Shortly after the Admiral Ackbar dropped out of hyperspace into the Andalia system, Bwua'tu immediately ordered his sensors officers to begin looking for the Dragon Queen.
But Daala was already ahead of all of them as she reached out with the Force to look for Allana Djo's presence.
As one of the sensors officers reported the Dragon Queen's placement in the system, Bwua'tu told Daala, "Attacking that ship will require more than what we have here, Chief. We need to call in for reinforcements."
"No need," Daala said with a distracted grin. "Continue with the battle; as you were."
"But," Bwua'tu said, "if you wanted to know where the Dragon Queen was, why wouldn't you-"
Daala glared at Bwua'tu and gave him another mild headache. In an instant, he said, "As you wish, Chief Daala."
With that, she turned back to the forward viewport and concentrated.
Hello, Allana, Daala maliciously conveyed through the Force. It's me, Natasi Daala; and just as my fleet is here to wipe out your precious Consortium and the Jedi, so am I here to end your short, miserable life.
Daala concentrated harder upon the mind that she felt and then gave the feeling of squeezing.
. . .
On the Dragon Queen's bridge, Allana stood between Admiral Serash and Danni Quee, watching the battle in the Andalia system unfold. Prior to the arrival of the Admiral Ackbar, the Star Destroyers and Battle Dragons seemed to be evenly matched; now with Nek Bwua'tu's capital ship in the system, the tide of the battle was beginning to ever so slightly turn in the Destroyers' favor as one of the other Dragons began to take serious damage to its bow.
As Serash began barking out orders to her communications officers, Allana's senses became overwhelmed by the voice of the Galactic Alliance's Chief of State Natasi Daala announcing herself and her intention to end Allana's life.
The Queen Mother looked around the bridge in askance, wondering how Daala could be communicating to her in this way, and Danni was the only one present who seemed to notice Allana's plight.
"Allana, are you all right?" Danni asked worriedly.
As soon as the question had been asked, an intense pressure quickly built in Allana's mind to the point that she collapsed to the deck and grasped vainly at her temples as Danni grabbed her to see what was wrong.
It was only then, as Allana started to scream in agony, did everyone else on the bridge notice.
"Get us outta here!" Allana cried. "Doesn't matter where, just get us outta this system!"
"Navigator, plot us a hyperspace course out of here!" Serash ordered. "Medic! We need a medic here!"
In moments, as Allana was carted away to the medbay, the Dragon Queen had turned inward for the interior of the Hapes Cluster and launched into hyperspace.
Moments after that, the Admiral Ackbar followed in her wake.
. . .
Jacen executed a barrel roll out of the way of a Sith-piloted Y-wing before getting a B-wing in his crosshairs and blowing it to smithereens. However, the Y-wing that he had dodged got right on his tail, prompting him to try to shake it loose as it began tracking fire on his rear.
But before Jacen's shields could take any significant beating, a Sekotan fighter zoomed in from his port and blew away the Y-wing.
"Thanks, whoever you are," Jacen said.
"No problem, Jedi Solo," a masculine voice on the frequency replied; the Sekotan fighter then pivoted and launched for an X-wing.
With some space momentarily clear of Sith fighters, Jacen turned and zoomed for one of the Chiss Star Destroyers.
"Admiral Peecar?" Jacen asked.
"Yes, who is this?"
"This is Jacen Solo. I'm gonna need to dock in one of your Destroyers."
"The battle isn't over yet, Jedi Solo," Peecar pointed out with some confusion.
"I know, I know, but I'll need to get aboard one of the ChaseMasters afterwards."
"Wait, how do you intend to get aboard without transportation?"
"I can teleport; but only to a limited extent. Now I'm gonna need to dock so this X-wing doesn't get destroyed in the battle."
"You can teleport?" Jacen practically heard Peecar shrug; no doubt the Chiss Admiral must have been thinking, That's new. "Very well. Proceed to the Ar'alani; she should be on your scanners."
"Thank you, Admiral," Jacen said before he had to dive beneath an X-wing firing at him; that fighter, however, ended up in a dogfight with one of the StealthXs.
Soon, after a few more bouts of dodging from Sith fire, Jacen finally had the X-wing that he had been piloting docked and wasted no time on initiating the Aing-Tii teleportation method once the fighter was cycled down.
When he opened his eyes, he was on the bridge of one of the ChaseMasters, and was once again surrounded by Sith as he had been before.
But instead of Grand Lord Vol, Jacen was facing High Lord Workan this time.
Immediately activating his lightsaber, Jacen moved to strike down Workan, but the High Lord already had his own lightsaber out and ready to block the strike. The two then traded a few clashes as Workan announced to the other Sith, "Man your stations! This is between me and the Jedi!"
At least that narrowed the number of opponents Jacen had to fight to one, he thought. Too bad it was a much more experienced High Lord who was now gaining ground on Jacen by forcing him back across the bridge with his vicious attacks.
But knowing that he wouldn't win in a straight-up fight, Jacen decided to cheat.
Managing to disengage from the duel, he leaped up and back to land on a control console, which he promptly sunk his blade into.
A second later, the artificial gravity for the bridge went off; everyone present then began floating away from their current positions.
Using that brief confusion to his advantage, Jacen used the Force to fling the surprised Sith Sabers at Workan to distract him. This tactic worked for less than five seconds before Workan, who dodged the flailing Sith that Jacen sent his way, announced, "Everyone, get him!"
It was then that everyone else activated their lightsabers and used the Force to propel themselves over at Jacen.
But once again, the Jedi used telekinesis to knock several Sith off their course, resulting in many of them ending up colliding into one another or even ending up on the wrong end of a lightsaber; those who didn't die didn't emerge unscathed.
