Chapter Twenty-One

As soon as explosions started to sound off across his jubilee, Verrin knew he had been betrayed from within. The security detail that Lady Minshuto had hired managed to destroy the Mark I war droids and the Mark II would never reach him in time to avail him. Worse, the mercenaries were breezing through his Imperial Guards who were trained for Force-sensitives but not for mercenaries who'd defeated numerous Jedi and Sith alike. The Devils of Mustafar, the treacherous mercenary group that makes the worst tribe of Mando'a look like child's play. No wonder Minshuto didn't wish to name them when she invited them to be my security detail Verrin thought as he unclipped and ignited his saber's twin blades.

As soon as the Devils took their first shots, Verrin recognized the energy paths for slugthrowers and tried to avoid the shots where he could. He then batted away the ones he could, careful to avoid the melting of the slugs in each of them so that he could keep up the fight. But each impact made him more and more weary, forcing him to change tactics even as the Devils continued to encircle him. He enveloped twenty in a storm of Force Lightning that killed them outright then Force-pushed the corpses into their comrades before activating their thermal detonators. Unfortunately, the Devils were already aware of this as some could see the blinking red lights when the bodies were spun their way.

So the order was given to shoot the grenades before they could cause heavy casualties. Easier said than done for most marksmen but the Devils, as Verrin knew from their repute, were no ordinary marksmen. Only ten more were killed by the explosives and only because they couldn't evade or shoot the grenades fast enough. Some of the Devils had blaster pistols that Verrin knew he could deflect if he could just force them to somehow expend the ammunition of their rifles. So when sixty more of them trained their rifles on him, he quickly raised a barrier he designed to grow stronger with the concussive force of the projectiles by absorbing the kinetic energy of their impact.

It was the most effective tool he had against them but one that exacted a heavy mental toll on him as they barraged him with slugthrowers while twenty more shot missiles from their jetpacks. Verrin survived it all and even though the riflemen still had ammunition, half of them decided to reserve what they had left for anyone coming to Verrin's defense. The Emperor, gazing upon the enemies before him, now wished he had mastered more of the secrets left behind by Lord Vitiate rather than rejecting them for the fact Lord Vitiate had used them. Had these assassins been facing Vitiate, he would have eviscerated them with no more than a thought if he had wished it.

Now, Verrin was about to face the consequences of that decision as all eighty of the ninety whipped out pistols and began to fire. Nearly two-hundred pistols shot their bolts at him and Verrin's skill with Soresu and Shien held out, killing ten more roughly though Verrin knew it wasn't much longer before he would need help escaping. "Wrath, come to your Emperor! I am alone and facing overwhelming odds!" Verrin exclaimed into a comlink that he activated with the Force. The words felt venomous even as he had said them and he knew that if Minshuto had a way of recording his transmission then he had better hope he could survive long enough to destroy her slowly for her betrayal against him... Unfortunately Lady Minshuto herself was the only one who'd ever survived the wrath of the Devils and lived to tell of it.

Hyperion was chasing a lead through the streets that proved to be fruitless. He was anonymously informed of a Jedi infiltrator and he half wondered if Dantius had lost faith in his mission or had sent someone to check on him. In fact, Hyperion almost hoped Dantius had come so that he could straighten out things with him in person or perhaps to find out from him that the intel he provided was either bogus or no longer worth its merit. When he didn't find his brother or any infiltrator, he made his way back to the jubilee chamber, contemplating who would want the Emperor to ask such a mission of him as chasing down a Jedi here on Balmorra. Usually, the Jedi were far too calculating to make such obvious mistakes as that, too clever and too witty for such stupidities.

On occasion, however, Jedi Masters who knew this to be true were prone to arrogance and delusion. It was entirely possible that one such person had come and tried to put a stop to the Emperor, using the intel Hyperion had provided. Think on it, who would gain from having you away from the jubilation? Who would have the most in making you look like a fool, chasing a dead end and why do you suppose they would do it? Crassus chided him. Hyperion couldn't initially think of it, preferring not to indulge or speak to his grandfather's ethereal form.

