Author's Notes: Yay, the battle begins. I am done with this story, so the updates should be posted shortly. There's no point in waiting, really, as I don't usually get any feedback after the first few hours of posting. Heh. Thanks to Jen DeClan, Lord Europe, and Lord Valentai for reviewing. Cool stuff.
This battle was ended up something like 17,000 words, so I broke it up into two chapters. Then an epilogue and we're done! Thanks for reading, peoples.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Sith fleet tore into the Republic defenders with a tenacious sort of violence the navy had not witnessed since the wars with the Mandalorians. Hundreds upon hundreds of Sith ships—all of them ugly, formless, box-like vessels—blasted through hyperspace and appeared almost simultaneously in orbit around Coruscant. The attack was perfectly coordinated and several Republic ships were incinerated almost immediately. Explosions of color followed, the Republic filling the empty void of space with green turbolasers, red explosions signaling impacts. The Sith vessels were armed with massive cannons, flinging projectiles at several times the speed of sound through space. They were strong enough that one impact was almost enough to take out a frigate's entire shield. Two direct hits would destroy the ship.
The carriers fared better, but they were almost overwhelmed by the intensity.
Rear Admiral Onasi stood solemnly on the bridge of the Reckoner, watching the battle unfold.
"Sir!" cried out a young lieutenant who was working on the communications with the gun crews, "there's a swarm! Unidentified objects flying through space! They look like pods!"
"Concentrate the big guns on the main ships," replied the Admiral sternly, "the aft gunners can fire at will at the pods."
"Aye aye, sir," responded the lieutenant.
Carth looked over at his son, who was pacing back and forth, his fingers twitching. The Admiral sighed to himself and looked back out the sweeping viewport. A Republic fighter burst into flames and flew by like a comet.
The pods continued their meteoric falls through the atmosphere of Coruscant. They were too small to be accurately targeted by the Republic ships, and they slipped through the blockade with disturbing ease.
From the ground it looked as though some kind of demonic swarm of insects was descending upon the planet. There looked to be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the black cylinders blasting through the atmosphere, fire erupting underneath them as they hurled downwards.
"What the hell are those?" Revan overheard a hapless soldier call out.
"Bombs!" answered an officer, "open fire!"
Almost all of the guns opened up at once. Green lasers launched through the air, perforating some of the pods, cleanly missing most of them. Flak had more success, but the ground crews simply could not fire fast enough to bring down the oncoming missiles.
The pods then starting striking the ground. Shockingly, they seemed to slow as they got closer to the surface. As though some kind of invisible chute was pulling them back up. They still struck, however, with force. The earth seemed to shake with each impact, blasting ash and debris into the air. They landed everywhere. Many struck the side of the Jedi Temple. Dozens fell into the midst of the Republic soldiers, tearing into the metal surface of the planet and crushing anyone who happened to standing in the drop zone. Much to their surprise, the pods didn't explode upon impact. They slammed into the ground and then held still.
Revan felt one coming towards him, and through an act of premonition, strode several steps to the left to avoid it. It impacted with the ground with tremendous force, blowing out two-dozen steps of the main entrance to the Temple. It skidded along for several yards, spewing dust and broken metal all over the place. It halted nearly four feet from Revan, and he regarded the obsidian thing with interest.
"What the hell?" shouted a solider, probably the same one as before.
There was a strange noise, it sounded like an airlock being opened. The front of the pod then burst open, the front of it collapsing and nearly knocking Revan down. Something screeched and a Sith soldier then flew out from inside the pod, firing an automatic rifle wildly. Two Republic soldiers, caught completely off guard, were perforated. Revan acted quickly, activating his lightsaber and ducking underneath the volley. He swept upwards, the green beam then slicing the Sith in half horizontally. He turned off the lightsaber and looked up.
A confused Republic man looked at the body for a moment and then screamed, "Shock troops!"
Revan looked up to see the horde of pods was still falling, raining from the sky with a frequency he would have thought impossible.
"Fire! Fire!" shouted a Colonel.
The gunners returned fire with even more intensity. They fired wildly and inaccurately, hoping to take down as many of the pods as possible. The Sith were popping up all over the place. Revan saw a few of them on the roof of the Temple. Throngs of them were wreaking havoc within the Republic ranks. And it was only the first wave.
Bullets bounced around his head, but thankfully they did not hit him. Caius had not even had the opportunity to get outside before he was attacked
Pockmarks broke out on the walls behind him as he turned about wildly, trying to determine where the fire was coming from. A Republic soldier next to him, however, turned and fired upward—blasting a lone Sith trooper from beneath and killing him.
