Many thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter, the story is progressing smoothly toward its conclusion, as far as the writing process goes, and Good News Everyone. I've changed my major in college to English because of how much I enjoy writing these fis and other writing projects! Enjoy the chapter! ~F
Chapter Forty Seven
The Siege of Castell
Gor-lak was beyond furious. Not only had his chance for personal glory during the space battle been denied by the effective and downright insane counterattack from the Republic commander's vessel, but his ship was now halted, completely dead in space, forcing the Ork to be moved to the bridge of the Dauntless, to serve directly under Lord Diábolis, as the Devaronian observed the Republic's preparations for a ground invasion.
"They still struggle to make sure that every citizen of their precious Republic has a chance to flee like the cowards they are…" the Sith Lord said curiously, watching the sensor readings from the planet below.
"I suppose we cannot disappoint them after all the effort they went through to prepare defenses against us," Diábolis continued after a moment longer, "Although I wish for this battle to be over quickly, so that we can move on before the following planets have time to be deserted. Fury," he turned to the other man standing at the command table, a Dark Adept with twin sabers and a mechanical arm, who looked ready to beat something to death with his own hands, "lead this assault, wipe the planet red with their blood for daring to resist us."
The man smiled at his orders, bowing graciously as he prepared to depart, "As you command, my Lord…" he said before stalking off, presumable to join an attack force on their way planetside.
"That should please him…" Diábolis said, turning back to Gor-lak, "he has been moping about since I removed him from his own fleet, but I cannot have such an effective field commander wasted and potentially killed in a space battle. It would be a grand waste of his talents, especially after all that High Prophet Zhar went through to train him."
The Ork smirked under his mask at the attitude of this Sith Lord. It was neither forced nor mocking, but a serious reference to the human as a tool, to be used and held onto for the correct moment, rather than brandied about like a cudgel and broken too soon.
"And then what of myself, my Lord?" he questioned, wondering what the Sith Lord thought he was best suited for.
"We'll need to wait until we can show the Jedi the true meaning of their failure to protect the Galaxy, not to mention that my master wanted to make sure you were present for the final conflict on Coruscant," was the reply from the Emperor's apprentice.
"As he commands," Gor-lak replied, "how shall I serve in the meantime as we proceed then?"
"Having another that I can trust more than these fools to coordinate the fleets would be of great assistance to me," Diábolis suggested with a dismissive wave of his hand, "but I'm sure eventually something will come up that needs someone of your talents…"
It was much as the Ork expected. He was being removed from direct combat merely to fight again when the opportunity of his causing more damage before his death was significantly higher.
It was a concept that Gor-lak himself would have used relentlessly during the height of his empire, and therefore curiously ironic that these usurpers to his glory, who had gone so far as to drag him back from death to serve them, would treat him in like manner. He would enjoy proving them wrong as to how simple it would be to eliminate the Master of Cruelty. However, as was normal for these Force users, they seemed to have little idea how exactly to make use of his power and abilities in the dark magic of his people.
Returning his attention to the holographic display of their forces as they landed on the surface of the planet, Gor-lak was amused to see that this battle would not be as simple as the Devaronian supposed. The Republic forces had quickly and quite efficiently entrenched themselves into the largest cities across the surface, evacuating the native populace to the far side of the planet, where their fleets had withdrawn to protect the escaping shuttle craft.
Personally, Gor-lak would have had a two-pronged attack in place, assaulting them via the ground as well as circling the planet from orbit, to knock out their escape route and trap the Republic here, but clearly the Sith Lord had other plans, almost as though he wanted them to escape, just so that they could pursue them further toward the Core of the Galaxy.
With dawning recognition, Gor-lak smirked as he realized that that was exactly what Diábolis was planning, slowly drawing his enemies all together so that they could be eliminated in one fell swoop rather than planet by planet.
Looking over at the red-eyed creature that was so closely tied to the rising master of the Galaxy, the Ork found himself even more wary of their motivations. Seizing power was one thing, but this brought the game to a level that even Gor-lak the Cruel hadn't supposed. It was truly…. magnificent.
He was looking forward to watching as these Sith Lords took the Galaxy by force, and crushed all their opposition to dust as the Galaxy shook with fear of their Empire's might.
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Fury smirked as he set foot on surface of Castell. Not only could he sense the great gathering of the Empire's enemies through the Force as they huddled in fear within the largest spaceport on this world, but he had been specially delivered several new weapons to field test for the Empire that would prove most useful in dispatching their enemies.
