Pressing forward once more, and many thanks to those who review and keep up correspondence regarding this story. The great battle continues, and the finale is around the corner, with only 3 updates left in RoDV after this one, looking at the beginning of May for this story to be completed in post. Therefore, cutting to the chase I will say no more but enjoy the ride. ~F
Chapter Sixty
Teetering on the Brink
Luna spun once more, dodging out of the way of a piece of random ordinance that Veneficus had casually thrown at her with the Force, before sprinting at him once more, sabers creating a cascade of light and sound as the clashed time and again. She could not beat him, she knew this now, but she had to give her all to delaying and inflicting as much damage to his ship, or his person, that she could before making her escape to fight again.
She had quickly backed out of the room that was clearly intended to be her death trap, and the Emperor had pursued her, mad in his rage and desire to end her. This was his flaw, and Luna could sense it. He was so determined to kill her that all his thought was bent upon that one act, blinding him to all else. It was her one advantage, so she quickly worked to adapt the situation to her liking, choosing a new scene for their duel. Through the corridors they battled, Sith troopers and other soldiers running from the pair as they fought, unwilling to even stand and watch their Emperor in his anger.
Only when they had entered the bridge had the man started to openly use the Force, throwing consoles and even people at her in any attempt to force her to stay still, all part of the hastily cobbled plan that Luna was compiling as she went. She dodged again, and a screaming officer went flying into the wall behind her, before she rolled across the floor, seeking another exit to lead the chaotic whirlwind of devastation that was the Emperor to some other location.
Nevertheless, there was a aura of danger that warned her from remaining near the madman for too long, and she felt it in her bones that if she engaged him directly for too long, she would lose.
Spying another door that led from the bridge, she ran for it, ducking another console as it was flung at her, and cutting the locking mechanism as she passed. She had been quick, but even as the door closed she screamed, stumbling forward as a blast of lightning rocketed through the ever closing gap, striking her shoulder and sending wave of agony through her.
She didn't have time to register the pain however, and shunting it from her mind as the searing plasma blades of the Emperor dug deeply into the metal of the door behind her. She had to move, getting to a place where she could do further damage to his monster of a ship, and still escape from it at the same time.
She barely made it to the corner of the corridor before the screech of rending metal told her that the Emperor had powered his way through the door with the Force. If he wanted to hunt her so badly, then Luna had little choice but to give the madman what he wanted.
"This is Emperor Veneficus to all personnel of the Apex." Sounded the man's voice overhead, and Luna knew that things were about to become far more difficult. "There is a rogue Jedi on board, find her and bring her to me!"
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Zhar sensed a great deal of commotion surging through the Apex, but his attention had to be focused on what was in front of him. Another wave of Republic reinforcements had arrived, seeming scrambled together of whatever fighters they could muster, as well as freighters to carry them, at best, but still, more marks for them to destroy.
But there was more than just that. A fair number of sleek ships came in from Hyperspace, almost glistening with the smooth chrome of their polished surfaces. Nubian design if he spotted correctly, and Zhar almost snorted. The system of Naboo had come to the aid of the Republic. From the looks of it, they had marshaled all their planet's forces, even the massive royal ships came flying in, what weapons they had blazing as they slammed fully into the dogfights of the Sith and Republic fighters.
And as if on cue, led by the inspiring act of the normally peaceful Naboo, Zhar sensed a great torrent of approaching ships, and Hyperspace seemed to explode to life with ships pouring from all directions. The entirety of the free Galaxy had arrived, hell bent on stopping the fall of this once planet, and the Republic that they held dear. Why they had waited till now to fight, Zhar could only guess, but the fact remained that the Empire now stood on even ground with their enemies, when it came to numbers, but the thought only made the High Prophet of the Dark Side smile.
"This is High Prophet Quelmok, requesting all available fighters on my mark, we have incoming." He announce over the open Imperial comms.
"Shall we request reinforcement's, my Lord?" another pilot asked, and Zhar considered the thought for a moment.