"How the hell did that thing get up there?" asked someone.
"I don't know," said Caius. "Come on—we have to get outside."
He glanced out the window. Already he could see the fires. Smoke was billowing from hundreds of places, all around the city. The sky was turning dark orange, and soon breathing would be difficult with all of the ash. Light burst through the atmosphere as lasers and flak guns ripped into the sky.
"Quick!" barked Master Sergeant Antinos Verkand, a grim, weathered man who was in charge of the techs in the basement, "someone get on the power distribution node. We've lost the automated guns at the south entrance!"
Allie answered the call, leaping from her position behind some kind of geographic monitor and hurrying past the Sergeant and towards the node. They were in the state-of-the-art underbelly of the Jedi Temple—where all the electronics and observation equipment was situated. The monstrous power generator the fed the ODS was humming loudly in the background.
"Marlowe!" he said to Allie, "reroute the power from the upper floor to the south entrance. They don't need lights up there anyway."
"Yes, sir!" she said.
"Don't call me sir!" he shouted back, "I work for a living!"
Allie did not bother to ask him what he meant by that. She simply jetted off past the dozens of other mechanics and technicians who were scrambling around all the computers and machines, trying to keep the defenses in proper function.
"Vao!" called Verkand.
Mission, her knees on the ground as she was working on a busted circuit, leapt to her feet.
"What's the status on the generator?" he asked.
"I…hold on!" she said and then began sprinting towards it.
"Get on it!" he yelled.
Bastila was sitting alone in the very top of the temple. She was in the high council room. The few lights that had been on went dark, but she did not notice. She was too busy meditating; too busy channeling her Battle Meditation to notice anything else. She did her best to focus only on the Force. She tried harder than she ever had to push everything else to the back of her mind. She had to help the Republic soldiers. She had to lend her power to them; it was the only thing that could possibly swing the battle in the Republic's favor.
Despite Bastila's valiant attempt to inspire courage and victory within the defenders, the battle was not going well.
Caius bolted outside the Temple to the main entrance. He found Revan standing there, watching as the invasive pods continued to blast the surface of Coruscant—Sith soldiers popping out of the ground in ever increasing numbers. Though there were a good many pods that held only one soldier, there were many that shouldered anywhere from five to fifteen Sith in them—miniature dropships. Those caused much more chaos, as they were much more organized. The mayhem they created allowed for the singular Sith drop troops to have more success. They would then join the larger groups and make life hell for the Republic soldiers.
"What the hell are those?" Caius asked.
"Drop troops," answered Revan solemnly. "They're wreaking havoc behind the lines."
Caius stood and watched. There was nothing he could do at this point. The Sith were falling all over the place, but there was no coordinated attack. They seemed to have no plan behind their landings—they were simply trying to disrupt the Republic's battle lines as much as possible. It was working, too. There was nothing as terrifying as not knowing where the enemy was going to be, and then suddenly have him right in front of you. Even if these drop pods did not stand a chance of breaking the defense and getting into the Temple, it was still nerve-wracking.
"How are they getting through the blockade?" Caius asked.
"Too small," answered Revan, "the fleet can't target them effectively. They'll keep coming."
The Republic had never anticipated this kind of orbital parachuting, and had never erected a kind of bubble shield to protect the planet. Never mind the fact that there were no shields big enough to protect everything that needed guarding. That was why the shield network was set up to defend the ODSes. It was their job to keep any of the enemy ships from reaching the planets surface and glassing it. However, the Sith had an easy time of flying their pods through the blockade, exploiting this weakness.
Caius looked out into the fray. He saw dozens of massive figures fighting through the carnage, what would surely be the wookiees. At least we have them on our side, Caius thought.
HK-47 was at the front. He had made his way through the broken and confused battle stations and found where he calculated the Sith were falling with the greatest frequency. He gripped his heavy assault rifle with sadistic glee, eagerly awaiting the Sith.
He found himself in the company of a small squad that was barricaded behind a small pillbox of sandbags and barbed wire. They were responsible for guarding one of the many flak guns that were distributed throughout the battleground. They were led by a young and frazzled lieutenant named Stansfield.
"Where'd this droid come from?" one of the men asked in between the blasts of the flak gun.
"I don't know!" said Stansfield, "I thought there weren't any battle droids deployed!"
"Statement: I am no mere battle droid, meatbag."
"Yeah, well, you can leave you bastard. We don't want some kind of confused protocol droid out here!"