However, Workan, not joining in on the "fun," used the Force to anchor himself back to the deck and briefly watched as Jacen began to bound around the bridge. The Jedi daftly avoided the Sith who pursued him in the air and cut down those he didn't have killed or maimed by any of their fellows' lightsabers.
By the time Jacen whittled the number of opponents he had down to three, it was then that Workan launched himself for the Jedi. However, Jacen, sensing the danger coming from below, flipped backward and away from Workan's incoming swipe, which cut across the torso of one of the remaining Sabers.
After Workan turned and launched himself toward Jacen with both remaining Sith, the Jedi cartwheeled off to his right and used the Force to rip open panels and other electronics from the bulkhead to fling at his opponents. The makeshift projectiles distracted the Sith even as they cut their way through them, but Jacen still used that as a distraction to decapitate one of the Sabers.
That left him to briefly duel off against Workan and the surviving, and intact, Saber for about ten seconds. He then used the Force to shove them both back before he launched himself for the Saber; as Workan hit the bulkhead with his back, Jacen traded a few slashes with the Saber before bisecting him down the middle.
Which now left Workan, who stared back at Jacen angrily.
The High Lord then sneered. "Well, now; I can really cut loose." He launched himself at Jacen with a loud battle cry.
. . .
Upon dropping out of hyperspace for another course correction, Tahiri saw a familiar Firespray in the distance suddenly explode.
And rocketing away from that explosion on a jetpack was a similarly-familiar Mandalorian.
With an annoyed look, Tahiri opened up a frequency for Partner. "I take it you have quite a story for me?" she asked once the explosion cleared.
Partner turned in space, his jetpack turned off to conserve fuel; his helmet must have picked up the frequency for him to respond. "Veila?"
"Give me one good reason why I should save your ungrateful ass before your oxygen reserves run out," Tahiri said. "You have an hour or so there? What are the chances you'll be picked up in a system like this? You're lucky I dropped out here when I did."
"Imperial Star Destroyers tried to kill me,," Partner quickly said. "Can I come aboard?"
"Hmm," Tahiri said playfully. "Well, I guess I would like to hear the rest of your story; I guess that'll be enough reason to let you come aboard. But only if you say please."
A moment of silence passed before Partner said, "Please?"
"Good boy."
Once Partner had come aboard the HWK, he laid out what had happened; after he broke away from Gev's fleet, he headed back for Imperial space, only to be fired on by a Star Destroyer fleet. He barely got out in time and suffered severe enough damage that he had no choice but to drop out in this empty system and escape before it blew.
"Guess they wanted you dead for choosing the wrong side," Tahiri said.
"Fel had to have understood that I always worked for him, that it always about the money and that I would never-"
"Not Jag; the Sith who are controlling him."
"Sith?"
"Where was Gev's fleet headed?"
"Mandalore."
"Then we'll go there and tell Gev and Jaina about the Sith and we'll see what we can do there."
Less than a minute later, they launched for the Mandalore system.
. . .
The space around Mandalore was a cavalcade of explosions as Bes'uliiks fought other Bes'uliiks, TIE fighters, and the Star Destroyers that tried to destroy the planet's defenders.
Amidst the fray, Jaina kept herself focused on getting to the Destroyer that had Jag and his Sith puppeteers aboard; yet, even with her superior piloting skills, it was still a challenge to arrive as the Slave I was hit on practically all sides by friendly and enemy fire alike.
Jaina veered off to port to blast away two TIEs before chipping away at a Rhal-aligned Bes'uliik until its engines were blown up; the starfighter then streaked away on its own inertia to burn up in Mandalore's atmosphere. Jaina, meanwhile, took out a TIE bomber before briefly getting into a dogfight with two Bes'uliiks.
She barely managed to defeat one of them by scoring a hit right at the pilot's viewport, but the other one was bobbing and weaving too much for her to get a lock on; and all the while, the pilot was managing to score hit after hit on the Slave I's hull.
Jaina didn't have to wait long to get help, though; from off to starboard, a Bes'uliik that Jaina's sensors identified as being piloted by Mirta Gev came in with a flurry of shots that blew the annoying Bes'uliik away.
"Thanks, Mirta," Jaina said.
"No problem, Jaina. I take it you're trying to get to that Destroyer?"
"I take it you wanna help?"
"You bet I do."
Both women then zoomed toward the intended Imp capital ship.
Within several hundred meters of the Destroyer, however, two Bes'uliiks swooped in from above and began firing on Mirta's fighter and the Slave I; both of the latter ships then split off before they ended up being pursued by either Rhal-aligned Bes'uliik.
"Wait, this can't be right!" Mirta exclaimed.
"What is it?" Jaina asked as she jinked and juked the Slave I every which way to avoid the fire from the rear.
"My sensors are telling me... that the Bes'uliik chasing me... belongs to my husband!" Mirta elaborated.
"Ghes?" Jaina asked. "Why would he be firing on you?" She then dove the Slave I downward while executing a barrel roll; unfortunately, the Bes'uliik behind her still kept on her tail.
Again, the Sith taunt reached out to her again.
You think your husband's mind was the only one we corrupted, Jedi? Jaina heard in her head.
The Slave I shook as her pursuer got some shots in from behind; once again, Jaina was snapped back to the physical reality as she put the ship into a steep climb while still trying to avoid the lasers fired at her.
. . .
As the Dragon Queen raced through hyperspace, Allana struggled on the medbay bed where the chief medical officer had her strapped down so that she wouldn't hurt herself. Yet, in spite of the anesthetic that the officer applied, the Queen Mother continued to moan and occasionally scream in her unconscious state.
"What's wrong with her, Doctor?" Danni asked.
"Her neural readings are off the charts!" the C.M.O. replied as she pointed to said readings. "But I can't discover anything wrong! She doesn't seem to have any kind of virus or harmful bioagent in her brain, yet her mind is acting like something's invading it!"
