Chapter 45
Darklings, Lightlings & Jedi
Part I
Within the farthest reaches of deep space the Eldar Craftworld of Siam-Hann roared through the darkness, the world sized vessels mighty engines carrying it across the very fabric of space at maximum impulse speed, far away from any enemy stronghold be it Ork, Chaos, Necron, Tyranid or even Imperium. Small fleet squadrons of Eldar warships flew around her, looking like insects in comparison, their own engines easily keeping up with their fleeting mothership.
The interior structure of the Craftworld was similar to that of any starship, only hundreds, maybe even thousands times the size. The ship, the product of the very best of Eldar engineering was created for the purpose of its inhabitants, the last remaining survivors of an ancient world of an even more ancient empire to live on and sustain themselves. Imperial records speculated that these giants held millions of Eldar but in reality it held within its monolithic hull billions of beings, perhaps more. The interior of the vessels superstructure was made up of thousands of levels, some simple decks, others made to hold a city, or a forest. Something that reminded the inhabitants of their home world, even when you think you are at the top of the Craftworld it was very possible that there was a deck above you.
The Craftworlds basic design was similar to that of a planet, a massive spherical shaped vessel, whose hull was made from a bewitching, almost magical material called wraithbone. Several key settlements, mainly cities and forests were situated within massive domes upon the Craftworlds otherwise pristine and flat red and white surface.
It had been nine months since the outbreak of the Chaos wars upon the Beta Galaxy (After the Imperium and the Alliance made contact with each other they agreed upon names for their own galaxies. The Imperial's was known as Alpha while the Alliances were known as Beta). Or so Mara-Jade Skywalker thought.
She lay on what she thought was a hospital bed, lying on her side looking at the tiny sleeping form of her daughter and smiling weakly to herself, she did not know how long she was doing this, could be minutes or even hours. She didn't know and she didn't care, all that mattered at this moment was her daughter, the tiny little baby who just a few hours ago had been nestled pretty comfortably in her womb.
Since that meeting with Farseer Leda Stormwind nine months ago she had been through some ordeals, both welcome and trying. Five minutes after they had first meet she had known that Mara was pregnant, two seconds later she had decided that she should stay in the Farseer's palace until she found a way home. A decision that was not agreed upon by both the Seer council and the exarches of the sacred temples, even the warp spider exarch, Psicosis had been unsure of this decision. But here the Farseers decision was law and had to be obeyed, so, begrudgingly they had agreed to this but had watched Mara ever since, trying to look for the slightest excuse.
Mara to her credit didn't give them one. She had remained inside the Farseers palace, under constant watch by a squad of elite guardians wherever she went. She remained silent and cooperative the whole nine months of her stay so far, with the only real trouble happening when her water broke. The Eldar healers had never dealt with a human pregnancy before and so were complete amateurs to the practise, but were happy to find that a Mon-Keigh pregnancy was not that much different from one of their own, so the conception had gone smoothly. And know here she was, the Eldar healers ordering her to take it easy for a few weeks until she had recovered her strength.
"I have never seen a human newborn before" a soft voice said from beside her bed, Mara rolled over to see the slender form of Farseer Stormwind. Sitting in a chair in her traditional seer robes, her long black hair stretched down her back to make a pool of black upon the pristine white floor "Very cute"
"Yes she is" Mara replied with a blissful, yet weak smile curling her lips.
"Have you thought of a name yet?"
"Eliza Jade Skywalker" Mara said "A name that I and my husband agreed upon if it was a girl"
"Oh" Leda replied as she scanned the sleeping baby with her ruby red eyes "A good name…Mara the Seer council wishes to meet with you when you have recovered"
"Why do they want to meet with me know" Mara asked, her face turning serious as she slowly sat up "What ever happened to them never allowing a Mon-Keigh to sully their domain?"
