Chapter 43
The Chaos Wars:
Into the Black Eye
"Now that I have your attention. I think I know what will break you. Obviously you don't care what happens to you as long as those close to you don't suffer…"
Daemon Princess Ra to Obi-wan Kenobi
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P39-234 was a star system located between Bakura and the cluster that once housed the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium and now the eye of terror. Considered unexplored by the main powers of the galaxy the forces of Chaos had scoured through star systems around they're newly born eye, searching for possible worlds to act as strongholds.
Star system P39-234, renamed Blight by Chaos had one such planet, a small world named Black Eye, orbited by two small pocketed moons. The landscape of the planet was covered with desert and small mountain ranges. Its orbital defences included several massive blade shaped battle-stations, armed with nova cannons and dark lance batteries and a few dozen orbital defence platforms, the moons themselves were also fortresses with a mass of lance and plasma batteries dotted on their surfaces and the closed openings of hangers spread out along the landscape.
On the main mountain range of the desert world was a palace, dug into the tanned rock, it was made of black-stone with a mass of spires and towers reaching up at least a kilometre into the air, the main building was in the centre, a massive, dome roofed structure that was covered with balconies and turrets.
The balconies, tower tops and turrets of the palace held rail-gun and heavy bolter installations. Anti-air missile launchers and flak guns dotted the ground around the impressive structure, ready to bring death to anyone who decided to come in uninvited. The palace itself was mostly built underground with a labyrinth of corridors and chambers reaching down at least a kilometre deep. Within the upper structure was a mass of great chambers made out of black stone with massive, thick pillars keeping up the high ceiling. Several were hangers for starships to land and take off with a small string of armouries, war rooms and living quarters for the palaces contingent of defenders including a thousand traitor guardsmen and a company of Chaos Space Marines.
Below the surface of the palace was another story, many of the floors were set aside for a prison complex, already full of captured prisoners from both the Alliance and the Imperium including civilians, soldiers, pilots and force-sensitive beings. Further down still was a massive group of chambers, its setup similar to that of the magnificent chambers in the above complex but were instead used for the purpose of torture and death.
Obi-wan Kenobi gritted his teeth, suppressing the need to scream in agony as the daemon princess lashed him again with her bladed whip, laughing maniacally as she did so. He had taken her torture methods for three hours straight, hoping that she would eventually tire of him but she was still as excited as when she started. If she wasn't having him freeze to death in freezer units she was throwing him into pools of molten hot coal. If she wasn't cutting him with her whip and her bladed fingers then she was using a supply of pain inducing drugs. But the most painful torture she used was assaulting him with warp attacks including arc lightning, warp fire and mind attacks that pushed him to the very limits of his sanity.
"I must admit Jedi" she said breathlessly as she coiled up her whip and clipped it to her belt "You have an impressive pain barrier, I have not had such fun since the time when I had the pleasure of a space marine within these walls" she walked up to him and roughly grabbing his chin forced him to look into her pitch black eyes "Now then I now I can't break you by doing something to you…so why don't I try a different method?"
She grinned evilly as painfully bright lights snapped to life, illuminating the entire length, breadth and height of the torture chamber. She forced him to look up and he was truly horrified by what he saw. A dozen Jedi were shackled to the walls, their feet dangling at least ten meters from the hard rock floor with nothing to stand on. He recognised all of them as people who were both his friends and his family. Aayla hanged there, her partially naked form so badly beaten that he felt her losing and regaining consciousness constantly. His love Siri Tachi covered in cuts, burns and bruises all over her skin was in no better condition. Luminara Unduli, her former apprentice Barriss Offee, Quinlan Vos and even the mighty Kit Fisto looked like they were so close to becoming one with the force once again that it brought an ache to Obi-wan's heart.
An ache that turned into uncontrollable rage, no longer caring for the consequences Obi-wan Kenobi channelled the force through him so quickly that when he unleashed it, it took the form of force lightning which slammed into the Daemon Princess head on. She was consumed by its raw power but instead of screaming in pain as the Jedi master had thought she began to gasp and laugh in ecstasy.