Danni thought for a moment; just before Allana collapsed on the Dragon Queen's bridge, Danni had vaguely felt another presence near the Queen Mother. But because Danni didn't have as strong of a connection to the Force as Allana, she wasn't quite sure what it was, and at the time, she had been preoccupied by Allana's condition to care.
But now that things had more or less calmed down, Danni wondered...
"I'll be right back, Doc," she said before storming out of the medbay for the bridge.
When she arrived, she asked, "Admiral Serash, is the Admiral Ackbar pursuing us through hyperspace?"
Serash relayed Danni's question as an order to one of the sensors officers, who immediately confirmed the answer.
"All right then," Danni said. "Let me see if I can..."
She trailed off as she concentrated, looking to see if there were any presences aboard that Star Destroyer that would...
Danni's eyes flashed open immediately before she stumbled back from the pain in her mind; indeed, there was another presence there, and if Danni didn't know any better, she thought it was...
Daala?
Yes, Miss Quee, the voice of the Galactic Alliance Chief of State said in her mind. It's me; and now that you've made yourself clear to me, you will die with your precious Queen Mother.
Danni collapsed to the deck just as Allana did; but before anyone on the bridge could tend to her, the Dragon Queen dropped out of hyperspace...
Right in front of what appeared to be a fleet of Star Destroyers.
"Admiral, we're being hailed!" one of the comm officers called out. "It's from one of the Star Destroyers!"
Serash grimaced. "Put it through."
The Dragon Queen's viewport was replaced with the image of a Destroyer's bridge, with a man in the foreground.
"This is General Hague," the man identified himself. "The Admiral Ackbar will be joining us very soon. Until then, Chief of State Daala has ordered me to relay just how we got in front of you to begin with: we managed to break out of our respective engagements along your outer worlds and circled around to cut you off here. The Chief wanted you to know this so that you wouldn't be confused before you were all destroyed."
It was at that point that several dozen Battle Dragons suddenly dropped out of hyperspace to bracket the Star Destroyers in immediate flanking fire.
Serash couldn't help but grin. "I wouldn't pop the champagne just yet, General." She then motioned for the communication to be shut off. "All right, now let's see if we can get past this mothball and..."
"Admiral, the Ackbar has just dropped out behind us!" one of the sensors officers called out.
A second later, Danni screamed even louder in pain; simultaneously, so did Allana in the medbay.
. . .
Indeed, Workan wasn't holding back, because while Jacen did avoid receiving even minor cuts from the High Lord's lightsaber, he was still badly beaten and bruised from the punches and kicks that the Sith doled out in their zero-g duel.
After one such punch in the gut sent Jacen careening back to the bulkhead behind him, Workan sneered and said, "I can do this all day, Solo. So why don't you just give up and die? It'll make it easier on yourself more than me."
As Workan said this, Jacen couldn't help but notice from the already-cooled furrows on the bulkhead behind him that he was leaning up against a wall that was about to give in to the decompression of outer space.
"I'm doing the best I can here, admittedly," Jacen quipped as an idea wormed its way into his head. "It's you who isn't putting his best in, High Lord Workan, if you could end this duel so easily."
Workan growled and once again launched himself at Jacen with what he hoped would be a killing stroke.
But Jacen dodged that one, like he did so many others, by using the Force to pull himself to the deck as Workan sailed past.
And as soon as the High Lord slashed at the weakened bulkhead, he inadvertently opened up a hole into space into which he was unceremoniously blown out.
As Jacen struggled against the pressure that was trying to blow him out, too, he grasped at one of the guard railings lining the bridge that were built for just this purpose. Letting go of his Force-anchorage to the deck, he very slowly walked-dragged himself along the bridge toward its exit.
Eventually, before the air on the bridge completely ran out, he made it to the exit, opened the door, and had it closed shut behind him once he was in the corridor outside.
Well, now that the main bridge wasn't an option anymore, he had to hope that this ChaseMaster's auxiliary bridge would have to do in granting him access to the Lost Tribe's database.
Thankfully, as he made his way to the backup bridge, he encountered no other Sith; they had apparently either all been on the bridge or were out in whatever starfighters they piloted in the battle outside. Thus, once he made it to the second bridge, he sat himself down at an information console and, indeed, there was a database there that had been updated for the current members of the Lost Tribe's Circle of Lords.
Well, not completely updated, Jacen realized, now that Ivaar Workan was no longer part of this world.
Still, as the list of current members was presented to him, he found that each of them was listed a default ChaseMaster that was under their command.
Jacen felt like he was getting an early Life Day.
However, the feeling of such joy was buckled the same as the ChaseMaster that he was on, as it was now taking fire, no doubt by the Chiss Star Destroyers, if not any of the fighters piloted by any of the Jedi or their allies. Quickly, Jacen brought out his datapad and typed in all the relevant information from the console screen before him.
When that was done, the buckling got even worse. So Jacen closed his eyes and concentrated, hoping that enough time had passed for him to...
He opened them again, and found that he was in the Jade Shadow's passenger cabin with the other Jedi there; while Corran was busy piloting the ship, Octa Ramis was on hand for Jacen to report to.
"I got the information," he said as he presented the 'pad. "Now we can identify the ChaseMasters and-"
In that moment, the Shadow took a bad hit that temporarily had all power, even life support, shut off for just a quick two seconds.
When everyone recovered and returned to their feet, they froze as they felt something that shouldn't be felt right now.
Grand Lord Vol was free from his Force cage; and he was out for blood.
. . .
When the HWK dropped out into the Mandalore system, Tahiri had to veer the ship off to port to avoid colliding with a TIE fighter before just as quickly having to snap to starboard to avoid fire from a Bes'uliik.
"I think we just crashed one helluva party," Tahiri remarked as she again dodged some fire from another Bes'uliik.
"I think Jagged Fel might be here," Partner reported after looking at one of the sensors.