Before HK could reprimand the insolent man for his terrible error in judgment, a shrill screeching from above interrupted him.
"Cover!" shouted the lieutenant.
HK did not budge. The rest of the men hit the ground, ducking behind their little blockade. A Sith drop pod roared out of the smoky sky and careened straight towards them. HK watched it with interest as it slowed and then impacted the ground fifteen yards to his right with a tremendous thud. It blasted dust and twisted metal and brick up into the air, blocking everyone's line of sight.
"Where is it?" shouted one of the gunners.
HK was already on the move. He sprinted towards their embankment and then vaulted himself over it with one mechanical arm, holding his huge rifle with the other. He cleared another wall and then found the pod. It was just about to open, the metal casing cracking and then popping outwards. The force with which it sprang open would have broken the arm of any man who tried to stop it, but HK was much stronger than a man. He dented the casing and then punched it back inwards, smacking it against the Sith soldier inside. The droid then leaned to his left, allowing the now disfigured piece of metal to fall to the ground. He reached inside and grabbed the dazed Sith by the throat and then wrenched him out of the pod. He threw the creature to the ground and then planted his foot on his chest. There was a single shot from the assault rifle and the Sith's brains were blown out over the shattered concrete.
"Tally: One."
With that, HK turned to leave the small gun squad behind.
"Wait!" shouted Stansfield, "you can stay! You can stay!"
The assassin droid complied. He held his rifle up to his chassis and said, "Statement: I am glad to see you reformatted your thinking. Now—here comes another."
Admiral Onasi continued to watch the scene from the Reckoner's command deck. Dustil stopped pacing and just sat on the ground, unsure what to do.
The space battle continued in a bit of a stalemate until his sight caught something. One of the orbital stations had lost its blue sheen, which couldn't have possibly been a good thing.
He looked to his left and saw two massive comets of fire arching towards the station, spewing debris behind them as they rocketed through the void. Their wake indicated they were streaming from the giant Sith dreadnaught.
It only took three seconds, and Carth just watched helplessly as the huge rockets tore into the defenseless station, shattering it into thousands of pieces almost instantly.
He put his hands on his head for a brief moment before regaining his composure. He turned and shouted to a communications officer, said, "Relay to Admiral Dodanna. Orbital Station in sector six has been destroyed."
He looked out the window and saw that the Sith fleet was immediately shifting its position. They seemed to be turning towards the opening in the blockade. They would attempt to wedge their way through and strike the planet's surface directly—there was no other explanation.
He continued his orders to the comms officer, said, "Relay to the rest of our CSG—move into position in sector six; we need to block off the hole and stop the leak."
"Right away, sir," came the response.
A hologram of Dodonna, from the Vanguard, showed up on a pedestal in front of him. She asked, "How far away are you from the gap?"
"Not close, ma'am," he responded, "but we should be able to get there quickly and block it off. If you can spare any more CSGs…it'd do us a world of good."
"I can make no guarantees, Admiral Onasi, but I'll do my best to reroute any potential help to the sector."
"Thank you, ma'am," said Carth.
The transmission cut and Carth felt the momentum of his carrier shift. His carrier group would attempt to cut off the enemy's and form a sort of salient, bottling them up behind the blockade. From there it would be a matter of shooting to bring them down.
"We've lost one," said Ostyl, looking over the communications feed as he and Grandmaster Nantaris were holed up in a small room in the mid level Jedi Temple.
"What? Lost one what?" asked Nantaris.
"Orbital Station," answered the Army Chief, "they took out the shield. Two shots from that massive dreadnaught and it was obliterated."
"Damn," said Nantaris, "what about the others?"
"Shields still up—for now," replied the man.
The Sith were, as expected, driving a wedge into the opening in the blockade. Several dozen ships jammed into the small sector and began unloading their cargo. Hundreds of dropships floated out of their gaping docking bays, which looked like nothing more than square holes in the sides of their vessels.
The stream of dropships continued towards the planets surface, spilling throughout the sky and redirecting in every which direction. The bulk of them, however, made their way towards the Jedi Temple. The waves of drop pods continued, but now they would have enough soldiers to lay siege to the Jedi building.
"Here they come," said Revan. As if to punctuate his sentence, he activated his green lightsaber and twirled it over his hand.
The wookiee Zaalbar howled some kind of war cry.
Caius, standing nearby, gripped his weapon as well, though he did not turn it on. He looked to see the unending river of dropships. They were smaller than their Republic counterparts, although they were very round. They looked almost like they shouldn't be able to fly—on the sides of their round bodies were two pairs of razor blade wings that jutted in four different directions. As they fell to the ground, metal parachutes opened up behind them and caught the air, slowing their descent.
