Chapter XI:
Shattered Alliance
After Kyle and Mira left the building, it was a shock to see the facility's door open above their heads. There was little time to wonder why it happened. They had a mission to do, and thus they rushed to the Moldy Crow waiting for them in front of the complex, and took off with it within the first possible moment.
As they emerged from the facility's giant doors, they expected numerous TIE fighters to swarm towards them. But there were none. The Chimaera was ascending fast over the horizon, and all the other ships seemed to disappear from orbit as well. Thrawn was expecting some company – which could give them the perfect opportunity to escape with Rey.
Seeing there was no need for a gunner, Mira rushed back to the makeshift-infirmary at the back of the ship. She checked out the unconscious child, quickly realizing that Rey was doing far better than she did. She took a bandage to her hand, and trying to suppress the pain, she started off to the cockpit.
"What are you doing here?" Kyle asked, as he continued their ascension. The Remnant could still chase after them at any given moment; they both knew that very well.
"Not in the mood for the guns," Mira answered, raising the broken limb.
Kyle nodded. The interface wasn't planned for someone with only one functional hand.
Mira sat down beside him. They were leaving from the atmosphere; gorgeous fire erupted around the cockpit. The flames could easily kill them both, if the hull would fail before them. Still, they were somewhat incredible nevertheless.
"I hope the others are okay," Kyle broke the silence a moment later.
"Luke should be fine, the others…" Mira gave out a sigh. "I can feel Ariss, she is in distress. Not from pain, or suffering, it's like the whole world had gone crazy around her."
"It did," Kyle nodded. "We gotta be a lot more careful after this."
"Actually," Mira answered, but quickly fell silent. This wasn't the time to continue their conversation. It wasn't the time to talk about anything at all. Something was coming, she had no idea about what was it, but this was hardly the end of the fight for Jeddha.
"What?" Kyle asked, tilting his head towards her.
"Never mind," she shook her head.
"You can tell me, they are doing an awful good job at keeping their distance from us," he answered, pointing towards the sensors. He was right, for some reason, every single imperial vessel kept their distance from them.
The fire from the window disappeared, showing the darkness of space ahead of the ship. The Chimaera and the two Victory-class Star Destroyers were heading towards the other side of the planet. Only a dozen fighters escorted them – probably all that's left after their recent encounters.
"I don't fit for a Jedi, I never did," Mira admitted, and gave out a sigh. It was a relief to say it out loud. She called herself a Gray Jedi numerous times, and often did the exact opposite of what a Jedi should do, but she never managed to say the words out loud before. "I think it's time for me to go my way after this."
"So you are leaving us?" Kyle asked. He didn't seem shocked. He had probably seen it from a mile away based on what went down on Jeddha.
"If I leave, so does Ariss," she added, knowing her offspring's mindset.
"I guess, we will have to manage without her too," Kyle answered, searching for the right words. "Don't worry, we will be fine. It's not the first time Luke has to rebuild everything from scratch, remember?"
"I hope so," she nodded, and decided to go on with the proposition. "I aim to start something new."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I was trying to act as a proper Jedi ever since I was fifteen, I did that for a reason. I want the galaxy to be safe, I want myself and Ariss to be safe, and I always acted to prevent a disaster when I had the chance. But most of the time, I was just playing soldier, and this is not something I want to do anymore."
"We are not playing soldiers," Kyle answered firmly.
"What about the Clone Wars? Or the Rebellion? Or the Old Republic?" she asked in quick succession. She gathered so many examples in her mind, it was impossible to say them all under one breath. "Or even before the Old Republic?"
"Someone has to stop the bad guys before they hurt the good folks," Kyle answered.
"That's what soldiers do. Jedi should be maintaining the balance, not mopping up potential threats to the New Republic. We should act only when the balance in endangered, just as we did with Tenebrae."
"Snoke is Tenebrae," Kyle answered.
"Right now, he is just a man who wants power, just like every petty warlord or slaver out there. What he does has nothing to do with the balance. What he did back then, during the Old Republic, was the real threat. That was something that had to be stopped. This? Not so much."
"He didn't appear out of thin air. He made his own empire first, and then some. One small thing becomes something greater, and at the end, it seriously fracks something up, unless there is someone to stop them. That's why we are playing soldiers. From this point of view, you could have let Rey die, since it had nothing to do with the balance.
"And why did he kidnap Rey in the first place?" Mira raised her voice. "Why did they even strike at us?"
"Because that's what they do," Kyle shrugged.
"He did it because he knew we would intervene. The First Order knew we would be their enemies when they come for the New Republic, so they mopped us up. Thrawn knew we would try to stop him when he tries to give a new body for Tenebrae, so he massacred an entire settlement just to distract us. We don't stop aggression, we are the ones who create it. We are centered around it, drawn to it, like it's the essence of our very existence."
"Okay, let's assume we are just bringing everything upon ourselves? Who will stop the First Order, if not us? Who will stop Thrawn for the matter? The New Republic?" he asked in disbelief. If history had shown them anything, it was the Republic's utter inability to hold its own against any kind of threat – let alone Tenebrae.