"How so?" Tahiri asked before she began a dogfight with a Bes'uliik.
"The Star Destroyer Gilad Pellaeon is here," Partner replied as the HWK buckled from the opposing fire. "That would be his capital ship, and it's dead ahead."
"Mind helping me with this one, Partner?" Tahiri asked as she grit her teeth; her slaloms in space weren't helping her dodge the Bes'uliik's fire.
"Not at all," Partner replied as he took control of weapons.
. . .
"Don't worry about me, Jaina!" Mirta called on their fleet frequency. "Just get to Jag! Maybe you can find out what's wrong with him!"
"I hope you're right, Mirta," Jaina replied; even after taking out the Bes'uliik that prevented her from getting to the Gilad Pellaeon, Mirta was still in the dogfight with her husband that had begun minutes before. "Maybe I can even help save your husband, too."
"All the more reason for you to... get there!" Mirta said as her ship took another hit from Ghes.
With that, Jaina turned away from the larger battle and zoomed back toward the Pellaeon. She had no trouble shooting down the shield generator that prevented enemy ships and projectiles from entering the Star Destroyer's hangar bay. But she had to really pour on some speed if she wanted to get past the emergency physical barrier that was now sliding in to close off the hangar from the vacuum of space.
Jaina had two meters to spare for the Slave I before she was in and the barrier closed behind her; the resultant gust of wind from the closing blew the Firespray a little bit off course, but Jaina easily corrected for it so that she landed safely along the deck.
However, from the various egresses throughout the bay, squads of stormtroopers began trotting in with their blasters; in moments, they had the Slave I surrounded with their blaster rifles pointed at it.
One of the stormtroopers pressed a button on the side of his helmet so that his voice was amplified throughout the bay when he said, "Step out of the ship nice and slowly. Fire on us, and any one of my people here will lob remote detonators at the Firespray. You have thirty seconds."
This trooper wasn't bluffing, Jaina sensed; and with the number of soldiers here, they probably had enough detonators to blow open the Slave I, especially considering the recent beatings she took.
But Jaina could also sense that although none of these troopers knew who exactly had been piloting the Slave I since Boba Fett's death, they had intended to simply kill the pilot anyway; they just preferred to shoot their prey instead of risk being near a large explosion when they ended their quarry's life.
Well, at least they didn't know who they were going up against.
Within the half-minute that Jaina was afforded, she exited the Slave I with her hands up.
But before any of the stormtroopers could react at the sight of her, she quickly crouched down to unleash a powerful Force-wave that knocked all the troopers to the deck.
As the stormtroopers began recovering and bringing themselves back to their feet, Jaina moved among them at a speed that was between a highly-trained athlete and full-on Force-speed; she knocked them down in quick succession with Force-enhanced blows that managed to render them unconscious even against the protection of their armor and helmets.
Once they were all unconscious, Jaina broadened her Force-senses to where Jag and his Sith captors were. When she got them on her proverbial radar, she headed to the Star Destroyer's bridge.
. . .
Yes! Daala exclaimed through the Force. Your death shall herald the end of your Consortium, Your Majesty! And when that is gone, the Jedi will be next! I greatly look forward to killing your husband, Miss Quee!
The Galactic Alliance Chief of State continued to press on the minds of both Allana and Danni, feeling their wills wither into nothingness. The pain that blanketed their death throes was something that actually seemed to feed Daala through the Force, as if she were having a delectable meal at a five-star restaurant back in the upper echelons of Coruscant.
And there was nothing that either of her victims could do; in spite of the Battle Dragons that now flanked the Star Destroyers in this empty system, the Queen Mother's death was imminent.
It wouldn't be long now, Daala sensed. Within a few more moments, both Allana and Danni would travel to the Netherworld of the Force, their deaths serving as the vanguard for the fall of the Jedi Order. And when that happened, Daala would go on to...
Something in the Force suddenly seemed to stop that train of thought. For the first time in the brief time that Daala had received the Force, she was encountering... resistance. And not the kind that Vol and Bwua'tu had offered, but... genuine resistance that was preventing her from accomplishing her goals.
But how could this be? Daala wondered. She was just on the verge of killing both of these women through the Force! They had been so weak, she felt!
How... are you... resisting me? Daala asked frantically.
You may be powerful, Daala, Danni's voice said.
But Danni and I are together, Allana's voice added. You are only one.
And we can resist you, the both of them replied simultaneously.
Daala then felt pressure applying to her own mind.
She grit her teeth before she replied with, For now. But you will not succeed.
Daala then renewed her efforts on Allana and Danni's minds, yet she encountered even more resistance.
However, she did start to feel it already fading. And from her peripheral awareness of the physical battle going on outside, it seemed like Bwua'tu was commanding things well enough as his Star Destroyers were fending off the Battle Dragons; it was clear that Daala wasn't needed for that part as her attack on Danni and Allana's minds increased in strength.
. . .
Mirta's energy shields were all but gone, and in various places, her Bes'uliik was pockmarked with large indentations and even holes.
However, the same could be said for her treacherous husband's starfighter as their dogfight seemed to be reaching its climax.
They matched each other in their erratic dance in space, jinking and juking every which way as they lanced each other with laser strikes; while they missed more often than not, the strikes they did give each other every time they made a pass at the other made it all the more critical.
Gritting her teeth, and holding herself from breaking down into tears, Mirta called on the frequency, "Ghes, I'm giving you one last chance! Stop this right now and maybe you can live to explain yourself!"
"I'm sorry, Mirta," Ghes replied as he turned around from his most recent pass and soared in for his wife. His tone was listless, as if he were bored, as he continued to say, "But you're on the wrong side here."
"Ghes, I don't know what's gotten into you, but if you don't stop, I'll have to end you!" Mirta cried.
