Chapter Twenty
Having scheduled his trip to Endor, Palpatine smiled that everything was going as he had foreseen thus far and not as Kadann had told him. "Is the Majestic ready for lightspeed?" he asked his crew. "Almost sir, we're waiting for the rest of your escort fleet to join us for the trip as well," a member answered. "That will take too long, just have them meet us at Endor whenever they get a chance," Lumiya interjected.
"No my dear, we need those ships in case something goes wrong. The Zaarin insurrection still lives and may attack us at any given time," Palpatine warned. His escort included two Enforcer-class cruisers and several squadrons of TIE fighters just in case a dogfight was in order. He also had a shuttle ready and fueled in case he needed to make an evac as a result of insurrectionist attack.
Arden Lyn's had him on edge ever since she defeated him in fair combat, six months ago Lumiya observed quietly. "Tell me Lumiya, have you ever been to Endor or any planets along the routes it shares?" Palpatine asked. "Not recently, sir," Lumiya answered. "Then it should be an education for you when we go to see the operational capacities of the new Death Star," Palpatine stated.
"I look forward to it, sir," she said. Having traded her name in the service of the Empire, the woman once known as Shira Brie observed as the Emperor paced impatiently. "You could take my suggestion sir and let your excess ships deal with any insurrectionist," she suggested. "No, I told you before that we need those ships for our defense!" he repeated insistently.
"My liege, there are several ships coming out lightspeed. By the look of them, they have the Zaarin stamp on them," a crew member informed them. "You know the old saying: speak of the devil and he will come," Palpatine replied. "Sir, get in your shuttle and head for Endor; I'll handle this," Lumiya said.
The Emperor nodded, unsurprised that she would be quick to think of the shuttle and his eminent escape. "Destroy them, Arden Lyn. All of them," he ordered just before boarding the shuttle. "Yes sir," she replied with a bow before the shuttle hatch shut on her face.
"Milady, we have determined that the enemy fleet is nearly equal in every way to ours except for one: the Erasmus is an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer whereas we've an Imperial-I. However that isn't the best part, the best part is that it's Captain is on board with his usual Tusken Raider bodyguard. We can destroy them now with the aid of a Super Star Destroyer we have on the other side of the planet," an officer informed Lumiya. "Who's the captain?" Lumiya demanded.
A Tusken Raider? Unless this is Paris Zaarin, it would be out of place for a Tusken to be with the insurrectionists in a fight against Imperials. But even now, I don't know why Arden demanded that he guard Paris as I'm sure she didn't release him from his life debt she wondered. "It's Admiral Zaarin's son, milady and if you like we can blow his ship to dust immediately," the captain replied.
"No, goad them into engagement with us and prepare to board them. I will deal with the Tusken Raider and the boy personally," she ordered. "Madame, are you sure that is wise? We could just call in the Super Star Destroyer and have it obliterate them," the captain suggested.
"No, they don't know that their true target is gone yet. As far as I can tell from my usage of the Force and the observation that the shuttle wasn't shot down. We can use that to our advantage if we play along and act like we are protecting the Emperor until we're ready to share the truth," she replied. The captain smiled, emboldened by the implications of the suggestion and to see to it that the Majestic was immediately prepared for boarding should the Erasmus pull them in the tractor beam.
"Since their goal is to capture or destroy the Emperor, they should be pulling us into their tractor beam any minute," he added when preparations were finished. "Good, now all we have to do is wait for them to do it and then we'll spring the element of surprise on them from there. Fight to the last man as though you're defending the Emperor but try to surround them while you're at it. It'll make for good attacks to their flanks and we need to reduce their superior number before engaging them head-on," she replied.
"Yes ma'am, I will have the men ready to do just that. Do you wish to be at the frontlines or do you want to wait and see if they push through?" the captain asked. "Paris and Hoar won't immediately revealed themselves but they will when they see how well we've held up against them. They'll come to stem the tide but we will let them succeed so that we can have them in our trap," she answered.
"And what do we do once we've secured them in our ship?" he inquired. "Detach from the Erasmus and blow its engines to hell. The rest will be destroyed by itself from there," she explained. "I like this, defeating them by superior intellect rather than brute force," he observed aloud, smiling.
