Chapter 9
The Alliance was at a time of sustained peace; it was only natural that other systems beyond the sphere of the Alliance would want to join that peace. The large secessions and conquered Sith space following the Sith-Imperial War had certainly undermined the legitimacy of the GA as a galactic government. But as soon the Empire left known space, peace had reigned supreme in the galaxy. Of course, the peace was not immediate. It took decades to subdue the Sith insurgencies and Imperial cells that surged across the galaxy. The scores of system-wide wars that the Alliance had to intervene in bred little faith in the GA, at first. However, as the arm of the Alliance brought peace, system by system, the strength of the new government was affirmed in the minds of a trillion sentients.
Now, a thousand star systems were united under the power of Galactic Alliance. The Alliance membership had soared in the last century. The Senate building had been rebuilt in the style of the Old Republic Senate following the Sith occupation, and had been expanded almost a dozen times since then to reflect the Alliance's expanding membership. The primary Senate chamber was now so large that there was no one point in the hall where you could see all the way up or down. The chamber was over a kilometer long up and down, and towards the bottom was always a dark abyss containing the less notable senators. It was in the Senate building that gathered the most powerful politicians in the GA. Holocams hovered around the chambers, with reporters speaking to the most eminent system senators.
All of the attention encircled the center platform of the Senate, where an intensely peculiar group was gathered. In the center, of course, was Chief of State Hirim Tam, pudgy as ever. Flanking his left were the representatives of the Advisory Council.
"Senators, welcome." Tam's voice boomed in the Senate building; his voice was now confident, in his element with politics. "I also welcome the large reporter presence. To the Holonet press and your viewers: welcome to the hall of your government in your capital—Coruscant!"
A thunderous applause from the senators praised the Chief's showmanship.
"Idiots." breathed the Courscanti Senator, Elana Athos, into Chief Tam's ear.
"Citizens of the Galactic Alliance, I bring you news that you will find shocking and enlightening, but I am confident that the results of the revelation will be beneficial to the welfare of our great society. You have already heard plenty of speeches today, from myself and otherwise, so I imagine you, as well as our friends back home, would much rather me…get to the point, frankly."
A faint chuckling echoed through the chambers, more out of respect for the office of the Chief than for genuine amusement. If Tam noticed how flat his wit had fallen, he didn't seem to notice. Instead, he made a grand gesture with his jiggling arms to a platform floating towards the center of the chambers. In floated a pair of women—both regal looking, and wise.
Tam continued, his voice tightening slightly in anticipation, "Nearly two centuries ago, Roan Fel's empire aided the Alliance in freeing the galaxy of the Sith tyranny. Today before you I present his descendent: Empress Ciera Fel of the Galactic Empire."
Dead silence in the Senate chamber. Not a word, not a sound, not even a cough. A shock greater than anyone could have expected had jolted the galaxy. Before them stood a living symbol of the GA's oldest enemy.
"Thank you for the introduction, Chief Tam." The Empress gave Tam a small bow. "Citizens of the Alliance, I come to you as a friend. I am not my ancestor, and I do not keep the company of warlords and Sith. I am the head of a peaceful and prosperous government, existing in the far reaches of the Unknown Regions. My Empire exited Alliance space nearly two hundred years ago in the interest of preserving galactic peace and ending the long-standing conflict between our two governments."
Ciera Fel quickly assessed the room. Those she could see in her immediate vicinity were slack-jawed—or species equivalents. Thankfully, no one seemed angry…yet.
The Empress gestured to her companion in the white robes, "My friend here is Grand Master Sallara Skywalker of the Empire's Jedi Order, a branch of the main Jedi Order—though they were unaware of it until now."
If there was anything that could have been a bigger shock to the galaxy than the return of the Empire, it was the reemergence of the long-dead Skywalker clan.
It is really—?
No!
A Skywalker?!
"My friend here and her Jedi Order are the reason for my presence here. Master Skywalker?"
Sallara smiled and raised a hand to give a friendly wave to the Senate, welcoming them in. "I am proud to be here today. My ancestor Luke Skywalker and his family built the Galactic Alliance and the New Republic that preceded it. I am a direct descendent of Luke Skywalker through his son Ben. My Empress is also a member of our clan, descend from Leia Organa Solo through her daughter, Jaina. We are genuine members of the Skywalker family, and as such my Empress and I feel an intense kinship with the GA and its citizens. You are probably aware from the prowess of your own Order that the Jedi draw their potent abilities from a reservoir of energy they call 'The Force.' One of the powers the Jedi have is that of precognition. My Order has felt a great disturbance in the Force. We received a premonition of the galaxy burning, of a terrible war coming. We fear for the safety of our people, as well as the Alliance's. With special permission from Chief Tam, we will be temporarily reoccupying the known galaxy. We will be taking a portion of former Imperial space, as displayed here."