It seemed like thousands of them were blocking out the sky. The ground-to-air guns blasted many of them out of the sky, but they continued to come. Flak lit up the darkened atmosphere, erupting into black clouds of shrapnel, tearing into the round hulls of the Sith ships.
They continued watching, the dropships landing and then spouting open their sides, dozens of Sith soldiers hopping out of them and toting their heavy guns with them.
"No use standing here," said Revan.
With that, both Jedi and the wookiee began making their way into the battle lines.
"Mira!" yelled Atton, "duck!"
"What?" she asked.
He dropped his yellow ligtsaber, the beam deactivating, as he dove towards her. Just as he had hit her and thrown her to the ground, a rocket screamed over their heads, whistling by harmlessly and then smashing into an embankment twenty yards behind them.
They scrambled to get back on their feet. Atton stayed on his hands and feet, trying desperately to find his dropped weapon. Just as he thought he saw it, the landing of a drop pod impeded his vision. The dust got in his eyes and he couldn't see. Two silhouettes formed in front of him, barely visible through the ash. He wiped his eyes and tried to see, and they kept coming towards him. He felt about blindly for his lightsaber, but couldn't find it.
The two figures got closer and he realized they were Sith. One of them howled something and they both raised their weapons to fire. He heard a sharp explosion and winced, but found that he did not die. He opened his eyes a crack and saw the red lasers had rent straight through the two Sith and they dropped to the ground in front of him, dead.
Another silhouette formed behind their dead bodies, but this one was friendly. Through the ash he recognized the soldier as one of the Republic shock troops, the unmistakable blue visor giving him away.
The soldier ran up towards him and stepped over the two dead Sith. He held out his hand and said, "Master Jedi—are you all right?"
"Yeah…" Atton coughed, "I'm fine."
The shock trooper raised him from the ground. Without so much as another word, he took off, disappearing into the dust.
Atton looked around his feet, scouring for his weapon. He glanced up when he heard a faint humming and saw a yellow beam coming towards him. Mira then came out of the veil of dust and offered him his saber, holding her own yellow one in her other hand.
"Don't lose this," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied, taking the weapon.
Admiral Onasi watched from his ship, staring in complete bewilderment at the Sith frigate in front of him. His CSG had arrived at the hole in sector six very quickly, and they were now attempting to break through the Sith wedge and cut off the ships inside Coruscant's atmosphere from any support. What he could not understand, however, was how much punishment a single Sith vessel could take.
As he watched this frigate, he tried to count how many times the massive turbolasers on the Republic cruisers struck it, but he lost count. It absorbed so many shots that it did not seem possible. There was no indication of a shield or anything. It just took the brunt of the assault and continued pushing closer to the planet's surface.
Befuddled, Carth contacted Dodonna again.
"Admiral," he said to her hologram, "have you been able to destroy any of the Sith vessels?"
She replied, "They're being…stubborn."
"I have watched the same frigate get pelted with volley after volley of turbolasers, and it is showing no ill effects."
There was a brief meeting at the other end with several men and women of high rank than Carth. At length, Dodonna said, "We are having the same problem."
"I don't understand," said Onasi, "even our ships, with shields fully operational, could not take this much damage."
"I do not know…" she answered.
Carth mused. After he pondered for a second, he was finally presented with a welcome sight. The bow of the frigate was suddenly crushed and fire exploded outward from the gaping holes on its side. It bent and then broke in half, flames beginning to consume it.
"Captain!" bellowed Onasi, "how long were we firing at that frigate?"
"A good twenty minutes, sir," responded the man.
Carth grumbled to himself, he did not understand this at all.
"Get word down to Nantaris," said Dodonna, "and Ostyl. Tell them to find Revan.
The lines were fluctuating now. The Sith were hitting them with a much more organized assault. They had unloaded artillery and tanks, and were now spraying them with flamethrowers for good measure. The Republic was counteracting with large walkers and huge stationary guns of their own, but the Sith had numbers on them and they were steadily pushing them farther back towards the temple. From the rear, the big artillery was shelling the Temple with everything it had. Frequently, it missed, but the vollies almost always took out a tremendous number of Republic soldiers.
Caius, Revan, and Zaalbar were doing the best they could to stem the tide.
The Exile flung his blue saber through the air, cleaving one Sith soldier in half. He then ducked as a rocket flew over his head, nailing a hapless shock trooper behind him and blasting him into oblivion. He could feel stuff landing on his as he fought—liquid, almost assuredly blood and pieces of allies and enemies.