But he did have a point about one thing, Hyperion did have enemies who might gain from pranking him in this fashion. Then, the comm from the Emperor came in and everything made sense at once. "Wrath, come to your Emperor," Verrin had said, before grunting from exertion (blaster fire sounding in the background), then adding, "I am alone and facing overwhelming odds." Suddenly, despite his wishes not to concede to his grandfather, Hyperion realized that everything added up.

In a bid for power, Morgana knew that she couldn't take the Emperor and Hyperion if they were in the same room. Therefore, she had hired the so-called security detail that reminded Hyperion of the Mustafar Devils to destroy the Emperor's Guards and droids when Hyperion left. Then they would press an assault on the Emperor while Hyperion was still pressing the false lead she had set for him. Trusting, one should add, that by the time Hyperion had returned to fall into the trap that his master would be dead and Morgana crowned the new Empress. No, Hyperion remembered, she couldn't do that yet: she was doing this to justify a Kaggath against him if the Emperor fell while the Wrath was supposed to be guarding him from harm!

If she could attack him from the comforts of legitimacy in the Imperial scheme of things then no one would oppose her challenge or aid him in deposing it. He returned to the outside perimeter of where the jubilee was supposed to have taken place and realized that no one from the Dark Council had yet called aid. The Emperor was supposed to be the undisputed master of the Empire and if Hyperion's suspicions were correct, they would let him fall if he had proven weak enough. But Hyperion was not about to fail him, not when the stakes were too high for him among other people. Before he could, he sensed twenty men with slugthrower rifles preparing to pelt him with their projectiles and he prepared his shield to counter.

Thanks to its layers of near-indestructible metal, it could withstand the pelting of the slugthrowers quite well but the shock was still enough to pin him where he was. When they needed to reload, Hyperion wasted no time in Force Leaping toward them and landing in their midst, throwing shurikens to kill four then shoot his wrist blades into another. He then produced his ax and cleaved six more with it, splitting their skulls with the larger blade even through the metal of their helmets. When this was proving to be ineffective against them all, he shot his spear into three more, killing a combined total of fourteen of them. Seeing how quickly he had mowed through their comrades, the remaining six began to retreat with the aid of their jetpacks, preparing to punish him with another desperate volley.

But he countered by clipping his ax and unholstering one of his pistols. Quicker than they could react, he shot down four by hitting the ignition of their jetpacks. Four explosions ended the lives of the four mercenaries and his last shot detonated a grenade, causing two explosions with the flammability of the jetpacks that all but incinerated its owner. The last one was Force-choked then thrown into his comrades where Hyperion then activated yet another grenade with the Force and took out eight more of the remaining seventy. With Force-imbued agility, he unloaded all six of his throwing knives to fatally wound their targets then threw his own grenades, taking out eight more with them. He was left with just forty-eight by the time he used his nets to kill off four more then threw his ax into another man's chest, puncturing his aorta artery.

When he produced his whip, he was able to kill three more but the rest were much too cautious by now. Unfortunately, even this progress he had made was not nearly enough to save the Emperor who managed to kill another ten more before he was fatally injured. A jetpack missile shot right into his midsection with only enough time on his part to absorb what would've killed him right there and then with tutaminis. The burn marks and the shockwaves made Verrin almost collapse there and then as well but he powered through the Force Body as he had during the rest of the attack. Unfortunately, his ability to perform this spell was wearing out and it was only a matter of time before he suffered the final fate.

Ten who still had vibroblades, jetpack missiles, flamethrowers, and grenades amongst others decided to take the battle to Hyperion who was down to his whip, shield, and lightsabers. As he fought them, the other twenty encircled Verrin to make the finishing strikes, shooting him down with as many bolts as each pair of pistols they carried could produce. Verrin was great when he was in peak health but now, bolts were making their mark, slowing him down as each one hit him. Hyperion could tell, through his Force Rage and other building energies that he was preparing one last attack which came in the form of Force Repulse.

Every Devil in the vicinity of the energy field was burned to ash while Hyperion finished off the ten that he had been fighting. But when he finally could make it to his master's side, it was too late. Hyperion knew through the Force and confirmed with two fingers, that Emperor Verrin was dead.

