In her office aboard the Chiss Star Destroyer Elash, Admiral Iosha was angered as she read through the reports from her subordinate commanders via her datapad. Within the past week, the Ascendancy had lost eight systems to the Galactic Alliance, including Adumar, which Iosha personally helped conquer recently. To think that the Chiss could lose that headway so quickly was a testament to how many commanders in the Ascendancy were shockingly incompetent, Iosha thought bitterly.
If only more Chiss could have had the tactical brilliance of someone like the legendary Thrawn, or even a more mediocre commander like the treacherous Peecar. Alas, this was what Iosha and her secret Sith compatriot Ulaska had to deal with, whether they liked it or not.
Then again, the fact that those systems had all been liberated via help from the Jedi may have been a factor, Iosha considered. Though there were times earlier in the war when Masters like Kyle Katarn and Kyp Durron were involved in certain battles that the Chiss won.
Iosha supposed that it also could have been the fact that the Chiss didn't necessarily have the military resources to hold the worlds that they took from the GA, at least not for long, even with help from the Empire of the Hand.
She let out a breath of frustration as she set the 'pad down upon her desk. As much as Iosha hated to admit to herself, Peecar did have a point that going to war against the GA over the Jedi was a mistake.
Still, it was the perfect opportunity to go after the Jedi for Darth Krayt and the One Sith, and to subsequently have the Ascendancy act as puppet rulers for the Sith, as both Iosha and Ulaska thought.
Now Iosha wondered if going to war so soon over the Jedi was a mistake; the fact that she heard no criticism from either Lords Krayt or Wyyrlok about this matter failed to alleviate her doubts.
She was brought out of her reverie when the hypercomm installed in her desk beeped for her attention. When she saw that the number came from none other than Ulaska, she answered it without hesitation.
"I hope you have good news, Ulaska," Iosha said impatiently. "Our setbacks are giving me something of a headache."
"I have potentially good news, Admiral Iosha," Ulaska replied with more tact. "It pertains to the Corellian sector."
"What about the Corellians?"
"Do you remember the rumors that they were able to find a way to reactivate Centerpoint Station?"
"Yes, I do. But then there was a covert mission by GA agents, most likely Jedi, who somehow disabled the station's ability to fire its star-destroying weaponry."
"Well, it turns out that all this GA mission did was merely delay the Corellians' ability to use it."
"So they can fire on distant systems again?" Iosha asked concernedly.
"Not quite," Ulaska answered with a calming tone. "This only means that their scientists would be able to have it reactivated, even without their unknown means of being able to take control of it. But it would take the lesser part of a year, most likely nine months or so, before Centerpoint can bring its wrath to the galaxy once again."
Iosha smirked. "Nine months. The same standard cycle for a human pregnancy. As if, whenever the Corellians do get Centerpoint up and running again, it might result in the birth of something new and terrible."
"Something that we can take advantage of, Admiral?" Ulaska asked. And by "we," it was obvious that he meant the One Sith, not the Chiss Ascendancy.
"Perhaps," Iosha replied with a nod. "Of course, it would be difficult to convince the Corellians to join the Ascendancy, especially with the recent losses that we attained."
"That might not be such a problem... if we were to divert the proper resources in claiming it for ourselves."
"Strike while the proverbial iron is hot, Admiral Ulaska?"
"Or, rather, while it is cold and unable to do anything against us."
Iosha placed a finger beneath her chin in thought. "I imagine that the Corellians, namely their scientists, wouldn't be so cooperative with us if we were to take their system and, more importantly, their infamous station by force."
"I didn't say by force. I was thinking of a more... diplomatic route."
"But, again, how could we convince the Corellians when we're currently on the losing side of this war?"
"I didn't mean that we, Admiral Iosha."
Her expression brightened as soon as she got what Ulaska was trying to tell her without being so blatant over a hypercomm call. "Oh, I see," she said with a grin.