Even as he disembarked, the massive cages were being unloaded, with beast handlers and other Dark Adepts preparing for their offensive. They were to hit hard and fast, obliterating this primary place of exiting the world, and causing as much damage to their enemies forces as they could before packing up to move on.
And as annoyed at the haste that he was forced to operate upon, Fury was pleased that he alone was selected to be supreme commander of the ground forces, even above those field marshals and generals that had the foolish notion to presume that the honor would be theirs.
Striding up to where the small mobile command center had been set up, he consulted the holographic layout of their future battlefield. "What is the situation commander," he asked the nearest general, who had been the one making the orders and preparing everything for Fury's arrival.
"The last of the containers and weapons are being unloaded as we speak, my Lord," the Rodian General replied, smirking at the thought of the future bloodshed. "It will be a matter of minutes, perhaps a single hour at the most, before we are fully ready to move out and crush these Republic dogs."
Fury could agree with the being's enthusiasm, "and their efforts to empty the planet?" he had to still ask.
"Proceeding as Lord Diábolis anticipated, they will likely finish in the midst of our attack, and therefore be forced to withdraw from us, if we allow it to happen." The general answered.
"Depending on how the battle proceeds, we might not give them the option," Fury assured the being, knowing that he was going to likely be the primary officer that he would turn to in any given situation as of now. It was very useful to have like-minded people serving under you.
"What strategy are we planning to use to enter the fortifications," he questioned, glancing at the holographic layout of the city they planned to besiege.
"Between a light bombardment from our fighters to soften them up and those creatures that we've brought to test, it will be mostly a ground assault," the general explained, "some of the other vehicles that the Emperor wishes to be utilized will be brought for primary testing, and will cover one side of the city, while a conventional hover-tank charge will take the nearside. Some battalions of infantry remain on standby for drop ships to deploy them once we breach the walls and knock out their anti-air defenses, and once that takes place it will be a mop-up until they flee or we slaughter every last Republic soldier within that city."
Fury nodded. It was an acceptable plan, straightforward and efficient while still testing some of their new weaponry that the Emperor had bequeathed to the Armada to use on this final campaign to seize control of the Galaxy.
"Then proceed when ready," Fury commanded, turning to watch the city in the distance, just in case the Jedi were planning any sort of counter measure before they even began, but he doubted that they had the numbers or the will to commit so many to their deaths to stop the ground assault, little good it would do even if they did.
Soon, although still not quickly enough for Fury's waning patience, artillery was brought up and began pummeling the vast shields that had been erected around the city. The prismatic coloring of the defensive field told clearly that the Republic had brought a portable devise with them, based off the projections that shielded their ships from most attacks.
The enchanted projectiles likely did massive damage to the shield, but for what he could see, there was no change to the defense of the city. There was a screeching whine from above as a squadron of bombers soared in to deliver another bombardment of destruction, swerving side to side to avoid the blasts of anti-air fire that launched from within the walls of the city center.
"Keep up the assault from here, while we move to get into position," Fury ordered, before setting out toward the city, prompting the unit leaders and lower ranked officer to bark their commands to follow their leader into battle. Rank upon rank of infantry, all in pristine grey armor, occasionally interrupted by the red or black of officers, marched forward in full procession, giving the defenders a grand view of the army that was coming to slay them. Tanks started to move as well, forming a long line as they started to circle around the city to one side, and their newest creation, large droid-like vehicles operated by a single pilot, marched with surprising speed around the opposite side.
The attack was to commence the moment the shields fell, and at the same time their beasts, heavily augmented by ancient Sith Alchemy, would be unleashed to rain fire and death down on those trapped within the city. There would be no easy escape for those who dared to defy the Empire.
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Yoda watched dispassionately as the Empire's army marched upon the city they were currently encamped within. They were safe for the time being, but the prismatic barrier could only take so much abuse before it had to recharge, and they all knew that the moment that it shut off, the army would attack.
So, to counter these threats, Luna and he had arranged their defenders to guard the likeliest places of attack, and shuttles were being filled with great haste, although due to the shield they could not launch either. Hopefully they could all escape at the same time once the shield went down, but there were simply too many civilians for that to be possible. Even more shuttles waited just out of range to come and land to pick up even more people, so it was a matter of intense timing that had to be orchestrated right now.
"Barrier integrity at thirty percent, General," the engineer operating the portal shield projected informed them gravely.