Chapter Twenty-Two

On the anniversary of his reign, Verrin had fallen to the Devils of Mustafar even while his Wrath had provided practically no help in wiping them out. Reinforcements from the Dark Council had routed out any remaining assassins, including the sniper who would've finished off Verrin if he survived the Devils within merely a week of the assassination commencing. Unfortunately, despite the guilty fingers pointing to Lady Minshuto and her co-conspirator, no one was willing to accuse Morgana of crafting the assassination. Instead, they had stood idly by as the one who once was called Morgana leveled accusations in the direction of Hyperion and not entirely without justification where the Council stood.

"How could he be worthy of being our Wrath if his power couldn't even save our Emperor from peril? In what universe could such a failure be worthy of training the heirs to Verrin's throne?" Minshuto had started asking them. Hyperion had only responded by pushing his students even harder once they returned from the missions he and Jadus had assigned them. Amongst his measures was to hold lightsaber duels, especially once they constructed their blades. The escalation had cost Dandy and Glass their lives, leaving only Blob, Slinky, and Small-Fry to remain as Emperor's Hands with the according resources of such spies.

Imperious, upon their nominations, began levying accusations that because of how their father had fallen, they were even weaker than he had been. Goading and prodding at the remaining sons of Verrin, the Pau'an was blessed when it was they who challenged him to a Kaggath as opposed to vice versa, perhaps what Minshuto was counting on. Simultaneous to that, Morgana L'étoile Brillante (the lady known as Darth Minshuto) declared her own Kaggath against Hyperion himself. She had declared that she was pitting her fleets against the ones Vowrawn had merely handed Hyperion. Numerically, Hyperion was no match for her but he knew he had the edge in strategy and cunning as Morgana's haughtiness and Crassus' presence in Hyperion's being revealed.

Crassus had more than a century fighting like Sith and could suggest the kind of advice that could only be borne out of that experience. So whenever he told Hyperion to have his most maneuverable fighters, which also could spray missiles at the enemy, form a wedge formation then Hyperion did just that. If Crassus said to have all freighter class ships or above turned their sides so that their missiles and laser fire could defend them from any approach of Morgana's, Hyperion did but with one difference. He did so at an angle that allowed the ships to maneuver into fighting position if and when any of Morgana's cruisers got through. All Crassus asked for was one thing: possession of a worthy body for his return into the universe.

Hyperion had an idea for just who to give to his grandfather once he had an opportunity to do so without violating the terms of the Kaggath of himself or the boys. He just needed to keep himself up to date in their comm transmissions and make sure they didn't call for help but did persuade him that he needed their help all the same. They kept him in the loop and in turn, he kept them up to date, having come to realize the value of his training as soon as they took to fighting Imperius with the stratagems Jadus taught them in combo to their martial skills. The boys were by no means capable of defeating the Pau'an himself but they scored resounding successes against his subordinate Lords. Hyperion, meanwhile, enjoyed similar successes but was not yet able to put a permanent end to Lady Minshuto.

That was until Hyperion received a communication that she was hoping to secure a foothold on Dathomir so that she could rely on its power to beat him. In the end, after consultation with the soul of Crassus, Hyperion decided that the best thing to do was to stop her from landing on Dathomir. So he stationed his fleet in orbit around the circumference of the planet as his grandfather suggested. Also, looking at the star maps, Hyperion realized that there were only three ways Morgana could possibly come from and all of them were defensible. When the fleet was in orbit around the planet, Crassus explained his reasoning for the strategy of encircling the planet.

When Morgana begins to see she might be able to break through, we then order the other halves of the circle to break apart then maneuver to flank her. A perfect pincer movement that will slaughter all her soldiers and destroy almost every ship she has in her fleet but even this will not end her threat once and for all. We need to find her flagship, board it once we have her flanked, and kill her Crassus told his grandson. Hyperion couldn't have agreed more and decided that he would bide his time, planetside, until her fleet was reported as attacking his own.