Ulaska mirrored that grin. "I will see to those negotiations myself, Admiral. I just wanted to keep you in the loop."
"Thank you, Admiral Ulaska. Good luck with that."
He signed off, leaving Iosha alone with a much lighter disposition, and more hope, for the future of the One Sith.
. . .
The Jade Shadow and Wild Karrde dropped out of hyperspace alongside each other in the Ziost system. Several million kilometers ahead of them was the system's namesake planet, and between them and that world was a floating cloud of metallic debris.
The Shadow's comm console pinged for Luke's attention, so he answered it. "Yes, Talon?" he asked.
"Standby, Luke," Talon Karrde's voice came replied. "Just give my people a few minutes to scan the debris to see what they belonged to."
"Alright," Luke replied neutrally. "In the meantime, I'll initiate a Force-scan to see if there's any hint of Ben here."
"By all means. But if you want to talk to, you know, get anything off your chest-"
"I appreciate the sentiment, Talon, thank you. But if I need to talk, I'll let you know." Luke's tone never changed while he spoke.
"Very well then. And I'll let you know what my crew finds. Karrde out." The line went dead over the other end.
Luke sighed before he closed his eyes and reached out through the Force. Even if Ben wasn't here, he was hoping that he might find a lingering trace of his son's presence before it inevitably dissipated into nothingness.
Of course, that was assuming that he was here to begin with, which also was also assuming that Karrde's lead from the Smugglers' Alliance regarding Captain Byalfin Dyur and his ship, the Boneyard Rendezvous, was accurate. After all, it seemed only too good to be true that any leads for Ben had come up so soon after his disappearance. And that was especially considering that it came from a drunken Bothan pirate in a Nal Hutta cantina who spilled a rumor that Dyur and his all-Bothan crew were hauling a red-haired human child as cargo from the Kanz sector.
But whatever doubts Luke had over the validity of Karrde's lead were pushed to the back of his mind as he concentrated. While he may not have had Jacen's ability to flow-walk, even if that ability, like his other sojourn powers, were diminished after Jaina's supposed death last year, Luke hoped that he could still find something that pertained to Ben's whereabouts in this system.
As Luke stretched his senses throughout the debris field before him, he felt the residue of death that would have accompanied the destruction of a ship that had so many remains. And associated with that residue was a great deal of anger that Luke could still feel, as if the planet nearby was somehow maintaining it as a carbonite capsule would hold a living being in stasis.
However, at this distance, Luke couldn't be sure to whom this anger had belonged. He hoped that it hadn't come from Ben, but he knew that that was only wishful thinking. If his son had been able to escape from his captors and whatever they were doing to him, he would be scared, angry, confused, and undoubtedly vengeful, especially since the loss of his mother would still be fresh in his mind.
Before Luke could allow himself a moment of weakness over even that passing reminder of Mara, the comm console pinged again, and he answered it faster than he intended.
"Well, Talon?" Luke asked in a voice that was as level before, much to his own surprise.
"The debris belonged to a vessel that matches the description of Captain Dyur's Boneyard Rendezvous. If there were any survivors from its destruction, they're not here. And we're not getting any lifesigns from the planet below. Which is strange, I must say, given that it does seem to be quite habitable."
"I'll go down to the planet, Talon. You stay up here and see if there's anything else your people can find that might help us further."
"You sure you don't want some company, Luke? Because I can-"
"No, thank you, Talon," Luke interrupted more harshly than he intended. Then, with a lighter tone, he said, "Besides, I have my suspicions about Ziost. I think it's best for your safety if you remained up here. I'll comm you if I need help."
"Very well, Luke. Good luck, and be careful."
"I will." Luke cut off the communication before he piloted the ship towards Ziost.