"Maybe your good behaviour has changed their minds" Leda replied sarcastically, something that she had gained from her constant visits to Jedi Master Mara-Jade Skywalker "Or perhaps they're looking for the reason as to how you got here in the first place"
"I thought I already explained it to them a half dozen times" Mara replied "And they didn't believe me, so why would they suddenly change their minds now" the sudden sound of low sobbing brought the two women's attention to little Elisa, whom had awoken and started to cry softly. Mara picked up her daughter and cradled her in her arms, within a few moments the baby had quietened down and fallen asleep again.
"Well they did explain that nobody has ever survived a warp tear before" Leda pointed out.
"Yet you believe me"
"I felt that you weren't lying" Leda conceded "But the others did not, do not forget that out of the entire Seer council I am the only one who is force sensitive, and I am only so advanced in part to your help and lessons. The others only know the warp and it is nowhere near as subtle as the force when sensing emotions"
"Agreed, so when do they wish to see me" Mara asked.
"Whenever you have fully recovered" Leda answered "Which was a decision I made them accept"
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The Craftworld continued to travel across the galaxy through the webway gates, its massive armoured structure shinning blue against the walls of rippling blue light of the webway portal. Small fleet squadrons of Eldar vessels followed her from Hemlock and Nightshade-class destroyers to Eclipse and Shadow-class cruisers, there was even a duo of Void Striker-class Heavy Cruisers taking the lead.
Little did the inhabitants of the Craftworld know that they would be put through some of their greatest trials since their ancestors first took to the space ways many millennia ago. Two trials which could mean either the Siam-Hann's future or destruction, the first trial was a large fleet of five hundred Dark Eldar corsairs following them at a distance, just outside of the monolithic crafts motion detectors. The second trial was a wormhole, straight in the Craftworlds path, completely invisible to its sensors and early warning systems.
However this passageway to another place was completely unknown to both the Craftworld and the Dark Eldar raiders who were following her. At the head of the raiders was Archon Blackblade, onboard his flagship, the Darkness-class battleship Crimson Agony. The very bridge was dark save for the small flashes and low lights of the control consoles and sensors, it stank of death and dried blood with three heads stuck on pikes just above the command deck, one of a human commander, another of an Ork warboss and a third of a Tau commander, their expressions precisely the same as they were when they died, in horror and agony.
"Alert all commands" the Archon muttered as he lounged in his black command chair, watching the Craftworld on the long range view screens "Accelerate to maximum attack speed and fire on my mark!"
He felt the sudden increase in G-force as the Crimson Agony accelerated to her maximum speed, the entire structure groaning as if it where a beast preparing to charge. The Archon smiled, revelling in the rush of adrenaline that came before a major battle. His leader, Lady Lilith had wished for Seers, why she wanted the accursed lightlings he did not know, but he knew never to question the ladies orders. The last one who did was laid out in display before her chambers, his head stuck on a steel pike for all to see.
"Defences?"
"Four fleet squadrons my lord" his tactical officer "Mostly destroyers and frigates but also a few Void Strikers and Shadows among them"
He knew that this would be a costly battle, a Dark Eldar raiding fleet had not engaged a Craftworld head on for as long as he could remember. The only real records of war on a lightling Craftworld was when Lilith's own forces had infiltrated Ulthwe almost a hundred years ago. He already had a small army infiltrated in the Craftworld, hiding in the shadows of the monolithic vessels depths, where they wouldn't be found until they struck.
The Dark Eldar ships had caught up on their lightling cousins by know, the massive Craftworld easily dwarfing his vessels starboard view screens, his own battlehip now shadowing a Shadow cruiser, safely hidden away within the protective blanket of its shadow fields.
"Target the bridge" he ordered and watched as the order was relayed before turning his attention back to the dorsal section of the enemy ship, his eyes alight with feral passion and ecstasy as he gave the order "Fire"
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The Crimson Agony decloaked and opened fire on its surprised prey, its first dark lance salvo hitting the unshielded bridge and turning it into a smouldering wreck. The Shadow was sent into an out of control spin, exploding against the webway portal walls. Similarly the other cruisers and corsairs of his fleet decloaked and opened fire upon the Eldar warships, destroying many escorts and pickets before the defences of the Craftworld and the surviving escorts realised what was happening.