"Yes, I believe it is time to show these fools just what they are challenging. Release the reserves and send communication back to the capitol. Tell them that High Prophet Zhar has issued an execution of Order Twenty-Three."
Clearly, the man had at least a small amount of knowledge to understand that if a High Prophet was issuing an numbered order, then it was a serious matter, as the line went silent for a full second, "Understood, my Lord."
In the meantime, while his orders were being followed, Zhar pinged for Euka to follow him, and with what other nearby fighters there were, he charged the oncoming hordes of starfighters, dodging and weaving the torrents of laser fire that marked their approach, destroying every ship he fixed his gaze upon, as the weaker and less prepared ships stood no chance against their weaponry.
What the whole of the Galaxy hoped to do, in throwing what last dregs of weaponry they possessed at them at this last moment was incoherent to the High Prophet, but clearly they had to be desperate in thinking that numbers alone would win this battle, and keep the fight going. They had sorely underestimated the war they were in, up until the very last, and very soon, Zhar would show them that they had been doomed from the very start.
Everything in this war had gone according to the design of the Emperor. With this last act, of sending forth all their strength to attempt to push the Empire back, the Republic had sealed their doom. This was the single largest collection of their enemies that had ever been gathered in one place, in space or on land, and it was here that the Emperor had foreseen that an example would be made of all those who would resist their might, and their divine right, as granted by the Force itself, to rule the Galaxy.
And now, the curtain was about to fall upon the era of the Republic, and the Jedi. All that was needed was a short amount of time longer for them to be delayed before their reinforcements arrived, and with them the destructive power that they had kept in reserve for this very moment. The horrors that Veneficus had yet to unleash upon the Republic, saving for the last few battles were things that only a privileged number even were aware of, let alone had access to take command of, and this was one of the select few that even the Dark Council had been made aware of.
So, taking charge of the current situation, Zhar led a mad dash into the swarms of enemy ships, harassing their larger vessels while more than showing up the lesser fighters the maneuverability and shield strength of the Imperial armada, absorbing a literal hailstorm of plasma, and dodging even more as he literally flew circles around the enemy lines, bombarding their transport carriers and doing everything in his power to keep the Republic from forming into a cohesive unit and attacking with Diábolis' weakened front or coming after the Emperor himself.
Many more Imperial ships saw what he was up to, and soon there was an entire faction of light corvettes and fighters following in his wake, and the Republic ships began to fall one by one. At that time, the nearest of their summoned reinforcements arrived, those loyalists that Veneficus and Diábolis had held back for the specific moments that they were needed.
Over a dozen ships from both sides came hurtling into real space, guns already blazing as they fired volleys of destructive ordinance into the mass of enemy ships. The sheer havoc caused by their new reinforcements sent many of the allies system's various ship colliding into each other, doing an equal amount of damage that the firepower of the Imperial craft did to their massive fleet, and yet Zhar was still waiting for the grand finisher that was yet to arrive.
He could sense it coming, traveling far faster than even lightspeed should allow it to, but as with most things that combined the native magic of Veneficus' home world with the technology of the wider galaxy, the know impossible suddenly became child's play to achieve.
Suddenly, in a rush of light, it was there among them, massive and bold in its appearance directly in the open, just waiting for something to dare engage it. Zhar wanted to laugh as he saw the pride and joy of the Imperial Navy, the greatest ship ever constructed. If the Republic thought that the Sith were idle in their attempts to develop new technology during the war, or that they couldn't get their hands on Granger's little plans, then they were about to be proven how wrong they were.
Zhar watched his monitors eagerly as several of the Republic ships moved to intercept and engage the new ship, which dwarfed even the Apex and the Dauntless combined in size. Even before the tiny snub fighters could get within firing range, the countless turrets along every visible surface of the ships had turned, layering space with a crisscrossing network of beams and bolts, turning what was once empty space into a dead zone, and annihilating the fighters instantly.
"This is the Terrasque, awaiting your orders, my Lord," the commander of the juggernaut of a mighty vessel reported, already moving into position to unleash its weapon systems upon the Republic forces, and their allies.
