As one, all of the Chiss shuttles of Reonoq's initial landing party rose for the planet's skies, rocketing for the now-vacant vessels that their dead Ascendancy opponents left. A few minutes later, after the Killiks boarded the capitals and other vessels in the defeated fleet, they split into two grand teams; the first unified team would stay aboard the vessels while the other team take the shuttles back down to Reonoq to ferry up more Killiks, who all burrowed their ways from the planet's underground.
Nearly half an hour of efficient action later, ThurSolo was the last to join her people above Reonoq's atmosphere. She took her rightful place in the command chair of Admiral Ar'alani's flagship's bridge, as if the chair were her deigned throne. No traces of Chiss habitation anywhere aboard the flagship - or anywhere else in the Killik fleet, for that matter - remained to sully ThurSolo's senses here; not even a drop of blood remained for the naked eye to see. The entirety of Thuruht was pleased with which they had so progressively cleaned up to begin their conquest.
After a brief moment of basking in victory over this battle, Thuruht wordlessly coordinated the entire fleet to turn away, as one, from Reonoq and prepare for hyperspace. And again, as one, they disappeared as they left behind the Reo system altogether.
.
The five remaining Masters of the Jedi Order - Saba Sebatyne, Barratk'l, Cilghal, and the Solusars - sat around their council table silently, each of them wondering what to say. Saba looked to Cilghal and Barratk'l, who sat across from each other a couple seats down from the Barabel, and she turned her eye to the Solusars, who sat with each other at the other end of the table off to Saba's left.
She wondered what she, sitting at the head of the table, once again the appointed Grand Master of the Jedi Order against her will, could say, since it was obvious that the others didn't have anything to offer. And really, what was there to say?
What isn't there to say? Saba wondered as she sighed.
"We need to appoint new members," Saba finally announced.
All four of the other Masters regarded her with their emotionally-weary expressions. Saba had expected more overt reactions in response to what she just declared. Then she remembered that, at this point, it was quite stupid to think it could do anything to or for the rest of them.
"Who do you recommend?" Cilghal asked, her voice sullen.
"Jaden Korr, for one," Saba answered. "I think it'z high time that he take a seat on this council, whether he wants it or not."
"Agreed," Cilghal responded.
"Seconded," Barratk'l said.
The Solusars only nodded to Saba.
"I'm also conzidering Tekli, Zekk, Lowbacca, Tahiri Veila, and my zon, Tesar," Saba said. "Any objections."
All of them shook their heads.
"That totals up to roughly ten members in total," Saba said with typical Barabel practicality. "Now I know that we have been able to go these past five years with roughly ten to eleven members, but considering these trying times, I think we need a full twelve. Any recommendations?"
"Perhaps I could fill in?" a familiar voice said at the exit of the council chamber.
Everyone present turned their heads in that direction, and their expressions flared up from depression to utter shock.
"Kenth!" Saba exclaimed.
"Hello, Saba," Kenth Hamner - former acting Grand Master of the Jedi Order during Luke Skywalker's exile from Coruscant nearly two years earlier - said as he regarded the remaining Masters of the Order. His expression was one of bitterness, as if he never forgave Saba for killing him.
No one said anything for a moment before Saba asked, "But... how?"
"You wondered where I was since you all voted me out as Grand Master, huh?" Hamner retorted. "I'm glad I still had some worth to the council."
Then the other Masters' expressions turned from shock to confusion. "What do you mean we all wondered?" Saba asked. "Kenth, I killed you! Don't you remember that? How are you still alive?"
Now it was Hamner's turn to appear confused. "You killed me, Saba? I don't recall that. The last I saw of you, as I just said, you all voted me out of the position of Grand Master on the Jedi Temple's landing pad on Coruscant, when you all figured out the deal I made with Admiral Bwua'tu."
Silence permeated the air from the confusion that this was all bringing.
"Ssso... you don't remember trying to sabotage our escape plan from Coruscant and ending up fighting me?" Saba asked.
Hamner shook his head before his tone took on a crisp, military form, reflecting of his past life as a New Republic soldier. "When you all tried confining me to my quarters, I was attacked; the assailant had somehow knocked out the power to my quarters, thereby making sure I couldn't get a positive I.D. on him, and ambushed me. The only thing I could make out in the dark was that the assailant appeared to be badly deformed, considering that the body appeared to be in a distorted shape not characteristic of any humanoid form I'm aware of.
"But anyway, the attacker tackled me to the floor before I could reach my lightsaber and did this..." He then stripped himself of his robe and lifted up his shirt to reveal a a badly red scar in his right underarm. "...to me." He then pulled the shirt back down and slipped his robe back on. "He bit me, apparently, and it carried something that knocked me out."
"So you were attacked and the guards we placed outside your quarters didn't even sense you in distress?" Cilghal asked.
"That's one of the first things I wondered when I came to sometime later," Hamner continued. "I found myself strapped to a medical table of which I had no doubt was of a starcruiser, since I could since through the Force that it was in hyperspace. Again, the room was dark, with a bright light overhead allowing me to see the faintest hints of my environment. But I knew that it was my assailant who spoke to me from one of the darker corners of the room, considering that his contortions were too familiar not to recognize even in brief moments."
"What did he say to you?" Barratk'l asked.
"He told me that I was out for nearly a year," Hamner answered. "He had me in a coma. He told me everything that happened; your breakout of Valin and Jysella from prison and from carbonite, helping Master Skywalker against the Sith and Abeloth, the coup on Daala, the power shifts in the Galactic Alliance that resulted, and the eventual battle to drive the Sith and Abeloth from Coruscant. And if I may say, those actions were quite idiotic."
"They worked," Saba replied defensively.
"And at what cost?" Hamner asked. "The exile of the Jedi Order from Coruscant and the Galactic Alliance? Three billion people dead because of Abeloth? The possibility of another uprising from that thing, and all the loose Sith still running around in the galaxy."
Saba growled, but one look from Cilghal calmed the Barabel immediately. The Mon Calamari then shifted Hamner's attention to her. "So how did you escape?"
"I didn't," Hamner answered. "My captor simply let me go."
"Why?" Barratk'l asked.
"He didn't tell me," Hamner said. "After he told me about everything that happened the past year, he flicked his hand in my direction, and the next thing I knew, I was falling asleep again. When I woke up again, I was in my quarters for this Temple, and I decided to see what else happened recently. I'm not at all liking what I'm hearing about this new Killik situation, especially not when five Masters-"
"Six," Tionne interrupted.
"Six?" Hamner asked.
"Jaina Solo Fel was promoted to Jedi Master during the battle against the Sith and Abeloth," Tionne elaborated.
"So she finally got married to Jagged Fel, huh?" Hamner inquired. "I wasn't aware of that."
"And it appears you didn't know that she died with Fel either," Saba said. "It was prior to the battle in the Reo system."
"Well, either way, I think we can say that we need every experienced Jedi to lead this Order, especially with Luke Skywalker no longer among the living," Hamner said.
Everyone nodded in agreement to what Hamner said, the first time they all truly agreed with him since he had been bestowed the title of Grand Master when Luke was exiled.
"But that still doesn't explain how you could be here when I clearly remembered having to end your life in battle so you wouldn't interfere in our plans against the Sith and Daala," Saba said. "Are you sure there isn't anything more you can offer for a description of your attacker?"
"Well..." Then his eyes flashed in horrified remembrance. "There is one thing."
"What?" Saba asked.
"From his voice, from his accent... he was clearly a Yuuzhan Vong."