"So this is force lightning" she laughed as a bubble formed around her, slowly pushing the burning blue bolts away from her form and with the sudden spreading of her dragon wings the attack dispersed "Not bad but it requires a lot more power before it can even hope to burn me"
She smirked and with a snap of her fingers the shackles keeping Obi-wan on the table opened, a wave of her hand and Obi-wan was telekinetically pulled forward to his feet to within mere centimetres of her face. She grinned at him, before sending him careening across the chamber with a well placed uppercut. Obi-wan landed on his back, feeling pain erupt in his spine and head as he hit the ground. Grunting in pain he started to crawl in an attempt to try and get a hold of the weapons strewn across the walls and cases. She followed him, moving slowly and deliberately like an ambush predator, her whip once again uncoiled and seemingly writhing as if it had a life of its own.
"Go on Kenobi" she whispered seductively as she snapped her whip "Grab a weapon, any weapon" she then swung her whip and lashed him across the back. The small blades adorning the almost unnaturally flexible leather dug into his back and with a pull left several deep gashes, he gritted his teeth as raw pain almost consumed his nerve endings. She hit him with the whip several more times before psychically forcing him to his feet and seemed to just push him, but instead of staggering back he was thrown off of his feet and crashed through a display case, the shattered glass leaving more cuts along his back and shoulders.
The Daemon Princess approached him slowly, slightly hunched over, her face set into a sneer of ecstasy. Obi-wan started fumbling around for something to use against this monster, a stake of wood, a piece of glass, anything. Finally his searching right hand felt something, hard like a rock; he looked at it to find a stone similar in appearance to a gem, a cloudy gold in colour. He grasped it and using the force pushed himself to his feet before spinning on his heel, aiming the rock for her head only to be psychically thrown back several feet, dropping the weapon and landing hard on his back and head.
He felt blood pour down from the back of his head and his vision beginning to blacken, as he began to lose consciousness he thought of his friends, still hanging from the walls of the torture chamber and sent them one final message before the darkness took him.
I'm sorry
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For twenty five thousand years he had been imprisoned within this small gem, imprisoned and forced to watch as time continued to pass him by. He had been forced to watch as the daemon princess who had imprisoned him continued her daemonic practises of torture and pain on her victims in the form of hundreds of tortures, from burning them alive to freezing them alive, from sexual violation to all kinds of humiliation, through tortures using weapons like blades and whips to psychic attacks by her warp abilities.
She knew he was watching and revelled in an eternal audience, besides the masses of poor souls who had been chained to the walls of her torture chambers, forced to witness the horrific acts she had committed and were forced to face the realisation that their own time would eventually come. His only real comfort was that his own children, the force-sensitive beings from his home galaxy were far away from this daemonic sorceress and her fellow warp minded royals.
Now even that comfort was stripped from him when races from his own home galaxy were dragged into the chamber and put through those same tortures. Humans, Twi'leks, Bothans, Zeltrons, Rodians, even his own people were dragged into the chamber and broken through those same daemonic tortures. When a number of those people were force-sensitive then he started to struggle against his chains but to no avail.
After months of being forced to watch these tortures he had felt something that gave him a little bit of hope, a force-sensitive being had been released from his chains for her to have a little bit of extra fun. He tried to fight but was continuously torn down by powerful psychic attacks. Eventually he was thrown through the display case where his prison stone was kept. He saw his chance and took it, he sent suggestions into this human, this Jedi's mind, edging him to touch his prison and he did so.
After twenty five thousand years of imprisonment he heard and felt the strangely comforting sound of a crack appear on the gem imprisoning him, he needed to work fast.
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The daemon princess approached the fallen form of the defiant Jedi knight, a sneer of contempt on her face, showing her dagger like teeth. In her right hand her daemon whip, Trafalgar writhed and flexed in anticipation to taste his blood one more time, letting its wielder know of his impatience with psychic whispers and taunts. She raised her head and let out a hiss, silencing her impatient weapon. She then flicked her wrist and the whips bladed leather morphed and formed into the long blade of an ancient sword. The blade itself covered in black runes of an ancient and extinct order. Only the daemon within the blade, and a wielder that it felt was worthy knew what it meant and Ra had proven her worth hundreds of years ago.
In a quick move that the mortal's eyes could not follow she surged forward and thrust her newly formed blade, slicing into the Jedi's left shoulder, straight through. The human let out a strangled, short cry before gritting his teeth against the pain, she grinned again, almost innocently if it wasn't for her sharp teeth.
"Now that I have your attention" she said "I think I know what will break you. Obviously you don't care what happens to you as long as those close to you don't suffer…"
She then pulled her sword out of the humans shoulder and casually walked over to one of the prisoners hanging against the wall; one who Obi-wan immediately realised was the bloodied form of Aayla Secura. With a simple lunge she plunged the blade into her shoulder, cutting a few inches into her cerulean skin and forcing it out by sliding, allowing the blade to cause more damage, the Twi'lek cried and screamed in absolute agony.