Hundreds of lance batteries and other weapons dotting the Craftworlds magnificent hull aimed and fired upon the swarming black mass of darkling raiders, aiming for the big Darkness battleships and Torture cruisers. The darkling vessels began executing sharp and near impossible twists, corkscrews and turns. Even the battleships moved like they were fleeting gunships, dodging much of the defensive fire and diving down towards the now shielded hull, peppering it with weapon salvoes from their point weapon systems.
The great hanger doors of the monolithic craft opened and a swarm of Phantom-class starfighters and a small cluster of capital-ships flew out at near impossible speeds, executing the same starfighter like manoeuvres as they're darker kin. The reinforcements were mostly made up of the sleek, dragon like forms of Solaris-class cruisers and Wraith-class battlecruisers, all lead by a trio of Void Strikers.
Several dozen corsairs and cruisers broke off from their harassment of the Craftworld and engaged the reinforcements, corkscrewing, diving and passing by each other in mass dances of death and destruction. Performing incredible feet's of manoeuvrability and unleashing point salvoes of lance and dark lance fire upon each other.
Like a blur of motion the Crimson Agony and a small unit of corsairs made a run for the already closing hanger bay doors. Dodging the cannon and main weapons fire as best they can, the defensive fire was just too thick though and corsairs began exploding left and right, by the end of it only the battleship managed to break into the hanger. Firing its thrusters to slow it down, it unleashed a concentrated salvo of splinter fire upon the Eldar warriors assembling in the hanger, mowing down dozens of Guardians and Aspect warriors before coming to a stop and setting down on the charred wraithbone floor.
The large hatch opened with a hiss, kicking up white steam, and through the mist came hundreds of Dark Eldar warriors, dressed in their bladed and slender armour which was coloured in purples and blacks, wielding an array of splinter weapons and blades they charged the recovering Eldar Guardians. The red and white armoured guardians aimed their shuriken catapults and fired, spraying the approaching Dark Eldar with little white shards of energy.
From the hatches came squads of Ravagers, taking to the skies with their black feathered wings, they were followed by Hellions, Dark Eldar elite warriors riding on hover boards and wielding double-edged blades in their hands. Archon Blackblade then ran down the ramp of his battleship, Punisher blade in one hand, splinter pistol in the other and a murderous grin tugging at his lips. A unit of elite incubi and mandrakes followed him, their own eyes alight with ravenous and feral passion.
He threw his punisher, embedding the blade into the abdomen of a lightling guardian and downing another with his pistol as he ran. He grabbed the hilt of his sword as he passed, yanking it out of its victim with a sickening slice and a spurt of light red blood. Today was going to be a day that would run with the blood of the lightlings. Already he felt his kin who were hidden in the bowls of the Craftworld, there by a few warp torn portals that were made within the mammoth vessel jump into action. Moving towards the upper levels of the Craftworld, their targets where anywhere where a Seer would be.
Little did the Eldar and their dark kin know that the wormhole was fast approaching and they were so occupied by the sudden battle that none of those based on long range sensors saw its approach, even the seers and farseers of the Craftworld didn't see it or what was awaiting them at the other side.
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Anakin Skywalker stood in his personal quarters, gazing out intently at the stars that seemed to stretch for an eternity. They were know far away from that prison planet where they found the mass of POW's and twenty Jedi, several of whom he knew and considered friends in his past life, before he became the black armoured form that tormented the galaxy for two decades and whom was responsible, either directly or indirectly with their deaths.
It was this very fact that he felt so ashamed, so ashamed that he was too afraid to look them in the eye, he was afraid that they would hate him, although he wouldn't blame them if they did. He had checked on their progress though. Out of all the prisoners it was Obi-wan and Aayla who were hurt the most, obviously they had become the favourite toys to that daemonic bitch. Obi-wans wounds were mostly physical with cuts, slashes and bruices, he had been burned, frozen and force knew what else, but he would make a full recovery in a few months. It was Aayla who was hurt the most, burned, frozen, beaten, violated in both the mind and the body, then there was that poison that the daemon had cut into her veins. Her recovery would be slow and painful, but with her master, Quinlan Vos and her best friend Kit Fisto right beside her he was confident that she would recover. He would be there as well if she would forgive him. If it wasn't for the actions of the Jedi Immortal known as the watcher he was sure that the battle would have been harder and the death toll greater.
