Securing passage off of Tatooine was much easier than Tahiri expected; then again, considering the fact that her ride off her homeplanet was a bounty hunter (thankfully, not a Mandalorian this time) who asked virtually no irrelevant questions, Tahiri figured that this guy had probably met worse clientele than her in his vague past.
He was a Devaronian who went by the codename Bringer and he had a whole slew of false identities and fake transponders for his ship, a modified HWK-290 with no actual name to her. With the credits that Tahiri had from her personal bank account, which had nothing to do with any of the major galactic powers, Bringer had no problem bringing her all the way to Bastion, even if it meant running the risk of winding up in the middle of the war between the Imperial Remnant, now aided by Belok Rhal and his mercs, and Mirta Gev's Mandalorians.
After Tahiri boarded the HWK, Bringer stood up from his seat in the pilot's chair and met her in the ship's short corridor.
"Ready to leave?" the Devaronian asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Tahiri replied.
"Good," Bringer replied.
He suddenly whipped out a crimson-bladed lightsaber from his tunic that he immediately activated and charged at Tahiri. The latter, however, managed to block the strike before engaging defensively against her false transporter.
Tahiri managed to stand her ground and hold off Bringer for about half a minute before locking lightsabers with him and looking him directly in the eyes.
"You're not a real Devaronian," Tahiri said as she really got a look at his features; they had a fake, plastic-looking quality when viewed this closely. "Those are all prostheses."
"Now you catch it," Bringer replied with a self-satisfied grin.
He then broke out of the lightsaber lock before unleashing a flurry of attacks that managed to drive Tahiri back a few steps. But once again, she managed to find her footing again and reestablished her defensive technique.
"If you were spying on me," Tahiri asked between strikes, "why didn't you come to me before... to try to... kill me then?" Her opponent's attack became a little too aggressive for her again, prompting her to retreat a couple steps before planting her feet to the deck once more.
But Bringer didn't press his attack; instead, he backed up a few steps and held his blade up as defensively as Tahiri.
"Some colleagues of mine were interested to see if you would make for a fine recruit," Bringer explained. "The dark side is quite strong in you, Miss Veila."
"Thanks for noticing," Tahiri replied facetiously. "But I take it that you deduced that I'm not interested?"
Bringer nodded. "I also sense your concern for Jagged Fel from that little announcement he made."
He then advanced quickly to try to attack Tahiri, only to be countered by her defensive strikes.
But her defenses were soon overwhelmed by his superior fighting skills and he managed to spin toward her before knocking her to the deck with a kick to her stomach; her lightsaber clattered from her grasp, allowing Bringer to sever it in two.
Bringer brought the tip of his lightsaber close to Tahiri's face before he said, "In spite of your dark side potential, your concern for your friends is strong, Veila. I see now that you needed more persuasion; my colleagues thought that you might have been able to turn to the dark side on your own when they freed you, that you might have foiled that investigation with that Mandalorian and Jaina Fel; they were wrong."
"Yeah, I ended up helping them out; threw a hydrospanner into that plan, huh? But you thought I could still have another chance here, right?"
Bringer nodded again. "I had this idea where I'd allow you to wallow in your misery for a while, allow yourself to break your own spirit on alcoholism. Then, when you were at your lowest point, I would be your savior, maybe in a romantic sense if it came to that, and take you to the Lost Tribe of the Sith. Now I see that your darkness is one that still allows you to feel for your friends; that darkness can only take you so far." He shrugged. "Oh, well. No big loss in the end."
Bringer was about to plunge his lightsaber through Tahiri's throat when the latter managed to erect a Force-shield around her that deflected the blade off to the side; she then extended the Force upward and outward, blowing Bringer to the deck.
Tahiri then leaped to her and pounced on Bringer, pinning his wrists at either side so that he couldn't move his lightsaber toward her. She then head-butted him right in the nose, unleashing a brief gush of blood that allowed her to yank the lightsaber from his grasp and quickly decapitate him before he could recover.
Tahiri stood up and looked at the glowing red blade in her hands. When she looked over to the two pieces of her lightsaber, she saw that even the crystal had been destroyed.
Now she was left with a Sith blade.
Fine by her; if it would help her help Jag and Jaina, even after they had turned against her, then the Sith lightsaber would serve as a useful tool.
Tahiri deactivated the weapon and hurried to the HWK's cockpit, where she began the takeoff sequence to leave Tatooine for Bastion.
. . .
Emerging in various systems from throughout the Transitory Mists, the Galactic Alliance invasion fleet was caught unawares as all of its Star Destroyers found themselves engaging with fleets of Hapan Battle Dragons before their TIE fighters ultimately went up against the Miy'til fighters.
Standing on the bridge of the Destroyer Admiral Ackbar, which was conducting her part of the invasion in the Calfa system, Daala sneered. And her frustration only increased as Chief Bwua'tu, to whom she stood next, received reports from his communications officer about how the other Destroyers in the other systems were now engaging forces that they didn't expect to fight.
While Daala wasn't surprised that the Hapans had prepared for something like this, given that the GA's fleet movements weren't that much of a secret, she realized that she may have underestimated the child Queen Mother Allana in how she ran her precious Consortium. Daala would have thought that she would have been targeted by so many petty, Jedi-hating Duchas who would have vied for her throne, especially since the Consortium, like the GA, was still recovering from Abeloth's Infestation after all these months.
Then again, invasion from outsiders was a good incentive for union, however brief it may be; one only need look to the Yuuzhan Vong and Second Galactic Civil Wars for examples. Not that it would matter, Daala thought, as the Hapans would be quashed before the Jedi they protected were annihilated.
As Bwua'tu conducted the battle in this system, Daala tapped into her Force-potential and reached out to see if a particular little girl was in this system.
After a few minutes, she found that Queen Mother Allana wasn't here.
She then looked over to Bwua'tu, who had taken his command chair and was now in a holocomm conversation with one of his subordinate commanders.
"Chief Bwua'tu," Daala said, cutting off his conversation. "Can you find out where the Queen Mother's Battle Dragon is? I believe it's public record that it's the Dragon Queen."
Bwua'tu looked back at the commander to whom he had been speaking. "General Hague, is the Battle Dragon known as the Dragon Queen in your system?"
"Give me a moment, sir," Hague replied. He looked away for a brief moment and the words he called out were indiscernible from this end. A moment later, Hague looked back at Bwua'tu and said, "No, Chief Bwua'tu, the Dragon Queen isn't in the Baldavia system."
"Chief Bwua'tu, cycle through the other generals in the other systems so we can find that Battle Dragon," Daala commanded.
Bwua'tu returned his attention to Hague. "Carry on to the best of your ability, General." He then shifted the frequency to another commander.
As Bwua'tu went through other generals, Daala turned back to look out the viewport at the Battle of Calfa-5. Somewhere out there, Allana was there, and Daala intended to see to it that that little girl would...
"I got it, Chief Daala," Bwua'tu finally said, snapping her out of her reverie. "The Dragon Queen is in the Andalia system."
"Then we shall allow the other Star Destroyers to take over the battle here," Daala said. "Chief Bwua'tu, have the Admiral Ackbar go to Andalia."
"Aye, Chief Daala."
Less than a minute later, the Ackbar was in hyperspace and on a course for the Dragon Queen.