"Wipe these pathetic life forms and their ships from the face of the Galaxy," Zhar ordered, smirking, "let them see that they were fools to challenge the strength of our Empire."
"Orders acknowledged, as you command, my Lord," the ship replied, and even from the distance his squadron was from the massive ship, Zhar could feel the vibration as all weapon and shielding systems powered to maximum charge on the deadly ship.
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Yoda was unable to believe what the scanners were telling him. They had done all that they could, eliminated the Dauntless, one of the two ships that they had thought were the worst that the Empire could throw at them, and the Imperials had withheld a literal monster of a machine from them, their spies, everyone, only waiting to unleash it at this final, last ditch battle.
They had nothing left, nothing that could survive that torrent of firepower that it was capable of. Even down on the planet, where he was, things were looking equally bad. Elite commandos and Dark Adepts had swarmed up through the tunnels under the city fortress that the Republic had claimed for the defense of the planet, and were already hard at work trying to open a way for their armies to enter, as well as prevent the forces on the planet from escaping.
Even with all the reinforcements from across the Galaxy, only now heeding their calls for aid at this time, with the Core under siege, it was simply too late for them all. The battle was squarely in the power of the Empire, and with this victory, they had won the war. There could be no force left to challenge them in space or on land, and the path was nearly clear for them to blaze through the Core to Coruscant.
Turning slowly to face the cabinet of commanders, generals, and admirals, Yoda spoke slowly and solemnly, "Lost, this battle is. Fight against the ship in space, we cannot. Retreat we must, if the Republic military, any of it is to survive."
"Retreat? But how?" one of the generals asked, each of them looking as distraught and demoralized as Yoda knew they would be at the news.
"Prepared for this, Master Lovegood did," Yoda explained, calling up several of the escape plans that his fellow Jedi Master had composed, showing the secret places where she had hidden shuttles that could get them out of the system on the far side of the planet, away from the attacking fleets, but only if they took them before the planet was blockaded and surrounded.
"No," a few protested, stating in their undying loyalty that they would rather die here for the Republic than run, encouraging those who weren't as strong to flee, and continue the fight as they sacrificed themselves to hold the line to the bitter end.
"Master Yoda, we insist that you lead those who will retreat, and form up with the Chancellor on Coruscant," one of the highest ranking commanders, who was staying, commented for the entire collection, "He has let slip more than once that he has a plan in the case that such events should transpire, and will likely need the help of the Jedi in forming his resistance against the Imperials when they come to take the Capital."
Yoda was taken aback for a moment, unsure what to say, but in the end simply nodded his acceptance. He was a Jedi, and therefore not necessarily higher in military rank than these men and women, and he could sense that they would push that angle if he tried to order them all to retreat.
"A long fight it will be, if reach the hangars we will." He commented, watching as officers and other soldiers rushed around to pack up anything important and not fixed to the walls or floors, wiping the information of their strategies in those places they could not fully remove.
"We will provide you all the cover you need, and give these Imperials a fight to remember." The commanders who were staying swore, drawing their weapons.
"Then move, we must." Yoda said at last, drawing his lightsaber and gesturing for the door. If they were to evacuate all those who would flee back to the Capital, they had to move fast.
A shuddering crash heralded their departure from the command tower. The gates had been destroyed and he Sith Army had entered. Fighting broke out on all sections of the base, and Yoda could sense the oppressive aura of the Dark Side as the vile Adepts of the Sith tore through their ranks like beasts. Shepherding the officers toward the secret hangar, Yoda turned back to content with those darting toward them, led by a large human with a mechanical arm, his twin sabers carving small groove in the stone streets as he ran.
Yoda waited, gathering the Force to him as he prepared for the storm of battle to crash upon him. When the monsters were just feet away, the Force surged through the small goblin, and he leapt high into the air, wheeling over the heads of his foes, before diving like the hawk-bat after which his saber style was named.