On the monitors floating around the chamber and at each of the Senator's seats. Several sectors in the Outer Rim, and a couple more extending into the Mid Rim were highlighted. As the senators studied the map to see if their planet was marked as new property of the Empire, Empress Fel took over for Sallara.
"As it historically was, Bastion will be our temporary capital. At special request of Chief Tam, several planets within our jurisdiction will not be subject to Imperial government, including Muunilinst, Agamar, and Troska. The governments of the planets within Imperial space have already been informed and preparations are well under way. We want to be clear that this is not a military operation. The Imperial Navy is being left in the Unknown Regions, and the planets we are using as bases of operations are still Alliance planets—only the local government will be placed under the Empire, with the aid of GA officials. These systems do not belong to the Empire, and will be returned to the Alliance in due time. The Empire is here to aid the Alliance against any threats to the galaxy. Once the threat we believe is approaching has been eliminated, we will return to Unknown Region in peace."
Another long silence as the Empress backed away from center. Thousands of pairs—sometimes trios or more—of eyes stared deeply at the reborn Empire.
Chief Tam loudly cleared his throat to break the silence, "I understand that this may be shocking, but I give you my assurance as your elected Chief—"
"I am truly sorry," A voice magnified throughout the Senate chambers, and not through the use of a microphone. From the recesses of the Senate seats floated a nondescript seat, carrying an impressive load. Jogrum Katarn and select members of the Jedi Council floated towards the center, their seat circling the other two already present like a predator closing in for the kill. Katarn and several of his loyal Jedi Masters all had their lightsabers drawn, and the keen observer might even notice how close their fingers were to the activation button.
"I am truly sorry that you have been deceived here today, my friends. I wish I could be here in the spirit of friendship and cooperation. I wish, I wish. But I cannot. For there is a traitor infecting the Alliance, and it stems from the highest reaches of government. It is not without precedent that a leader should attempt to seize greater control for himself. We all know how the evil Palpatine seduced the galaxy and forged an evil empire. So too is your Chief, Hirim Tam."
An audible, if almost comically synchronized, gasp echoed through the grand chamber. The reporters were almost fainting in the audience. First the Empire, a Skywalker, and now a betrayal by the Chief of the GA? It would send ratings through the roof!
Katarn waved down the sea of shock, and continued, "Just like Palpatine before him, Tam has conspired with this Imperial Remnant to form his own despicable empire. This Skywalker is no Jedi at all. Haven't we seen so many Skywalkers fall to the dark side? Darth Vader, Darth Caedus, Cade Skywalker, all practitioners of the dark side of the Force. This woman is no Jedi; she is a Sith Lord." Preempting the gasps sure to come, Katarn cried, "Yes! The Sith have returned at the heels of the Empire! They even tried to assassinate me several days ago, and I have proof!"
Sallara Skywalker watched in horror as a large holo-video of the stand-off between Skywalker and Katarn in the Chief's office several days before. It happened so differently in Master Skywalker's memory. As she membered it, she was preparing to defend herself from a hostile presence, while the Empress rushed to Chief Tam to protect him from the potential clash and General Onpaar prepared to protect visiting foreign dignitaries. But as the recording unfolded, a very different story was told. With the sound coming in and out, the tale unfolded, but Katarn was not longer the antagonist. What the Senate saw—what the entire galaxy saw—was Sallara ready to strike down a defenseless Katarn, whose arms were raised in surrender and fear. The Chief and the Empress seemed to be working in tandem, allied for a common, if perhaps sinister cause. Even the Chief's security officer, his personal soldier, seemed to be ready to strike down Master Katarn.
He planned this.
The thought smacked Sallara in the head so hard it made her almost physically spin. Somehow, Katarn had been planning for this confrontation. The recording had been doctored, and cleverly too. The vid presenting in nauseatingly high definition Sallara's eyes as they glowed with anger and hatred. It had also altered other features, including changing the look of fear on the Chief's face to reflect smugness. Sallara observed the clever editing that gave her yellow-bladed lightsaber a reddish tint, reflecting the Sith Lords of old. No matter what had actually taken place, the story that was being unveiled to the galaxy implicated the Empire and Chief Tam as enemies of the Jedi.