"Try it," came Ghes's noncommittal-sounding reply. He came into range to begin firing on his wife again.
She executed a tight veer to starboard even as she unleashed a volley of lasers herself.
All of the marks hit upon Ghes's weakened hull, resulting in its explosive destruction.
Mirta had only a moment to let that sink in before she turned away to find another enemy to dogfight.
There would be a time for mourning—more specifically, for breaking down into tearful sobs—when this was all over.
Mirta hoped that at the very least, when she fought Belok Rhal, she would know it was him before he died.
. . .
The stormtroopers that came across Jaina's way to the Gilad Pellaeon's bridge were easily taken down non-lethally with a few Force-swipes here and there, as well as the occasional knockout that was preceded by a burst of Force-speed.
However, after taking another junction in this particular corridor, which put her dozens of meters away from the bridge, she stopped to find that there might be more needed here than non-lethal measures.
Halfway down the corridor, a lucid-looking Jag was surrounded by a circle of stormtroopers who all had their blasters pointed at him. Outside the circle and facing Jaina were two people, both dressed in the uniforms of Imperial officers; one was a blonde woman who looked vaguely like Tahiri and the other was a dark-haired man of similar complexion to his female counterpart.
"If you wanna get him and get him alive, Jedi," the woman said, "you'll have to kill us first."
"But if you make it past us while both or either one of us still lives," the man continued, "your husband, or rather ex-husband, gets barbecued so badly by all his troopers' blaster bolts, he won't even taste good enough for a Barabel to eat."
Jaina tilted her head. "Challenge accepted."
Both the man and woman activated their crimson-bladed lightsabers right before Jaina activated her purple one. She then leaped toward them just as they leaped toward her, and when they met halfway, Jaina made sure that she didn't make it past either of them for Jag's sake.
. . .
"Great, how are we gonna get aboard that Destroyer now?" Partner asked.
Even as they were still in the midst of the fighting that pervaded the immediate space surrounding Mandalore, both Partner and Tahiri saw that the Gilad Pellaeon's hangar bay had been closed off by an emergency physical barrier that made it impossible to enter or exit the Star Destroyer until its energy shield generator could be repaired.
After Tahiri dodged a projectile from a TIE bomber, she asked, "Well, how much will it take to destroy that barrier?"
"Well, much more than this ship can dish out, that's for sure," Partner replied as he kept part of his concentration on firing at enemy targets.
"Then I guess that means we gotta get-" She was cut off as she had to veer to starboard to get out of the way of an incoming enemy Bes'uliik. "-everyone on our side to fire on the barrier."
"Maybe not on the barrier itself," Partner said. "But maybe just the hinges."
"Like prying open a panel," Tahiri reasoned.
"But with much more difficulty," Partner said as he missed a fleeing TIE fighter.
"Contact the frequency Gev's using," Tahiri said. "Tell her what we need to do to get into that Destroyer."
. . .
Although he was old and appeared to be frail, the Lost Tribe of the Sith's Grand Lord Darish Vol was anything but the latter; instead, he was a hurricane of Force-power who ran rampant within the Jade Shadow's passenger cabin. And even without his lightsaber, which the Jedi were smart to destroy after they had captured him, Vol repelled all of the Jedi present with his powerful Force-shoves that sent every single one of them careening among the bulkheads, ceiling, and deck.
No matter how hard any of the Jedi tried, whether it was Corran, Octa, or any of the other Knights, including Jacen, not a single one of them could get close enough to the Grand Lord to strike him down with any of their lightsabers. And so far, Vol didn't seem to be tiring even as he beat down the enemies around him with relative ease.
In the midst of this one-sided battle against Vol, Jacen and Corran collapsed next to each other, propped up against a bulkhead. The Master said, "He has to get tired soon! There's no way he can keep this up!"
By this point, Jacen was wheezing; combined with the beatings that Vol just gave him with the ones that Workan had doled out before his death, the Knight was in worse shape than any of his fellow Jedi.
"Maybe... he can't," Jacen said between gasps. "But... when he does... we might all... be dead."
"We can't just give up, Jacen!" Corran said. "I know you're hurt pretty bad, but we have to-"
"Let me handle this, Master Horn," Jacen said. "When I give... the signal... send... a confusing thought... into his head."
"Wait, what signal?" Corran asked.
Jacen looked right at him and held up his own lightsaber. "This... will be... a Sith... blade." He then stood up very carefully; he thought that maybe one of his ribs was broken.
Both Lowbacca and Seff Hellin were flung off to Jacen's right for their trouble in attacking Vol. But after that, the Grand Lord looked to Jacen, who was approaching him with calm and dignity, in spite of the limp that resulted from his left ankle being sprained.
And Jacen had just deactivated his lightsaber.
"Jacen, what are you doing?!" Corran called out as he began to stand up.
Jacen held up a hand without looking back at Corran; and seeing that Octa was unconscious off to his left, no one else was willing to speak out against Jacen.
Vol regarded this with a smirk and an arrogant guffaw. "What do you hope to do to me, Jedi, without even the help of your lightsaber?"
"Absolutely... nothing," Jacen said. "In fact... Grand Lord Vol... I give... my life... to you." He then tossed the Keshiri his own lightsaber.
Vol caught it easily and activated it; he sneered at the green blade and looked back up at Jacen.
"Why should I kill you with a Jedi weapon?" Vol asked contemptuously.
"It's not... a Jedi weapon," Jacen replied evenly. "It's... a Sith blade."
Vol looked confusedly for a moment before looking back at what was now a red blade.
That was all the distraction that Jacen needed.
With a burst of Force-speed, even in spite of his sprained ankle and wheezing, he moved in to grab at the hand that Vol was using to hold the weapon and angled it to chop his arm off at the shoulder.
However, Vol managed to dodge out of Jacen's charge, twirled around, and decapitated the Knight.