"Prepared, as best we can be we are…" Yoda said, turning to look at Luna. Personally, he was very grateful that Ist was far away from here, assisting the Grand Master of another errand of great importance. He had grown very fond of the little Bothan girl that he had chosen as his Padawan, and hoped that she would become a outstanding Jedi, whether he survived this battle or not.
"Yes, once the barrier is lowered, have all towers and turrets open fire on the invaders," she agreed, turning to the engineer, "at ten percent, lower the barrier and let it cool and recharge, we'll need it again in case of an emergency."
"Yes general, lowering at ten percent," the man replied, watching the indicators as they ticked off the remaining charge of the massive shield keeping the madness of this battle at bay a few moments longer.
Yoda watched as the counter approached the appointed number, time seeming to slow as a great breath was metaphorically inhaled around the site of this battle. Thirteen percent… every man and woman of the Republic seemed to pause, appreciating this relatively peaceful moment before all hells broke loose. Twelve percent…
Fixing his eyes on the large gateway before them, where the ranks of Sith infantry marched toward them, Yoda wondered if those pressed into service of the Empire felt fear at their state… likely not… Eleven percent."
He gripped his Lightsaber in hand, feeling the cool, comfortable and well remembered handle. The great breath seemed to exhale. Ten percent… "Shield deactivating!" the engineer cried, breaking the spell as the prismatic barrier started to drop.
Instantly the turrets and those they had placed in the higher buildings opened fire, literally pelting their attackers with a hailstorm of ordinance, while outside, the infantry advancing on them charged, weapons raised and firing.
Emerald saber flaring to life in Yoda's hand, he spun in a small whirlwind of motion, dodging and redirecting as many of the projectiles as he could away from his forces and back toward the Empires troopers.
Luna was mere feet away, also moving like the wind as she created a small island of calm within the chaos of the barrage coming at them. The few troopers that they had positioned behind them for appearances sake fired at the oncoming enemy as well, but they needed to wait for their full attack once the Empire's army had entered the city proper. Only then would they realize their mistake of underestimating the forces of the Republic.
Blaster fire erupted on the other two main sides of the city, and Yoda knew that some sort of mechanical vehicles were approaching one side of the city, while a bombardment of tanks pelted the other, trying to punch a hole for more of their infantry to enter.
After a few moments of distraction, Yoda and Luna intentionally fell back, drawing the frontlines of Sith troopers right into their trap. When those first soldiers crossed the threshold of the city, the Republic troopers on both sides opened fire, catching the attackers on now three sides, while simultaneously, more of their forces stood upon the wall or exited towers, holding large turret guns that affixed themselves to the strong surface of the wall's top, before firing miniature versions of the arc lance into the rows of advancing infantry.
As though they were plowing a field, these turrets swept back and forth across the lines, inflicting massive damage to all in their path and forcing the Sith to break formations to escape the beams' deadly power.
In addition, the Techno Union droids erupted out of the ground where they had hidden themselves, scuttling forward and firing bursts of energy from their main cannons, or even barreling directly into the nearest knot of troopers if close enough. The droids were more than a welcome source of added strength in this desperate battle.
"Now!" Luna cried as a signal, and all the troopers hurried to the front of the gateway, throwing explosives as far as they could into the disorganized lines of Sith soldiers, causing more havoc among them. For their part, Yoda and Luna grabbed hold of several massive slabs of stone telekinetically, and allowing the Force to flow through them, hefted the enormous pieces of stone, throwing them into place under the archway of the entrance as their troops cleared away, even while the arc lance turrets continued their steady stream of firing over the walls at the infantry outside.
There wasn't much else that they could do to seal this way inside, but at least it gave the Sith infantry many things to think about, and bought them a bit more time, leaving their enemies to deal with the Spider droids that had been left outside to cause disarray among them. "Now for the tanks and their new mechanical contraptions," Luna said, and she tore off to one side, while Yoda took half the republic troops and went the other way, hoping to cut off the waves of tanks before they caused too much damage to their eastern flank.
Some Sith infantry had already made it inside the city on that front, the defenders falling back to the abandoned buildings for cover when Yoda arrived on the scene. Leaping into the air, the Goblin Jedi Master flipped forward twice before landing heavily on the chest plate of a Sith trooper, plunging his saber deftly into the body where the heart would be for a normal human, gathering the Force and leaping to the next knot of enemy forces as the man fell with a cry of shock and pain as he died.