The monstrous footage ended, and Katarn's blue-bladed lightsaber snapped on, almost simultaneously followed by his fellow council members. "Under the terms of the Treaty of Dac, I am placing Chief Hirim Tam under arrest for treason against the Galactic Alliance, along with the Advisory Council, whom we have reason to believe has been compliant and knowledgeable of the Chief's treasonous actions."
Empress Fel and Master Skywalker moved to protest at the same time, but Sallara hit the mark first. "Chief Tam has committed no acts of treason. By negotiating under peaceful terms with a foreign government, the Chief was merely fulfilling his duties as the head of state."
Instead of replying, Katarn leaped, with the aid of the Force, onto the platform holding the Empress and the rival grand master. Reacting quickly, Sallara made a similar move onto the central platform holding Chief Tam, adopting a defensive stance. She drew her lightsaber from her belt, keeping her thumb close to the activation button.
"You will not harm Chief Tam."
Katarn sneered and said, just loudly enough for the entire galaxy to hear, "Imperial scum and traitors, all allied together." And with a roar, he flung his blade towards Sallara and leaped into the air.
Sallara was quick to counter, activating her yellow blade to defend against Katarn's. Katarn caught his weapon as soon as he landed on the center platform. Katarn gripped his lightsaber tightly and begin a flurry of attacks. His lightsaber attempted to pierce Master Skywalker, first a slice, then a jab, followed by a slash. But Sallara knew combat, and was quick to parry each attack. Sallara's retaliation was just as deft. She reached out into the Force, pushing Katarm towards the edge of the platform. She then leaped into the air and brought her blade down towards Katarn's shoulder, who avoided the barely avoided that attack by a quick roll out of the way.
As Katarn and Sallara exchanged charged blows, the Empress began using the controls on her platform to get closer to center. As soon as she reached it, she began to evacuate the Advisory Council and the Chief onto her platform, moving quickly, but not so quick as to attract Katarn's attention.
Down below, in the senatorial seat of the senators from Kashyyyk, Cam Skywalker and Kieran Horn rushed in. They had been watching the hostilities from a nearby office elsewhere in the building where the Imperial attaché was supposed to remain until the end of the Senate session. The pair of Jedi had just witnessed Katarn's entrance into the chamber on Holonet when they realized that they needed to come to the Senate.
"Cam, up there!"
Kieran pointed to the two Jedi Masters, clashing above like great warriors in the heat of war. Still holed up at the edge of the center platform on the floor, Katarn used his saber to defend against Sallara's flurry. Their blades locked together, Sallara pressing her blade closer to Katarn's face. Both pouring their strength into the Force, they pushed their weapons against each other. Katarn was slowly gaining ground, rising off the floor with slow determination.
As Katarn was almost at three-quarters length standing up, Sallara deactivated her blade, letting the strength with which Katarn was pressing into her blade transfer into forward momentum. He went staggering forward to the other edge of the platform, and with a heavy shove from Sallara through the Force, he fell off of the platform.
Cam grinned with relief from below as they watched Katarn begin to tumble off, "I think she'll be all right,"
Katarn was able to grab the edge of the platform as he fell. Clearly, Sallara hadn't noticed Katarn was still hanging on, and was instead heading to tend to the members of the Advisory Council that the Empress hadn't yet gotten onto her platform. He began shifting his weight, swinging his body in a pendulum arc, slowly pushing himself along the edge of the platform until he was nearly perpendicular with Master Skywalker above. He used the Force to push himself up and leap back onto the platform.
Sallara immediately caught his blade with one hand, thrown off by the surprise attack. As she moved to grip her blade with two hands, Katarn raised his free palm and reached out into the Force. Katarn pushed Chief Tam off of the Empress's platform, sending him falling towards certain death in the long fall to the bottom. Sallara felt what was happening, and as soon as Tam had fallen, she turned towards the other platform where Tam had been and gripped him with the aid of her powerful ally. She ran towards the edge to lift Tam back to safety with the Force. He was just out of danger's way—
Fssssh!
The gaping audience watched as Katarn's blade drove into the back of Sallara's armor. With satisfaction, Katarn twisted his blade until he was certain to have left his intended imprint. The entire chamber fell silent as they watched the descendant of one the most revered Jedi ever, a woman they now knew was a traitor and an enemy, impaled at the hands of another respected Jedi.
"Nice try,"
Katarn stared flabbergasted as Master Skywalker turned to face Katarn, seemingly unscathed, as his weapon fell to the floor deactivated. From within the lightsaber seeped noxious smoke. Katarn quickly caught himself, drawing the blade back to his hand with the Force. But when he tried to activate it, the lightsaber refused to light.