"Do you know what Trafalgar's special ability is" Ra asked uncaringly as she turned her back on the Twi'lek and walked slowly back to Obi-wan "Oh it's not as grand as some of the others but it suits me fine. You see the blade itself emits a kind of warped poison which turns the blood within a nicked vein black before sealing it, I choose not to infect you with it" she grinned evilly as she explained "The poison spreads through the veins, tainting the blood with it. It's like having molten lava run through your veins and when the poison reaches her heart it will stop…and she will die"
As if to symbolise her meaning Obi-wan saw the wound that the princess inflicted on Aayla seal up with extraordinary precision and before long the snaking lines of black veins became visible on her skin, starting off as just and dot and slowly beginning to spread out. Immediately Aayla began to moan in pain, her weakened state unable to let her cry out. Beside her the blond haired form of Siri Tachi started to struggle against her chains, her emerald eyes alive with anger at the daemon princess.
Ra simply ignored her and grabbing Obi-wan by his neck forced him to his feet and slammed him against the black stone wall. A flick of her wrist and her weapon returned to its original whip form.
"I will make you and all those present watch" she whispered seductively into his ear "And if this one's death doesn't break you then I will chose another and another until you finally do succumb"
A flash of orange light blinded everyone in the chamber and Ra was suddenly raised and thrown across the chamber with such force that it drove her through the meter thick black stone wall at the far side. An orange fog had appeared in the centre of the chamber, the force coming and going at new levels more powerful than anything that Obi-wan and his fellows had ever felt.
"After twenty five thousand years I live again" a voice roared from the dissipating fog "Ra I have a very large bone to pick with you!"
As if on cue Ra jumped out of the massive hole she had made in the black stone and fell on all fours, claws on her hands and feet retracting, her long bladed tail whipping too and froe, mirroring her sudden anger and ferocity. She growled, her pitch black eyes narrowing and her mouth set in a feral snarl, showing her dagger like teeth and forked tongue.
"What's the matter" the being still hidden in the fog asked "No smart remarks, no witty comeback…I was actually looking forward to that"
"I should have known that little crystal couldn't hold you forever" she then rose to her feet, her daemon-sword flying through the air and catching it with her bladed claws, her forked tongue licked her lips, wiping away the trickle of blood dripping from the sides of her mouth "No matter I'll just do what I should have done at Tython…slice the great immortal…the watcher from head to toe!"
The smoke finally cleared showing the slender form of a near-human with tanned skin and short white hair, wearing the long brown robes of the ancient Jedi Order. A staff, about a metre and a half in length and seemingly made out of wood with no markings on it was leaning against his right shoulder and the hilt of a lightsabre clipped to a black belt. Obi-wan immediately recognised the man as an Arkanian, a race of near-humans who resided on Arkania, an important trading planet in the colonies.
"I am the Watcher" the Arkanian said, his voice a ghostly whisper "I am one of the first Jedi in history and Ra. I will be your death!" He surged forward, his long staff swinging in his hands as he ran and brought it down upon the daemon princess with almost unnatural speed. The daemon was just able to bring her sword up to bat the seemingly fragile staff only to find that it did not snap on contact with the daemon-sword.
"Ah so you managed to save your own possessed weapon" Ra smirked as she vanished and reappeared behind him only to have it blocked "What was it you called it…Nexus?"
"Yes that is his name" the watcher stated before vanishing in a blur of motion, reappearing above the princess and assaulting her with a flurry of strikes with the tip of his staff, she either dodged them or deflected them with her own possessed sword and with a flick of her wrist turned it into a whip, swinging it and wrapping the leather around the head of the staff. She then unleashed a blast of warp fire upon the Jedi immortal.
Obi-wan Kenobi leaned against the side of a black stone wall, watching the impressive fight taking place in front of him. He had to use the force to keep up with their quick movements. The daemon princess kept coming with her daemonic sword, attacking the 'Jedi Immortal' with flurries of plunges and strikes that were so fast that they were basically a blur to his eyes, even when they were strengthened by the force. The Watcher as he was called not only deflected and dodged the attacks but returned them in kind with equally quick swings, jabs and strikes with his staff which seemed to simply take the punishment from the daemon-sword and not even suffer a chip.