The loss of life in war was something to mourn, but for now, Jedi Master Yoda had to carry on the work of death in order to save the lives of the innocent. Seeing another trooper firing on some fleeing civilians, Yoda threw his weapon with all his strength, the emerald blade whirling dangerously as it struck the offending Sith soldier, severing the head from his shoulders, and arcing in a wide turn to fly back to his hand.
Even as that occurred, Yoda had to dodge backward as a massive tank barreled into the city, crashing through a small building to try and fire its massive turrets as buildings holding Republic forces. Luckily, another swarm of Spider droids appeared, distracting the tank with their cannons and extreme mobility, dodging easily around the blasts that the Sith tank attempted to return.
Gathering the Force, Yoda strained as he heaved upward, using the powers of telekinesis once again to bodily lift the tank higher than a human's head, and hurled it out of the city with a grunt of exertion.
He would have liked to rest a long moment after that stunt of pure power but there was no time, as more infantry appeared, and Yoda had to spin out of the way of their weapon's sights as he caught his returning saber, the small blade spinning dangerously in his hand to deflect their projectiles back at the Imperial troops, and again he was off, charging the nearest foe to counterattack.
Yoda could tell that throughout this sector of the city tanks and infantry were pouring in from a collapsed portion of the wall, and while there was little that he could do to repair the wall, Yoda was going to try his hardest to see if they could plug it with something else.
Out of the corner of another building, a dark robed figure charged, a crimson saber flaring to life, and Yoda spun out of the way, dodging the surprise attack of the Adept that had come to challenge him.
Flipping forward with a small burst of the Force, Yoda quickly slashed and jabbed at the Darksider, executing a devastatingly quick flurry of Ataru, which served to simply overwhelm the other Force user's defenses, before making contact and striking the robed man hard in the shoulder, thigh and chest before he dropped with only a small cry of surprise.
A warning from the Force had Yoda sprinting to the side in an instant as the ground where he had stood exploded, even as a trio of new tanks appeared, trying to bulldoze their way through the sector of the city.
Rockets and other ordinance flew from the buildings all around, trying to impede or destroy the tanks, but they were heavily shielded, and the explosions only managed to slow them down for the slimmest of seconds.
Seeing an opportunity as one tank crashed through the underside of a building to reach him, Yoda flung his saber at one of the supports, before wrenching a second out of place with the Force. The building teetered sharply, before starting to collapse, trapping and likely crushing the tank beneath it.
The others were quick to stop such tactics afterward, and Yoda found himself herding them around in wide circles as they attempted to get a lined up shot on the significantly smaller target. Techno Union droids took up the pursuit, but their weapons were not very powerful in comparison to the tanks, and they doggedly remained focused on the Jedi Master over their other foes.
Taking to the air once more however, Yoda landed firmly on one of the shielded tanks, stabbing vigorously with his weapon, smirking in true Goblin fashion as the plasma blade bore straight through the energy field protecting the metal hull of the vehicle. It screeched to a halt, attempting to jerk and twist to throw him off, but to no avail, and the Union's droids quickly encircled the tank to prevent its escape, while far off the Republic troopers were likely preparing long range missiles to destroy it.
Digging firmly into the metal surrounding the main turret, Yoda ran along the top of the tank, dragging his saber through the metal beneath him, carving up the top of the tank like a piece of meat, before the Force warned him and he jumped away as the blade met some sort of fuel tank within the top of the vehicle, rupturing it and causing the tank to rupture slightly, moments before his soldiers' rockets arrived, and the tank exploded with a hail of metal scrap.
The final tank was unwilling to take much more action, backing away from the Jedi, but continuing to fire at any nearby foes as it withdrew. Yoda wasn't about to allow it to get away so easily, and stowed away his saber, focusing on dodging the high powered projectiles that flew at him and closing distance rapidly with the hovering metal behemoth.
The Force flowed around him in torrents, and with a third mighty telekinetic heave upward Yoda lifted the entire tank , its crew abandoning the vehicle in a panic to be mowed down by the Spider droids, before Yoda threw the tank with great force right at the hole in the wall that the Sith soldiers had made to enter. The tank wasn't big enough to block it completely, but it served as a nice blockage to drastically cut the number of enemy troops that could enter easily, and prevented any more tanks from driving in without clearing it first.
The remaining dozen or so droids took up a covering position around the semi blocked opening, pouring blaster fire upon anything that attempted to enter even as the Republic warriors, and the handful of other Jedi Knights that had been deployed to this flank rallied around Yoda, and he spoke to them quickly, "Fall back we must, before in greater numbers the Sith Empire returns."
