Author's Note: Fair warning in advance: I don't do horrific or disturbing details, but this chapter might seem a little unsettling to some readers. It's the Hive, so they're nothing but gruesome, of course the game wouldn't show the things they actually do. :P
Ornfra System; Galaxy's Edge
2 hours earlier - Thrawn POV...
"Damage report!" I called out, stumbling as the cruiser shook with another blast. We had already lost two of our cruisers, and many more of them were damaged to dangerous levels.
"Are shields are gone! The hyperdrive has sustained heavy damage!" one officer exclaimed.
"Admiral! Our engines and fuel cells have ruptured! We are dead in space!" another reports in terror.
I grunted as the ship shook with another blast, glaring out at the enemy as I held onto the console, trying to control my fear. Despite the large fleet, and the power of each Imperial Star Destroyer, we were being decimated by the Yuuzhan Vong fleet. It seemed just like the battle between the Vong scout ships and the Chiss Ascendancy decades ago. The Chiss were victorious in destroying all the Vong ships, but at heavy cost, and there were no survivors from the battle for either side. Fortunately, it did allow the Chiss Ascendancy to learn more about their ship's technology.
"Gunners, aim for the orange bands on the sides of the cruisers; disable off their firepower!" I ordered. "Send out TIE Squadrons! Attack maneuver 2-4!"
"Yes Admiral!" one of the officers replies, setting off to do the assigned task.
"Lieutenant Perdoe, relay that order to the rest of the fleet!" I added.
"Right away sir!" he exclaims.
I turn my gaze back to the battle before me, analyzing the Vong's ships as best as I could. Our green turbolasers began to target the glowing orange bands alongside the enemy vessels, and I watched as a hail of green lasers began to pepper them. However, the Vong have exceptionally well shielded warships, powered by some form of biotechnology that I do not know of, and any progress in damaging their ships was slow. The weapons they were armed with fired orange energy pulses, which soared towards our fleet at a surprisingly slow pace. Nevertheless, these energy blasts were capable of causing great damage, even acting partly as an ion blast, in which electrical systems would be briefly affected in the damaged area.
Curiously though, the massive vessel that lay behind the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, which was clearly the command ship, was not attacking. It's design though is very familiar to records the Chiss recovered during the last battle against the Vong. I'm extremely worried that this may be that very ship, which is supposedly capable of horrifying power. Judging by the weapon emplacement on it's side, as the ship wasn't pointing its front at us, this may very well be it.
I was broken out of my analysis when Eli Vanto reappears right beside me, out of breath. "I sent the distress call as ordered sir," he tells me.
"Good. Now we just have to keep fighting against this onslaught, until reinforcements can arrive," I state firmly.
Vanto eyes me incredulously. "Keep fighting?! But sir, we're being decimated, we can't hope to match this fleet right now!" he protests.
"Our hyperdrive is heavily damaged, and no doubt the rest of the fleet as well," I reply. "They knew where to target our ships, and this ambush was clearly well planned out. I'm afraid we're going nowhere," I finish grimly, narrowing my eyes at the Yuuzhan Vong fleet.
The Chimera is shook again when a nearby Star Destroyer suffering heavy firepower from the enemy fleet blows up in a massive fireball. It sends debris scattering everywhere, slamming against other cruisers as well. I grab onto the console again for support, while many officers on the bridge cry out in shock, loosing their balance.
"Where are our fighters?!" I yell towards the crew.
"Being sent out now Admiral!" someone replies.
Thankfully, many squadrons of TIE Fighters soon exit the Star Destroyer's still in decent fighting condition, and start soaring for the enemy fleet. The tide seems to be shifting more towards us, at least slightly. The continuous cannon fire against the orange bands of the warships is doing the trick, and some of their cruisers are now suffering damage as well, their shields seemingly gone. Our TIE Fighters go into work, peppering the weak points I pointed out alongside the cruisers, and taking out some of their guns. After a heavy barrage, one of the leading Vong ships starts crumbling away, before exploding, much to my satisfaction.
"Sir, the enemy have fired out pods of some sort! They're headed right for us!"
I skim through the battlefield and notice what the officer was talking about. A large group of about several dozen pods were headed for our fleet. They appeared to be long, angled ships with a spiked design, the long ends of them glowing green. As they pass by our TIE Fighters, they retaliate with their own laser blasts, keeping our fighters away from them as they headed for our cruisers. I widened my eyes upon realizing what they were; Seeders.
"They've sent out boarding pods!" I say in alarm. "Intercept those pods before they reach us!"
The gunners direct some of their focus towards taking down the Seeder Ships. However they prove to be surprisingly agile, and weave around the green laser fire. I watch with dread as they stab into several of our cruisers, five of them dotting along the Chimera's hull alone.