By this time, she was reduced to a third of her original resources which was a loss that could be easily recuperated in Balmorra but only once she defeated him or was herself beaten. This was a rule declared by the Dark Council with the approval of Lord Jadus when both the Kaggaths began as a means of ensuring they didn't needlessly dip into Imperial resources. Now, as the hour of the final battle was already approaching, Morgana being intercepted at and defeated in four systems, Hyperion stood by. To sweeten the prospect of her arrival, he had his spies inform her that when Hyperion intended to intercept her this time, he wasn't going to be leading the effort and that the majority of his fleet was going to be there. Making his annihilation impossible for her to escape for him once she had taken the planet by storm.

Why do that, Hyperion? Now she will suspect a trap and, if she is wise, not take the bait! Crassus demanded at once.

"Yes, the reasonable part of her will suspect a trap. But the problem with people like Morgana, or Darth Minshuto, is that they're cocky. If they're invited to destroy something as worthy of their time as the majority of my resources then she will strike. The reasonable part of her will say know but when have you ever known a Sith to be reasonable when it doesn't heighten their ambition?" Hyperion asked.

One needs to be reasonable when ruling an interplanetary empire of the sort I commanded from our homeworld. Watch what you say about the Sith and their reasonability! Crassus snapped.

"You prove my point exactly. Sith only use those things that further their goals and agendas, as much as they need to then cast it aside at the first instance that it is useless. You cast reason out of the window more often than I'll ever delve into in a conversation with you simply because you were Emperor of what we had then thought to be the galaxy," Hyperion replied, enjoying the privacy they had for these conversations. Both sat back and waited, waiting patiently for their prey to fall into their trap even as his fleet itched for a fight.

Then, when Morgana finally came, Hyperion could sense her and saw her personal flagship pop up on the radar. She had taken the bait after several days of waiting and launched her attack right as his men had become the most impatient for a fight. So it was that her fleets engaged him with their full might, a calculated mistake Hyperion had foreseen on her part. He knew that if she was allowed to believe she could destroy the majority of his fleet, she would call upon all of her resources to succeed in the mission. Now, the time had come for him to begin setting the next phase of his trap into motion.

"Left and right flanks, begin to pinch her forces in place, center fleet: hold your ground as long as you can but inch away towards the surface of the planet until your comrades arrive," Hyperion began. When he was given the signal that his orders had been received by his fleet, he called upon his reserves. "Make the hyperspace jump to Dathomir when you know you can arrive in a standard hour. I want Morgana trapped to where she cannot retreat even if any of her forces somehow manage to escape my pincer movement," Hyperion ordered them. When he received the confirmation that his orders had been received, and that the jump would be made in ten standard minutes, he smiled.

Ten minutes was about the limit of how long his fleet on Dathomir could likely hold in any case before completing the tendrils of the pincer. Then, it would likely be another fifteen minutes or so of fighting before Lady Minshuto would get the picture and start issuing a retreat. From there, it would become a matter of then stalling them at all three sides until they were sure that retreat was impossible or else killing Minshuto before she could issue the order. Wanting to leave nothing to chance, Hyperion decided that the time had come to cut the head off the snake while he still held the advantage.

"Ready my ship, I'm going in for the kill as soon as Lady Minshuto's flagship is tightly caught in our pincer," Hyperion ordered his guards. The guards had arrived when he had called for them and when they did, he knew better than to stall them. They pumped a fist over their chest in salutation before rushing to obey his orders to fuel and ready his ship for takeoff.

She is powerful for one as young as she is and you are not exactly in your prime. Are you sure you are up to the task of defeating her, with or without my help? Crassus warned.

"There is only one way to find out. Journey to her flagship when it is confirmed that it is trapped and go from there," Hyperion told him.

Do you even know what it is called? Crassus demanded.

"Funny you say that because I do. In order to remind me of her reason for fighting against me, she named it the Patricia. My fleet knows it too and when they can confirm they've got her, we move," Hyperion said. Roughly eleven minutes later, the confirmation came and Hyperion blasted off from Dathomir's surface to face down his greatest rival yet.