The Sith were forcing their way through the middle of the line, straight towards the main temple entrance. They were forming a bottleneck.
Revan was shouting to Zaalbar, "Send your troops around front and to the side! If we can surround the salient we can box them in!"
The wookiee roared in approval.
His roar was interrupted by a Sith screech, as one of the drop troops vaulted itself at Revan and began swiping a sword at the Jedi wildly. Revan ducked underneath one blow and then stepped backwards to avoid a vertical swipe. The Sith was preoccupied and forgot that Zaalbar was nearby. The wookiee jumped towards the two and then grabbed the Sith from behind. He crushed its shoulders instantly, cracking its bones and rendering it incapable of fighting. He let his grip slide down to one of its arms and then he catapulted it through the air and into the mess of fighting troops that was surrounding them, never to be seen again.
"Thanks, Zaalbar," said Revan.
Caius, dueling his own Sith soldier, bounced a sword blow off of his lightsaber and then used to the Force to vault the creature the same direction.
Zaalbar roared.
"What did he say?" Caius asked Revan.
"He said that you almost threw it as far as he did."
Caius sighed and then resigned to joining them as they began to enact their bottleneck plan. He and Revan went one direction, and Zaalbar the other. As they fought their way through the battle, killing three or four Sith, they came across HK, who was in the process of burning a Sith alive with his flamethrower.
"Tally: Thirty-two."
"You're keeping track?" Caius asked him.
"Answer: Correct. I must always try to top myself. My personal record is one hundred and seventy-six, accomplished on the Star Forge with the Jedi Revan."
Caius coughed, though he wasn't sure if he was astounded at HK or if the ashes in the air really made him cough.
"Grenade!" shouted a nearby soldier.
Caius spun around, looking for a safe place to take cover.
HK, however, was not alarmed. He took a step to his left and then stooped down to pick up the little explosive. He held it in one hand and inspected it with curiosity. He seemed to pick at it for a moment, and then he dropped it to the ground. He said, "Statement: These Sithbag weapons astound me. They are so simplistic. That will not do, that will not do at all."
It took a while for Caius to determine that the grenade was not actually going to explode, and he came out from behind a broken concrete wall. As he emerged, he was presented with a courier, sprinting as fast as he could towards him. Out of breath, the young man put his hands on his needs and then shakily adjusted the helmet on his small head.
"What is it?" Caius asked, sensing the message was for him.
"Relay from Nantaris—he requests that you and Jedi Revan get back into the Jedi Temple. Immediately."
Caius looked at Revan, who said nothing, but let the message process. "I guess," began the Exile, "we should go?"
"We shall," answered Revan, "but this had better be important."
"Do you have any explanation for this?" Nantaris shouted.
Caius and Revan stood in front of the Grandmaster as they bore witness to his panicked rage.
"First the nuke doesn't destroy their dreadnaught—we can pass that off as some kind of aberration that we cannot explain. But now this?" he vented, "It takes more firepower to destroy one of those Sith frigates than it took Malak to level Taris to the ground. Why?"
Caius had no answer—he did not know.
Nantaris continued, "You were there with the Sith! You knew what they were up to! What is this? Why the hell are they so difficult to destroy?"
"I…I do not…know," said Revan.
"We had better find out," said Nantaris, "because soon they'll overrun the planet."
"Give me…" stuttered Revan, "some time. I need…to think." He put his hand on the side of his face and instinctively felt the scar that Caius had given him.
"Concentrate all your fire on the dreadnaught!" shouted Carth.
His CSG was pouring everything it had into the monstrous Sith Capital ship, but to no avail. His cruisers were firing volley after volley, and his fighters were trying desperately to destroy anything—the rudder, the fuel cells, the viewport on the bow, but they had no success at all.
The Sith wedge was driving deeper pushing the Republic ships further apart and separating one half of the defense fleet from the other. The dreadnaught was forcing its way through as well, seemingly unstoppable. No amount of fire could deter it, and it was blasting its way through the defenses and straight down towards the planet below.
Carth saw another of the orbital stations light up from within, flames consuming it.
"We can't stop it," muttered Dustil to himself.
A smaller ship in Carth's CSG, a destroyer by the name of Serocco, was caught right in the dreadnaught's warpath. It had, in a valiant effort to prevent the Sith from advancing, wandered too far away from the other ships, and was now almost isolated. The dreadnaught was bearing down right towards it.
"Hard to starboard!" shouted the Serocco's captain.