"Get our troopers out there and hold back the enemy immediately!" I order, turning back and pointing for emphasis.
"Yes sir!"
"How are we gonna make it out of this?" Eli asks quietly, uncertainty clear in his voice.
A sudden screech at the back end of the bridge gets everyone's attention, and I turn around to see a few shriveled, horrific beasts claw their way through the doors, three in total. They don't have faces, but they just look like death itself, skin rotten, with sharp, dirty teeth and claws. How could they have gotten here so quickly?!
The officers nearby screamed in shock, backing away quickly when those creatures leaped into action. They lashed out at officers or stormtrooper guards, slicing at them with their claws while their victims screamed in terror and pain. I pulled out my pistol with a scowl and moved forwards quickly, firing at the creatures. I hit one with several shots to the head and body, taking it out with a shrill cry before it dissolves into flakey, rotten bits, covering its mutilated victim. The other two shriek in rage and dash towards me.
I quickly back up, firing my pistol back at them, taking out another, and it dies the same way, its death shriek still echoing afterwards. However, the last one claws my blaster away and then shoves be violently to the ground with surprising strength considering its frail looking body. I let out a painful grunt, looking up in alarm as it leaps for me, claws outstretched. I raise a hand to cover my head, but before it could claw at me, a blaster shot soared straight through its forehead, dissolving it with a shrieking cry.
I look up to see Eli with my pistol in hand, eyes wide in shock, shaking slightly.
"Thank you Eli," I say gratefully in relief.
"Y-you're welcome sir," he replies.
I get back to my feet and look back out the viewport the get a sense of the battle, becoming more crestfallen. It seems, that despite our efforts against the Vong, taking out two cruisers now, we were fighting a loosing battle.
"Sir, I'm detecting a massive energy reading emanating from the enemy flagship!" someone yells in alarm.
I snap my gaze up towards the command ship, watching with shocked, worried eyes. Along the cruiser's tremendous hull, pale, white energy traveled along it's waist towards the dish shaped weapon emplacement, circling around the emitter. The dish then glowed bright with the smoky, pale white energy before it exploded outwards in a colossal wave of transparent, green and white energy, headed straight for us.
"Wha the kriff!" Vanto screams in horror.
"Brace for impact!" I yelled our to the crew.
The energy wave passes through the Vong warships, leaving them unharmed, and then slams into our fleet. The effect was instant, as the bow of the Chimera and every other Star Destroyer still functional exploded violently, the rest of the ship following as the wave passed over it. Realizing it would soon be upon us, I grabbed Vanto's arm and pulled him away from the viewport.
"Everyone get to the escape pods now! Get to the pods!" I yell out to the crew.
Everyone leaves their stations instantly, and me and Eli dash for our escape pod, entering it, while the rest of the officers all pile into theirs. I slammed the door closed while Vanto immediately activated the pod, jamming the ignition button. As soon as we shot off though, our pod shook violently as the ship exploded completely, sending us roughly through space, debris and the sounds of massive explosions all around us causing absolute mayhem.
Present time - Jarik POV...
"In the name of Morai..." Ahsoka whispered quietly to herself.
I nodded my head numbly in agreement, at a loss of what to say.
"The Yuuzhan Vong... did this?" Mara asks meekly, and I could sense her fear as she stared out at the wreckage with wide eyes.
The wreckage of what was the proud and strong Seventh Fleet lay scattered across a huge area, destroyed so heavily you could barely tell that the debris used to form Imperial Star Destroyers. Ahsoka cautiously directed the Knight Hawk towards the debris field, flying at a slow speed. Destroyed engines floated by once we entered the graveyard, along with crumpled TIE Fighters, pieces of the hull, all sorts of things. The whole field of the destroyed Imperial fleet stretched across for dozens of miles at least.
Yet the most interesting thing about the debris field, was how it was arranged. You'd think that the ships would all be scattered about randomly, due to the cruisers just blowing up. Instead, the wreckage was arranged in a sort of half circle, as if it was all pushed that way by something, which makes no sense at all.
"R5... see if you can scan for life forms," I say quietly.
He beeps back softly in acknowledgement, also stunned by the level of destruction we were witnessing.
"Also, keep a close eye on the emergency channels. Considering how far out in space we are, any broadcast is pretty much guaranteed to come from a survivor," Ahsoka advises him.
"You speaking from experience?" I ask her.
She nods her head. "Early on in the War, when the Malevolence was still at large. Me and Anakin came alone to search for Master Plo Koon..." she trails off sadly. I throw her a sorrowfully glance, knowing as well as her that Master Plo was among those killed in Order 66."
