TATOOINE
The lead Republic AT-GT began to slow down as the controller pilot noticed an odd sight in the near distance.
"Supreme Commander, do you see that?" he asked.
Omas peered with his macrobinoculars at a lone speeder parked in the middle of the desert, among a column of long-decayed fossils.
A corpulent body was draped over the speeder, which Omas could just make out as Hoff Praxium.
"It's General Praxium," Omas declared, "This must be where the Jedi left his body!"
Praxium was alive, but exhausted and dehydrated. He sweated heavily as he panted for air, unable to operate the stolen speeder anymore.
"What's that?" Colonel Kargill asked from her AT-GT.
Two Banthas had appeared near Praxium's speeder, with the Tusken Raiders rushing towards it.
"What are those savages doing?" asked Omas as the Tuskens picked up Praxium's body from his speeder.
"Should we go after them?" asked Kargill, watching the Tuskens throw Praxium to the sand and beat him with their deadly staffs.
Praxium was in fact screaming in pain as the Tusken weapons struck him in the stomach, but the Republic invading party was too far away to hear.
"It isn't worth the trouble," Omas decided, "He's already dead. If the savages pose a threat to our occupancy, then we will deal with them as well."
As the Republic tanks proceeded through the desert, the Tuskens grabbed Praxium by the arms and pulled him to his feet, throwing him onto one of the Banthas.
"Wait!" one of the tank pilots shouted from the cockpit, "Did you hear him screaming? Our scanners picked it up."
"Halt!" Omas shouted into the radio, watching as he made out an agonized expression on Praxium's purple face.
"Should we make a rescue?" Colonel Kargill asked.
Meanwhile, the Tuskens had tied Praxium with rope over the bulky Bantha.
"We'll take him back to camp," Porr Sharun declared, "He might be a valuable hostage."
"Do you think the Republic will come for him?" asked Frey Veila.
"If they don't, we can make an example of him," Sharun replied, "Outsiders have dared to tread on our lands for far too long. They must understand that we won't sit down and take it."
Inside the lead AT-GT, Omas made his decision.
"Colonel Kargill, you will take Batallion 301 to extraxt General Praxium. The rest of our craft will follow me as we proceed."
"You can count on us, Vizier," Kargill said from her AT-GT.
The Banthas and their riders were about four hundred yards away from the invading convoy, growing smaller.
"Follow the Tuskens to their camp," Omas ordered, "There, you will be able to show the entire tribe of them the force that the Republic is capable of."
HYPERSPACE
Deep in the vacuum of space, a lone Had Abaddonian Dreadnought tore through the cosmos, with no particular destination.
Inside, the Sith Lords had begun to overcome the spell that Darth Plagueis had cast over them, returning to their senses.
"We have been tricked into serving the will of one ruler," Darth Millennial declared, "Darth Plagueis put us under a spell!"
"He has been manipulating our life forces," Tenebrous added, "He was using us as an army to serve his own purposes. He had a young co-conspirator, Darth Ultor. The blood of Sidious himself."
"We cannot let either Plagueis or Ultor tell us what to do," Lady Zannah said fiercely, "They have no claim over us."
"It is because of them that we are all a shadow of our former selves," Darth Dredrun, a male Lannik complained, "None of us are at full strength yet. That is why Lord Malten lost to Ultor's apprentice."
"How dare you!" the Twi'lek Malten snarled.
"Enough!" hissed Darth Ness, an older female human, "We still have a great deal to figure out. Who will lead the Sith with no designated ruler? We must have some form of order if we are to take on the Jedi."
The gathered Sith Lords looked between one another, piercing their fellow warriors with their gaping red and yellow eyes and their infinite black pupils.
Almost comically, the Dark Lords began to draw their lightsabers in rapid succession, activating their multi-colored blades with loud hisses and buzzes.
The Sith scanned the hangar as they prepared to attack one another, eager to battle for supremacy as the Sith had always done.
"Halt!" Darth Bane shouted, raising his hand to quell the chaos.
"What do you have to say, my old Master?" Zannah asked, dipping her lightsaber at Bane.
"If we turn on each other now, we will as good as lose to the Jedi. We have the numbers to challenge them that we did not have before."
"But who will command us?" Tenebrous asked, "Do you presume the position as our leader?"
"I was the founder of our line of Dark Lords," Bane replied, "It was my teachings that each of you passed to your apprentice. Everything that this Sith have achieved over the last millennium is owed to me."