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Fury seethed as he watched from the back lines of his army, seeing the Jedi and the Republic lapdogs successfully block out two of the entrances to the city in quick succession. The mechanical walking vehicles had already all pierced their side of the city's walls, and were consequently out of his line of vision, although the officer monitoring them with a pair of Imperial engineers reported that they were all accounted for and were devastating that side of the city, moving inward to the spaceports.
"It is time," Fury said, turning to the leader of the beast handlers, "release the behemoths…"
The man smirked as he sent a signal to his underlings. Thirty cages spaced out behind the forward command post sprung open, and the sky darkened momentarily as the winged creatures, heavily armored and with flames leaping from their gaping jaws, rose into the air to follow the bidding of their handlers as they had been trained from hatching.
The fiendish beasts flew a lazy single circle around their command center, before with sharp roars of anger and malice they shot like projectiles toward the city, their wings creating small windstorms with the vicious beating required to keep them aloft.
Fury was not looking forward to the mess that these creatures would leave in their wake, but it would be worth it just to see the havoc about to be unleashed upon the defenders. "Move the command post forward, and reinforce our front lines with more tanks and infantry, I want these two flanks pushed in to meet with the walkers in the central square before we march on the spaceport."
"Yes, my Lord," the general acknowledged via comlink, fanning out the orders among his staff, and within moments they were moving onward, with ranks of the Empire's finest marching ahead of them in full military precession, heralding the doom of this planet and its fall to the conquerors of the Sith Empire.
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Luna retreated past another row of buildings, barely escaping the devastation that these new weapons of the Empire were causing among her forces. Built like tanks, with heavy armor and high powered weapons, they walked upright like a man on two strong legs, albeit towering some twenty to thirty feet tall and crashing through building like they were nothing.
Rockets and other explosives seemed to have little effect on them too, as they were heavily shielded as well, and Luna could not get close enough to attempt to use either the Force or her Lightsaber, as they were armed with smaller turret projectors, that tore through infantry without mercy. The Spider droids attempted to halt them, but the walking automatons merely crushed them underfoot as they marched on, regarding them little more than the creatures by which the droids were named.
Returning to the center of the city, where a large causeway normally would house some sort of marketplace, Luna was met with the returning forces surrounding Yoda, who were withdrawing from their flank as well.
Then, over the screams of death and the blasts of laser fire, Luna heard something frighteningly familiar. Yoda turned to look with her, concern and recognition of his green face as they watched over two dozen shapes rapidly flying toward them. The flapping wings and occasion bouts of flame from them left no cause for doubt.
The Sith were using dragons now…
"We cannot win this fight…" Luna said quietly, "we need to evacuate with the last of the civilians."
Turning to the mass of warriors, she commanded, "Retreat to the spaceport! Go!"
Soldiers, Jedi and vehicles alike turned and made a mad dash to the rearmost part of the city, where the shuttles were carrying the populace away from the battle and safely to the arms of their protective fleet in orbit.
"This is Jedi Master Luna Lovegood, requesting all available shuttles to land, we need military and civilian evacuation now!" she said hurriedly into her comlink.
Turning, she saw Yoda organizing their last stand, if and when the enemy forces reached them before the shuttles did, closing the powerful blast doors to the spaceport and sealing every possible route that ground forces may take.
"I want all heavy weapons out on the landing pad, waiting for anything that might try to stop the shuttles!" she called over the din, and all troopers near to her acknowledge, rushing to get their missile launchers ready and in place.
The loyalty of the Republic military to the Jedi was astounding, Luna thought. These men did not know what was coming, but trusted their Jedi Generals with their lives. She swore to herself that she would protect as many of them as she could.
It was also time to deploy a few more of Hermione's portable versions of her powerful weapons and shielding. Indicating a spot that was well defensible, but out of range of the blast doors, Luna directed several engineers to set up the portable prismatic barriers, to further block the way from the invaders from entering the spaceport proper.
The ground rumbled as the first of their foes arrived outside the outer blast doors, and the Jedi could clearly sense that the forces of the Empire were quickly getting the tools needed to dismantle the doors and move on, which meant that they had limited time before they reached the shield and their final barrier.
Meanwhile, the sky overhead darkened as the dragons arrived. On closer inspection, even as they flew overhead and knocked a pair of shuttles out of the sky, Luna was horrified to see that each of the once beautiful creatures were horrifically changed, spikes and other growths coming from the beast's hide as though grown there for some sick experiment.