"I wish I could've met him," Mara says with a tiny sense of longing.
Ahsoka smiles at her. "He would've enjoyed interacting with him."
We continue along in uneasy silence, looking around the debris field for any signs of life. Every so often we would also pass by the floating body of a dead Imperial officer, which we made sure Mara wouldn't keep looking at. The red supergiant of this system in the distance bathed everything in a dim, red glow, making the graveyard feel and look even more ghostly. The complete lack of sound aside from the ships scanners beeping every so often didn't help things. And also...
"Mom, Dad... can you feel that?" Mara asks us uneasily, rubbing her arms.
I nod grimly, able to sense it more clearly the longer we were here, and Ahsoka could as well.
"We feel it Mara," she replies.
"It doesn't feel like the dark side," Mara continues nervously.
And she was right. The cold chill of darkness that resided around this area was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Not even Vader, Snoke, or the Son himself made the Force cold in such a way. It was... unnatural. Ghostly. Hateful...
"I think it would be a good idea to fortify our mental shielding," I suggest quietly.
The other two agree wholeheartedly, and we all set up the strongest shields we could make to hide our presence in the Force. I don't know if the Hive, or Force forbid, Oryx himself, are still around, but after seeing all this damage I don't think I want to find out.
R5 then gets our attention with loud beeps, swiveling his dome around to look at us.
"You found something?" I ask hopefully. "Where then?"
He turns his plug in the astromech socket a few times before displaying a simple hologram, the location flashing in it, as well as being added into the ships computer, adding another few beeps.
"You picked up an organic signal?" I clarify with a slight frown, a little confused at the wording.
"Good enough for me," Ahsoka remarks, and pulls up on the throttle, directing the ship in the direction of R5's coordinates.
"Hopefully it's Thrawn so we can buzz outta here," Mara says eagerly, before frowning. "Although the idea that we're rescuing an Imperial officer is still hard to believe."
"We may be on opposing sides, but one enemy everyone has in common are the Hive," I tell her.
"And based on what we've learned, he seems to know an awful lot about the Yuuzhan Vong; at least enough to be able to track them down properly, which is more than we know," Ahsoka adds.
"How we looking R5?" I ask him, and nod in satisfaction when he beeps back. "Alright, we're almost there. The life signal should be somewhere to our right."
Ahsoka turns the ship in the proper direction, and soon enough, we manage to spot the back end of an Imperial escape pod directly ahead of us.
"We found one!" Mara exclaims joyfully.
However, as we came to a slow stop before the escape pod, the spotlights from our ship illuminating it in space, I had an uneasy frown on my face, the same as Ahsoka. Something about the escape pod just felt... wrong.
"Something's, not right," I say slowly, glancing at Ahsoka.
Glancing back at me, she then looks out at the pod and raises her arm, swiping her hand gently to the side. She called upon the Force to turn the pod around, allowing the front viewport to face us. We let out gasps of horrified shock.
Instead of a small crew of survivors in an escape pod, the front was actually busted wide open, looking almost as if it were... clawed apart. Coating the front of the escape pod, as well as the interior was some strange, black goo, yet it shined with an unnatural and wrong coloration, pale stars shining out of it. It almost looked like some sort of portal, yet I couldn't believe that was the case, although pure darkness flowed strongly from it, we could all sense it. Along with the dark goo were some strange, rotten barnacles clinging to the pod. And the crew inside...
"What the-" Mara starts to say in terror.
"Mara, don't look at that!" Ahsoka exclaims, forcefully turning her around to make sure she couldn't see, also keeping her back to the sight as well.
What remained of the escape pods crew members was a gory scene mutilated pack of bodies, slashed open and ripped apart in ways that I do not want to describe. I shut my eyes and look away, disgusted and horrified by the sight. I thought I'd seen the worst of the worst in violence during the Clone Wars... but I was wrong.
"Kriffing Force..." I whisper to myself.
R5 squeals in shock and fright, having caught a glimpse of the sight. Now I understand why Revan says the Hive are a physical manifestation of evil incarnate. Anything, or anyone capable of doing something like that to another living creature, is a rabid, horrific monster.
"Ahsoka... let's- let's keep moving..." I say quietly, the image burned into my mind.
"Okay," she replies with a shuddering breath, sitting back down and moving to pilot the ship away, all the while we keep our eyes off of the horrible sight.
"If that pod was... attacked," I start to say. "Then that means we're not the only ones looking for survivors," I say grimly.
Ahsoka and Mara widen their eyes in alarm at the realization, and Ahsoka lets out a sigh. "And I thought Master Plo had it bad with the pod hunters..." she mutters in an attempt at humor.
"I'll try and send out a discreet radio signal," I tell them.