"You were the one who started the Rule of Two," Zannah snarled, dipping her lightsaber towards her Master, "We could have crushed them long ago if we only had the numbers. You doomed us with your poor judgement."
"You were a lost little girl before I found you," Bane snapped back, "You will obey your Master."
Bane drew a purple-bladed lightsaber to attack, but four Sith were upon him at once, easily overpowering and dismembering the former Dark Lord.
Suddenly, the group of Sith turned to address one of their own, a tattooed Zabrak who had begun to walk towards a nearby Syck fighter.
"Where are you going, Sith?" asked Darth Malten.
"I'm not a Sith," Savage said sadly, "I never was meant to be one. The Sith took my family from me, and I don't want any part of this."
"You will fight for us if you know what's good for you!" Tenebrous declared.
At the same time, Tenebrous and Millennial unleashed torrents of lightning at Savage, causing him to shriek in his low, rumbling voice as the double lightning struck his bulky body.
"We won't have any deserters among us," Millennial hissed.
The towering Savage lost consciousness with the weight of the Sith lightning tearing into him, his heart and lungs ceasing function.
"Now what do we do?" Zannah demanded, "How are we to determine our hierarchal structure?"
Suddenly, an electrical current began to run through the power lines inside the Dreadnought.
Dramatically, the power systems began to shut down, and the hangar went dark.
The Sith Lords who had switched off their lightsaber blades activated them once again, forming a circle of glowing crystal rods in the darkness.
Within the Wellspring of Life, Darth Plagueis was silently summoning the midichlorians to do his bidding.
He ordered them to transmit his image across thousands of lightyears, projecting himself before the revived Sith Lords.
"Dark Lords of the past, each of you owes your existence in the physical realm to my sorcery. Without me, you would be condemned to suffer in the Netherworld for all eternity. You will obey my will."
Darth Tenebrous was the first to step forward to confront his former apprentice.
"I will not bow down to you, Plagueis, not when it was I who showed you the secrets of the dark side."
From the Wellspring of Life, Plagueis conjured an alchemical spell, summoning it from the depths of the microbiotic world of the midichlorians.
Tenebrous's large, black eyes began to glow, as did the eyes of every other Sith Lord who remained standing.
"Must...resist!" grunted Darth Zannah as she tried to fend off the influence Plagueis was gaining over her mind.
"The Sith will make their ultimate stand against the Jedi under my command," Plagueis rasped, "Only through me can we triumph."
TATOOINE
The surviving Hutt Dor'bullas, Black Sun skyhooks, and Pyke Sarisas regrouped on the far side of Tatooine's orbit, avoiding the Republic fleet sending reinforcements to the planet surface.
Vigo Yerrin Serri spoke via hologram with Rotta the Hutt and Pyke leader Grimer Krim aboard his skyhook, the Falleen Jewel.
"Do we dare challenge the Republic fleet again?" Krim asked, "They've left us badly crippled. We're cut off from our supply on planet. They'll be sure to find us soon."
"The Republic forces will soon be occupied by the Jedi and the resisting armies already on Tatooine's surface," Serri replied, "Once they have taken care f one another, we will finish off what is left. In the meantime, let us continue sneaking whatever ships we can onto the planet. They cannot cover every square meter of Tatooine."
"Most of the cities are already under our control," Rotta said, speaking entirely in Huttese, "We have the home turf advantage over the invaders."
"The Republic army will come undone soon enough," Serri vowed, "As will the Jedi defenders."
Suddenly, the holographic communication between the crime bosses began to receive interference, with each display flickering off and on.
"Sir, we are being jammed by an intruding ship," reported a Neimodian aide.
A single Herald-class ship appeared from the vacuum of space, firing at the main signal tower of the skyhook Falleen Jewel.
Darth Ultor's face appeared on the holoprojectors and screens throughout every Hutt, Black Sun, and Pyke command ship as he hijacked the communication tower with his ship's technology.
"I am the Dark Master of the Coalition, and you will all obey me!" Ultor hissed, glaring threateningly into the screen of his cockpit, "I united your disorganized, chaotic crime syndicates into a powerful guerrilla army, and I alone brought you to the brink of victory. Now, it will be I who leads the final charge against all our enemies."