The ship lurched in an effort to get out of the way, but it could not move fast enough.
"Bank!" the captain continued.
Not enough.
"Brace for impact!" shouted an officer.
The captain grabbed onto a console nearby, hoping to avoid the worst. There was a moment of peace before the ship was suddenly torn in two. It shuddered with tremendous violence, throwing everyone to the ground. The captain was jolted and he let go of the console. As he flailed, he looked out the viewport and saw that the planet below was twisting out of view. The bow was thrown upwards and he caught sight of the side of the dreadnaught before the bridge collapsed on itself and he was killed.
On the ground, many of the soldiers watched in horror as the Sith dreadnaught had just rammed straight through the Serocco, shredding it into pieces. The massive ship continued on, undaunted by the debris of the broken ship, speeding straight down. Its bow was pointed at the earth and it seemed to be intent on blasting its way all the way down to the planet's surface.
It descended several thousand feet before beginning to slow up, though it still held its facedown position. It came to almost a complete stop after several minutes of perceived freefall, then stopped in the vicinity of the Senate.
As everyone who could see it regarded it with curiosity, the ship began to power up. Underneath its square bow, inside some kind of crescent-like vent, an incandescent white light began to slowly grow into a massive ball of flame. It pulsated like lit magnesium as it grew in size. From the Jedi Temple, the entire spectacle was clearly visible.
The light built up for two minutes, reaching its crescendo. Almost instantly, it disappeared. For five seconds it was gone. Then, just as suddenly as it had vanished, it reappeared. An enormously thick beam shot out from underneath the bow and reached down to the planet's surface. Pure white energy ran down from the ship in a stream, falling all over the city.
The light continued to pour, with no conceivable effects, until the faucet turned off. The light vanished without a trace. When the last of it struck the ground, then the spectacle began.
The buildings in the area it had attacked were immediately enveloped in a monstrous ball of fire, expanding outwards and disintegrating anything it came across. It cast shock waves in every direction—their force so great that it threw almost every soldier on the surface, Sith or Republic, to the ground.
The ball of fire continued to expand greater and greater until it eventually stretched itself too thin and dissipated. Behind it there was nothing. Merely a great black crater filled with the ashen debris of what had once been part of Coruscant's planet-wide city.
"Bloody hell," said Carth, "damn it all."
He had not seen the white beam, but he could clearly see the after effects, as the range of its destruction was so large that one could see it even from space.
"Two more orbital stations have been destroyed…" informed a lieutenant.
Carth turned to the comms officer, said, "Contact Dodonna…"
He waited for a moment before her hologram again appeared before him. Her figure disturbed him, as she was hunched over and she instinctively put her hand over her head as the image shook.
"Admiral Onas—" the image hiccupped, "under heavy fire…send imm—"
With that, the hologram flickered and died. Carth instinctively looked out the viewport to see, although Dodonna's ship was far too distant to see what had happened.
The comms officer tried to reestablish contact. He spoke three or four times and then resigned. He turned and said what Carth knew in his gut. "Sir," began the officer, "we've lost the Vanguard."
Carth just put his hand on his forehead. There was nothing to say, nothing to do. There was just nothing. It could not get any worse.
The Republic fleet scrambled to try to move and prevent the Sith dreadnaught from causing any more damage, or moving over the Jedi Temple. However, at this point, the orbital stations had been nearly rendered useless. Protecting the Temple for the sake of the generator would have been for the sake of a symbol. The real prize at the Temple was that the bulk of the Republic army was there. The entire Sith fleet was now moving in towards the planet's surface, and the dreadnaught continued to lay waste to the cityscape.
The Republic was concentrating everything it had on the dreadnaught, but it was simply shrugging off the damage as though it were nothing. It continued on undaunted.
Revan, who had been pacing about the Jedi Temple, had had an epiphany. There was something, something he thought he had learned about Ardashir long ago. But the proposition had seemed so foolish to him that he had not paid it any heed. Now, he realized, he had to figure out what this was.
He remembered, back on Malacandra, when Hsintah had informed him of something Ardashir was working on. An archaic form of Sith magic that would bind inanimate objects together. They would be tied together, and as one endured, the objects could suffer no decay or destruction. It was intended for shield use, but it never worked. According to the reports, the initial tests of such magic failed miserably, resulting in the deaths of all involved. He had never considered that Ardashir might actually perfect a method. Though now it seemed he had.
He approached a nearly frantic Nantaris and tapped him on the shoulder almost suavely.
Nantaris shook his head quickly and blinked, asked, "What? Do you know something?"
