The fleet that had been sent out to Tenupe roughly half a day earlier dropped out of hyperspace several light years from Csilla, the homeworld of the Chiss Ascendancy. Thuruht, who were only a system away in their own Star Destroyers, viewed the snowy planet through the eyes of General Fel and his Chiss subordinates. They would begin their part in assimilating the Chiss here before the Killiks could occupy it officially.
Soon, the Ascendancy will die, Thuruht thought, and we will reign supreme.
.
Just as Saba, in the cockpit of her StealthX, was prepping her starfighter for launch in the Jedi Temple's hangar bay with her fleet of Knights and Masters, her comm buzzed. She took it out of her pocket and brought it up to her lips.
"Grand Master Sebatyne here."
"This is Jedi Knight Seff Hellin reporting from Reonoq," the male voice on the other end responded.
"What have you to report, Jedi Hellin?"
"I've found an entire fleet of destroyed Ascendancy shuttles scattered across the planet with dead Chiss inside the hulks," Hellin reported. "And while I've found thousands of Killik corpses as well, I could not locate the remainders of the nest that would still be lurking underground. I would assume that the Chiss would have exterminated them, but then there would still be Killik bodies or traces left."
"You mentioned that there were still Chiss remainz," Saba pointed out. "Assuming that the Chisz won and did exterminate the Killikz, why would they just leave destroyed resourcez and dead brethren behind?"
"That's what worries me, Master Sebatyne," Hellin said. "This makes me think that the Killiks may have somehow defeated the Chiss and escaped the Reo system."
"If that is true," Saba said, "then this situation is worse than we thought." It's bad enough that the Jedi had to contend with the Chiss Ascendancy, but now, if the Killiks also became a problem, assuming they weren't already, then a second Swarm War may be on the Jedi Order's hands.
.
The Faux Harla and Captain Ford's ship dropped out of hyperspace, and shining before Plagueis's eyes and Ford's photoreceptors, as well as Five-U's, was one of the greenest, lushest planets that they ever saw.
And to Plagueis, it brimmed with power and intelligence through the Force.
Zonama Sekot.
Just as Sekot's full presence blossomed through Plagueis's senses, it quickly assaulted his mind, causing a painful spasm that caused him to collapse to the deck of the Harla's cockpit.
"Master!" Ford exclaimed, kneeling next to the human. "What's wrong?"
Ford's words were an auditory blur to Plagueis, for another feminine, more menacing voice spoke through the Sith Lord's mind.
You cannot hide your darkness or malevolent intentions from me, the voice said. Your power is all but a microcosm of my own, and I could end you so easily right now. So tell me why I shouldn't just do that and spare myself, my people, and the rest of the galaxy from your evil?
It took Plagueis a moment to work through the pain that Sekot was giving him as he tried to work out something to telepathically commune.
You would risk going to the dark side just to stop me? he asked. I do not sense any darkness in you.
I will do what I must for the best of the Force, Sekot replied.
So killing me would be for the best of the Force? Plagueis asked.
Sekot was silent for a moment before she said, No. No, it wouldn't. For it now tells me that you are necessary to bring balance to it.
Really? the Sith asked. How?
Come to me, and you will know, Sekot said. The only thing that I will deny you is a single individual among the Yuuzhan Vong. I will not allow you to take "specimens," as it were. The vessel accompanying you will be allowed to join you.
Fair enough, Plagueis thought.
The pressure was relieved from his mind and he pushed himself off the deck to sit back in the pilot's chair, a concerned Ford watching the whole time in utter silence.
"What happened, Master?" Ford asked.
"We've been invited," Plagueis said before he commed Five-U. "FiveYou-AmFourAn, do you read?"
"I copy," Five-U replied.
"Follow us," Plagueis said before cutting off communication. He then began piloting the Harla to Zonama as Captain Ford's ship followed suit.
.
After Seff piloted his StealthX out of the atmosphere of Reonoq, a blip suddenly appeared on his sensors. It was coming in from around the planet's envelope relative to his departure point, miles off to his starboard. When Seff looked with his own eyes through his cockpit's canopy for any sign of this blip, he saw, in the distance, some kind of dark, wing-shaped eye-like ship headed his way.
Jedi, a dark, masculine voice said in Seff's mind.
Without any warning from either his StealthX's sensors or his own Force senses, a giant, metal ball rocketed from the opposing ship and was on a sure trajectory for Seff's starfighter. Acting quickly, Seff pushed the throttle on his vessel and rocketed himself away from the speeding ball, which passed mere meters from the rear end of the near-invisible fighter.
But even more metal balls soared for Seff at a more consistent pace, causing the Jedi to quicken his ascent from Reonoq's gravity well before ultimately deciding to swerve around and confront the enemy vessel head-on as he began firing lasers at it. Several metal balls were destroyed by the outgoing lasers before the balls ceased to be spewed from the other ship.
Ship, Seff realized. This was the Sith Meditation Sphere named as such, which was found by Ben Skywalker years ago during the Second Galactic Civil War on the backwater Sith world of Ziost. Seff knew of this thing because of its prominence in helping Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of the Sith during the Jedi's conflcit against them.
Just as Seff realized this, Ship managed to soar above the Jedi's lasers before renewing his ball-spewing. Seff veered his vessel to port, still continuing his stream of lasers along the way. Again, Ship avoided this stream by diving relative from Seff before looping around and firing more metal balls at a more aggressive pace.
Seff once again tried to avoid this new stream by veering off to starboard, but one of the latest metal balls managed to punch straight through the StealthX's port wing. Naturally, the starfighter began swerving out of control and began heading back for Reonoq. One more metal ball to one of the StealthX's exhaust ports blew the entire ship up, ending Seff.