Rotta spoke directly to Ultor from the safety of his father Jabba's former palace, slithering through the throne room floor as he spoke to the projector that displayed Ultor's scowling face.
"How dare you take credit for our victories?" Rotta asked in Huttese, "You who have been obsessed with fables and legends? You who have been absent from every battle we have fought in the last year. We will no longer bow to you, Dark Master."
"You will obey me or perish," Ultor replied with a snarl. His fists trembled and pounded on the controls of his fighter as he clenched with rage. The injuries he was still suffering from only fueled his anger. "I order every Coalition command ship to send all bombers to the surface of Tatooine. We will go scorched world and destroy every inch of land. Every man, woman, and child will die at our hands, no matter how innocent. Nobody will leave this desert planet alive. We will crush all life on Tatooine, or I will crush you all."
The communication channel between the crime bosses responded with shocked and terrified silence. None of them were prepared for the sheer fury and evil coming from Ultor.
Yet he felt the hate swelling through every vein and artery, using his malicious lust to quell the thoughts of doubt that Ultor had previously experienced. His moments of weakness would be undone by the devastation he would unleash.
"If we destroy everything on the planet, then our syndicates will have nothing to rule over," Krim replied, "We are here to ensure that our armies and empires maintain power, not to destroy everything in our paths. You go too far in your wantonness, Sith Lord."
Vigo Serri chimed in, "Even if we wanted to scorch everything, it would be too great of a risk with the presence of the Republic fleet. You have crossed the line into insanity, Dark Master."
"Then you will die along with every life form on Tatooine," Ultor snarled, "Prepare to be blown into oblivion."
He reached for the lever that activated the guns of his Herald ship, opening fire and aiming at everu part of Serri's skyhook that he could reach.
"Respond with maximum firepower!" Yerrin Serri yelled, patching a signal to the gunneries of the Jewel, "Shoot him down!"
Ultor was suddenly faced with a swarm of Syck fighters appearing in attack formation, wasting no time before shooting in his direction.
Ultor used his enhanced reflexes to pilot his Herald away from the many intersecting lines of fire, pounding his fingers against the triggers that fired off his ship's guns and cannons.
Pilot after pilot exploded in a ball of gas and fire, as the Huttese ships tore apart. Ultor bared his teeth as he continued firing, too fast for any of the Coalition ships to keep up.
However, his speed could not match the number of Hutt Cartel and Black Sun fighters that were beginning overwhelm him.
Ultor began to smell fire bursting through the hull of his ship as lasers tore through the aluminum.
He shouted out loud in a fit of rage, using his Force powers to preserve himself and his vessel from being completely obliterated.
With a final yell, Ultor pulled the lever that activated his ship's hyperdrive before fainting into unconsciousness.
The Herald-class resembled a flaming comet as it blasted out of Tatooine's orbit past the circling Republic and Coalition fleets.
TATOOINE
The newly acquired TX-900 landspeeder sped we across the Dune Sea, with Slave II leading the way overhead. Three armed farmers of the newly formed defense militia accompanied Sam as he piloted the speeder towards the remote adobe city of Bestine.
"Are we sure that this won't attract attention from either the Republic or Coalition?" asked Krit Sans, sitting in the passenger seat beside Sam as he piloted the speeder towards the distant town of Bestine.
"We need the get the weapons somehow," Sam replied, "There's always going to be the risk that any arms dealer is Coalition friendly. Besides, we have two Jedi to protect us." Sam jerked his head up at Slave II, where Kira and Tahiri sat in the cockpit.
The other two volunteers, a human woman named Alee Kress and a male Kiffar named Olyp Prund kept their macrobinoculars trained on the city as it grew larger.
Bestine had a comparatively low Coalition presence, but about three dozen Syck fighters could be seen overhead, with a small swarm of Pyke Sarisa gunships delivering muscle warriors to the city.
Sam switched on his comlink with his free hand and said, "Are you guys in position?"
"Copy, Rogue Leader," Kira replied from the cockpit of Slave II.
To Tahiri, she said, "Do you think we can get these back in time?"
"This is a fast ship you stole from that bounty hunter," Tahiri replied, "It's just a matter of Sam not being recognized by the Coalition and attacked on sight."
"Or by the Republic," Kira replied, "Omas will be coming after us both. When I went to go rescue Sam on Chandrilia, I accidentally killed his dad, that's what he was talking about on the Falcon. I got angry and I just began to shut down his midichlorians."