If not for the fact that they were currently threatened by the presence of these beasts, Luna might have wanted to do something about freeing them from Sith control. Sadly, there was simply no time, and she was already sworn to protecting the people of the Republic.
The troopers stationed in the middle saw this as their cue, firing portable arc lances as well as launching missiles to try and drive the flock of fire breathing beasts away from the shuttles, to marginal effect. There were simply too many, and soon, Luna had to order no further shuttles to launch from their dwindling number, and hoped that those coming from orbit had escorts.
They could just barely make out the ships approaching with all haste from their fleet, but attention was pulled from that by a deafening explosion as the blast door blocking the ground forces from reaching them was destroyed, revealing a cadre of demolition engineers, backed up by swarms of Imperial infantry, and several Dark Side adepts that streamed in. They wisely chose not to fire upon seeing the prismatic barrier however, and Luna herself stood just past it, in full view of the encroaching armies, as shuttles were loaded behind her and the roars of the dragons bellowed above.
In truth, she was there to cover the devises maintaining the barrier from being affected by the Force if the Darksiders attempted to break though that way.
But soon enough another figure came through the midst of the soldiers to stand before her, presumably their leader. "Well, well, Jedi Lovegood… It's been a long time since we've met last…" the man said, flexing his metallic fingers on one of the sabers he grasped.
"I'm sorry, I believe I do not know who you are…" Luna said, having met so many people, Force users and not that she hardly bothered to remember more than those who were impactful to her personally or important in some way.
"It is of little consequence, you will remember me as the one who ended your existence." The man replied, making a hand signal to some of the troopers behind him, who gave frighteningly strange, almost strangled cries.
Luna was confused for a moment, before the responding shrieks of the dragons caused realization to strike. They were trainers. The dragons obeyed these servants of the Sith, and started trying to force their way into the open air sections of the spaceport, trying to get in range to attack and slaughter the Republic forces, who were now trapped like rats in their own cage.
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Fury wanted to gloat as he watched the Emperor's chosen foe die at the claws of the Empire's beasts, but reconsidered, choosing rather to watch in silence as the Jedi met her fate.
There was little point in trying to break through their barrier, as they had learned that it took very powerful ship to ship weapons to pierce them easily, but what kept them out also kept the Republic forces in.
That had been his thought, until the whine of engines sounded alongside the roars of the great flying beasts. Signaling for men to call the armada and launch their strike on the fleet in orbit, Fury watched as escort fighters started picking off several of the beasts, driving the rest away in time for more shuttles to arrive, and those already full on the ground to launch, carrying more of the Republic's troops as well as civilians away safely.
The Jedi before him looked smug, but Fury only grinned back, "Yes Jedi, carry our future citizens to safety, they will have plenty of time to come to terms with their inevitable defeat at our hands, and who knows, if they prove loyal they might get to return to their little world… but who knows when that might be possible."
The Jedi's smug look turned to a scowl of most wonderful anger, and Fury almost laughed when she struck out at him with the Force. He had been expecting, almost hoping, for some reaction, and only skidded back five feet or so, but the point he had won was most interesting. The barrier could not block the Force.
Grinning, he reached out, striking powerfully at the two beacons powering the shield, and while the Jedi was also protecting them with her strength in the Force, he succeeded in making one of the pair wobble slightly. "Knock aside these beacons and charge!" Fury announced, and the other twenty or so Dark Side adepts flocked to his side, straining in the Force to overpower the one Jedi.
She was surprisingly strong, but soon enough they overpowered her strength, knocking aside the generators and disabling the shield. Charging the gap, Fury swung, but the Jedi had already moved, leaping backward with a tight spin to land well within a knot of Republic troopers, who opened fire on them with not only blasters, but several missile launchers as well, even as they fell back toward a trio of remaining shuttles.
Fury knocked a pair of missiles aside with the Force, but a pair of adepts was caught by a third, leaving nothing but a smoking crater behind. The last shuttle was already launching as they arrived in the middle of the spaceport, and Fury activated his comlink, "Every proceeds as planned, my Lord. The Jedi and their shuttles are on route to their fleet as we speak."
"Excellent, Lord Fury," replied the voice of Lord Diábolis, "return your armies to the armada, and we will take care of the rest."
"As you command, my Lord…" Fury acknowledged, cutting the communication and signaling for the others to return to the transports. Their work for this battle was finished.