The rearmost adept wasn't able to raise a defense in time, and fell with a saber in his chest, Yoda's body weight knocking him to the ground, before the goblin became a blur of motion, and time seemed to slow around him as the Force guided his actions.
Parries and blocks became second nature, as he spun and counterattacked every blow that came at him, darting through the legs of many of his assailants before they could move out of the way. A blast of lightning was caught and redirected with a carefully place block, and Yoda somersaulted from the pulverizing strike of the mechanical arm, which left a crater in the ground where he had stood.
Single minded devotion to protecting those escaping drove Yoda onward, channeling the Light Side through him like a furnace, and he fought like a dragon, what few hits he took glancing off of him as he dodged, meanwhile inflicting three times as many as he received on his attackers. Yet the number of Dark Adepts coming in to fight him seemed endless, and the bodies began to pile up around him, even as the doggedly persistent mechanical armed man raged and attacked again and again.
Twice Yoda turned the man's aggression to his advantage, redirecting a slamming blade into one of the Sith's allies, slaying them outright, before performing another bout of acrobatics to nimbly dodge away.
His strength was immense as his power in the Force, but even Yoda knew when he was starting to tire, and when he was a fraction of a second slow at blocking an attack, the heat of the saber growing too close for comfort, he knew that he must withdraw.
Jumping up, and catching another Adept in the head with his foot to propel himself higher, Yoda turned and unleashed all the pent up Force power in him into a titanic ball of kinetic energy, blasting away all those who had swarmed around him, and the scores of bodies that had fallen to his blade. The laws of physics still applied, and even as the massive telekinetic wave surged outward, it also succeeded in throwing the Jedi Master even further into the air, where he was able to guide his decent to a more safe location, far away from the battle, and hastily make his way to the hangar.
The officers had made it, more or less unscathed, and welcomed Yoda as he arrived. "The shuttles are warming up as we speak, but we have to launch at the same time or the Imperial forces will converge on those who wait." One of them explained, when Yoda asked why they hadn't already left without him.
The devotion to him was endearing, but Yoda had to take the pragmatic route, simply nodding his thanks and quickly boarding the last shuttle, which sealed shut just as the hangar doors were ripped off their frames.
"Go!" the officer roared at the pilot, who quickly slammed the controls for takeoff. Yoda peered out of the only viewport in the shuttle's passenger area, and saw that the Adept with the mechanical arm was there, clearly angered by how easily Yoda had escaped from them, even as the ground pulled away as the half dozen shuttles carrying the commanders of the Republic and their guards away from the losing battle.
Some would call it cowardice, Yoda mused as the atmosphere swallowed their ships, obscuring the view of the planet below momentarily, but he had to think of the larger conflict that would erupt after this battle, and the fall of the Republic that they would have to avenge. Better for the resistance that would form if the Republic fell to have these minds, rather than they all be lost before they were even needed.
Pulling our his comlink, Yoda set it to the frequency that all Republic ships held in common, as an emergency access for situations such as this. "Yoda this is," he stated, "Lost the battle, we have. Retreat we must, to fight another day."
There was a certified hailstorm of replied, which Yoda allowed the other commanders to take care of, relaying orders and the escape plans, while there was still a great number of ships that refused to abandon the fight. Yoda expected no less, but there was little that he could do to force sentient peoples to protect their own lives, and in the end, if their sacrifice allowed those who fled to get away alive, then they were not in vain.
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Fury watched as the tiny green Jedi fled with his commanders, knowing that his masters wouldn't be pleased that they escaped this time. They would go on to cause more problems later on, but there was little that he could do but follow his orders now, and clean the planet of the remaining Republic filth.
He could sense however, that this would not be the last time be crossed blades with the little green creature. They would meet again, and Fury intended to be well prepared for the conflict to come.
Turning his back on the now empty hangar, he addressed the nearest officer, "Level the building, and send demo teams through the base, destroying every other hangar. I want no escape for the last dregs of Republic swine on this planet."