The others weren't so badly hurt with cuts, slices and bruises. The roster of the twenty surviving Jedi included Obi-wan Kenobi, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Quinlan Vos, Kit Fisto, Barriss Offee and Luminara Undali, all from his era, all whom he knew. The rest were Jedi that reported themselves as alive during the thousand years ago Sith wars. The watcher was further back still, from an era before the Force Wars nearly twenty five thousand years ago. His power was on pare with Anakin's and he also had a lot more experience and knowledge of the galaxy, knowledge and experience that could be put to good use in the war against the forces of Chaos.
The door to his quarters hissed open and a being walked into the chamber. Anakin didn't turn to see who it was, he already knew and he also knew that this conversation would have come up sooner or later. His daughter, Leia Organa stood defiantly at the other side of the room. She reminded him so much of his love Padme, who was out there in the galaxy, with a Jedi whom he would trust with his life, secretly spying on the Inquisition of the Imperium. He did not know where she was but knew that she could look after herself.
"I hated you" Leia began "After the death star destroyed Alderaan so long ago I hated you with every fibre of my being"
"Yes I thought you would have Leia" Anakin replied as he turned around and walked over to her "And I don't blame you for hating me now or back then. I did horrible things, unforgivable things, things that will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my days" he then sat down on an arm chair and gestured her to do the same, which she hesitantly did so, sitting down on another arm chair across from him.
"Why did you do it?" she asked almost desperately.
"Because like you I didn't know that you were my daughter or that Luke was my son" Anakin replied "I was a broken man Leia, a man with nothing to lose, a man who's only remaining ties to the real world was a monster and a tyrant" she didn't answer him so he continued "I was in love Leia, and I was so afraid to lose her that I would have walked to the lowest of the nine hells and back just to get a glimpse of her angelic face again. Palpatine knew of this and used it against me, twisting a beautiful thing through implanted nightmares of me losing both her and you at childbirth. He used that to make me turn on those I called brothers and sisters, butchering them with the false hope that I could save her"
Leia saw the sadness in her father's eyes and knew that he was telling her the absolute truth. She should hate him with everything she had. Here was the man who was present when Alderaan was torched, a man who mercilessly hunted the Rebellion and murdered many of her fellows, here was the man responsible for cutting of her twin brother's hand, the man who stole Han from her and imprisoned him in carbonite. She found then that the man whom she hated was not Anakin Skywalker but Darth Vader, a Sith lord who had been dead for nearly thirty years. But she couldn't forgive him yet, that would take time.
"I ended up causing her death instead of stopping it" Anakin continued "She died not of any physical wounds but of a broken heart, she had lost her will to live when she saw me and found what I had done. When it was over I had killed everyone important to me, my friends and family lay dead at my feet, my master had been forced into exile by my misplaced hatred and above it all was Sidious, cackling"
"I think I understand why you did it" Leia answered after a few moments of tense silence "But I can't forgive you because of this, I can't"
"And I don't want you to" Anakin replied "I don't want you to give me your forgiveness Leia, I want to earn it. I know that we could never have a father/daughter relationship but as long as I earn your forgiveness and all those that I have hurt then I will finally feel at peace"
"My mother" Leia said suddenly "Did she return with you?"
"Yes she did" Anakin replied, a smile spreading across his face as he remembered his angels smile "But I don't know where she is yet"
A sudden spark through the force snapped the two out of their conversation. They both jumped out of their chairs and starred out of the view port at the sudden blue disk of light that had just appeared in the once tranquil space several million kilometres away from his fleet.
"A wormhole" Leia gasped "Here"
"Something's coming through" Anakin muttered as he expanded his force awareness through the entire solar system.