Thrawn POV...
I let out a groan as I slowly sat up, rubbing my head. The explosion from the super-weapon destroying our fleet was heavy, and I must've been knocked out. I blinked my eyes in an attempt to focus my vision, and felt someone by my side.
"Are you alright sir?" Vanto asks in concern.
"I'm, feeling a little bit better now, thank you," I reply gratefully, and look around, noting the surroundings of our escape pod. "What has happened since the battle?"
Eli lets out a sigh, sounding exhausted and fearful. "Nothing much sir, all we've done if just drift through the debris field. I managed to get some of the pod's power back online, and thankfully the Yuuzhan Vong seemed to have left the system."
I nod my head, taking the information in, although a frown comes to my face.
"Left the system?" I ask.
"Yes sir. Not too long after the battle," he clarifies.
However I just shake my head.
"No... the Yuuzhan Vong would not leave us so easily, not with the chance of there being survivors," I say grimly.
Vanto looks at me nervously.
"But, they destroyed the whole fleet! Maybe they assumed we all died from that blast wave," he reasons hopefully.
"The Vong take no chances when it comes to slaughtering others," I tell him darkly.
Vanto groans, fear overtaking him.
"What are we going to do? We're out here, stranded in the middle of some far off, uninhabited system, with our fleet being wiped out after getting sent on a suicide mission!" he exclaims in a panic.
I eye him calmly, although with some sympathy in my gaze. I was also unsure of what exactly to do.
"I wish I had a clear answer, but this is a situation that doesn't have many options I'm afraid," I admit.
"So we're dead then," he says hopelessly, slumping in his seat. "If the Vong don't find us first, we'll eventually suffocate from a lack of air. Or die of dehydration."
I let out a sigh.
"We can't just allow ourselves to give up like this Vanto. For now, let's try and get the pod back into working order, and see if we can broadcast a signal," I tell him firmly.
He glances at me, before looking away in shame.
"Yes sir. I'm... sorry for my outburst," he apologizes.
"You have nothing to apologize for Eli, it is understandable in such a dire situation," I reassure him.
We must have been working for several minutes when we got the communications console up and running, immediately searching through the broadcasting channels for any hope of aid. Right now, Eli was trying to send an emergency transmission to anybody we could reach.
"This is Commander Vanto in escape pod 357. Is anyone out there?" he says desperately into the console. "Repeat, is anyone out there?! This is Commander Vanto of escape pod 357!"
After several more tries, my calm expression continued to betray the worry and fear I felt at not knowing what to do in such a bleak situation, and Eli looked ready to give up, resigned to our fate. However, the console then started to flicker with static, and our expression lit up joyfully as we made contact.
"...Th... is Lieu...nant Perdoe... we rea... you! We read you..."
"Lieutenant Perdoe, are you receiving us?" Eli calls out excitedly.
"...we read you... signal is weak sir... position at ma... 67!"
"Lieutenant, repeat your location. Your signal is very weak!" Eli says.
The signal then goes dead for several seconds, no static or communication coming from the other pod.
"No no no! Blast!" Eli exclaims in frustration.
I frown in concern, troubled by the lack of a signal. Sure it was weak, but nothing should've kept it from shorting out like that...
"Something seems wrong..." I trail off.
A flash outside far in the distance gets me attention, and I move to the viewport to look for it. Off in the distance, I notice a pale, smoky ball of light seeming to flicker through the debris field, and I narrow my eyes, suspicious of it. I do not believe that to be friendly, considering how it's properties look similar to that of the energy that charged the super-weapon.
"What is that thing?" Eli mutters, having noticed the same thing as well.
We watch as the strange ball of light flickers among the debris, before speeding up and heading in a certain direction. Following it's path in the distance, we notice with wide eyes that it was headed for what appeared to be another escape pod, and stops, hovering directly in front of it.
"Look, Admiral! another pod!" Eli cries out joyfully.
I brushed off his excitement, narrowing my eyes, almost certain that light was related to the Vong.
"That pod is in danger," I say resolutely.
The console blares with static again as we regain contact with the pod, and we move over to the console, looking intently at it.
"...ange light in front of... flickering..."
"That's Lieutenant Perdoe's pod!" Eli realizes.
And that's where things go horribly wrong.
"...what the...ing KRIFF! WHA... THAT?!..."
We hear screams coming from the other pod's crew, fading in and out as the static continues to interrupt. Hearing their screams, we dash back to the viewport and look out, widening our eyes in horror. Coming out of another of those portals from the ambush, although much smaller this time, was a Vong ship, one that I could identify as a Tombship from the Chiss Ascendancy's records of our previous encounter with them. It came out of that portal directly in front of the pod with a shriek, stopping right above the escape pod.