"Yes, my Lord," the officer replied, hurrying away to execute Fury's orders. Fury was about to retire to the evacuated Republic command post, when a roar overhead had him, and most of the nearby adepts and soldiers, looking up in confusion.
Shuttles were streaking down from the atmosphere, encircling the newly taken base. At first, Fury thought that the Republic dogs had returned, but then he looked closer, noting the many varied and different insignias on the various ships, and realized the truth.
Reinforcements from across the southern portion of the Galaxy had arrived to fight, and while they were too late to save the Republic base, they were going to fight regardless, transforming this Imperial offensive to a struggle to hold what they had just captured.
"So, they want to make a long, drawn out fight of it then?" Fury said, more to himself than anyone else, "Well, let them come. They will find that we have more than enough fight left in us to handle them."
Sending a signal with his comlink, Fury watched in amusement as the dragon handlers unleashed their beasts once more, and the flying destructive creatures took to the air, wings beating heavily as they flew to intercept the oncoming shuttles, flames spewing from their jaws as they attacked with claws and tail.
"It's time to release the Emperor personal pet," he said into the comlink, even as Fury spotted several of the shuttles survive the torrent of fangs and fire, and land on the outskirts of the city-turned-base.
There was a long amount of silence on the other end, before shakily the voice replied, "My Lord, none of our handlers have been able to control that beast, it's totally under the Emperor's control alone, and listens to none else."
"I said release it, I want to see the full powers that it has been given by our Emperor!" Fury demanded, silencing the man by shutting off the devise. He would be obeyed in the end, or the officer would die. They both knew this as fact.
Even as the soldiers poured from their small knot of survive shuttles, charging toward the waiting Imperial lines, a rumble tore through the encampment of Sith war beasts. Soldiers and handlers alike ran for cover as something long and crimson red in coloration erupted from the center, fixing its eyes on the charging soldiers, and hissing loud enough for Fury to hear it far away, before storming toward the attackers in a flash of scales and strength.
Fury was eager to see what the Emperor's personal project with creature creation would be capable of, the man had truly put a lot of effort early in their war mustering into creating the perfect fighting beast, pulling DNA strains from only the strongest creatures to blend together into a powerhouse of flesh and Dark Side power.
Fury wasn't sure what the creature could be called now, as it was one of a kind, and its only name was the codename that Veneficus himself affixed to the creature: Zychre.
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Veneficus stormed down another corridor, knowing that Lovegood couldn't have escaped his grasp so easily. Trying to tame his blind fury at her continued existence was proving far more difficult than he had anticipated. The Republic Fleet was abandoning the planet, and he could sense that Lord Fury and Gor-lak the Cruel had succeeded in taking the planet, but there was another force that had come to challenge their hold of it.
It was all as he had foreseen, aside from this bout with Lovegood. Why his visions had always been nearly blind in relation to her, he had never figured out, but Veneficus swore that he would use every ounce of his power and influence to eliminate her, and the last memories of Harry Potter, from the Galaxy.
Turning a corner, he smirked. The entire way was strewn with fallen Sith troopers, lightsaber scars marring the walls and doors as the Jedi Master had fled through this way. She was leading him somewhere, although Veneficus wasn't sure if the Jedi even knew where exactly what she sought was located on the Apex.
Clearly she sought escape, but to inflict damage to his ship in the process. It was almost amusing, as Veneficus' highly attuned sensed had already detected that the Terrasque had been summoned to the battle, crushing any last hope of resistance that the Republic and their Jedi allies had in repelling them.
Long had that ship been in production, taking many years of effort, almost from the beginning of his reign as Sith Master, improving all along the way with every scrap of Republic tech that was stolen, and everything that Hermione had foolishly allowed into his hands, as well as a great number of items that Imperial Development had created for his express use.
The Apex was merely a diversion, a forerunner to his true flagship, and now that the Republic was on its last legs, they would know the truth: they never stood a chance against him. As to why he had allowed such conflict to progress, his enemies to escape from him time and again, it had all led up to this moment, when the last remnant of the Galaxy that would dare to oppose him at last was drawn forward to fight, in a last ditch effort to push him out of their precious Republic space.