Minutes later, as soon as he breached the atmosphere, he could feel the overwhelming tide of the dark side of the Force surrounding him. It was a caustic, almost nauseating feeling that seemed to want to amplify the negative emotions that Luke had within him: his fear and anxiety for Ben; his grief for Mara; his sense of failure for Jaina, Tahiri, and most of the other Myrkr survivors; his suspicion that, if Jaina was alive, she was responsible for his wife's death; and his anger for the Chiss War going on right now. All these and other feelings that Luke had seemed to want to burst out from his very being and vent it out to the galaxy in a tidal wave of destructive energy from which no living being could ever survive.
Yet Luke somehow found the strength to keep his inner being afloat against all of this darkness as he simultaneously focused on piloting the Shadow—a meaningful remnant of his wife—down through the skies and searched out through the Force yet again.
But as he got closer and closer down to the surface, he felt himself being guided toward a very specific forest that was several kilometers north of his initial descent position. He angled the Shadow toward that forest, and his Force-senses gradually seemed to pick up on what he both hoped and feared he might find: a remnant of Ben's presence here, unmistakably tinged with the dark side.
Reluctantly—because he didn't want to be faced with the full truth of what he might find upon an even closer examination—Luke set the Shadow down in a barren clearing several meters from the forest. Once he had the ship cycled down, he took a good long look out at the forest and found himself shuddering, if only for two seconds, at just how wrong the trees and shrubbery looked now that he was at ground level. They were all crooked and bent, as if something in the very soil beneath them was corrupting them to be this way.
And that was because the dark side of the Force was, indeed, a permeating, almost living presence on this world, as Luke so clearly sensed. He could feel it to his bones as he could clearly see the forest and the dark and dreary sky above it, even though it was currently daytime on this side of Ziost.
With a deep breath, and a noticeable effort through the Force to repel the intangible, unseen tentacles of the dark side, Luke undid his crash-webbing, stood up robotically, turned, and left the cockpit to depart from the ship.
And just as he lowered the landing ramp, it was as if the air delivered the full stench of the dark side through Luke's nostrils. Though the air itself was suitably breathable and carried no physical smell, it was, once again, all about what Luke could feel and what he was actively trying to repel with his abilities. Never before had he encountered such a level of darkness, even when he was confronted with the illusion of Darth Vader in that cave on Dagobah so many years ago, or when he had visited other Sith worlds like Korriban or Byss.
Nevertheless, Luke stepped down the landing ramp and, with only a second's hesitation, stepped foot upon the soil. He took another deep breath as he began to feel as if it would be a futile effort to try to repel all of this darkness around him. However, that didn't stop him from walking around the Shadow to begin his trek toward the forest.
Once he reached the tree-line, he only then noticed that there were several decaying and mangled corpses—some of which had been dismembered—just ahead of him. Upon stepping forward to observe them, the stench hit him even harder than the feeling of the dark side when he opened his ship's landing ramp. To compound his physical reaction was the sheer horror he felt once he looked at the wounds of the dead Bothans and nek dogs that he encountered. They littered the forest floor and even some branches of the trees above him every dozen meters or so in various states of decomposition.
With each passing corpse, Luke could more clearly feel Ben's hand behind all of it. He didn't have the wherewithal to keep track of the time that passed by him as he continued his trek through the dark forest until, finally, he came across a dead Bothan with his insides spilled out from his stomach and a giant red blotch on a tree a few meters away.
It was here that Luke could feel his son's rage as if it was his own and he could read his thoughts as if they were his own.
And it was here that Luke could even hear Ben's screams and cries as if they were happening in the present.
Luke grasped at his chest, feeling as if he was having a heart attack. He reeled away from the spot where Ben made his final kills on this world before he collapsed to his knees and began hyperventilating. He felt as if he wanted to vomit, yet the gorge didn't seem to want to rise from his stomach; no wonder, because he had eaten very little since Mara died and Ben went missing. Thus, he could only gag with a few bits of spittle flying from his mouth.
"Ben!" he sobbed to the sky. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry... that... that I... that I failed you!"
. . .
