Descent

Mira

It took me back, and not in a good way. The three of us were surrounded by half a dozen Mando'a, the skimmer one of the old Halfia models from the war. The anti gravs were always a bit out of tune, and I wanted to plug my ears. The men sat there, stolid and silent. Somehow I knew in a few moments the little Fire-cat as Valak had always called me was going to do the creepy-crawl into someone's defenses. There was a stone building out there, and we dropped in about a klick away.

"Be careful." The Mando'a sergeant Xarga said. "Probably mines ahead."

"Probably Sith Waragas." I said. "If it's a standard deployment they'll be the standard two-three-five-two." I said.

He looked at me. "Seems you know what you're doing."

"Valak always thought so."

"Sergeant Valak?" He asked.

"Know him?"

"Meanest DI we ever had. Would have been an officer if he hadn't had a problem with drink. How is he?"

"He bought it right before Malachor."

"Into the shadows." Xarga replied calmly. "You want to lead off then?"

It was hard, and dangerous. We had to move fast, but we couldn't just jog through the jungle like idiots. First we'd probably run into ambush, second, mines, third, those damn animals.

The worst part about it was it had been ten years since that skinny little girl had done this, and the woman she had become had fallen right back into position as if I had done nothing else. Like a pre - programmed droid that pops out of it's box and goes to work. I stopped and dropped to a crouch. I looked back at Xarga, and signaled. Three men, off to our right. Distance about fifteen meters.

He sent back; positioning? I replied; Single holes. All of this passed as fast as you can talk, but completely silent. He tapped a man behind him, then two more. Again a flurry of signals. The men turned on their camo fields, and moved into the trees to our right. I waited. I found my blaster rifle coming up, my eyes scanning the trees. This wasn't me it was that damn kid doing what she should. But even she had not wanted to kill anyone.

There was a rustling of branches, then the three men stepped into view and the senior man signaled all clear. I moved forward again, and they fell back into position. There were mines ahead, and I crawled forward. Clearing mines is nerve wracking but you can't let it drive you buggy from tension. The way to move through a field is like dancing. The partner chooses the dance and the steps, and you have to follow through with him, hoping you don't step on his foot. That gets you killed. So you have to be relaxed enough to go with the flow and tense knowing that treading on his 'foot' will kill you at the same time.

Waragas, just like I thought. The Sith always went for a bigger bang than the Mandalorians. I picked it up, sliding it into my pouch. A little forward, no, that one was rigged to that one, so if you lift one, you blow the other. I crept between the two, stretched, and found the studs on both. Press them at the same time or-

There was a click, and I felt that damn rush. I was still alive. I picked up both.

We hurried as fast as we could. We came to a small canyon, and I signaled everyone to halt, then I crawled forward slowly. I hadn't seen one of those since training; they were already obsolete when I went into the field. But the Sith never throw anything away.

Type two motion triggered claymore. A big flat panel the size of a suitcase with a flat array on top of it aimed down the canyon we were in. One step in the six meter zone it's sensors monitored, and four thousand 5 millimeter balls would rip through the people on that trail for a hundred meters back. I reached up, finger's sliding across. No, that was the dummy trigger. Whoever had placed this was too smart for his own good. All right smart guy, if the dummy is here, most would check here, so I will check...

I found the link to the small flat sensor array. I clipped it. Then I dismounted the fuse. Only then did I really relax.

There was a clearing, and a damn turret sensor! I could see the first turret less than five meters away well within it's at rest sensor envelope. I could bugger one, but not both. And I couldn't bugger them from here.

The Handmaiden touched my arm, then made a motion I took to mean 'watch', then she reached out, and closed her eyes. She concentrated, and the sensor died. I looked, and the turret had gone to rest position. I stood, and sidled forward. A line of them. All dead at the moment.

"How did you do that?" I asked her.

"You feel the inside of the machine, and tell it not to do something." She replied.

Whatever. There was a small group of men beside a shuttle, and the two women exploded into action. I had never seen a Jedi move in combat before, and it was like watching a ship come out of hyperspace. One moment, the Handmaiden was kneeling beside me, the next she almost teleported ten meters away, and was among them. Her saber-staff snapped in a flat arc, and four men were down in pieces even before I stood. Visas had charged toward them, and she rolled beneath a gun barrel and as she came up she sheered it off right in front of the receiver group. The man was down before he even knew he was unarmed.

I ran to them, and motioned toward another set of turrets over by a massive stone ramp. I closed my eyes. I still wasn't used to this, seeing the world with eyes closed, and knowing what those skeins of light were. I had said killing was like putting out a star. I had never considered that with an electronic system it was like putting out a constellation! There, a turret and another sensor. I reached into the sensor. If I adjusted this...

There was a whine, and my eyes snapped open. The turrets had gone active, and there were half a dozen men there, looking stupidly at them just as they went active. Oh god, I had set it to kill everything!