"But he's alive, the general?" Tahiri asked, turning sideways to gape at Kira, "You guys brought him here."
"When I was on Sojourn, Darth Plagueis taught me how to use the midichlorians..." Kira hesitated, finding the hateful lust rising inside her as she thought about her experience in Damask's laboratory. "To kill, and bring people back. Praxium has a low count, so he was easier to do than a powerful Force user would be."
"You can bring people back from the dead, as long as they have a low count?" Tahiri asked in astonishment.
"This power, it's had me thinking dark thoughts. I want to get rid of it," Kira replied.
As they hovered over the landspeeder that carried Sam and the volunteers, Kira began to steer Slave II in a lap around the area of the Dune Sea adjacent to the border of Bestine, far enough from the Coalition ships passing through.
"I reckon we'd better land somewhere, before we attract attention?" Tahiri suggested.
As Sam and his party flew into the outskirts of the city, filled with small repair shops, fuel stations, and markets, Olyp Prund remarked, "This was a mistake. The streets are so empty here."
"We're sure to attract attention," Alee said, "Especially carrying a crateload of weapons back to the base."
"We have Jedi protectors watching over us," Sam replied, "It'll go smoothly."
As the Pyke gunships landed in the main docking bay, several cloaked and armed Pyke warriors exited, carrying heavy blaster rifles and pouring into the city.
Inside a small establishment, a family of Falleens cowered in the corner; a husband, wife, and two children, trembling in fear.
Durge the Gen'Dai bounty hunter aimed his large heavy blaster rifle at then with one hand, while keeping an eye on the passing speeder with the four passengers.
"Please, please let us go," the mother begged.
"Collateral damage is sometimes necessary in making a good catch," Durge replied calmly in his booming voice.
"Looks like we got trouble," Kira pointed out as four Syck fighters approached Slave II.
As her hands impulsively went for the trigger to fire the Firespray's cannons, Tahiri caught them.
"Wait, don't fire yet."
The Weequay inside the lead Syck activated her radio and said, "Please identify yourself and your business here. This is Hutt Clan territory that you have entered."
A long pause from the ship.
"Should we fire?" asked one of the Trandoshan pilots.
"Hold it for now," the leader replied, "I think this ship belongs to one of our regulars."
Kira replied finally, in a voice slightly deeper than her own.
"This is bounty hunter Ailyn Fett speaking. I have a Jedi bounty to deliver to the Hutts."
"I think that is Ailyn's ship," the second pilot said.
"Very well," the Weequay replied, "You may pass through."
Kira continued to pilot Slave II over the landscape of Bestine, towards a small, inconspicuous docking platform built under the ground level between a communication tower and an office building.
"The Hutts are going to be expecting a Jedi prisoner now," Tahiri said as their stolen ship began to descending into the landing pit, "Those goons are sure to tip them off."
"We'll be fast getting the weapons, and then long gone by the time the Cartel figures out we were faking," Kira replied.
"Just in case, we're going to need a plan in case we run into trouble," Tahiri pointed out, "We are deep in enemy territory after all."
"Let's see what this bounty hunter has stocked up," Kira murmured as she hopped up from the pilot's seat and ducked out of the cockpit.
Tahiri followed her as Kira opened up a secret compartment in the cargo hold to find an array of blaster rifles and pistols, coupled with an extra suit of Mandalorian armor.
"Disguising as the enemy is the oldest trick in the book," Kira remarked.
"Probably why it always works," Tahiri replied.
A minute later, the ramp of Slave II had slid down, and Tahiri was wearing a pair of bindercuffs that bound her wrists behind her back.
Kira had both her own lightsaber and Tahiri's clipped to the belt of Ailyn's extra suit of armor, and she donned the helmet to cover her face.
"We'd better find Sam and the others," Tahiri urged as the disguised Kira led her towards the staircase connecting the landing bay to the streets above, "before the Coalition catches on to us."
As the landspeeder continued through the streets of Bestine, Sam asked, "Do you have the location of the arms dealer?"
"I got it, but it's still very risky," Krit replied, "He's got his supply in Weazel's Cantina."
"Show me the way," Sam replied as he steered the craft past the odd eopie or GNK droid. The streets were predictably deserted as the Bestine residents took cover away from the Coalition forces.
As Mandalorian-Kira led the prisoner Tahiri after the speeder, a skiff appeared from the domed and rectangular adobe rooftops above them, hovering towards the street before beginning to descend.