"Ha!" he laughed. "Nice try, you..."
When Vol looked, Jacen was still standing in front of him, and he even had his green blade in hand.
Vol only had a moment to see that the lightsaber he had just been wielding wasn't even in his own hand anymore; and when he looked back up, he didn't even have time to duck beneath the decapitating swing that Jacen executed.
All of the Jedi in the passenger cabin took a moment for themselves to look over at the beheaded corpse of the Sith Grand Lord before looking back up at Jacen in stunned amazement.
But Jacen simply looked over at Corran and said, "Thanks... Master Horn... you may not... have trained... with the Fallanassi... like my uncle... but you're still... damn good... at casting... confusing images... in the minds... of others."
Corran nodded as he helped himself back to his feet. "Thank you, Jacen; and also thank you for getting Vol to lower his guard so that I could project that image in his mind."
Jacen nodded. He then turned and headed for the cockpit; he was aided by Zekk and Jysella, who had his arms over their shoulders.
Once they reached the cockpit, Jacen was set down in the copilot seat, brought out his datapad, and began relaying the information from it to the Jedi StealthX fleet frequency.
"These are... the ships... that must be... destroyed, people," Jacen announced. "Not one of them... should be left... to retreat... into hyperspace... if our Grand Master... is to recover his mind... all of the High Lords... commanding these ChaseMasters... must die."
From there, the remaining Jedi transmitted the information about which ChaseMasters needed to be destroyed to the Chiss and Sekotan ships.
Within minutes, concentrated fleetwide attacks began on all of the indicated ChaseMasters, with all of their hyperdrives in particular being targeted for destruction.
. . .
Toward the end of the Battle of Mandalore, Mirta Gev and her Mandalorian force was whittled down to about a quarter of their initial strength while the Imperial forces were reduced to only a little over half of their own initial strength.
But in spite of those long odds, Gev's forces managed to do as their leader commanded and bombarded the hinges surrounding the emergency physical barrier that protected the Gilad Pellaeon's hangar bay from the vacuum of space.
The barrier was blasted away from the decompression toward the system's sun, and only the Slave I followed in its wake.
Upon seeing her grandfather's legendary ship fly off into space, Mirta broke off from engaging with another enemy fighter and zoomed toward the Slave I.
She hoped to overtake the ship, match its speed and trajectory, and then nudge it away so that it didn't ultimately end up burning away into atoms by the heat of Mandalore's star.
However, that plan soon saw a complication when her rear was hit by a laser bolt fired by a Bes'uliik pursuing her.
Mirta's sensors showed that it matched the profile of the fighter that Belok Rhal piloted.
She opened up the frequency to him. "Rhal, is that you firing on me?" Mirta asked.
"You bet it is," he growled. "And before I kill you, I'm gonna make sure you lose the only connection to your grandfather that you have left; consider it payback for not being a good little puppet like you were supposed to be." He then fired off a volley of rapid shots, most of which Mirta managed to dodge.
"Pretty petty for a merc, Rhal," Mirta shot back as her ship buckled from the shots that made it past her maneuvers.
"I like to mix business with pleasure, bitch," Rhal replied, "just like I did when I killed your grandfather." He cut off the transmission and continued to try to blow Mirta away into oblivion.
But because of that last bit of information that Rhal provided, Mirta completely forgot about the Slave I tumbling toward Mandalore's sun as she turned around and fired at her grandfather's killer.
. . .
After the physical barrier protecting the Gilad Pellaeon's hangar bay was blasted away, Tahiri piloted the HWK toward the deck, rotated it so that its landing ramp was facing an entrance into the rest of the Star Destroyer, and engaged the ship's magnetic clamps that sealed her there in spite of the decompression going on.
"Well, now we're in, but how are we supposed to get into the rest of the ship without getting blown out into space?" Partner asked.
"Your jetpack still got a lotta fuel?" Tahiri asked.
"Even if it had a full can, it won't-"
"How much fuel does it have left?"
Partner sighed before checking his jetpack by pulling out a wire from the right side; along that wire was an indicator that he read.
He allowed the wire to retract of its own volition into the jetpack before answering, "It's a little over a quarter from being full."
"Then with some Force-power from me," Tahiri said, "we can make it to the door that I parked us near."
Moments later, after the landing ramp was out, Partner flew out on his jetpack as he carried Tahiri beneath him; and with a great Force-push from her at their starting point, they rocketed against the decompression toward the door that would bring them into the rest of the Star Destroyer.
Once they made it, they grabbed at the emergency railings at either side of the door; however, when Tahiri pressed the button that would open the door, she was answered with an ACCESS DENIED.
"Must be because of the decompression! Emergency procedure!" Partner shouted.
"No problem!" Tahiri shouted back as she reached one hand for her lightsaber.
Half a minute later, Tahiri had finished cutting the door open, and as she allowed it to fly off into space, she used the Force to swing herself and Partner into the corridor leading into the rest of the Star Destroyer.
They were both in a split second before an emergency energy shield sealed them from the vacuum of space.
"Now let's end this," Tahiri said before she and Partner hurried for the bridge.
. . .
The two Sith that Jaina dueled off against were greatly skilled, she found, as they managed to get her further and further away from Jag to the point that she was nearing the bulkhead that terminated this junction of the corridor.
She could have executed any number of maneuvers that could have gone past either of them; but she knew that they weren't bluffing when they told her that if she did so without killing them both, Jag would be shot before she could ever reach him.
The problem was, Jaina discovered, that even though she was the Sword of the Jedi, she was still having trouble fighting two Sith who probably weren't even all that special in their own hierarchy. Killing them was, thus, surprisingly tricky, especially since she found herself on the defensive against their vicious attacks.