Why spend years of consolidation trying to snuff out many thousands of resistance fighters, when he could gather all his enemies in one, and crush them utterly in one fell swoop, allowing what stragglers remained to huddle in a broken heap and die fearful of him discovering their whereabouts.
Yes, his plan was moving well, and soon it would come to a climatic conclusion, with Veneficus alone, standing atop a pile of his enemy's charred corpses, their precious temple in flames. He had seen it quite clearly, and knew that his goal was within his grasp at last.
He was drawing close to Lovegood's position again, he could sense her, calm and plotting, rather than the frightened and fleeing wreck that he had planned to leave her as. It was a source of unending irritation that she had survived this long, protected by the will of the Force, but even still, Veneficus thought that her continued existence brought out the best, and worst, of him, fueling him to reach loftier goals in the power of the Dark Side, if only to end her miserable life once and for all.
"It is hopeless to resist me any longer," he said to the next, seemingly empty room, "You cannot escape, and running only delays the inevitable."
"Who said anything about me running?" Lovegood replied, far too close. Veneficus turned, sabers igniting as he blocked the startlingly swift attack from the shadows, their battle beginning again in earnest.
Blocking a strike to his head with one blade, Veneficus kicked hard at the woman Jedi, knocking her next swing well off course, opening her up to his counterattack, but she went with the momentum and dodged, putting several steps between them.
Veneficus released a blast of lightning, but the infuriating Jedi dropped a saber, drawing her wand to cast a powerful shield charm to protect herself. And if they couldn't have been infuriating enough that the Jedi had gotten her hands upon a new wand, and learned all that she had missed from so many years ago, she turned and started casting devastating spells around the room.
It took Veneficus half a moment to realize where exactly they were, before he himself turned and fled. The storage for explosives and other hazardous materials started to go critical the moment he sealed the door behind him, taking cover around a corner as the deafening explosion shook the ship to the very core.
Even with all his cover, Veneficus did not fully escape the shattering explosion unscathed. His robes were blasted with the flames and shrapnel of the detonating section of the ship, and idly he felt the stinging pressure as one of his eyes was pierced by searing metal, partially blinding him. The vital organs were preserved, and that was all that mattered to him at the moment.
There was little left of the internal room, damage cascading to floors above and below it, when Veneficus finally deemed it safe to return and view the damage himself. At the least there was no hull breach, which was a small mercy, but at the same time the Emperor felt that that at the least had been planned. While by all accounts it seemed that Lovegood ought to not have been able to survive, the Emperor knew better than to trust that feeling.
There was no pursuing her however, as the room had caused severe damage to not only the method of traveling around it to follow her, but to Veneficus himself, and he had to partially drag himself to the nearest secluded area, only shutting the door in time before his soldiers arrived and discovered his injuries.
The mystique of the Eternal Emperor wouldn't be marred but the grisly sight of such injuries. Struggling with his damage robes, and lacerated hands, Veneficus shakily pulled out the emergency vial of the Elixir of Life from his robes, downing the crimson liquid and feeling it sear the partially severed tongue in his mouth, moment before it started to heal all his afflictions.
The last thing to repair was his eyes, vision slowly swimming back into place as the shrapnel was forced out of the magically repairing orb. All the pain was carefully stored away in his memory, more of a nuisance now than the searing rage that it once was, but still an irritation nonetheless.
"If she wanted to destroy my ship so badly, then she should have just asked me to do so…" Veneficus joked to himself, giving up the pursuit of the Jedi and returning to his personal chambers. The Apex had served its purpose, and Veneficus needed it no longer. He would depart to the Terrasque, after collecting what items he had here that were irreplaceable, and them signal his old flagship to begin self destruction sequences.
True, many of his loyalists might die in the explosion, but if it managed to kill Lovegood in the process, it would be worth their sacrifice. And even if she did survive, out here in the cold vacuum of space in whatever ship she managed to grab, Veneficus would be there waiting in the largest ship in recorded Galactic history, just waiting to blow her away.