"Captain," the Wild Karrde's sensor officer—a female Ishi Tib named Kepos—called from her station. "We have a ship coming out of hyperspace right behind us."
"Helm, orient us so we can face the new arrival," Karrde commanded.
"Aye, sir," the helmsman—a male Rodian named Gefsos—replied as he obeyed.
Once the Karrde was in position, everyone on the bridge got a good look at the vessel that dropped out of hyperspace before them: a modified JumpMaster 5000.
After a moment, the Karrde's comm officer, a female Devaronian named Deelaj, reported, "We're being hailed, Captain."
"Put it on," Karrde replied evenly.
The sultry female voice on the other end of the line asked, "Am I addressing Captain Talon Karrde?"
"Yes, you are, madam," Karrde answered with a formal tone. "And to whom am I addressing?"
"An old friend of Luke Skywalker who currently wishes to remain anonymous."
"A friend of Luke Skywalker who wishes to remain anonymous?" Karrde echoed skeptically. "I didn't know Luke had friends who were so closed off about themselves."
"Well, I want my appearance for when I meet him down on that planet to be a surprise, Captain. So, if you would excuse me, I have a long-awaited reunion with him."
"Wait," Karrde piped up.
A tense moment later, the voice on the other end asked with a dark tone, "Yes?"
"How did you know that Luke would be here?" Karrde asked.
"I didn't. I came here for a different purpose, and quite frankly, Captain Karrde, your appearance here, as well as Luke's, surprised me."
"So, wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you didn't know that he was here until you just entered this system?"
"That's correct, Captain," the voice on the other end replied with a tinge of impatience.
"But how could you..." Karrde trailed off as realization dawned on him. "You're a Force-user, ma'am?"
"Good deduction, Captain. Yes; I sense Luke's presence on that planet right now. Of course, he doesn't seem to sense me; I feel that his thoughts are in such turmoil right now that he wouldn't be able to sense me unless he calmed himself."
Karrde couldn't help but note the satisfaction that seemed to creep into the new arrival's tone and feel somewhat disturbed by it.
"What... what kind of a Force-user are you?" Karrde couldn't help but ask.
Five seconds of tense silence passed before the woman on the other end asked, "If I told you I was a Jedi, Captain Karrde... would you believe me?"
Karrde swallowed in fear. "Honestly... no."
The woman sighed audibly, as if with sarcasm. "Oh, Captain. Sometimes the truth won't set you free."
Suddenly, the consoles all throughout the Karrde's bridge began to explode sequentially; the crew members around the captain were either blown away from their stations with severe third-degree burns or had the presence of mind to leap away before their stations could blow up on them. Unfortunately, that didn't alleviate the resultant panic from the otherwise disciplined crew as they started to find themselves unable to gain any access to any emergency controls before those blew up in front of their surviving crew mates.
And as the lights around him started to go out, Karrde found himself pinned in place to his command chair by an invisible grip; he couldn't even work his jaw to issue any orders to his crew as they died around him.
Some of them didn't even die from something that exploded in front of them; some just had their necks simply broken before they collapsed lifelessly to the deck.
Then, when the entire bridge was dark and he was the only one left alive in it, Karrde got the inexplicable notion in his head that this was how Booster Terrik and his crew had died. He didn't know where it came from; it just came into his head, as if from some foreign presence.
A deep throaty laugh emanated from the voice on the other end of the comm. "Captain Karrde... I just wanted you to know that I like to learn from even my students. Still, I also like to add my own little twist to it."
Karrde watched in horror as the bridge's viewport began to crack in various places in the form of a spider's web. It wasn't long after that before the transparisteel's structural integrity was completely lost and it was blown out into the vacuum of space, along with Karrde himself and the bodies of his bridge crew.
Then, without further thought for the lives she took, Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith, piloted her ship around the floating bodies, shards of transparisteel, the derelict Wild Karrde, and the remnants of the Boneyard Rendezvous for her reunion with Luke Skywalker on Ziost.