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Diábolis quickly ordered several of the faster capital ships to move in on the Republic fleet and engage. The Dauntless was too large to bring so close to the planet, else he would have sent it in foremost, but half a dozen of their finest cruisers and dreadnaughts ought to suffice to create enough chaos to knock out a few shuttles and make the Republic pay for their stunts during the ground invasion.
Diábolis had been watching through the feeds tied to the mobile command station that Fury had occupied, and he was pleased with the man's tactics. He had progressed as a military commander since those early days of the way when he would just as soon barrel into combat alone at the head of his troops rather than strategize an effective plan.
Either that or the man had realized that even he couldn't take on a city of Republic soldiers all at once. Regardless, even as Diábolis watched the orbital layout of the planet as his fleets swiftly circling toward their intended targets, he spotted the shuttles of the Sith armies returning to the main portion of the armada, funneling in among several of the larger capital ships, as well as the Dauntless itself.
But the devaronian Sith Lord was more concerned with the final parts of the battle, and driving the Republic from their new system than going down to a hangar to congratulate one of his underlings. The ships made contact and started their attack prior to Fury's appearance on the bridge as well, so whether the man was put out for not having his desired attention, Diábolis did not know or pay any attention to.
The small fleets had divided to hit the Republic on both sides, while launching fighters to attempt to intercept any straggling shuttles, and eliminate the last bit of their ground forces before they escaped the planet, while the larger ships hampered the mobility of the Republic fleet altogether, trying to pin them between the Sith and the planet itself.
"Have the rest of the armada circle the planet, I want to completely cut off their ability to run, just in case they manage to get past those on the front lines of this attack," Diábolis ordered, and the nearby navigation officers relayed his commands to engineering, starting the main thrusters and propelling the hulking warship forward.
However, from the fight that the Republic was putting on those fleets, Diábolis was not remotely surprised when they broke through while the armada was only halfway through their rotation around the planet. Ships were tearing away from Castell, but unlike previous engagements, they all fled in the same direction, several of the newer models leaping to Hyperspace far quicker than others.
"Activate the tractor beam." Diábolis ordered, even as they came into range of the stragglers, some sort of large pirate vessel, which had older systems than the Republic ships. The ship stopped dead in space, even as those around it blurred and vanished as they fled in terror of the might of the Sith navy.
"Prepare a boarding party; I want these being taken alive for questioning." Diábolis told Fury, indicating that he would head up the assault through the pirate vessel, before turning to Gor-lak as well, "plot the course that the Republic took, and pursue them, cycling fresh fleets to the front of our assault. We need to be on the move shortly if we are to keep up the pressure on the Republic." he continued.
"Congratulations, soldiers of the Empire," he said to the officers and others at large around the bridge, "We have entered the Colonies, and the Core awaits us."
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Fury was pleased by his new task. Boarding ships was what he excelled at, with his ability to lead smaller numbers of soldiers in his personal wake, the very thought of the massacre ahead causing his twin sabers to flare to life as the engineers worked to cut open the bulkheads of the pirate vessel. It was unlikely that they would surrender without a fight, and if a handful were killed, Fury doubted that Diábolis would care too much.
Within moments, the small explosives ignited, blasted the solid bulkhead inward and piercing a hole into the ship for them to enter. Commanding a large regiment of troopers to guard the entrances and the rest of the large hangar around them, Fury took point and led a small platoon into the ship.
He was disappointed to not find the heavy resistance he had expected upon entering the ship. Clearly the pirates were of a different mindset than the Republic when it came to repelling boarders. That or they were all cowering in fear, but Fury truly hoped that was not the case. He had had little opportunity to deal in personal combat, and was itching for the chance now.
He was so eager for thing, that when the expected ambush finally happened, Fury had to restrain himself from simply leaping into action and slaying all of the pirates without mercy. Instead, he settled for only four out of the two dozen that manned the ship dead, while another five or six beings lost limbs or were rendered unable to fight any longer.
That was sadly all it took for the captain of the ship to surrender, fearing more for the loss of his own life rather than the lives of his crew, but such was what Fury had come to expect from the lowlife scum of the galaxy.
Dragging the captain along with him out of the ship, Fury tossed the Weequay pirate leader to the waiting Sith soldiers, to be taken to Diábolis for questioning. Meanwhile he stayed personally with his boarding party, hoping for the order to slay the rest of the crew to come through, so that he could indulge in the bloodshed personally.