"What?" Leia asked, her training in the force no where near as advanced as her father.
"Something big…"
As if on cue a massive vessel, dwarfing anything that Anakin had ever seen before rippled through the wormhole, this thing dwarfed Centerpoint, dwarfed the Death Star, and even dwarfed most life sustaining planets. The spherical shaped craft was massive, covered with crevices, holding bubble shaped domes with large towers representing cities or forests within. The white and red armoured hull dotted with weapon batteries which were even now spewing death and destruction. The areas of space surrounding the world sized craft were a flurry of lasfire and explosions, a major battle was taking place around her and the fighting was fierce.
As the sudden battle progressed Anakin and Leia had made their way to the Executers Bridge where Luke, Han, the twins and Tahiri were already. The main view screens of the SSD had zoomed in as far as they could possibly go, showing vessels ranging from 200m to 4km in length firing upon each other and pulling of manoeuvres that were impossible for any similar sized ship within their own arsenal to do. Fighters darted among them, moving even faster and manoeuvring quicker than their own could even hope to copy.
"Eldar" Luke muttered "I've heard of them from Grand Admiral Halo's reports, including detailed sketches of the few ship designs that he saw" his eyes suddenly widened as if he had just seen a ghost in the depths of space "Mara…Mara's on that ship!"
"Are you sure Luke" Anakin asked as he stepped beside his son.
"I am positive father" Luke replied "Can't you feel her presence through the force?"
Anakin closed his eyes and reached out with the force, using his brief knowledge of Mara-Jades force signature to look for her. Eventually he located her signature, but it was different from what he remembered, far older, wiser and more mature than he could have ever guessed.
"Try to contact that Craftworld" Anakin shouted "Tell them who we are and if they require assistance"
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Mara's eyes suddenly flickered open, something was wrong here. The force which was usually so quiet within the craft was now giving her firm whispers of warning. She was slightly confused by this, it was only as she summoned the force to revitalise her and wiped the gum from her eyes that she made a startling discovery. The entire wing of the palace was dead silent and she saw that the usually bewitching and pristine wraithbone walls of her room and the corridors beyond, which were once fluorescent light colours had know darkened, as if an unwelcome entity had entered.
She sat up and got out of her hospital bed, her emerald eyes carefully surveying the dark room. When she was happy nothing was there she went to a small control pad in the wall and inputted a password into the alien runes. A small section of the wall opened up and a drawer slid silently out holding a pair of pants, a tunic, her old Jedi cloak, a pair of black high heeled boots and her lightsabre. She put them on and, checking to see if her daughter was sleeping peacefully walked over to the door.
Even after nine months of causing next to no trouble whatsoever the Seer council had seen in their 'wisdom' to keep her away from any of the local population. Placing her in a room where the door, several inches of thick wraithbone, was sealed by a five digit password. Luckily enough Mara had seen the door opened plenty of times and knew the password to it. She inputted the password and in the blink of an eye the thick door slid up out of sight revealing a corridor that should have been bright with alien fluorescent lights, instead it was dim and dark.
She stepped out of the room and turning back, inputted another five digit password into the pad, closing the door and sealing the room which held her child, protecting little Eliza from any threat from the outside. She began creeping through the unnaturally dark corridors of the palace, her presence cloaked and her senses on high alert.
Eventually she entered a corridor and the stench of blood filled her nostrils, making her feel queasy. The light was so low here that it was nearly impossible to see, even with her eyes imbued with the force. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers, bringing an orange flame to life. Mara-Jade had lived through two major galaxy spanning wars and had seen her fair share of carnage, but this dwarfed even that. Light red blood was slick on the walls and floor of the corridor, bodies of Eldar lay dead either lying on the floor, cut to pieces or hanging off the walls, crucified and left to die.
This was monstrous, this was barbaric, this was a type of insanity and cruelty that not even the Yuuzhan Vong or even the Sith would dare go. Words, written from blood were etched onto the walls, she couldn't read them, but their meaning was clear, most likely taunts, warnings or threats. Gulping down the bile forming in her throat Mara forced herself onward, eventually dousing the flame hovering above her hand and trusting in the force to warn her of any obstacles.