"Ailyn Fett!" shouted a Pyke warrior as he and his seven companions appeared at the railing of the skiff.
Kira didn't dare speak, lest she give away her true identity. Yet, she had no choice but to stop as the skiff came to a stop in the street in front of her and Tahiri, blocking their path.
The ramp to the skiff lowered and the eight warriors walked down onto the sand. Kira could barely restrain her legs from wobbling with fear as a shiver went down her back.
The lead Pyke spoke first, sparing Kira the pressure of doing so.
"The Hutts will be pleased with this Jedi bounty," he said, "We have brought you a skiff to deliver her to Rotta's palace."
Kira's mind raced with panic, scrambling to come up with a quick plan.
Before she knew what she was doing, Kira had released the bindercuffs she was using to restrain Tahiri and raised her hand, closing her armored fingers together.
In response, the lead Pyke warrior levitated off the ground, kicking the air as he reached for his throat.
"Kira, no!" Tahiri hissed, realizing that their cover was blown.
The other Pykes went in for the attack, firing their blasters and lunging with their staffs.
Kira was able to choke the leader into unconsciousness before unclipping and activating her lightsaber.
With a yell, she jabbed her blue blade into the gut of a Pyke warrior who had been about to impale her with an electrically charged staff.
At the same time, Tahiri used the Force to undo her cuffs and summoned her own weapon from Kira's belt.
As she switched on her lightsaber's purple blade, Tahiri used the Force to push away two warriors attacking her, knocking them into the skiff.
Both Jedi women deflected blaster bolts from the standing Pykes, but Tahiri was standing her ground while Kira was going for the incapacitated warriors who had been disarmed or stunned.
One by one, Kira cut her blade into the Pykes's hooded heads and plated chests, easily ending their lives. Tahiri could only stare in shock at her friend's ruthlessness. The Pykes were enemies, but the Jedi did not cast any more harm than was necessary to anyone.
Turning off and sheathing her lightsaber, Kira lifted Ailyn Fett's helmet off of her head and cast it aside in disgust.
"I was tired of wearing this thing anyway."
"Now our cover's blown," Tahiri worried, "We're in danger every minute we stick around here." She knew that it was Kira's brash actions that had doomed them, but it was not in Tahiri's nature to say so outright. Besides, casting blame would not help them any.
"We'd better find Sam then," Kira replied, "so we can all get out of here."
Sam, Krit, Alee and Olyp were hasty in rushing from their parked landspeeder into Weazel's Cantina.
Weazel himself, a short human male with frenzied grey hair, greeted the four newcomers with an enthusiastic wave as they entered, asking, "Welcome, travelers, what'll it be for you?"
"We're looking for Rold Krun," Krit said, "The arms-man."
Weazel sniffed in annoyance. "I run a business here, you know. I keep telling Krun that he's got to do his deals elsewhere."
"So he's here, then," Sam asked urgently.
Weazel nodded in the direction of a large booth, where a four legged Dug was slouching.
Sam could see a large net under the table, filled with heavy blaster rifles ready to deliver to the waiting militia back at the Lars Homestead.
"We're the militia who asked for the shipment of weapons," Sam spoke up, "Are you Krun, the arms dealer?"
"The best in the business," Krun replied, "Have you got the payment?"
Sam and the three Tatooine locals reached into their pocket for the accumulation of credits in their possession, passing them into Krun's front paws.
"You're offering a good bargain, for so much weaponry," Alee observed, glancing at the concealed supply.
"Well, there's a little extra in it for me," Krun replied, "I want the Coalition gone as much as the next businessman. They claim anarchy and freedom, but they stomp over all of us honest workers."
"You call the work you do honest?" Sam asked.
"Weapons are a business like anything else, commodities to be sold," Krun replied, "But you see- sometimes a businessman has to go the extra mile. For example, you and your friends are in very high demand in these parts."
Sam did not like the sound of that at all. "What do you mean?" he asked, his hand drifting towards his blaster.
Suddenly, the entire cantina trembled as the street outside was stricken by a stomping steel foot.
The shadow of Durge filled the tavern as civilians began to flee.
"You'll remember the famed bounty hunter Durge?" Krun laughed, "He promised me a handsome sum for luring you to him. So long!"