"They could, if we weren't protecting them all the time. Why would they maintain a powerful army, if there is one already? An army of devoted Force-users who would do everything to protect their overlords for free. This is what the Jedi has become. I have no means to be part of it anymore. I wasted enough of my life playing soldier as it is."
"Okay, then you go, and do your own thing. How would it be better then what we do?" he asked with anger in his voice.
"First of all, we…" she answered, but she was interrupted by the appearing ships.
The Resurgent-class Star Destroyer arriving before them raised his guns towards Thrawn's fleet. Two other ships emerged from hyperspace, their main guns opened fire at the Chimaera with haste, the two Victory-class Star Destroyers quickly engaged with them in order to relieve the flagship. For a moment it seemed the First Order had the upper hand – then additional ships emerged from hyperspace.
It was an entire imperial attack group: five Star Destroyers, and countless smaller craft, opening fire at the trio of Resurgent-class Star Destroyers within an instant. As the giants pounded each other with powerful shots, the Chimaera slowly turned to its side, and engaged the First Order with its escort.
"We will talk about it later," Mira broke the silence of the unfolding battle. Dozens of fighters clashed with each other in the distance, carefully avoiding the brilliant light of turbulaser fire exchanged by the giants. A pair of fighters were caught off guard by a blazing shot, and evaporated in the blackness.
The fight for Jeddha was far from over. Mira had no delusions about who would win, but she knew the First Order wouldn't give up easily.
"I don't think so," Kyle shook his head, and jumped into hyperspace with the ship.
She was surprised to see the blue blaze of hyperspace in the window. They had no reason to take part in the battle, but it was surprising to see Kyle leaving everything behind with haste.
"So, where did we left off?"
For the first time in a long time, the Raddus was going to battle. Ariss and Ahsoka were surprised to hear that the New Republic was willing to aid their counterattack, but Luke knew that not all of the New Republic was consolidated by blind pacifists. The First Order bombed a New Republic world, decimated the New Jedi Order and murdered countless New Republic soldiers on board of one of their cruisers. While most fleet officers were still against a counterattack, some of them were willing to go to battle over the matter – even if that meant breaking away from the New Republic, and acting as their own military group.
In the end, the Raddus and four small cruisers had joined the strike group. It wasn't a large fleet, let alone something that could win the war against the First Order, but it was enough for a quick strike. And that was all that was needed to get Snoke.
As the fleet had launched to hyperspace from Hosnian Prime, Luke stood on the bridge, observing the illuminating blue light with an expressionless face. Snoke had to die, if the Jedi were to be continued, there was no way to avoid this encounter.
However, getting to him still presented quite a challenge.
"I don't get it, Master Jedi," Admiral Khoris spoke up, breaking the constant noise culminated by the terminals on the bridge and the roaring engines at the back of the ship. "If we are to take control of their base of operations, we should have a lot more ships and personnel than this. Or you expecting Leia to do something while we are away?" he asked. As most commanders, he didn't come here because of the excellence of Luke's plan, but merely to do something against a danger that his own government chose to foolishly ignore.
"We don't have to win," Luke shook his head. "We only have to get their attention. Once we are back with the Reaver, you are safe to return to New Republic space. They are not ready to launch a full scale war against us, not yet, so they won't dare to chase us there."
Ahsoka and Ariss stood next to her on the bridge. They both wanted to say something, however they decided to keep it for themselves. The time to win the debate had passed long ago.
"And how exactly we want to get their attention, when they will know that you are going for the Supreme Leader?" Khoris asked. With the little value the First Order had seen in its own troops, they would rather sacrifice an entire fleet than to risk Snoke's life.
"With a full-scale orbital bombardment," Luke answered. "The Raddus has the guns, and the other ships can take care of the smaller craft trying to stop it. The main building is surely to be shielded, but even that runs out of energy at one point."
"There are millions of people living on that planet. The shield won't protect them all, and we can't hope to shoot with one hundred percent accuracy. In such scales, I'm afraid it will be impossible to avoid civilian losses," Khoris objected.
"We either kill Snoke now, or he will be the one killing the New Republic. You may see that a few thousand civilians are a terrible loss, but it is nothing compared to what the First Order would do with the galaxy.
"I understand," Khoris nodded.
"This is not us." Ahsoka objected. "The Jedi are nothing like this."
"I know, Ahsoka," Luke answered. "I know there should be another way… But there isn't. The First Order will be coming for us soon, and if we don't do this..."
"Then we will figure something out," Ariss added. "If we…"
"There is no if," Luke shook his head. "Maybe, if the Temple had survived, then… They have ours backs against the wall. We either do this, or we get to watch how they burn down the New Republic. We can't let that happen."
"I know," Ahsoka nodded in disbelief. "I just thought we are better than this."
"If we win, we soon shall be," Luke nodded.
"And what if we lose?" Ariss asked.
"Then I guess it's not going to matter much who we were, or what we did. The Jedi will simply cease to be, alongside with the New Republic."
Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)
Don't forget to leave some feedback ;)