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Diábolis frowned as the filthy and blathering fool of a pirate was brought before him. while it was obvious that the being had been closely working alongside the Republic in fighting against the Sith, he still had the audacity to try and lie to the face of a Sith Lord, telling a long-winded and rambling story of coercion and betrayal, of how he and his men had been forcefully pulled from their 'honest' labors and forced to fight under the banner of the Jedi.
It was amusing for all of five seconds, and that was when Diábolis silenced him through the Force, grabbing him by the windpipe and squeezing just enough so that the pirate's eyes bugged out and he started to gag in protest.
"Now, before you get too far into your carefully constructed lie to keep a hold of your own perverse sense of honor even as you fight alongside those who you once treated as enemies, I'd like to get the answers to my questions out of you…" he said slowly, allowing the words to hiss out between his pointed teeth.
"B…but I do not know anything regarding what the Jedi are up to?!" the Weequay blathered, starting to tremble in appropriate fear. "They never filled us in on what their plans were, just where to go and what formation to place our ships in, and who to fire upon…"
"Then I guess you are of no use to me…" Diábolis said, reaching slowly for his lightsaber.
"No, wait, wait! I might know something," the pirate protested further, struggling against the restrains that bound his hands and sitting up from the deck. "I can tell you what planet they withdrew to next, how many ships the fleet has, who leads us…"
"Any fool can have a droid run a scan of the number of ships in your fleet…" Diábolis seethed, "We've encountered it enough times to run thorough scans, and we can easily plot what world your friends are fleeing to. As for commanders, I already know that you all look to Jedi Knight Luna Lovegood and her little green friend Yoda as your leaders…"
The Weequay was flabbergasted, taken by surprise that suddenly he had no useful information to give in exchange for his own life. Diábolis gave the man a few more moments to think of something else, unclipping the weapon from his belt for good motivation.
"Hang on, I can get you specifics of the advanced weapons that the Jedi ships are using, then your engineers could counterman the… Ahhhh!"
Diábolis had run out of patience, and drove his blade into the lying Weequay's chest. The man slumped over after several moments of pure horror crossed his face and he died.
As though the pirate had any clout with the Republic to steal tech from them for the Sith, and as though it would make a difference when compared to the size of their grand fleet, despite their leaving ships behind when too damaged or to protect their newly claimed worlds.
Now there was just the matter of the pirate vessel itself to deal with, along with the crew. "Lord Fury," Diábolis said, holding up his communicator.
"Yes, my Lord. What is your command?"
"Execute the crew, they are of no use to us." The devaronian commanded, and the sound of blaster fire was his answer instantly.
"What shall we do with their vessel?" Fury questioned, and Diábolis smirked as he thought up a useful plan.
"Fill it with explosives and one droid to pilot it back to the Republic fleet…" he commanded, wondering how Lovegood would weasel her way out of this newest plot to try and kill her and her soldiers.
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Luna breathed a small sigh of relief as the Republic defense fleet arrived, mostly intact, in orbit over the system of Yabol Opa. It was growing most desperate, as the Sith Empire had finally breached the ring of systems called the Colonies, and were already pushing toward the Core worlds. Only four major systems remained between their current position at Castell and the Republic capital of Coruscant.
But perhaps hope remained she thought, as she noticed the other, much older Republic fleet that was already in orbit.
"General, were being hailed by the ships in orbit." The communications officer reported.
"Put them through," Luna permitted, watching the small holographic communicator as it flared to life, revealing an older human male, bearded and weathered looking. "Ah, Master Jedi, we have been waiting for you and your fleet to arrive." He said, the coolness of a warrior present in his fashion, albeit with the old strictness of the Republic military in his mannerisms.
"And who might you be, sir?" Luna responded, returning politeness for politeness.
"I am Meteor, leader of Havoc Squad," the man replied, "and we have returned to lend our aid to our beloved Republic in her most dire hour."
Luna recognized the codename, as well as the mythical Squad from the Republic's cold war against a Sith Empire of ages past. it was downright impossible for this man to be that same Meteor from then, as even a Jedi couldn't live that long, therefore she reasoned that the title must have been passed down through the ranks, indicating the leader of the squad after they broke away from the Republic and went rogue.
But now, if they were returning to lend their aid, Luna wasn't about to push aside any extra hands. "Then we would welcome you back into the Republic military with open arms, Havoc Squad." She said, much to the pleasure of the man calling himself after the legendary Meteor. "Form up alongside us," Luna added quickly, "The Sith are not far behind, and will arrive soon."