Krun leapt up and swung out of the booth over the four humans, hopping past the foot traffic towards the metallic Durge.
"Four resistance fighters, and two Jedi to follow," Krun said, "Now my payment as promised?"
Durge pointed his fist at Krun, activating the laser cannons attached to his arms.
Two seconds later, Rold Krun was a pile of smoked flesh lying in the sand.
"Grab the weapons and fire!" Sam urged, tearing into the net that contained their shipment of blaster rifles.
He grabbed a rifle and passed another to Krit. Olyp and Alee quickly armed themselves as well and fired out the cantina window towards Durge.
The blaster bolts bounced off of the Gen'Dai's powerful armor, and Durge aimed his fist into the adobe roof, tearing open a gaping hole.
"Run!" Sam yelled, firing again at Durge as he backed away.
Durge advanced, demolishing the cantina wall with a single kick as he approached his prey.
"We can't outrun him, we're trapped!" Olyp replied, nonetheless joining in as the four of them shot every inch of Durge that they could.
"We can slow him down though," Sam replied, nevertheless feeling his boots bouncing as Durge shook the cantina floor with every step he took towards them.
Just as they were backed against the wall, Durge aimed his arm cannon at them, preparing to open fire.
Just then, somebody let out a yell behind Durge, and a bar of violet plasma appeared in front of his face.
Blinded, Durge stumbled around the floor, swinging his steel fists as Tahiri kept her arm wrapped firmly around his neck.
"You came!" Sam exclaimed as Kira joined the fight, slashing at Durge's legs with her lightsaber.
"Get the weapons and go!" Krit yelled, reaching for the net with the rest of the rifles. Alee held on to the other end and helped him drag it past Durge and the Jedi, while Sam and Olyp kept firing at Durge.
Kira dropped onto a round stone table and rolled over as Durge aimed a lethal kick in her direction.He began firing indiscriminately in all directions, drilling hole after hole in the cantina walls and ceiling.
Tahiri held onto his neck as she continued to press her lightsaber against his eye sockets.
Durge cried out as he fired in a circular motion, striking Alee in the back. She cried out as she crumpled to the floor, falling onto the pile of weapons in the net.
"No!" Krit yelled. Durge followed his voice and shot him in the chest, while Kira continued to slice at him in frustration, barely managing to leave a scratch.
"Keep firing!" Sam shouted at Olyp as they continued to shoot, but the blaster bolts kept bouncing off Durge's armor.
Kira looked up at Durge, realizing that there was only one way out. This indestructible bounty hunter had the same weakness that any living being did- he was given life by the midichlorians inside him.
Kira had no idea how strong with the Force the bounty hunter was, or how effectively he would be able to counter her manipulation, but she knew that she had to try.
In the time it had taken Kira to come up with her plan, Durge had mowed Olyp down, leaving Sam as the last of their militia's mission team members.
It was only a matter of time before Durge would fatally shoot down Sam, Kira realized. She extended her hand and forced her mind to dig deep into Durge, calling to the midichlorians inside his body.
Durge dropped onto one knee with a thud that sent Tahiri flying off of him into the wrecked wall. She rolled to the floor in a temporary daze as Kira concentrated on shutting down Durge's midichlorians.
His vision restored, Durge turned his torso and head around to find the source of his gradual shutdown, finding Kira glaring at him with her hand stretched in his direction.
Durge pointed his arm at Kira and fired at will, forcing her to break concentration and duck out of the way.
Tahiri leapt in the way between her friend and Durge and swung her violet blade in a rapid sideways motion that swatted aside Durge's line of fire.
Struggling with the heavy rifle weight, Sam sprang up from the adobe wall and dashed past Durge, aiming a shot directly at Durge's arm cannon.
The towering bounty hunter was not expecting the blast, and stammered as the cannon was knocked off of his metal sleeve and broke in two.
"Get out, now!" Tahiri yelled, lunging for Sam and pulling him after her.
As soon as Kira recovered her footing, she sprinted after her friends towards the cantina's exit, while Durge swung his fists in their direction, now disarmed.
"We have a better chance at taking him out now!" Tahiri shouted.
"Maybe you do!" Sam replied as Durge reached his long arm towards his rifle and grabbed hold, lifting Sam clear off the ground.
"Let go, Sam, let go!" Kira yelled.
Durge held Sam's rifle ten feet above the ground level with his head, with Sam hanging onto it still.