It merely hovered, but then the light seemed to stream from within the pod as a glow came out of the viewport. Then the screams intensified over the broadcast.
"...NDER ATTACK! THEY'RE COMING... OUR POD-"
The last we can hear from the other pod are agonized screams of pure terror, followed by what sounded like the shrieks of those horrific, savage beasts that stormed the bridge during the battle. Then the lines go dead.
Vanto is gasping in horrified terror, letting loose an occasional curse in his fear, and my eyes were also wide. I was unsettled, and quite honestly, fearful in the face of the Yuuzhan Vong. Despite knowing more about them than anyone else in the Empire, I was still stunned and fearful of the gruesome brutality of the Vong.
"Uh... sir? It- It's coming..." Eli says in terror, pointing a shaking arm out the viewport.
There, I could see the little ball of pale, smoky light headed straight for our pod. It was a seeker for survivor's, I realized.
And we were next.
Jarik POV...
"I think I've got something," I tell the others, looking at the screen intently.
"You do?" Ahsoka asks me. "And you're positive this is from a survivor?"
I frown, pressing a few buttons to try and boost he signal.
"I believe so. I managed to trace a weak communications signal between to origin points," I inform her, looking up. "It has to be two pods trying to contact each other."
"Two? Well that's good, I suppose," Mara says hopefully.
I direct Ahsoka to fly the ship in the direction I was picking up the signal from, before one of the origin points goes dead. I widen my eyes in alarm.
"Oh no..."
"What is it Dad?" Mara asks nervously.
"One of the pod's just went dead," I tell them, and Ahsoka glances over towards me, carrying a big sense of urgency.
"Then we've got to find the next pod! Try and contact it, quickly!" she tells me, before turning towards Mara. "Mara, I need you to reach out with the Force; look for anything unusual, a life signature, or sudden burst of danger."
"Alright Mom," she says, a little unsure, but determined, and closes her eyes to reach out with the Force.
Meanwhile, I do my best to establish contact with the escape pod, whose signal I can still detect.
"Imperial escape pod, do you copy? Repeat, do you copy? This is Jarik Shan!" I say in to the console.
Saying my name might make them wary, but it'll certainly get their attention, and any Imperial Officer has to be desperate for help in a situation like this. All I get back is some static, but that means there is something.
"R5, boost the signal!" I tell him, and he beeps in acknowledgement, turning his arm in the astromech socket.
"Imperial escape pod, can you read me? This is Jarik Shan!" I call out.
"...Sha...help us! We're un... atta...!"
"They're responding," I tell the others in relief.
"Perhaps we still have a chance to rescue them," Ahsoka says hopefully.
"Imperial pod, repeat the message, your signal is weak! What is your location?" I ask firmly.
"This is Comm... Vanto...we're under attack...! Our location is... mark two se..."
I share a look of worry with Ahsoka, hearing that they were under attack. Time is running out, but this stupid lack of signal is making it almost impossible! But the name I heard, Vanto, is familiar. I'm pretty sure he serves closely with Admiral Thrawn, which means this pod might have him!
"Mom, Dad, I can sense something! Over in that direction!" Mara suddenly exclaims, pointing out the cockpit.
Ahsoka wastes no time in gunning the ship in that direction, and soon we also feel a sudden growth in this horrible darkness, in action this time. Then, we can actually see it.
In the distance is an Imperial escape pod, yet directly in front of it, is the most bizarre and shocking sight I think I may have seen yet. A strange, sickly green and black portal was glowing directly in front of the pod, and coming out was some sort of long ship in a strange design, kind of like a long 'T.' A distant, but awful shriek accompanied the ship as it appeared and hovered towards the escape pod.
"What is that?!" Mara exclaims.
Thinking quickly, I pulled up the Knight Hawk's turrets and aimed them for the strange ship.
"Ahsoka, double time it! I don't wanna wait to see how long it takes them to attack the pod!" I exclaim.
"Way ahead of you!" she replies.
She blasts the ship off at full speed towards the confrontation, and I open fire with our guns. Red laser bolts soar through space to slam against the side of the enemy ship, and it reacts almost instantly. It shudders, before moving over in a strange fashion, horizontally swerving instead of moving forwards like most ships.
"What the heck?!" Mara exclaims in bewilderment. "How does a ship move like that?"
"I don't know," I say, just as surprised.
The Hive ship quickly angles around to share for us, and shoots out several purple energy blasts from its hull along the side. However the purple energy travels slowly, laughably so, and Ahsoka easily avoids them all before swinging around to face it again. She then thrusts a hand out, calling upon the Force to slam against the ship, causing it to stop charging and fly back uncontrollably.