Suddenly feeling adrenaline pump into his body he pushed his bruised and battered body to its feet and willed it to work as he ran towards the chained up forms of Aayla and Siri. The Twi'lek's infection had begun to spread with several black veins stretching out from her left shoulder, she was moaning and groaning in pain. First he put a sleep suggestion on her to shelter her from the pain before using the force to open her shackles, she caught her as she fell and slowly placed her leaning against the black stone wall before moving to free Siri Tachi.
"Can you move Siri?" he asked as he used the force to open her shackles and helped her to a stand.
Before she could answer the monolithic doors that connected the torture chamber to the outside swung open and a trio of mutated beings, dressed in dark red carapace armour and hefting lasguns aimed for the Arkanian. Without thinking both Obi-wan and Siri released a duo of powerful force-pushes that sent the three Traitor Guards flying through the air and smashing against the wall at bone crunching speeds.
Immediately they reached out through the force and called a handful of displayed weapons to them, the targeted weapons flew off of the walls and ended up in their outstretched hands. Obi-wan gained a duo of curved swords while Siri caught the long barrel of a Dark Eldar splinter rifle. The two immediately jumped into action as another six Traitor Guards ran into the chamber. Obi-wan force-jumped at them, stabbing one of them in the chest and spinning around him, decapitating a second and, pulling the blade out of the first, somersaulted over the second and brought the two blades in from the left and right, cutting the third soldier into three pieces. By then Siri had found out how to work the splinter rifle and the blonde haired Jedi squeezed the trigger unleashing a volley of miniscule white shards upon the remaining three, mowing them down with incredible speed and precision. The whole conflict took about four seconds from start to finish.
Meanwhile the Watcher got a shot at the daemon princess with his staff, jabbing her right in the stomach and making her stagger backwards, her guard lulled he began assaulting her with a flurry of jabs, all hitting their marks on her stomach, chest and shoulders before finishing off with a swing aimed for the side of her head, the wooden staff hit her, making her spin in midair and land in a heap.
She jumped back to her feet, roaring in anger and attacking with her daemon-sword set in its whip form, attacking with swings and swipes, the bladed leather tearing gashes in the close by wall and stone floor in an attempt to hit the nimble Jedi Immortal. The watcher started to dance and spin, dodging the potentially fatal swipes and lashes from the daemon princesses possessed sword/whip. He flicked his wrist and suddenly he showed that his staff was not even a staff but a wooden hilted sword kept in an equally wooden sheath, he dropped the sheath to the stone floor and began muttering something that sounded like an incantation under his breath.
"Nexus…Jedi Guardian of old, I ask for your strength for this moment" the blade of the recently unsheathed sword began to glow blue with the powers of an ancient force-sensitive warrior as he continued to dance around the daemons suddenly sporadic attacks "Strike!"
He lunged forward and swung his sword with everything he had before landing in a roll and coming up in a crouch. His sword held firmly in his two hands. For a moment all was silent except for the sudden plop of blood as it dripped from the reddened blade of his sword. Then a long gash appeared on the daemon princess's body, running from the top of her right breast to her left side, reddish black blood spilled out of the slash, dropping as pools on the stone floor. A sudden swipe from the watchers sword took of her head.
Calmly he turned his back on the corpse of Ra and picking up the scabbard for his sword sheathed the weapon before releasing the Jedi around him with a snap of his fingers. They all fell to the floor and landed in a crouch, some perfectly while others, weakened from the tortures that the late daemon princess put them through staggered. Immediately Jedi healers Barriss Offee and Luminara Undali ran to Aayla's side. Checking the Twi'lek's pulse and scanning her with the force while the others grabbed weapons and headed for the door.
"Her pulse is erratic" Barriss muttered before placing a hand to her friend's forehead "By the force she's burning up"
"I'm not surprised" the Watcher said as he fell into a crouch beside them "Those are symptoms of such a warped poison"
"I've never seen anything like this before" Luminara said as she raised her hands and checked the Twi'lek female through the force "But its definitely a type of poison that travels through the blood stream, moving via the veins to internal organs and shutting them down"
"A decent hypothesise" the Arkanian Immortal replied calmly "But slightly wrong with the end result, it doesn't just shut down the organs, it rots them from the inside out"
"Sithspit" Barriss cursed as she looked down at her tattered clothing "If I only had my equipment or a little bit more rest I could do something!"