Once they had her back against the wall, Jaina feared, she would either die or be forced to make it past them, which would cost Jag his life. And she couldn't find the opportunity to drive either of them back with a Force-shove, as neither Sith allowed her any breathing room for that kind of move.
After several minutes of dueling against the Sith, Jaina could tell without even having to look behind her that she was only meters away from that bulkhead.
"Better step up your game, Jedi!" the man said.
"'Cause you're almost outta room!" the woman concluded.
Come on! Jaina chided herself. You can do this, you can beat them, Jaina!
Then she felt her back hit the bulkhead.
No! she screamed in her mind.
Both Sith reared back, as if for a killing stroke.
But before Jaina could even defend herself...
The man and woman both turned to their left to block off blaster bolts fired by Partner; and rushing in toward them, covered by the Mandalorian's fire, was Tahiri wielding a crimson-bladed lightsaber.
Partner's blasterfire ceased as Tahiri engaged the man with the clash of their blades, since he was the one facing her. That left Jaina to engage the woman, and together, both Jedi and former Jedi began driving the Sith duo back toward the stormtrooper circle surrounding Jag.
"Say, Jaina, wanna tell me... what's going on... with the troopers and Jag?" Tahiri asked between defense and attack.
"Can't... get past... the Sith... or Jag... gets shot," Jaina explained.
"Got it," Tahiri replied before she renewed her attack on her own opponent.
Once they were a few meters from the circle, Tahiri defeated her opponent first by ducking beneath a decapitating swing of his so that she literally cut out his legs from under him. He collapsed to the deck screaming in pain for only two seconds before she put him out of his misery by skewering him with her Sith blade.
With that out of the way, Tahiri helped Jaina take on the female Sith, who managed to find a way to stand her ground against her opponents when her back was only a meter from the circle.
But just as Jaina managed to parry away one of the Sith's strikes, leaving Tahiri a chance to strike the woman down, the latter jumped over both of them.
She landed in a crouch and swiftly turned around to face them with a malicious grin.
"No!" Jaina screamed as she turned back to the stormtrooper circle; at the same time, all of their blasters went off simultaneously.
But when they were done firing, all of the troopers dropped dead to the deck from the bolts that they incidentally fired on one another.
As for Jag...
He was left shaking his head in confusion as he lay on the deck with Tahiri on top of him... and her back was pockmarked with burning blaster holes.
She looked up at him, her teeth gritted in pain.
"You're welcome," she said.
She then rolled over off of Jag and died.
As Jaina gasped in shock at the death of her friend, the female Sith, who used a Force-wave to slam Partner back against the bulkhead behind him, thought that that distraction would be the perfect opportunity to strike her down.
She was wrong.
Jaina swiftly moved out of the way of the strike that was coming in behind her and pivoted so that she ended up decapitating the woman instead.
Only after that did Jaina collapse to her knees and cry for her lost friend.
. . .
As Mirta and Rhal's dogfight brought them closer to Mandalore's sun, the gravitational effects of the star began to pull on their ships even as the heat increased to an intensity that not even their personal armor could protect them from.
The sweat that poured from Mirta's body was nearly accompanied by tears as she saw the Slave I finally burn away into nothingness by its proximity to the sun.
"That's right, Gev!" Rhal called frantically over the frequency. "Join your grandfather's ship into oblivion! Join your grandfather! You've already lost your husband! What more can you possibly live for anyway?!"
During that brief monologue, Mirta managed to aim her reticle right over the protective covering for Rhal's subspace engines.
Judging by the amount of indentation on the covering even by the naked eye, it looked like it was ready to expose those engines.
"The simple things, Rhal," Mirta answered. She then fired on the protective covering, exposing the engines as predicted.
"Like seeing you die with my grandfather's ship," she said. She fired again.
Rhal was unable to maneuver in time before the lasers hit his engines.
"And hearing you scream when you go!" Mirta concluded.
Several more shots took out the protection covering his thrusters, and one more shot took out those, too; thus, Rhal had run out of options to save himself from burning away into his composite atoms.
With that, Mirta turned away and rocketed away from Mandalore's sun while Rhal's Bes'uliik fell toward the star.
She surprisingly got little in the way of satisfaction from hearing him scream in agony; and not much more was added there when she was able to turn and watch as his Bes'uliik burned away just like the Slave I.
. . .
The destruction of the ChaseMasters' hyperdrives only made them and what few starfighters they had left fight even harder, like wounded animals trapped in a corner against a ferocious predator that was on the verge of tearing them apart for sustenance. The projectiles that all of the Sith ships, fighters and capitals alike, went out in flurried frenzies that did all they could to wipe out the Jedi ships and their Chiss and Sekotan allies; even with High Lord Workan and Grand Lord Vol gone, the Lost Tribe didn't lose any discipline, no doubt because they still had their remaining High Lords in the fray. Defensive formations from the Sith, especially around their ChaseMasters, were tight; but at this point, with their numbers so whittled down, it appeared that their defeat was inevitable.
Soon, as the last of the Sith fighters was blown to pieces, and the ChaseMasters had all but lost their weapons, the Lost Tribe's capital ships appeared to be uniformly ordered to drive themselves toward Zonama Sekot.
According to the sensors provided by all of the remaining Jedi ships and their allies, it appeared that the ChaseMasters' engine cores were set to overload.
"Attention all ships!" Admiral Peecar transmitted over the fleet frequency. "If all those ChaseMasters blow up within Zonama's atmosphere, it will severely irradiate the entire planet for years to come! Well over three-quarters of the population would die!"
"Then let's prevent that from happening, everybody!" Kyp Durron announced.
With that, all of the remaining StealthXs, the Millennium Falcon, the Jade Shadow, and what was left of the Chiss and Sekotan ships poured practically everything they had left in terms of firepower against the ChaseMasters.