"Huh, never thought of doing that," I commented, before focusing on the ship again.
As it spun around as a result of Ahsoka's Force push, I noticed one end of the ship glowing an orangish color. I figured that must be the back end of the ship, and that was it's engine thruster. Smirking slightly, I narrowed my eyes and took aim with the laser cannons, and unleashed a heavy barrage of red laser bolts into the ship's thrusters.
It sputters heavily, glowing orange energy traveling alongside the ship from the thruster before it explodes. The explosion spreads out with strange, pale green fire and black smoke, and the echoes of fading shrieks flow towards us through the Force, making us wince slightly.
Ahsoka sighs, and I pull my hands off the trigger, relieved that we managed to stop it. Of course, that was only a simple ship, probably the equivalent of a dropship from the Clone Wars. It was a little bit bigger than the Knight Hawk, and longer too, but it wasn't too bad.
"You got it!" Mara says happily.
"Yup," I reply, before remembering the pod. "We should go get the pod."
Ahsoka nods in agreement and swings the ship back around to face the escape pod. Flickering a button, I activate a tow cable, which shoots out to clamp onto the pod, before pulling it in.
"Mara, go and lock all of our rooms, and hide everything related to us or the Jedi from sight," I tell her.
She looks at me in confusion.
"Everything? Why?" she asks.
"If Thrawn is on that escape pod, then I don't want to take any chances. We may have rescued them, but they're still with the Empire, and he can learn things about us we wouldn't even realize just by casual observation," I explain.
"Better to be safe than sorry," Ahsoka adds.
She frowns but nods in understanding, and goes to do the things I asked of her.
"R5, keep watch the monitors if they try something suspicious," Ahsoka says, and he beeps back at us in understanding.
With the tasks lined out, me and Ahsoka get up from our seats and head to the emergency airlock, where the escape pod just connected to magnetically, sending a quiet clang through the halls. Approaching the door, I opened it, to reveal the interior of the pod. Commander Vanto was in there, along with Thrawn, and it's a little weird I'm relieved that's the case.
They look up, and I take the moment to observe Thrawn, having only ever encountered him that one time a couple years ago. He was dressed in a white Imperial uniform, his rank displayed on his shirt. The color of it was a little surprising, since that showed he obvious was high in the ranks, but he wasn't a Grand Admiral. That rank is shown through golden shoulder pieces.
His eyes gleam red, but his gaze is completely calm, analytical, and curious, but he wasn't eyeing me like an enemy, which I took notice of. Vanto looked more nervous, and seemed a little bit afraid, but whether it was us or the Hive, I'm not sure.
"Thrawn," I say impassively.
"Jarik Shan," he replies in greeting. "And Ahsoka Tano I believe. It would seem Lord Vader's report about your survival is accurate."
Ahsoka frowns. "I suppose it would be Admiral. But don't expect to be returning to the Empire with me in tow," she warns him.
He hums, nodding his head, while Vanto looks between us uneasily. "Of course Miss Tano. It would be foolish to think we could take on two talented Jedi. But I must inquire, what brings you this far out into the Unknown Regions?"
"We received your distress call," I tell him.
"You- you did?" Vanto asks in surprise, looking bewildered. "But, why would you come to rescue us?"
Me and Ahsoka share a look with each other before facing them again.
"In this particular case, the galaxy shares a common enemy in the Yuuzhan Vong," I tell them.
Vanto widens his eyes incredulously, while Thrawn narrows his own, but I could sense he was just as surprised.
"You know of the Vong?" he asks us.
"...Enough," I say in reply.
After opening the escape pod, we bring Thrawn and Vanto onto the ship, closing the door before releasing the pod to float lifelessly amongst the wreckage once again. We then bring them to the common room, having them sit down, keeping a close eye on them. It didn't take a genius for us to know Thrawn was observing his surroundings, which made Ahsoka keep a constant gaze on him.
"So you know about the Vong invasion then," Thrawn says, looking at us questioningly. "I'm curious, why come to our rescue, even if we share a common enemy in them? We are also enemies."
"Because you have information on them," Ahsoka replies. "Much more than the both of us."
"It's only thanks to the Force that we know about them to begin with," I add.
No way are we going to reveal that I've secretly been intercepting their messages.
"So what, are we your prisoners? You gonna force is to tell you and then leave us to rot?" Vanto accuses, glaring at us.
"Listen buddy, it's either us or the Vong, your preference," I retort, shutting him up.
Thrawn gives him a brief glance before looking back at us.
"What makes you so sure I know more than you?" he questions.
"You've already been in combat with them. By all means, you're probably the best commander in the entire Imperial Navy, yet your entire fleet just got destroyed like nothing," Ahsoka states firmly. "You're observant Thrawn. If before you knew nothing other than the fact that they are coming, at least you now know what they're capable of."