Surprisingly, there was very few items that the Sith Emperor had brought with him in the way of comforts, at least that weren't considered replaceable. A few ancient scrolls and a Holocron from his personal vaults, and a small collection of items to magnify his powers were all he took with him to the personal, secluded and heavily guarded hangar that was reserved for his use alone.
Inside, waiting for him as it always did, was the Sith Meditation Sphere. Such an ancient ship, yet no less useable in both combat and personal situations than anything he had thus far encountered. Just as easily as he had flown it in his youth, the ship slid gracefully from its hangar with barely a thought of what he desired, and soared over the empty space toward the hulking Terrasque.
Even as he pulled into the special hangar with his access codes as the Emperor, he activate his personal channel to the commander of the massive ship, "Open fire on the Apex," he ordered. It was pleasing that the man in charge, who had been personally warped by the power of the Dark Side by Veneficus, did not ask questions or recoil at the command, but simply complied. "Yes, your Majesty,"
Even as the endless streams of destructive energy sprayed out over his old ship, Veneficus pressed a button on his communicator, sending a command that launched all the escape pods from the Apex preventing Lovegood from seeking them for escape. If he was going to destroy an entire ship to kill her, he was making sure that it would work.
Veneficus stood at the entrance of the hangar, watching to make sure no ships escaped from the Apex as it was destroyed, nose diving down to the planet below until it passed through the atmosphere in a fiery wreck. He was only satisfied when he saw the ship crash heavily into the planet itself, coming to a full stop amid the crater of its ruin.
Surprisingly, the death of Lovegood, in all its fiery glory, was not as satisfying as he had imagined. Instead of the rush of power that usually accompanied such a death, there was nothing, a hollow that seethed with hunger for death and destruction all the more.
Leaving the hangar at lat, Veneficus commanded for their forces to be recalled from the planet, and for it to be left a withered husk, as they marched on toward Coruscant at long last. Nothing would stop them now, even as the Terrasque rammed through the hordes of fighters, swatting them aside with its bulk and storm of fire from its multitude of weapon ports.
"Enough of dealing with these pathetic creatures, set course for Coruscant. Let the rest of the fleet spread out for the remaining fringe worlds, it's past time to strike the final blow at last." He declared, "and summon my apprentice, I have work for him to complete."
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Hermione was horrified at the destruction of her masterpiece, the fiery fall of the Hope's Radiance, and even further she was disheartened at the appearance of a ship that dwarfed any concept she had built, and quite a few space stations she had conceptualized.
"How do we fight such a monstrosity…" she breathed, seeing the fall of the planet that marked the official entrance of the Empire into the Galactic Core. Dropping her datapad to the ground, she sank to her knees, knowing that she had nothing to try and confront such a ship.
"The only thing we can do," Professor Snape said, coming to her and offering a hand to return to her feet, "we must leave this place, disappear into the wide Galaxy, and continue the fight against Potter and his Empire."
Hermione wasn't sure what the point was anymore, and she took her time accepting the hand up. "But with the resources he will have, must already have, at his disposal, there's nothing I could hope to build that will stop him."
"In time to preserve the Republic perhaps, but restore it after we defeat his Empire, that is another story." Severus said comfortingly. "We can guarantee that he will be on our doorstep soon enough, so I suggest that we gather all our supplies and personnel, explain the situation, and take all those who'll flee with us, and their families, and leave. Set up a secret research facility somewhere in the fringe worlds of the Galaxy and begin once again."
Hermione knew it was the right thing to do, but she hated it. She had already been uprooted twice now, from earth, and then from New Terra, to do so again felt like a ever deepening wound in her heart. "All right," she agreed, "but we ought to go to the Jedi Temple as well, and see if there is anything we can do to help them, clearly the Jedi will seek to evacuate as well."