"That ship," said Revan, "I know what it is now."
"Out with it, then, lad!" said an impatient Grandmaster.
"It's called the Aegis," answered Revan. "I always found the name funny, but now I realize why Ardashir chose it. He used some kind of archaic Sith magic; some kind of energy field that he wanted to trace back to Naga Sadow. It was…purely hypothetical…but he seems to have done it. The ship is like a microcosm of the Force. It is the propagator of an energy field that binds the entire Sith fleet together. It strengthens them through the field as they call on it. As long as it endures, they will be able to bind themselves together as a cohesive unit in the Force—and it makes them almost impossible to kill."
"Then why is the Aegis itself invincible?" asked Nantaris.
"I don't…I don't know," answered Revan. "It shouldn't be. It should be just as vulnerable as our ships—it can't cast the field on itself."
"Well, that helps—because it clearly is," said the Grandmaster angrily.
"No—it's doing something else…"
Nantaris furrowed his brow. This wasn't helping.
"Perhaps…" began Revan, "it is empowered by Ardashir himself. He has a taste for the…theatrical…"
"Nihilus!" said Nantaris, "the Ravager! That was what Darth Nihilus did with his ship. It was bound to his soul. Once he was destroyed it was easily dispensed with."
"That is what we must do, then," said Revan. "It is our only option."
"Board the dreadnaught?" asked Nantaris incredulously. "How can we do that?"
"Send everything we have," answered the Prodigal Knight. "They have no shields—if we can blast our way into the hanger, we should be able to land."
"It's suicide."
"So is not doing it."
Nantaris frowned, conceded, "You are right there." He took a deep breath, looked around, said, "Quick—assemble all the Jedi you can find. As well as all of the shock troops we have available. We need our best men."
As soon as Revan departed, Nantaris sighed deeply and closed his eyes. The odds were impossible. This was it—this was the last night of the Republic. He opened his eyes and looked out over the horizon. The dirt and dust was unbelievably thick—and the fires were raging out of control. Coruscant had never, in the thousands of years of its existence, suffered this terribly.
His thoughts were interrupted by an awkwardly halted set of footsteps. He turned around to see Bastila Shan stumble towards him and almost fall on the ground. She tripped, but he caught her and stood her up. He said, "Bastila! What's wrong!"
"I can't…" she began, "I can't do it anymore. I tried…I am…spent." She choked down a sigh and fell to her knees. "I need to rest."
Nantaris knew how important her Battle Meditation was, but he knew that the poor girl could kill herself from exhaustion if she tried too hard. It looked like she was completely emptied. He thought for a moment and then realized that her power was useless at this point anyway. For Battle Meditation to be effective, there had to be a battle. This was not a battle, it was a rout. A massacre.
"We're being boarded!" cried out the ship's captain.
Carth closed his eyes to let the words sink in. There wasn't much to say. "Send every available hand to meet them. If they break in further, quarantine the section of the ship and break the airlock—we'll turn it into a vacuum."
He turned around to see Dustil staring at him. His son said, "Dad—let me go. I can help."
"No—you can't. You should not fight. You're still recovering."
"We'll be dead, anyway," he answered solemnly. "I can help. I can inspire them just by being there. You know how the soldiers feel about Jedi."
"I…" began Carth. He then sighed and lowered his shoulders, said, "You're right. Go…just don't do anything rash, Dustil."
His son nodded and then he departed.
They scrambled and gathered as many Jedi as were available. There were not many left at all. Revan, Caius, Atton, Mira, and three others—two women and an older man—were all that remained.
They met hastily in one of the hangers of the Jedi Temple. Pieces of the ceiling frequently fell to the ground, plaster threatening to smack them on the head, as perpetual bombardment was taking its toll on the Temple. A noticeably frazzled but determined Nantaris was briefing them on their mission.
"You'll have to go in with a fighter escort, any single-manned ships that we can spare. There's chaos in the skies, dogfights are raging out of control, so you'll have to avoid them. Head straight to the Aegis and do nothing else. Two small destroyers will attempt to provide cover and draw their fire. Blast your way into the hanger. The other fighters and dropships will join you there. We're sparing everyone we can." He swallowed and looked at their stern faces, continued, "Some soldiers from the Twenty-Third will join you there with the bombs. The Jedi will head to the bridge and find Ardashir. Once he's dead, set the charges and get the hell out of there."
They all looked worried about the improbability of success.
"Remember the Ravager, lads," he tried to console them, "we've done this before."