"Reel in the Majestic and do it now!" Paris ordered. "You sure that's wise, sir? After all, they put themselves right into the path of your tractor beam all too easily," Hoar asked. "Not speaking to you Hoar, I'm speaking to Thaddeus," Paris answered.
Thaddeus nodded his acknowledgement of the order and spread the word to the crew on the tractor beam. It was a matter of minutes, when the battles didn't hinder the beam, before the Majestic was reeled in and attached for boarding. This will be the last battle to save the galaxy from the Emperor and from my father's stupidity Paris vowed to himself quietly. "Hoar, stay here with me and wait until Thaddeus confirms that he needs our help.
"He'll take the troops in first and make sure that it's either easy pickings or something a little tougher," he said aloud to the Tusken warrior. "Yes sir," Hoar said, reminiscing how they frequently used this strategy when in the accompaniment of Thaddeus. "I'll take ten thousand soldiers with me: unless the Emperor's gathered the finest, that should be more than enough," the old man told them. Nodding, Paris wished him luck and told him that he would provide the other three thousand if needed for the taking of the Majestic.
While waiting, Hoar ordered the starfighters to keep their attack on enemy ships and the escort vehicles to ward off the rest of the fleet. "We wish to remain attached until such time as we've captured the Emperor," he added. Paris smiled his enthusiasm for this order and thanked Hoar for making it clear to them that the Erasmus didn't want or need detachment. "If this goes well, this will be the victory of the Insurrection and the point where my father's idiocy proves greatest," Paris stated passionately.
"And if it doesn't?" Hoar asked. "Then we will be remembered for having tried to end an era of tyranny that should never have been allowed to start. We will not allow our reputations to be tarnished just because my father is Admiral Demetrius Zaarin," Paris answered. "You say that like you've grown to hate the man," Hoar stated.
"I have come to hate him, I confess. He's gone mad with desire for technology and will do anything to obtain only the most advanced so he can use as little strategy as possible. I'm the real brains when it comes to strategy and he knows that better than even I do," Paris replied. "Then let's hope that your superior skills have not been wasted on this one last battle," Hoar proclaimed.
The Battle of To-phalian Base was over long before Demetrius even had a chance to really fight. True that his fighting had stalled Admiral Thrawn's inevitable victory on that frontier but it was still his victory from the beginning. On the exterior, Demetrius was as confident as ever and still ready to claim his prize if he could. But on the interior, he was beginning to wonder if there was truth in his son's final words to him.
He wondered if he had underestimated Paris' strategical brilliance and also wondered if he should have listened to him sooner. But it was too late to ask for an apology for by now, Paris had already begun his battle at Imperial Center and was too busy to hear his father out. Additionally, he would probably be disappointed to hear he had lost the battle mere seconds after arriving. More than likely, Paris would gloat and say he told him so since Demetrius began his battle after Paris began his.
He'll probably say that I'm another excellent engineer with shit for brains and call me senile. And I think I'll have deserved to be called all those horrific names for a change he told himself quietly. But keeping his focus on the present, he had a chance to seize Vorknkx even now that the battle for its base was lost and he ordered his men to help him seize it. "We need to secure that ship for ourselves!" he added.
Admiral Thrawn watched as his final victory came closer and closer to approaching. He heard about the second attack on Imperial Center and knew they would be dealt with soon enough. With Lumiya, there was no hope for victory on the part of the enemy that she faced no matter who it was. In addition to her Terras Kasi training from Arden Lyn, she had perfected the martial arts known as Stava.
Not only that but she had perfected it so well that she was able to wrestle dozens of the Noghri who originated it to the ground before she even broke a sweat. Combined together into one brilliant form in addition to superb knowledge of the seven classic lightsaber forms, she was near-invincible. Of course, this was not his focus: his obsession was still on her old Terras Kasi teacher, Arden Lyn. For six months, she had virtually disappeared except for the brief Tython encounter with Inquisitor Tremayne.
He needed her Battle Meditation for his ultimate plan of galactic dominion to work and he wasn't willing to trade that for the most advanced weapon in the galaxy. Granted, he'd take it if offered but it was far from the prize that he wanted as far as trooper strength and stamina were concerned. The effects of Battle Meditation against the Yuuzhan Vong had astounded and hypnotized him completely. "Sir, we have cornered the Glory and we have begun our bombardment," his captain spoke, interrupting his thoughts.