The Gen'Dai prepared to drop Sam under his waiting boot, but as the renegade Brigadier fell, Kira and Tahiri reached out at the same time with the Force, pushing the airborne Sam onto the adjacent rooftop, where the power lines were extending from one building to the next.
Kira saw the cables hanging above their heads and said, "Tahiri, cover me!"
She bent her knees and Force leapt into the air towards Sam, who was running to avoid Durge's flying fist. He reached into the holster on his belt to grab his pistol while Kira landed on the roof, striking at Durge's hand with her lightsaber.
"Sam, blast the power line!" Kira said.
Sam looked wildly between Kira and the rampaging Durge, then took a shot at the nearest wire.
The cable split in two as the laser blasted through it, causing a powerful spark of electricity to escape it.
As Durge reached to send a powerful punch at Kira, he looked down to find Tahiri swatting at his legs with her lightsaber, as aggressively as she could swing it.
Durge lifted his boot to give her a fatal kick, but then at that moment, Kira used the Force to send the vivisected power cable flying at him.
Durge howled as the electricity surged through his metallic plates, stumbling blindly towards the building containing the power plant that generated the city.
Tahiri used the Force to seize hold of the other end of the cut cable, causing it to hit Durge and double the intensity of the electrical bolts hitting his giant body.
Durge screamed in his deep, resonant voice as he collapsed face first into the adobe building, his body crushing the wall as he hit the plant inside.
"Out of the way!" Tahiri yelled.
Kira and Sam jumped down at the same time, crawling after Tahiri towards the alley between two neighboring buildings. They thought of nothing but getting as far away as possible as the building collapsed and caused the power plant to explode.
The plates of Durge's armor flew across the city streets along with chunks of adobe, causing the hiding Bestine residents and the patrolling Coalition guerrillas alike to scatter for cover.
Kira coughed on the cinders and ashes as her vision slowly returned.
Soon enough, she could see her friends emerging from the wreckage, coughing along with her.
"There'll be more of them soon," Tahiri commented, "We don't have any time to savor this."
The Millennium Falcon soared urgently across the light blue desert sky over the Dune Sea, in search of the missing strike team.
The entire party of farmer and villager fighters was seated in the passenger hold, awkwardly crammed in with one another.
In the cockpit, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids desperately searched the area with the ship's scanners, hoping to find Kira, Sam, Tahiri and the others safely returning.
"Hey, you'd sense it if anything happened to them, wouldn't you?" Han asked his wife eagerly.
"Kira's okay, for now," Leia replied numbly.
Chewbacca let out a warning cry as the scanners picked up on a swarm of approaching Syck fighters.
"Oh no, not them," Han groaned, "Chewie, you know what to do."
Chewbacca raced out of the cockpit towards the gunning turrets, pushing aside crowded passengers as he made his way through the round corridor.
"Watch it," a man said as Chewie stepped on his foot, to which Chewie replied with a quick apology.
"They'll outnumber us before long," Threepio fretted, "We'll never be able to get through them all."
"Haven't you seen enough of what this old girl can do?" Han asked, steering the Falcon upwards to avoid the line of fire from the Coalition ships.
From the advancing AT-GT, a scout said, "Over there!"
Inside his own cockpit, Cal Omas observed and said, "It's Solo and the other deserters. Where they are, there'll be the Jedi."
Omas switched on a projector that patched up to the fleet of Republic command ships in orbit of Tatooine.
"Deploy Blue and Orange squadrons against the Falcon," he ordered, "and send the drone bombers as well."
"Looks like we got more company," Han said as Republic Interceptors began to appear from above, beginning their own streaks of laserfire directed at both the Falcon and the Coalition ships.
"Get us out of here!" a voice shouted from down below.
"We're all doomed in here!"
"Han, we can't stick around," Leia told her husband regretfully, "We're going to have to get everyone away from here, to safety."
"What about Kira?" Han replied.
Leia sighed sadly, realizing that the common greater goal would have to, for the moment, take priority. Ever the Jedi, she said, "I think we're going to have to leave them on their own for now."
"HELP!"
Han cringed painfully, but nevertheless pulled the accelerator to carry them all far away from the Republic and Coalition ships alike. Both sides pursued the Falcon, but the Interceptors, Sycks, and Vipers had begun to fire at one another as well.
Han continued to avoid the lines of fire as he piloted the Falcon to safety in the distance.