As he finished his sentence, Bastila joined the congregation, moving in with the rest of the Jedi.
Nantaris looked at her warily, unsure if he should forbid her from going. She gave her answer and said, "I am going with them."
"You could barely stand twenty minutes ago, lass," he said.
"I am fine. They will need all the help they can get," she supplied, glancing at Revan sideways as she said it.
"Very well," said Nantaris. The hanger then shook as a missile slammed into the top of the temple. "Now we just need a ship."
"We're taking the Hawk," said Caius. "She's gotten us this far."
"Can anyone fly it?" asked Nantaris.
Caius let his eyes wander to all of the Jedi present. He could not fly, this he knew. Bastila had a little flying experience, but that was it. Revan and Mira, he did not know—same for the other Jedi. Atton, however, could certainly do it. He raised his hand to volunteer. Before he could speak, however, a voice from behind—near the entrance to the bay—interrupted them.
"I'll do it," it said.
Nantaris wheeled around to find Elliott Gallenti was strolling confidently towards them. "I'll drive," he repeated.
No one had any qualms with this. If anything, it added one more man to the crew. If Atton had flown, he would have had to stay behind and man the ship when they went in. This way, he could join the strike team and add much-needed support.
Nantaris nodded.
"Rock and roll," said Elliott.
The Jedi hurried to get ready. It took almost no time for all of them, plus a handful of the Republic shock troops, to get ready for lift off. Nantaris watched grimly as they crammed themselves into the Hawk. Five minutes later, he saw the ship lift off of the ground and rotate backwards, out of the bay.
His stomach leapt into his throat as a missile very nearly smacked straight into the freighter, almost ending their excursion right then, but luckily they avoided the shot. The ship then twisted and faded from view.
The Grandmaster turned around, felt the Temple shudder again. He stabilized himself and hurried to the front entrance, hoping to see how the battle was progressing. Communication was almost useless, and he had long since lost contact with Ostyl. He had no idea what was happening at the front of the Temple. He hurried outside and stood at the top of the infamous staircase, looking down across the panorama.
He saw absolute anarchy was reigning. The Sith had punched several deep wedges into the Republic lines and were turning and attacking every direction, many of the Republic soldiers getting isolated in pockets behind the advancing enemy. These little havens were snuffed out quickly.
He saw the fires were continuing to spread throughout the city, burning down hundreds of buildings. It was almost dark out, but the light from the explosions and flares and rockets kept the battleground very illuminated. As a missile streaked overhead, he looked down to see a half-gone soldier lying sprawled at his feet. The man's eyes were still open. Nantaris knelt down and shut them, giving a little respect for the deceased soldier.
He heard bullets bounce off of the steps around him, but he did not move. He simply held his ground and looked up. It looked as though the Republic soldiers had all turned and were initiating a massive retreat. The problem was that there was nowhere to go—just get closer to the Temple, which offered them no safety at all.
As he stood up, he saw a figure approaching him. The man was limping along quickly, his left leg apparently wounded. The man came closer and Nantaris was able to determine through the sporadic light of the discharged weapons that he was seeing Major General Eherr. The man was completely shell shocked. He staggered forward; his beard blasted upwards and part of it singed off. The man's eyes told Nantaris all he needed to know—the battle was all but lost.
"Eherr!" he called out to the man as he approached, shouting above the din of explosions and the wailing of the wounded, "where is your division?"
Eherr, who seemed almost totally uncomprehending, took another half-hearted step before falling to one knee and trying to stabilize himself on a large piece of rubble.
"Master Jedi…" he said quietly, his voice creaking, "I have…no division."
Nantaris looked away. The ground battle was truly lost. They would have to pull back inside the Temple and hope to keep the Sith out as long as possible. Just hope to survive long enough to see if Caius's suicide mission even had the opportunity to play out.
He looked up to see an orbital station, one of the three or so remaining, attempt to strike the Aegis. The shot sailed past the massive dreadnaught and, unfortunately, screamed straight into the Coruscanti surface, leveling almost an entire district itself.
In the light from the explosion, he caught a faint glimpse of the Ebon Hawk. Just briefly, he saw it soar through the air, twisting and rolling to avoid fire and shake enemy fighters. His hopes were hinged on just that tiny freighter and its escort.
As he watched the small ship spin and valiantly attempt to make its way to the enemy dreadnaught, he felt a tugging despite to make a silent prayer on its behalf. He wanted to wish them well; he wanted to bless them with the Force.
But he shut out these feelings as he looked around and saw the carnage. The Force is not with us, he thought to himself, it never has been.