She heard a weak cough and immediately reignited the flame, hanging from the far wall, with twisted daggers plunged through her hands was an Eldar nurse. Her once long black hair tinged red with the blood of herself and her fellows, blood flowed from cuts on her entire body, especially a long cut across her abdomen, making a pool of blood on the floor and staining her white tunic like clothing red. Immediately Mara ran over to her, quickly pulling out the daggers keeping her crucified and laying her to rest against the wall. She gasped in agony, her unnaturally green eyes glazed over.
"Who did this?" Mara asked, loud enough so that the dying girl could hear her, she was no medic but she knew that she could do nothing for the woman.
"The dark…kin" she responded weakly, her voice barely a whisper "Dark Eldar…they took…us by surprise…butchering the guardians…then us"
Dark Eldar, Farseer Stormwind had told Mara about them, and from what they heard they were pure evil in the most basic sense. They were what Chaos was to the Imperium, what Sith was to Jedi, malicious and cruel beings who found another way of escaping the fall, a way through the blood and torture of countless innocent victims.
"Seers…" the woman muttered "They wanted…seers…they laughed…about acquiring seers for some mass…sacrifice…to appease some new Chaos…god"
"The farseer" Mara realised, if the Dark Eldar had taken such a huge risk of attacking the stronghold of their Craftworld cousins then they would take the strongest they could possibly find. The Eldar female grabbed Mara's collar and pulled her down to face her eyes, now aflame with passion.
"Protect her…don't let them…take her" with that her grip loosened, her eyes went dead and she was no more. Mara reached out with her hand and closed the dead nurses eyes, she then searched the dead woman for her soul stone, found it, tore it from around her neck and put it in one of her satchels. She would give it to a seer once this fight was done. Force knew what the Dark Eldar would do if they found a soul stone.
With that she stood, let the flame burning a few centimetres above her hand die and cloaked her presence once again. Her memory of the palaces layout was no where near absolute but she did know the central block well enough. That was where the seers would most likely be, the only problem was getting there.
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"We've just been given permission to engage my lord" the middle aged admiral said.
"Thank you Admiral Piett" Anakin replied. Jedi were not the only beings who were brought back to life by the force, a swath of fallen war heroes from both the Clone Wars, Galactic Civil War and Yuuzhan Vong Wars had come with them, including Admiral Piett, the last commanding officer of the SSD Executer who died with his ship as it plunged into the second death star. Now both the Executer and its valiant commander were back and ready for a fight.
"Order the Eclipses to charge their superlasers and take aim for the three biggest ships they can find" Anakin continued as he surveyed the battle that his fleet were about to charge head on into.
"There's about five hundred enemy ships out there" Luke said "And only about ninety of us"
"We've got the firepower and the durability" Anakin replied "If we advance in a dense cluster we may be able to pick them off as they come"
The three Eclipses then fired their superlasers, three long lances of green light streamed out into the fabric of space, catching three of the Dark Eldar's battleships head on and reducing them to their basic atoms, aftershocks followed, either destroying or crippling the support ships around them. As one the fleet vanished from view and reappeared within the massive battle, their main batteries unleashing a deadly volley, catching the Dark Eldar completely by surprise and letting the Craftworld Eldar regroup.
Such a risky manoeuvre through hyperspace did have its loses on the Jedi fleet however with a Providence carrier crashing head on into a corsair escort, destroying the Dark Eldar ship and seriously damaging the carrier. An old Venator star destroyer plunged into a Torture cruiser and the two vessels exploded in a massive ball of fire and debris. The Executer immediately took the lead of the fleet, her several thousand plus weapon batteries spewing out a destructive barrage of death upon the Dark Eldar ships.
The Dark Eldar ships immediately recovered and dived towards the new enemy, their incredibly nimble craft moving like ships a tenth of their size, dodging the lances of turbolaser fire and retaliating with their own splinter cannons and dark lance batteries. A star destroyer lost its main bridge tower and began to drift out of the battle line, the enemy craft continuing to pour weapons fire unto her even when its shields died and its hull was punctured.