"Excellent, have you insured the malfunction in the hyperdrive's capacity to keep Vorknkx invisible without destroying the ship is working?" Thrawn asked. "Yes sir, as far as we're concerned it is set to detonate upon entering hyperspace. It is sure to end Demetrius' life, should he board it," the officer answered. "Good, I want to see that it does," Thrawn said.
"In that case, you're just in time. The Glory is about to go down and our scanners indicate that Admiral Zaarin is entering Vorknkx now," a bridge member interjected. Thrawn watched carefully, observing the shape of the ship protruding despite its cloaking device rendering it near-invisible. Go ahead Zaarin, make your escape; it's the last mistake you'll ever make Thrawn thought happily.
"Captain, tell General Stele that I wish him to return to the Grey Wolf immediately. His part in goading Zaarin's attempted escape is over," he requested aloud. Stele arrived just in time to see the lights of the corvette's engines prepared to go into hyperspace and that's when it happened. A massive explosion, greater than any that was needed to reduce a corvette to ash, vaporized the Vorknkx.
"Thus is the fate of all traitors," Thrawn stated aloud, victory being his at last. He marched away, joined by General Maarek Stele who suggested that they go check on the Majestic "It's taking heavy fire at Imperial Center from Zaarin's son Paris and his fleet which is strategically superior. That is, to his late father but not to you or I or even the Emperor's Hand Lumiya," the General added.
"You may go and help if you wish but my orders are to immediately return to my synchronization of the Unknown Regions into Imperial properties upon the death of Zaarin. We must obey our ultimate master to the end, must we not?" Thrawn replied, smiling. "Aye Admiral, good luck to you then," Maarek said, clasping the Chiss' hand for what both of them knew would be the last time. "It's been great to fight alongside you, Admiral Thrawn or should I say Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo?" Maarek asked.
"You use my real name? Impressive," Thrawn answered with a salute. After Maarek left, he ordered his fleet to begin the hyperspace trip back to the headquarters of Thrawn's expansion. Even with his obsession with Arden Lyn aching at him, he wasn't foolish in obeying his master's orders.
Everything was going just as Lumiya planned: General Thaddeus had fallen, his troopers were soon to follow, and the next in the chain of command had called for Paris' assistance. "Milady, what happens now that you have brought out Paris and the Tusken Raider?" her captain asked. "I will challenge Hoar to single combat through saber and martial arts, he will not deny me. In the meantime, I want you and your troopers to take Paris alive so that he may be executed for all to see," she answered.
He nodded and relayed the orders for Paris to be captured alive and Hoar to be left alone whilst the rest of the troops needed to be wiped out. Bringing the lightsaber she had been given to her by Palpatine, who said he had stolen it off Lord Maul after their duel on Mandalore, she marched. Her march was not the proud march of an Imperial officer serving the Emperor as the captain hoped to see. Rather, her march to face down a former colleague and mutual friend of her teacher Arden Lyn was a march of bloodthirst and inner rage at her reluctance to kill someone that had once befriended her.
Even now that she had become the remorseless killer she needed to be in order to be an Emperor's Hand, she still had a soft spot for those she had served with whilst training under Arden. Truly, who could blame her when one considered that Arden taught them all to be fierce only to others, not each other unless they were sparring for a greater rank. Observing the carnage of her superiorly skilled stormtroopers slaughtering their numerically superior enemies, she sought him like a huntress. When she found him at last, she made her way towards him whilst deflecting blasterfire and cutting down anyone who got in the way of her blade.
Finally finding him just in time to see him run out of ammo on his blasters, she called him out in front of his men. "I challenge you Hoar, one warrior of Terras Kasi to another, and only the strongest shall survive," she proclaimed. Turning to see her, Hoar chuckled and briefly claimed to be glad to meet her again even if on such ill terms as these. "You know I would never turn away from the Empire even if it meant turning away from what I love," Lumiya warned.
"And you know that I shall never turn down a challenge if it allows me the opportunity to fulfill my life-debt to my ladyship," he replied. "Is she still alive?" she asked. Hoar thought about that for a moment as he withdrew the darksaber she remembered him being given, another Mandalore claim. "I see no reason why not though I haven't heard from her since she left Research," he admitted finally.