"That will not be necessary" the watcher replied as he put a four fingered hand on Aayla's shoulder, where the source of the infection originated "Ill remove this at its source" There was a flash of soft light which emanated from the watchers hand and seemed to spread onto Aayla's skin, following the black trails of the tainted veins. The two Jedi healers had never felt anything quite like it before and studied him curiously. They had used the force to heal seriously wounded individuals before but never to such an extent as the Arkanian was showing them now.
A few moments later he removed his hand from Aayla's shoulder to show that the black veins had vanished and the wound had completely closed, not even leaving any evidence that it was there in the first place. The immortal stood up, leaving the surprised healers to tend to their fellow before walking up to the five Jedi who were securing the massive doors to the chamber, armed with an array of lasguns and other alien weapons.
"You" the watcher said, pointing to Obi-wan Kenobi "I take it that you are the highest ranking Jedi of this little band?"
"I am"
"Good" the watcher replied "We need to get out of here"
"How do you suppose we do that?" Obi-wan replied.
"Use your imagination master Kenobi" the Arkanian replied, a smirk on his face "Lets free the other prisoners and start a mass riot. There's got to be at least five or six thousand people trapped within this prison"
"A good idea" Obi-wan said with a raised eyebrow "But do you know where the control room that keeps the doors locked or if they are even automated?"
"Actually I do" the watcher replied "But that's not important, I can open the prison doors from here"
"How"
"Has a Jedi's imagination simply ceased to be while I was away?" the watcher asked with a smirk as he snapped his fingers "There's no need to find the locks, if you have the force anything is possible"
Before Obi-wan could reply he heard the muffled sounds of lasfire, explosions and amassed screams from above him, he had to reach out with the force to get a good idea on what was happening. The prisoners had been freed and had just overrun the guards, taking their weapons and using them to force their way further out of the prison to the facilities above ground.
"Now then" the Arkanian said with a smile on his face "Shall we go?"
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The hanger of the daemon palace was in complete chaos as red carapace armoured traitor guards and chaos marines formed up in a skirmish line across the several hundred meter long circumference of the chamber, firing their bolters and lasguns upon the charging prisoners. Literarily thousands of people of dozens of different races were running into the chamber, some hefting lasguns and oversized bolters while others were armed with pistols, iron bars, rocks and sticks. Dozens of people were mowed down by the chaos skirmish line before the prisoners reached it and subsequently overran it, beating the remaining soldiers to bloody corpses with their weapons.
Most of the palace had been overrun by the released prisoners who looted the armouries and living quarters of the main structures, grabbing everything that could be considered a weapon and killing any mutated chaos spawn that they found. Without the guidance of their precious daemon princess her troopers didn't know what to do and their counterattack was sporadic and scattered with only the few chaos marine squads mounting any kind of successful defence.
By the time the Jedi, beaten and battered entered the hanger the fight was over and the surviving prisoners were forcing their way aboard the myriad of starships assembled in the hanger, Many were captured private starships and freighters and Alliance ships like Corellian Corvettes, Skipray gunboats even the massive form of a 600m long Dreadnought-class Heavy Cruiser. As well as this there was a small line of chaos ships, mostly small frigates and destroyers.
"We need a ship" the Arkanian muttered as he surveyed the array of vessels set out before them "Something strong enough to withstand the ground defences and break orbit"
"I would recommend that Heavy Cruiser" Obi-wan said as he and Barriss half carried Aayla towards the starship "It's big and fast enough to take the anti-air fire and get off world"
"What about crew?"
"Look around you" Obi-wan gestured "Most of these people are soldiers and pilots, more than enough for a crew"
Quickly the Jedi boarded the 600m long cruiser along with several hundred soldiers and pilots, both Imperium and Alliance. While the wounded were placed in a suddenly overcrowded medical wing the physically able ran to the vital stations of the ship, weapon batteries, engine compartments and the bridge were swarming with people reporting to stations and preparing the small cruiser for lift off. The Jedi entered the bridge, safely leaving Aayla Secura in the medical wing along with revived Jedi healers Barriss Offee and Luminara Undali who immediately began treating the wounded.
"Who's in charge here" Obi-wan said in a hoarse voice, drawing the attention of all of the bridge crew. Many starred at him in shock and some began muttering amongst themselves, all knew of the exploits of 'deceased' Jedi master Obi-wan Kenobi.
"That would be me" a tall and well muscled man, his rugged face covered with scars and appeared to be set in a sneer "I am Commissar Sanders of the 16th Cadian Regiment…who in the name of the emperor are you?"
