Chapter 15

Ben steps closer to the guards, and Jysella once more lays her hand on his shoulder. "Peace Ben." Then she turns to the guards. "Where was this Argor supposed to take us?"

The guard looks from them to the man still on the floor moaning in pain. "He was supposed to take you to the control room."

Ben frowns at them, and then with a wave of his hand pushes against the guard's mind. "What is this facility hiding from us?"

"A weapon."

Ben smiles, and with a wave of his hand once more pushes with the Force. "You don't need the extra guards; you'll take us to the weapon now."

The leader of the guards glances at those around him. "You can all return to your positions, I'll deal with our intruders."

The chorus of acknowledgements is accompanied by the clatter of boots on the duracrete walkway as the other guards return to wherever they came from. Ben glances once more at Argor, and then walks out of the room, following the guard.

They are led deeper into the complex, through multiple security checkpoints and finally are shown into a large room. Ben and Jysella look up in awe at the device that towers over them. Ben's eyes narrows slightly. "It's a power reactor, similar to the Death Star's."

Jysella looks around the room, noticing a man sitting at one of the tables. "Maybe he can tell us what this thing is."

Then a Force wave strikes them knocking them forward; sending them sprawling to their chests. A dark voice speaks out from behind them and says, "No need to bother him, when I can tell you just as well."

Ben pushes himself up, cringing at the pain in his right arm. Looking towards the door he sees Argor standing there holding his saber in a loose grip. "So are you going to enlighten us or just stand there?"

Argor's smile is mean and malicious. "In essence it is a bomb. The one you see there is for planetary scale destruction, but we have them so that they can fit into a satchel and destroy merely a city block."

Ben and Jysella share a shocked look as Argor continues talking. "But of course, now that you know about this device, we are going to have to deal with you."

With that said he ignites his saber and assumes an attack stance. Ben and Jysella ignite theirs at the same time, both adopting similar stances

Argor steps in, slicing hard and fast, Ben steps forward and blocks the blow. Argor kicks him in the stomach. As he strikes downward, Jysella interposes her blade, blocking the downward strike.

She pushes up and forces Argor away from Ben. Argor's eyes narrow in his anger, and he grabs her with the Force and tosses her backward.

Then Ben is there, his saber flashing in a tight arc, a blur of light as the two fights. Each of their strikes and parries are so fast, so precise that their sabers never quite touch.

Then Argor stretches out and blasts Ben with Force lightning. Ben gets his saber up in time, allowing the lightning to pool on his saber. With a frown, he pushes back with both his saber and the Force, knocking Argor a few steps backwards.

Then Ben grabs Argor with the Force and throws him across the room.

Ben turns to watch Argor land and frowns as he sees what Argor is heading towards. Jysella steps up beside him, watching Argor land as well.

Ben's voice is soft as Argor slams into the large power reactor. "Sithspit."

Alarms start blaring as Argor's lightsaber slices through the regulator. As Ben and Jysella watch, electrical arcs begin flashing out from the machine towards the ceilings and walls.

After a second, Ben grabs Jysellas hand and drags her out of the room, as alarms start blaring. They run back the way they came, quickly exiting the hidden factory. As they enter the streets on the surface they look around getting their bearings.

Jysella glances at Ben, fear and shock on her face and in her voice. "Is there anything we can do?"

Ben shakes his head. "That thing is a planet buster; I'm just hoping there's an Adumar left after it explodes." He looks towards the west, and nods his head. "The Skate is this way."

Once more running through the streets, Ben feels guilt at the fact that so many of these people are probably about to die due to his actions. He grits his teeth, forcing the tears to not start flowing. A sound attracts his attention, and he looks back over his shoulder, uttering another curse. He pulls Jysella close and throws them both to the ground. As he does so a Blade 32 Star fighter flashes through the air, the wave of heat from the fires on its wings slamming the air against the two.

As soon as it has passed by, Ben looks in that way, and watches as the spacecraft slams into the road, plowing a large furrow through the asphalt. It slides into a building, as secondary explosions send shrapnel out over the area. Ben throws a Force shield over them, as the deadly burning rain falls around them.

Ben looks around at the screaming citizens, part of him wanting to try to help them, yet the Force screams at him to get off planet. Looking around he sees an open air speeder. Helping Jysella up, he leads her over to it, and quickly bypasses the security system. He lifts the speeder, and instantly has to dodge another crashing starfighter.

He jinks and dives, dodging the various traffic, ignoring the angry screams as he flies past pedestrians at breakneck speeds. Yet even as he does this, he is drumming his fingers against the control stick, as the Force screams at him, driving him to get off planet, urging him to go faster.

Finally they arrive at the spaceport, and Ben nears the gate, and starts going faster. Jysella in the passenger seat looks at the gate and then towards Ben. "Uh, Ben, the gate?"

"I see it."

"Are you going to slow down?"

Ben shakes his head, and slams into the gate; the scream of overstressed metal giving away drowns out Jysella's screams. Ben curses once more as the damaged speeder starts to slow down. Ben looks back over his shoulder seeing the stream of smoke pouring out from beneath the speeder. Looking forward he sees the Pulsar Skate sitting where they had left it.

Finally the speeder dies, and crashes into the ground. Jysella leans forward, rubbing the back of her head. "Next time I drive."

Ben slips out of the crash restraints and leans over to kiss her cheek. "So long as it's on the Skate and we're breaking orbit that's fine."

As they step out of the speeder, they can feel the ground beginning to shake slightly. They get on board, and run through an abbreviated checklist, ignite the engines and start rising from the ground, quickly climbing towards space. Jysella looks at him. "Maybe it wasn't primed?"

Ben closes his eyes for a second, touching the Force. Opening them, he sadly shakes his head. "No…it's going to explode."

Jysella banks to starboard, still climbing, when a beam of light shoots out of the ground for a second and then disperses. As they look on in horror a yellow bubble starts forming and grows larger. Ben reaches over and flicks off the repulsers and turns on the subspace engines and the Skate rockets up into the atmosphere, the friction burning on her shields. As they break atmosphere, the shock wave slams the Skate knocking her further out into space.

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Gavin is standing at the operations table, watching how the battle is progressing. He frowns for a second, and then realizes what is wrong. There is a nearly hysteric note in one of his officer's voices. He turns that way just as the lieutenant stands up to get his attention. "Admiral Darklighter? We're picking up some strange readings from the planet."

"What is it Lieutenant?"

"We're not entirely certain, sir; we're putting it on screen now."

Gavin turns towards the monitor, and watches as a shaft of light streams out from the planet's surface and then disappears. Then there is a small bubble starting to appear on the ground and engulfing the city. Gavin gives voice to the question that is nagging the back of his mind. "Is that Cartann City?"

"I, I think so sir."

Frowning still, Gavin turns from the monitor and walks to one of the viewports which ring the bridge. He looks out and feels his mouth drop open. "Emperor's black bones." As he watches the bowl grows until it is clearly visible from where he is at.

Then it explodes.

The shockwave pushes the clouds away from the side of the planet they are facing, and chasing the clouds are firestorms. Before Gavin's horrified eyes the greens of plant life are turned to the black of soot and the reds of secondary fires. Then the view is clouded as the air rushes back into the vacuum caused by the explosion, pulling up tons of soot and ash, plunging Adumar into a new dark age.

Gavin turns to the window. "Someone find out if Jedi Skywalker or Jedi Horn got off the planet. And do it now!"

Gavin turns back to the window, his face betraying his anger and sadness as he watches Adumar burn.