Sighing a slight sigh of relief, Lumiya admitted that she didn't want to do this but it was better to have Hoar be the target of her blade than Arden. "You wouldn't have been able to defeat her even with all your new skills anyhow, I don't think," he agreed. Then he did something that surprised her: he positioned his saber in the correct manner to indicate that he would go into Shii-Cho. However, Lumiya was not so surprised that she couldn't guess that Arden had secretly trained him in it.
After all, she was not one to just let Hoar have a darksaber without having some skill as to how to use it and Shii-Cho was a semi-universal style for lightsaber wielders to learn. "May the best warrior win," Hoar proclaimed. Lumiya nodded and charged him with the full agility of Ataru, figuring to let herself use it for a little bit before surprising him with the raw aggression of Juyo. In the meantime, Paris watched helplessly as his bodyguard engaged the Emperor's Hand and tried his best to intervene.
However, he was kneed in the stomach by a stormtrooper and hit between the shoulder blades with the pommel of another's blaster. This fazed him only temporarily as he turned to unload his full cartridges in both his pistols. When that was finished, he turned to the training that Hoar had given him but this was no match for the elite guards that knew how to counter it with their own usage of Stava. A guard subdued him into a Stava-induced slumber and slung him over his shoulder before walking away.
The captain then communicated the news across to Lumiya who ordered for every other trooper to be slaughtered. "This isn't like you Lumiya, please turn back from this dark path that you are only being consumed by," Hoar begged. "It is too late for me Hoar, I made my choice and Arden even stood by it on condition that it made me happy to do it," she replied. "And are you?" he demanded.
"For a time I was," she began as she continued countering his surprisingly excellent use of Shii-Cho with a combination of Ataru and Soresu. When she could get a good visual on what she needed to do when using Juyo, she seized the chance and literally swatted at the darksaber hilt. The ancient weapon's hilt was sliced in half as a result and the blade was deactivated forevermore. But Hoar, being one of Arden's finest students, had a solution to this that worked just fine for him.
When she came at him, he managed to wrench her lightsaber out of her hand and use his last blaster pistol shot to insure that she could never use it again. "We fight as equals as Arden Lyn would have wanted," Hoar told her. Then he donned the ready stance of the Variant of the Snake in what he knew might be his last great battle. Lumiya prepared herself as well, assessing him despite her ready stance for the Variant of the Assassin and looked for a point where she could use Stava on him.
From there, the battle lasted for the better portion of thirty to forty standard minutes whilst Majestic detached from Erasmus and compromised her engines. The bigger ship went down and vaporized to ash within minutes as Lumiya had earlier predicted it would as the two kept fighting. "You have lost Hoar, I could spare you and grant you pardon if you surrender now," she suggested. "There is no honor in surrender Lumiya, my life-debt has to be paid in blood or else disgrace is forever," he said.
Lumiya understood though she didn't entirely like it but she sensed something about Hoar that was changing: he was wearing out and wearing out fast. Soon, he would give her an opportunity to switch into Stava and kill him instantly and thus end the duel and his life-debt. "So be it, Force Valor allows me to do this sort of thing all day if I choose to," she warned. Attacking with the full ferocity of the offensive property of the Variant of the Assassin, she cut through his defenses with relative ease.
Then when he could least hope to ever win, the outcome was sealed in favor of Lumiya when she made a chopping motion of her hand to his neck. This was followed by repeated palm hits to the chest, lungs, and face in the fashion of Stava. The result was bleeding of the mouth and nose that was nearly spontaneous and more than enough to slowly choke him to death. Granted, he could still speak even with his mask on but it was barely audible when he spoke just to reply to her comments.
"I'm sorry that it came to this, Hoar. I really am," Lumiya said. "Better that your dream be paid with my blood than the blood of the woman who most resembled a mother to you. Wouldn't you agree?" Hoar asked. Lumiya nodded in her agreement and turned to leave, hoping to leave before giving into her pity and remorse for her former colleague as her title wouldn't allow it.
But he stopped her just in time for there to be some glimmer of sadness for the fate of one of her finest friends yet. "Wait Lumiya, just... one request: let me die," he said. She knew what he meant: the bleeding wouldn't kill him quick enough but it would certainly be painful before the end. Nodding, she returned beside him and gave a quick twisting motion on his head and broke his neck. Death was instant and Lumiya turned away, knowing he wouldn't stop her now and yet even so, a tear escaped.