"I am-"
"Obi-wan Kenobi" a Zeltron female, covered in bruises gasped "The Negotiator"
"What are you blabbering about xeno" the Commissar growled, seemingly more happy with shooting her than listening to her.
"He is Obi-wan Kenobi" a human man said, standing in front of the Zeltron, both to speak to the commissar and to shield the weakened girl from him "A thought deceased Jedi master from the Clone Wars era and he outranks you Commissar"
"Really" the Commissar growled, his eyes full of murderous intent.
"Yes and considering that I am a commander in the Alliance" he said as he turned to Kenobi, a genuine smile on his face "Congratulations Kenobi, you've just been brought out of retirement. We await your orders General Kenobi"
"Fire up her engines" Kenobi said as he was lead to the captain's chair "We're leaving this hell!"
With a stuttering growl the cruisers ancient engines came to life and she hovered into the air, ready to shot out of the gapping hanger doors. Already dozens of smaller ships, packed with escaping prisoners were lifting off and flying out of the hanger. As the dreadnought moved forward anti-air fire spurted into the red sky, turning an ascending YT-600 freighter into a ball of fire. The cruiser exited the hanger and immediately was assaulted by ground to air missiles and rail-gun fire, her shields flaring blue as they absorbed the barrage. Smaller ships from freighters to transports and shuttles flew out with her and were also assaulted by the same ground defences. The shields of a Lambda-class Imperial shuttle failed and the small ship was hit by a plasma missile, causing it to explode into a dozen pieces. A 300m long Star Galleon-class frigate suffered a dead hit by a groundside lance battery, its shields shattered and its hull punctured before it fell to the ground like a stone, secondary fires appearing all over its hull.
A quarter of the surviving craft were destroyed before they could break orbit and the Dreadnought cruiser's shields were down to forty percent. What was in front of the escaping ships was terrifying, a string of three massive blade shaped battle-stations stood in their way, dark lance batteries and missile launchers aiming for the small cluster of freighters and carriers. They fired, sending long lances of thick orange light at the ascending ships. A blockade runner took several lance hits to its stern, causing the entire back half of the corvette to explode. A YT-1300 freighter took a direct lance hit, causing the small disk shaped craft to vanish in a blaze of orange light.
"Frontal turbolasers fire at will" Obi-wan shouted as the entire superstructure shook violently, consoles began to short circuit and explode as they overloaded, sending those crew members manning them falling backwards with burns and electrocutions.
"Shields are down to twenty percent" a Rodian crewman shouted "They're not going to hold!"
Obi-wan slumped into his chair, the activity and controlled chaos taking place around him seemingly moving in slow motion. The Watcher, Siri Tachi and Quinlan Vos were standing in the centre of the medium sized bridge, their hands outstretched, trying to divert several lance beams away from the ship, sweat dripping from their brows as they poured all of their will into the force. Dozens of lances suddenly bent and flew wide of the Dreadnought and the small array of ships surrounding her, but one by one the others fell to the barrage until only ten of the fifty escaping craft remained space worthy. The rest nothing more than burning husks drifting in orbit. Lives winked out of existence in the thousands, men and women who were once Imperial Guards, Stormtroopers, pilots, medical personnel and many other civilians were dying and the psychic assault threatened to overrun the revived Jedi master's weakened mental defences.
Unless a miracle happened nobody would make it out of her alive, this massacre would simply be forgotten until a lone smuggler or explorer discovers it a few hundred years later.
That miracle took form as a trio of long, thin green lances struck the three space stations, puncturing straight through them and causing a series of explosions which slowly overran their armoured hulls like a blanket of fire. A trio of massive explosions marked the deaths of the three battle-stations and aftershocks destroyed half of the orbital defence platforms surrounding them.
Obi-wan starred at the destruction in surprise and awe, wondering if the force had really answered his silent prayers. He found that he was half right as three massive, dagger-like silhouettes, at least 17km long each, their hulls painted black and bristling with turbolaser batteries decloaked in front of the small string of escapee vessels. A few seconds later another star dreadnought which he recognised as an Executer-class also decloaked right in front of the escapee fleet.
The comm. Units of the Dreadnought cruiser crackled to life and a hologram showing a man which he considered his brother appeared before him, dressed in the armour of his Sith alter ego except for the helmet which showed his rugged features, dirty blonde hair and ice blue eyes.
"Obi-wan" Anakin chided playfully "Why do I always have to save you?"