"So, what happened here? What could've destroyed your fleet in this way?" I ask him.
He frowns thoughtfully, considering a response.
"Very well," he concedes.
"Sir?" Vanto asks in surprise.
"It's perfectly alright Commander," he reassured him before looking at us. "The Yuuzhan Vong ambushes us, their warships appearing from a portal much like the vessel you destroyed. We were caught off guard, and overwhelmed."
"You would've figured out a way to beat an ambush, even one like this," I say with a frown. "You're capable of such, your battles have proven that."
"So you've researched my career?" he muses, and I narrow my eyes at him.
"Keep talking Thrawn," Ahsoka states. "What changed in this battle? What could caused destruction like this?"
Mara the enters the room, keeping quiet upon noticing our 'guests,' and narrows her eyes. Thrawn glances at her briefly, and Vanto widened his eyes in bewilderment.
"The Vong are merciless, caring not for their pain, only ours. What destroyed our fleet was their flagship... a vessel of unimaginable power, beyond what I've seen," he continues.
"Their flagship?" I ask him.
"Decades ago, the Chiss Ascendancy entered into a bloody battle with a Vong scout fleet. We managed to recover intel from the aftermath, but many of their translated records spoke of this vessel. We've mever thought it actually existed," Thrawn informs us, much to our surprise and curiosity.
So, the Chiss, Thrawn's species, have battled the Hive before?
"They called it the Dreadnaught," he says omninously.
Me and Ahsoka share a worried look, but before we could continue, the intercom flares to life with an alarm, and R5 beeps at us frantically.
"You're getting something?" I asked in confusion.
He urgently tells us to come to the cockpit, and after glancing at Thrawn and Vanto, and then at each other, worry and concern shooting through me. R5 doesn't become this urgent unless there is a serious issue.
"Alright, both of you come on," Ahsoka says. "Mara, keep watching them!"
"No problem," she replies.
The five of us rush towards the cockpit, Thrawn and Vanto in front of Mara, while me and Ahsoka were in front of them. Reaching the cockpit, we sit in the pilot seats while Thrawn and Vanto sit in the back two chairs, Mara standing up behind them by the wall.
"What's the problem?" I ask R5.
He beeps frantically, and a frown comes to my face.
"An energy reading? How big?" I ask in concern.
R5 beeps again, saying that it was massive, close by, and a moving asteroid was showing up on his scanners, one of absolutely massive size. However, it was our two guests reactions that got our attention.
"No... no no no!" Vanto gasps quietly in complete fear, his eyes wide.
Thrawn also widened his eyes in alarm upon hearing R5's statement, much to our surprise.
"Shut down the power. Quickly!" he urges.
"What? Why?!" Mara exclaims incredulously.
"Do it, now! It's the Dreadnaught!" he exclaims, raising his voice a little bit, something I've never heard him do.
However, even though he was still an enemy, I wasn't about to doubt the word of someone of his intelligence when our lives were potentially in danger.
"Do what he says," I say firmly.
None of us argue, and do everything we can to shut down the ships systems. Before we turn off the engines, Ahsoka pulls us to a complete stop, so that we were drifting in space like any other piece of debris. The only light we had was the star's red glow.
R5 then beeps, causing Ahsoka to whip around in alarm. Over the bond I could sense her feeling a strong sense of nostalgia.
"R5, shut down now!" she orders.
R5 beeps in protest, and I grit my teeth, shooting up from the chair.
"Mara, sit in the copilot's seat!" I tell her, and she dashes over, noting the tone in my voice.
I storm over to R5, ignoring his angry beeps of protest, and then shut him off. As Mara sits down in the chair a wave of pure darkness washes over me, and I widen my eyes in shock at the feeling. Mara let's out a gasp, and I look back over to stand between Ahsoka and Mara's seat. All five of us widen our eyes in a mixture of alarm and growing dread as we see something approaching.
Coming up from beneath us in the left corner of our viewport, was a tremendous vessel. It was the largest ship I had ever seen in my life, almost looking like a colossal sized asteroid, and the awful, sickening darkness poured off of it in waves. The ship steadily moved to engulf our entire vision, it's right side face us. The massive cruiser was diagonal in shape, with a flat front, two large spines protruding in front of it. Dotted along the hull were more of those spines in smaller size, giving it a menacing look. Part of the flat front glowed a sickening green.
"Oh... my... gosh..." Mara whimpers, fear slowly overcoming her.
"Keep your shields up," I remind them, pouring a lot of my Force energy into shielding my presence, Ahsoka and Mara doing the same.
"We're gonna die here..." Vanto murmurs anxiously.