Sallara grinned at the surprise on Katarn's face. "Cortosis-weaved armor, one-of-a-kind. It's been in the family for ages. Of course, it hadn't gotten use lately until now. Your lightsaber blade is dead, at least for the next couple of minutes. Now," Sallara swung her yellow weapon around and pointed it at Katarn's neck, "in the name of the Alliance and the Empire, submit."
Katarn gritted his teeth as he slowly dropped to the floor. "You see?" he hissed for the Senators to hear, "You see the trickery of the Empire. They are willing to defend a traitor, and defeat the champion of the Jedi Order that has served you since before the days of the Old Republic. Her Sith ways may have gone unchallenged in the Empire, but not so here. Not as long as I am alive to fight against tyranny in the galaxy"
With that he leaped into the air, avoiding Master Skywalker's lightsaber blade. Katarn grabbed her light hair roughly, and let gravity pull himself down, yanking her head with him. As she fell, Katarn grabbed her lightsaber arm and twisted it with brute force, making her cry out in pain and drop her weapon, still activated. Without the aid of her saber, Sallara elbowed Katarn in the face with such might that blood immediately began to flow from Katarn's mouth. Katarn raised a fist to Sallara, but she was too nimble. She ducked and swung her leg out, tripping Katarn. As he dropped, she used the Force to shove him to the ground with vigor. Using her right foot, Sallara kicked in Katarn's head, which snapped queasily to the right.
Bruised and nearly beaten, Katarn croaked loudly, "Sim! Scorpio! To me!"
The Barabel leaped, along with Grottl from the platform baring the masters onto the central platform to aid the leader of their Order. They both drew their sabers, and barred them fiercely towards Master Skywalker. Grottl's blue eyes bore into his opponent and his blue-bladed saber hissed to life. Simultaneously, Sim Sebatyne activated her lightsabers, a curious combination of a standard saber and a lightsaber tonfa in her off-hand for the perfect combination of attack and defense.
Sallara reached out for her lightsaber in the Force, but Katarn reached out in the same entity to block her. As Grottl and Sebatyne rushed towards Sallara, she closed her eyes. She was disarmed, but she wasn't defenseless—she had the Force.
Master Skywalker swelled with energy. Her ally was the Force, even against the Order's two greatest bladesmen, it was a powerful ally indeed. She released the energy she was building up right as the Jedi were about to strike, sending the two other Masters flying off their feet. Before they even had an opportunity to regain themselves, Sallara leaped several meters into the air and landed lithely behind Grottl. She grabbed Grottl's hand that held his lightsaber and pulled it into a lock behind his head, so that with the slightest move up, Grottl's neck would be sliced.
"It's over. Call off your kath hounds, Katarn, or this one gets it." Sallara threatened wearily. Weary, but not yet beaten.
Katarn gritted through his pain, "Go to hell, Sith-spawn."
Immediately, Grottl pushed his strength near its limits to untwist his locked arm, pushing down and out to project Sallara in the air, with the additional aid of the Force. Sallara swung in an upwards arc, moving towards Sebatyne, who raised her tonfa to greet Master Skywalker's body. Sallara pushed out with the Force, trying to land on her feet. She instead landed awkwardly, stumbling over herself. Sebatyne raised her standard blade to strike down Master Skywalker, who raised an arm to push against the blade through the Force. Grottl charged towards Skywalker from the opposite direction with his lightsaber, and Sallara pushed against it to. The blades closed in on Sallara, inches from cutting into her hand. She felt the space collapsing in on her. Spent of her mental energy in the Force, Sallara leaped up into the air once more. Sebatyne easily regained her composure but Grottl was not so quick to react. His blade charged into Sebatyne's scaled skin, grazing the side of one of her arms and leaving a significant cut into the side. Right when Grottl's blade dug into Sebatyne, Sallara returned towards the platform floor, smashing her feet into the right shoulder of Grottl. Grottl toppled over, swinging his lightsaber to his ribs, cutting significantly into them as well.
"This ends now." Sallara layered her voice with the Force, trying to reach out for her lightsaber once more.
"Yes," Katarn concurred as he attempted to restrain Master Skywalker's lightsaber from flying to her again, "it does."
Katarn reached out in the Force to press Sallara down against the ground with increasing pressure. Grottl and Sebatyne joined in as soon as they noticed what Katarn was doing. Sallara began to raise her arm to try and counter somehow. But Katarn never gave her the chance. While the three Masters pressed Sallara down to the floor of the platform at the very edge, Katarn reached out to pick up Sallara's activated weapon with the Force and hurled it, keeping it steady and straight. The lightsaber soared through the air with the guided hand of Katarn and neatly stabbed Sallara in the center of her forehead.