It was only then that the angered Eldar of the Siam-Hann fleet regrouped and counterattacked with such ferocity and cunning that the Jedi's harassers were forced to break off their attack. It was only then that the Dark Eldar saw their mistake, in their eagerness to strike at the new fleet they forgot about their Craftworld kin and were now caught between two forces that moved in on them like a pair of pincers.
The Dark Eldar panicked and began to scatter, their still two hundred plus fleet making a run against the blockade and retreating to open space. Out of those two hundred another fifty was lost to combined fire. The remaining hundred and fifty vessels however broke past the blockading fleet and vanished as they activated their faster-than-light engines.
"That's the fleet down" Anakin muttered before turning to his son "Luke gather a team of Jedi and assemble at the hanger, go in on the Millennium Falcon and rescue your wife"
Luke didn't need to be told twice. He immediately spun around and moved out of the bridge with Han, Jaina, Jacen and Tahiri following close behind. Anakin had already gathered another six Jedi knights and twenty armed guards at the hanger bay where they would assist Luke in getting on the Craftworld and retrieving his wife, these Jedi were professionals who knew infiltration well.
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Mara jumped to the side, missing the thrusting bayonet of a splinter rifles and swung with her emerald bladed lightsabre, cutting the darkling in half at the waist. She then jumped high into the air and somersaulted, missing a barrage of splinter fire by millimetres. She hit the ground in a roll and coming up in a crouch unleashed a powerful force push which sent another two Dark Eldar warriors flying over the railing and down to the ground floor several dozen meters below.
She was breathing heavily by know and felt exhausted, being inactive for the better part of six months was beginning to show, her movements were slowing and her entire body ached. The main battle for the palace was taking place below with columns of Eldar guardians marching towards the undisciplined ranks of Dark Eldar warriors and wyches, their long shuriken catapults spraying a deadly barrage of miniscule white shards at their dark kin who danced and spun, dodging the barrage. Smaller skirmishes were taking place all across the palace with some being won by Eldar and others by their dark kin. This entire scenario was just a diversion, Mara felt it, their targets weren't the regular soldiers but the seers and farseers, for that they needed their best troops like the Incubi and the deadly Mandrakes.
Taking a deep breath Mara began running, jumping on top of the railing and across the main ground floor, her lightsabre alive with emerald green light in her hands. Her target was a group of wyches who were approaching a beleaguered squad of Eldar Banshees. She dived across the space and decapitated one of the wyches in midair before falling into a crouch, deflecting splinter rounds with her lightsabre, she mentally concentrated on a piece of debris, lifting it and sending it hurtling towards the surprised wyches. The banshees took the initiative, screaming war-cries and charging the now confused female darklings with their witchblades held high.
The battle didn't take long with the banshees cutting down the wyches with such passion that it flowed through the force like a raging river. By the time the last wyche had been left dead on the ground Mara turned to stare straight into the face mask of the lead banshee.
"How did you get out of your room" she asked suddenly.
"Yu guys really underestimate us Chara" Mara replied with a grin "Using the same password over and over again, it was only a matter of time until I found it out"
The banshee growled angrily, her lust for battle still nowhere near spent. Mara looked her straight through her eye visors, knowing full well that she needed help to get to the upper levels.
"You're wasting your time Chara" Mara said firmly "The darklings main target is not any normal soldier or civilian. Their after seers, especially farseers"
"How do you know this Mon-Keigh?"
"One of their victims told me the information" Mara replied, knowing full well that the banshee knew she was telling the truth "Now are you coming with me or not?"
This is just a question so please don't bite my head off for an amateur in Warhammer. I'm thinking of a slightly romantic relationship between Gabriel and Ishta. I could forget it but I think that that part of the story will become a little lifeless if I don't. Should I go through with it or just forget it?
I have heard from a few of the books that it had happened before (Then again it was the ramblings of a man who also said that he was a Water-Caste diplomat).