"No we're not!" I hiss back at him irritably.
As the massive Dreadnaught passed over us, the Knight Hawk actually shuddered slightly, a constant rumble quietly heard in our ears due to just its sheer size. We then got to see the rest of the Hive fleet, more cruisers following along the Dreadnaught's path, surrounding it. Each warship was probably equal to or a little bit smaller than the average Imperial Star Destroyer, but compared to the Dreadnaught, they might as well be small transports.
"It's so big!" Mara breathes out with wide eyes.
"Uhh... size comparison to the Malevolence?" I ask Ahsoka quietly.
She shakes her head numbly, eyes wide in fear and transfixed on the Dreadnaught. The horrible darkness continues to flow from it, covering us.
"Much bigger..." she manages to say.
"That, is the cruiser that took us out... in one shot," Thrawn says quietly.
As the Dreadnaught continues to pass by and over us, engulfing is in shadow, something along its side got our attention. A wide super-weapon dish, stationed along the middle towards the back end. A red light dotted the center of the super-weapon, and the long groove along the middle of the ship lead up to it, probably to charge whenever firing.
Dread and horrible anxiety continue to fill me at the sight of the super-weapon, and I'm sure Ahsoka is feeling a horribly unpleasant sense of nostalgia, considering her, Anakin, and Master Plo's escape from the Malevolence early in the war.
As the Dreadnaught continues to pass by us, the back end now visible to show the massive engine thruster moving its bulk, we started to feel a little better about this.
Vanto lets out a quiet gasp, sighing in relief.
"It's going away... it didn't see us," he mutters.
"Hopefully..." Mara says quietly in response.
However, just as it seems like we're in the clear with the Dreadnaught being much further away now, that hovering darkness suddenly converges on us with violent aggression. Ahsoka and I cry out in surprise and pain, while Mara gasps in pure terror. I grit my teeth, shutting my eyes and holding my head to stem the throbbing pain before reopening them, a rare sense of fear filling my soul.
He knows we're here.
"What? What is it?!" Thrawn asks anxiously, greatly alarmed.
The three of us slowly look up from holding our heads with quiet groans of pain, alarm filling us at the sight directly ahead. The Dreadnaught is slowly turning around, headed right back towards us, and the super-weapon almost seems to gleam sickly in a form of triumph.
"They're coming back!" Mara exclaims fearfully.
But what comes next is more terrible than anything the Hive fleet or the Dreadnaught itself had to offer. A loud and horrifying roar screeches loudly around our entire ship, followed by a dark massive cloud of glowing pale mist appearing in front of us with a bright flash. The mist forms into the face of an alien monster, the shriek dying away to an echo. Mara screams in fear at the sight and Vanto yells in terror, while the rest of us widen our eyes in shocked horror.
The alien face forming in the cloud of darkness is absolutely horrible to look at. It has a snarling mouth with rotten looking teeth and two large horns or something sticking out from either side of its head. And in the center of its face were three, pale, glowing eyes, filled with malice.
I gasp in fear, recognizing the face of this monster in the darkness.
Oryx, the Taken King.
"JEDI! DESCENDANT OF REVAN'S BLOOD!" his horrible, growling voice booms loudly, stunning me to the core.
He knew I was a descendant of Revan!? The one he fought thousands of years ago?!
"THE LIGHT OF YOUR SOULS, WILL BE MINE!" he roars.
Ahsoka and Thrawn manage to shake themselves out of their shock first, and she starts flipping the switches on the console furiously.
"Jarik, Mara! Get the power back on, now! We have to move!" she yells, snapping me back to reality.
The cloud of darkness then condenses with a terrible roar from Oryx, and with a flash it morphs into his full form, pale white and black light shining all around him, and ripped wings spread from his back, his three eyes shining bright with cold, malicious light. In his hands he carries a massive sword.
"WHAT THE KRIFF IS THAT?!" Vanto screams in horror.
I have no idea if this is even the real Oryx or not, with the way his body is glowing with that black, pale green and cold white goo, looking a little transparent, but I don't even care right now. The darkness rages and swirled around him in horrifying magnitude. I continue to furiously restore power, the ship coming online with a loud hum.
His gravely, booming laugh echoes around us in sick amusement, and he raises an arm towards us. Behind him, the Dreadnaught has now stopped turning, allowing the super-weapon to fully face us...
Oh man, cliffhanger! Haha I'm so evil to you guys! Things aren't looking very good at all for the group now huh? Geez...
And as you can probably guess, this chapter has a lot of similarities with the episode 'Rising Malevolence.' Also, I hope I wrote Thrawn well enough for you guys. :3
Next chapter coming soon, I promise you all!