Ba-DUM ba-DUM ba-DUM
As he watched the life sucked from his mother, all Cam could hear was the beat of his heart. The cries of shock and fear must have been ringing throughout the chamber, but Cam didn't hear any of that. All he saw was the lightsaber, still protruding from his mother's lifeless head. He watched in wordless horror as the weight of the blade pulled his mother's body off the edge of the platform and fell down the levels of the Senate chamber. Her robes flapped around her armor as the lifeless body of Grand Master Sallara Skywalker cascaded into the abyss.
"Cam!"
Cam realized Kieran had been yelling in his ear. It didn't matter, though. His mother was gone; the Jedi—the monsters who killed him were rising in triumph.
"Cam! We've got to go! Look!"
Cam again didn't register Kieran's cry, but he understood what he was supposed to look at as from across the chamber, Cam made eye contact with Master Katarn. The two shared a moment of supreme communication in which Katarn seemed to know Cam completely. Then the moment ended, and the knowledge vanished.
Without realizing it, Cam flung his lightsaber towards Katarn, pouring his grief into it as he screamed with sorrow. His misery did not equal strength, however, and Katarn easily used the Force to guide the saber. Katarn gripped his hand into a fist, slowly crushing the tip of Cam's lightsaber into a distorted piece of metal.
The supposed Jedi that killed his mother had achieved victory. Cam's world had been shattered, but in the back of his mind, the inquisitiveness he had been trained to listen to wondered: why don't I feel the dark side from these dark Jedi?
Katarn brandished his weapon, pointing it towards Cam as he leapt a great distance from the center platform onto another senate seat containing a small cadre of frightened Rodians. Katarn cried, "This is what happens to those who oppose liberty! This is what happens to those who betray the loyal citizens of the galaxy and the Alliance!" and from there, he began making great leaps from seat to seat until Cam realized—Katarn was coming right for him.
"Cam," Kieran said with as much conviction as he could muster, "we have to go now"
Wordlessly, the berieved Cam gruffly took the lightsaber on Kieran belt and activated it, inviting Katarn in.
Four seats away…then three…closing in at two and—
"Sorry kid,"
The seat Cam and Kieran were standing atop began to fall. The hovering senatorial seat seemed to be suddenly affected by gravity, likely for the first time since it was manufactured. The Wookies, whose seat it rightfully belonged to, roared as the center platform disappeared above, and with it the approaching Master Katarn.
"And…stop!" The same voice that has insincerely apologized to Cam earlier spoke again while stopping the fall of the seat. It took the form of a woman, around the age of adulthood, as far as Cam could tell. Her hair was jet black and pulled together in the back in one short braid. She wasn't wearing the formal wear of a senator, nor the markings of any official Coruscanti personnel. She was built muscularly, but with an agile figure so that she might be walking down a hall and no one would notice her had she not wanted them to. Her face was flush with red, though it looked almost alien when contrasted with her typically pale skin. Her eyes were steely, but wild as she looked over the seat for injuries.
"Who the kark as you?" Kieran asked incredulously, "And what just happened?"
"I'm a friend." the young woman said, a scowl on her face. "Here, I think you dropped your toy."
Cam must have dropped Kieran's lightsaber when their seat's hovering gave. Fortunately it hadn't injured any of them, and now laid in the woman's hand, deactivated. Cam did not care, though. He continued to stare up into darkness, where he knew his mother's killer still stood, staring right down back at him; into the long abyss of the chambers to where Cam's company had fallen.
"Hey, Imp-boy!"
Cam realized he hadn't been listening again, and had missed the call directed at him.
"Come on, there's a maintenance shaft in here we can escape through." The woman piloted their seat, now fully functional, towards one of the chamber walls. Once there, she jammed her palm into a button that didn't seem to be there. It must have been, however, because a small shaft no bigger than an Ewok.
"How did you—?" Kieran pointed above them.
"All of the senate seats have a sequence for deactivating the repulsors. It's a maintenance measure, but it saved our hides back there." She indicated to the Wookie occupants and the two Jedi. "Into the hatch, let's go."
With difficulty, the Wookies slipped into the hatch, followed by Kieran. Cam remained still, not wanting to move from his stop.
"Come on Imp-boy, that crazy Jedi will be down here soon. He's coming for you if you don't leave now."
Cam nodded slowly, "And I'll be ready for him. Do you have a weapon?"
Cam heard a sigh, a mutter of "I don't have time for this," and then everything went black.