intercom. "The new forces are friendly. Repeat, the new forces are friendly."
And combined with them, the Imperials were now outgunned. Then another fleet emerged out of hyperspace, and this time, there was no confusion as to who it belonged to, as it was composed of Mon Calamari Cruisers.
XX
"Don't shoot," the stormtrooper officer said. "We're from Fel's fleet."
"He's telling the truth, Captain," Mara said. "You have nothing to worry about."
Reluctantly, the two groups of soldiers lowered their weapons. The stormtrooper officer took off his helmet and walked over to them. "Colonel Jerrem Queder," he introduced himself. "501st Stormtrooper Legion."
"Captain Kir Neria," the other officer replied. "New Republic Marines." They shook hands.
A man in a dirty uniform with the insignia of a fleet captain appeared before them. "I surrender," he said simply.
Mara looked at him. "You surrender? What about the rest of them?"
"Yes, ma'am," the man replied, clearly frightened. He began issuing orders. One by one, the flashes of light outside stopped. The captain turned towards them. "There," he said. "One more thing. The admiral ordered a Vic evacuated and launched it somewhere before the battle started."
"Did he?" Mara asked. She looked over at Kyp, then at Captain Neria.
"You're coming with us, and you will tell General Antilles everything about this launch," Neria said. "Get moving."
The man nodded and followed two Marines away.
Mara smiled in relief. It's over.
Good job, Luke sent.
Stay out of my head, Skywalker!
Of course, dear.
XXX
Leia walked into the war room. Several officers turned towards her.
"Ma'am?" General Cracken approached her.
"What's their status, General?"
"Antilles has engaged them. Ackbar is on his way, but it may take a while. Was it really—"
"I couldn't risk the Senate finding out that we left Calamari defenseless. What of Bel Iblis?"
"No word. Garm always had a... peculiar way of running things."
"Sir, we're getting a Holonet signal... from Antilles."
"Put it through," Cracken ordered.
A hologram of Wedge appeared in front of them. "General Cracken, you've got to contact the Chief of State. You have to raise Coruscant's planetary shields. Double power if you can."
"Wedge, why—"
"They launched an attack before anyone got to them. A Victory-class Star Destroyer, primed to crash into the planet."
"It can't reach us that—"
"Galaxy Gun," Wedge replied.
"Raise planetary shields," Leia said. Everything almost made sense...
Cracken went to the communications station. After a few moments, he shook his head. "We can't raise the shield control. Our signal is going through, but it's like there is no one there to receive it."
"The backup controls?"
"Primary controls are reported to be operating, so the backup can't do anything."
Leia nodded. The system was designed to minimize the chances of shields dropping in a critical moment by negligence or treason, and to keep the population safe. If, by slight chance, contradictory instructions were given to the shield generators, that could cause very dangerous energy discharges in the atmosphere. Only one set of controls was active, meaning it could actually give commands to the shield generators, at any time.
Leia stopped her train of thought. "Switch to the backup, then!" she almost shouted.
"That requires your authorization code, ma'am."
"Only mine?"
"Yours, or a quorum from the Council of Ministers."
It all makes sense now, she thought. The assassinations, knockout gas, whatever happened at the primary shield controls...
"Give me a line to backup control," she ordered.
An officer handed her a microphone.
"This is Chief of State Leia Organa Solo," she said. "You are ordered to assume operational control of the planetary shields, and raise them immediately to double strength. Authorization code D67-33-Q-epsilon-11-Geonosis."
"Inputing authorization code..." the reply came... "We have operational control!"
There were several cheers in the background. Cracken silenced them with a glare.
"Did you say double strength, ma'am?" a voice came out of the speaker.
"Double strength," Leia said. "Is there a problem?"
"The power—"
"Blackout the planet if you must, but get those shields up!"
"Shields going up, ma'am. Full strength in twenty seconds. Double strength in 35 seconds—if there's power."
Cracken looked at her. "Unfortunately, this compound doesn't have a link into the planetary PA system. We can't warn them."
Damn. But there wasn't anything she could do.
"Sir," one of the people watching the screen showing the neighborhood of the planet reported, "we have a ship coming out of hyperspace! Heading straight towards us."
"Shields at full strength," the backup control reported. "Double strength in thirteen seconds."
"We won't have it all," the radar officer replied. "That thing will hit in eight seconds."
Leia looked around as the people around her rose from their consoles. They all might die.
"We have impact!"