The Sith's capital ships' energy shields were completely wiped away, leaving their hulls utterly defenseless as they were shredded into so much flotsam and debris. Sith bodies were blown out into the vacuum of space, where they ended up, depending on their positions, either floating out toward the great infinity or burning up in Zonama's atmosphere.
Shockingly, not a single escape pod or other kind of escape vessels were launched from the capitals; no doubt their occupants believed that at that point, they would already be dead, even if they were taken alive by their enemies.
In minutes, the last ChaseMaster was blown away into oblivion only mere kilometers above Zonama's atmosphere.
The Jedi and their allies had defeated the Lost Tribe of the Sith.
Once it was confirmed by Peecar over the fleet frequency that all of the Sith ships had been destroyed, cheering and celebration went out from all of the victorious ships.
For about two minutes, even Jacen was caught up in the raucous victory before something occurred to him.
Immediately, from the copilot seat, he contacted the Millennium Falcon.
"Mom, Dad, how's Uncle Luke?" Jacen asked.
"Why don't you ask him yourself, son?" Han's voice asked.
A moment later, Luke Skywalker's voice said, "Hey, Jacen; I'm back."
"Uncle Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"You mind repeating that over the Jedi fleet frequency?"
"Not at all." Two seconds later, he said, "To all the remaining Jedi... I'm cured of the Force-trap that the Sith brought upon me. I'm back."
The raucous celebration was renewed... but for only a few seconds.
Because shortly after Luke announced that he was, indeed, back, Jacen seized up.
Jacen! Dad! You gotta help us! Allana cried out through the Force.
Jacen, Daala has the Force somehow! Danni cried out next. She's attacking Allana and me! She wants to kill all the Jedi! You gotta help-
Ah! came an arrogant, self-satisfied voice that was all too familiar. So far away, yet right in my grasp! Now I can kill you, too, Solo!
Jacen then stumbled out of the copilot seat as he felt his mind being assaulted by a great, powerful pressure.
The voices of the concerned Jedi around him faded away as Daala's voice continued to call out with, Yes! Yes! I can feel the other Jedi around you, as well, Solo! Let's see just how far this connection does for me!
Indeed, as if it were a virus, all the other Jedi aboard the Jade Shadow stumbled and collapsed to their knees as their minds were also assaulted by the awesome power that Daala wielded through the Force.
And even as he felt his own mind being assaulted, as well as the minds of Danni, Allana, and the Shadow's Jedi being attacked, Jacen could also sense that Daala was now able to attack the minds of all the other Jedi in the fleet.
Including Uncle Luke's newly-freed mind.
But as the attack persisted, and Jacen tried to find some way to resist the effort that Daala was applying to all of them, he eventually found one.
Daala's own presence was starting to feel... unstable. And that instability only increased the more she pressed on her attack.
Resist, everyone! Resist! Jacen called out through the Force. Our power seems to make Daala more powerful! But her power is unstable! It will cause her to lose control! I can feel it!
At first, Jacen could feel the tortured gathering resist. And for a moment, it seemed to be working; the all-encompassing force that was Daala seemed to be waning.
But her power came back just as strongly, rebounding from the ebb as if nothing had ever happened.
Calm, everyone! Luke's voice communed through the Force. Calm! We must give ourselves over to the Force! Only then can we defeat Daala! Only then can we properly resist!
But it didn't seem like any of the Jedi, not even Jacen, could listen, as the pain that Daala was bringing upon them was too great to counter.
You can't hope to defeat me, Skywalker! Daala conveyed. And I have complete control over this power, Solo! I have no instability! I gained this power through something that was thought to be impossible! You, by contrast, are grounded in only what can be possible with your powers! Your destruction is inevitable! I am-
Daala's voice was cut off; again, her power felt like it was waning. But like before, she came back, her attack renewed and seeming stronger than before.
I am your doom! I am your end! I will be the one to see that the-
Once more, it seemed like Daala's presence was... stumbling through the Force.
I will be the one to see that the fate of the Jedi will be extinction, that what Emperor Palpatine sought to accomplish, I will bring to fruition. You will all be-
. . .
When Daala screamed, it was just as audible through the Force as it was in the physical plane.
Everyone on the bridge of the Admiral Ackbar looked upon her with fear and apprehension as her being glowed red, as if she were highly radioactive. She stood stock still as her scream continued, unabated, going into a higher pitch; and her glow similarly grew brighter with its own intensity.
Her scream soon became so loud that it merged into the sound that her own glow actually made.
Moments later, the entire Admiral Ackbar exploded, sending a shock wave that rattled all of the ships in this system from their positions. But when the wave passed, and all that remained of the Ackbar was debris, a calm settled over the remaining Galactic Alliance and Hapan ships as their occupants all began wondering what just happened.
The only two people who knew what happened, Allana and Danni, looked over at each other in the Dragon Queen's medbay from their strapped positions on their respective beds. They smiled in relief at each other, holding hands in support of what they had just gone through, before Allana looked over to the chief medical officer and said, "We're okay now. You may let us go."
When Allana and Danni returned to the Battle Dragon's bridge, Admiral Serash said, "Your Majesty, General Hague wishes to speak to you; he's the highest-ranking officer now that Admiral Bwua'tu is dead."
Allana looked to the viewport where Hague's image waited to be spoken to.
"General Hague," Allana said, "I take it you wish to cease hostilities with the Hapes Consortium on behalf of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances?"
"You are correct, Your Majesty," Hague said with a nod. "This was all Chief Daala's idea; but now that she's dead, I hope that we can sue for peace."
"Shall we discuss this further aboard my Battle Dragon, General?" Allana asked.
"By all means, Your Majesty."
. . .
"Everyone," Luke said over the fleetwide frequency, "we won."
The cheer that erupted from all of the Jedi ships, even if their allies were confused as to what just happened after the Lost Tribe was defeated, was even greater than it was from the downfall of their Sith enemies.