"I see no problems with that," Severus acknowledged. Hermione slowly went to the console that she had prepped for just such an occurrence, even though she had never wanted to consider the idea that it would actually be used, and started typing her personal pass codes into it.
Red warning lights started to flicker throughout the complex, and Hermione knew that her face would be appearing on monitors everywhere in moments. She took the time to steady herself, using some meditative techniques that Severus had been teaching her, and waited for the red light to blink, telling her that she was live throughout her facility.
"Employees of Magi-Tech," she declared, once the lines were open, "our fleets have been defeated, and the Emperor is personally on his way to attack Coruscant." She gave a moment, knowing that the panic people would feel at her words would prevent them from listening to her important instructions. "as terrifying as that thought is, we have measures in place to evacuate all members of the construction and development teams, and their families, who wish to elect to come with us as we flee the capital world. Gather all your research, every scrap of Magi-tech that we can fit into the fleet of emergency shuttles, and most importantly, go and bring your families here. We will leave within a day of this message."
Hermione paused, knowing that this would be the hardest part of what she had to say. "For those who are brave, or foolish enough to remain, it has been the greatest of pleasures working with you to try and save the Republic. But we have lost this war, and if we are to survive to fight again, we must retreat and build yet another facility, somewhere hidden from the eyes of the Empire, and their Sith masters. I will go now to recruit what help I can muster from the Jedi Order, and then we will make all preparations to depart in all haste from this place, plotting our course as we go. Thank you, and be safe. This is Director Hermione Granger, signing off."
Closing the communication channel, Hermione could already tell that there was a massive rush of activity throughout the compound, but whether it was people fleeing to gather their families, or collecting their projects she could not tell. Turning to Severus she nodded, "All right, to the Jedi Temple we go next."
The dour man only nodded, gesturing for her to lead the way to her private hangar. The Green Jedi who monitored the room she occupied fell into step behind them as well, ever the silent sentinels that they had pledged to be. The thought of the Corellian Jedi gave Hermione some hope that perhaps she could get the aid she needed from Lord Berethon, or at least an honest response of what she ought to do or where to go.
Her personal shuttle, sleet and reminiscent of vehicles from Earth soared quickly through the extremely crowded skylanes of Coruscant, even worse now that the world was filled with refugees from other worlds, as well as the near planet wide knowledge that the Empire was on their way stirring people into a panic.
Soon enough the Temple was in view, and Hermione sent ahead the codes that permitted her to land in the upper reached of the Temple, away from the visitor area and the apparent mobs of people demanding what the Jedi were going to do about the oncoming storm. Pausing as she crossed into the Temple Hangar, Hermione glanced down at the people clamoring for the Jedi to solve all their problems, "Fools…" she muttered, before proceeding.
Indeed, she felt strongly that people needed to rely foremost on themselves to get out of such situations, and not immediate turn to others to solve their woes, but that made her somewhat hesitant about what she had initially come regarding. "No," she said aloud, chastising herself for doubting. She already knew what she was going to do, flee Coruscant, and take her people elsewhere for their safety, all in agreement with Severus and his counsel. She had come to the Jedi for further enlightenment on that course of action, not what they could do for her to solve her problems.
Her Jedi escort took her up to the lift that led to the High Council Chambers, where a pair of Jedi Knights stood guard, indicating that the Council was in session, and currently speaking with someone else, so Hermione smiled kindly to the Knights, and waited patiently for the next available opportunity to speak with the esteemed group of the wise.
Within a matter of minutes, the doors to the Council chamber opened, revealing that the visitors had been a group of very distraught looking Senators, clearing having been in the same mind as the crowds outside, begging that the Jedi do more for the Republic than they had already done, which Hermione only shook her head silently at as she was beckoned to enter, along with Severus and her guard. The Jedi Council were all present, looking rather tired and stressed from the effects of the most recent battle, but otherwise in good spirits as she entered. Hermione hoped that it was the case, as what she had to say probably would be the strangest thing they heard all day, after a torrent of pleas for help from those of the Galaxy that they sacrificed so much for.