I reached back out, and deactivated the sensor, but when I opened my eyes, all of them were dead. I looked at Visas.

"You made a small mistake, little one. You did not mean to kill."

"But they were dead anyway." I whispered. "They were between us and our objective."

"True. But you should not have to do this."

I felt tears, but part of me was savagely happy that they were dead, not us.

Handmaiden

We charged up the ramp. There were more men at the top, and among them three who were once Jedi. We dealt with them. Mira had been in shock at what she had done, but had snapped back quickly. I found an undamaged lightsaber, and handed it to her. She hung it from her belt, but I could see the desire to use it warring in her eyes. "Just carry it. It is there if you need." She nodded.

There was another ramp at the top, the stone doors blown off their mounts. Visas led and we charged in. The path led us down, and I heard a voice before we even saw the man.

"See, anyone touched by our masters can control them."

"But how?"

The masters took their minds, and give us the ability to speak to them. Do you deny this?"

"No, but-"

We rounded the corner in a dead run. The men were standing with a juvenile Boma between them. They clawed for weapons, but they were down before they could even draw.

"No!" Visas stopped in her stroke above the animal's head. Mira walked over. "You just want to swim don't you?" She asked, rubbing the bullet head. It arched against her hand. "That's right. Now you just go on. We won't hurt you."

It waddled off, and was in a flat run before it was out of sight. She turned, looking at our expression. "What?"

"For some it is not that easy." Visas said. "When we return to the ship, perhaps you can show us how to do that?"

"Any time. as long as you show me how to bugger a sensor grid without killing everyone in sight."

We were running down the hall when suddenly Mira skidded to a stop. She was ashen, and was pointing at the floor. "Don't step in that!" she almost screamed.

I saw nothing, but Visas knelt, head turning back and forth. "Dark side energy, raw dark side energy. I have never seen this before." She reached out, and Mira grabbed her hand.

"No!" It's like a hook spider. It can't chase you but if you touch it and there is any evil in you, it will consume you." She stared at the floor in horror. "It lives to feed, nothing else."

I had closed my eyes, and now I could see it. As I did, I was suddenly struck by its hunger. Mira described the Force to us as a puppy wanting attention. This was a hungry one, and all we would be is food for it.

We moved past carefully. None of us wanted to even think of touching such a lethal mixture of hunger and the Force. Mira yelped, and pointed back. It was following us.

We didn't think, we ran. The bubble followed, but we outdistanced it.

A huge door was ahead, and Mira skidded to a stop. "I think they were trying to keep us from getting in there." She whispered. She shivered, rubbing her arms. "Look, guys, I can't get you to change your mind? Go somewhere else?" I merely looked at her. She sighed. "I guess not. Okay, stand back, let me show you what I'm good at."

We backed away as she took all those mines she had collected, and began setting them in an intricate pattern on the door. She went over to Visas, and took that charge. "Need a little more." She said absently. Then she stepped back from the door.

"What manner of being is buried here?" I asked. "I can feel the darkness, as if the sun never shown on the land where this has been built. The Dark side must be very strong here."

"It is." Visas whispered. I looked at her. She smiled sadly. "After so many years crushed under an oppressive hand don't you think I would feel this? But I rest on another hand now, one that holds me on its palm free to fly. Mira, open the way."

Mira signaled us back, then down. I was going to ask her why but she dropped on her face, and triggered the charge.

That door that had stood for centuries shattered, the stone flung aside. Mira sat up, racking her weapon's bolt. "Hey, when I open a door, it stays open."

We paced forward into horror.

Visas

To me they were merely blots of inky blackness on a chiaroscuro background. Four men, facing a pool of the same evil energy we had faced in the corridor. As we paused, I felt, and turned. The blot that we had passed had moved around us returning to that miasma. The men ignored us, they were chanting in the ancient Sith language, difficult because human throats had not been made to speak it. "Mira, a concussion grenade if you please."

The woman aimed her wrist launcher, and there was the thunk of a gas propellant charge. The grenade landed among the men then went off, blowing three of them off their feet. The one that had not been knocked down suddenly found that all of the control they had exercised was dumped on him. The cloud flowed outward. When it retreated, a pile of bones covered by dried skin fell. He had not even had the chance to scream.

The survivors rolled frantically away, coming to their feet. "Do you know what you have done you fools? If we do not control it, it will devour us all!"

"What do I care?" I asked. "You seek to draw the very evil that once permeated this moon, The agonies of a quarter million beings that has found a grave here, and use it to your own ends. Here in the tomb of Freedon Nadd."

He looked at me appraisingly. "It is not too late. Come, join us, and experience the power of the Force as only the Dark side can see it!"

"Who was Freedon Nadd?" Mira asked.

"A dark Jedi of four centuries ago. The people of Onderon remember his excesses all too well. That is why they buried him here, away from them." I replied.

"So you are one of those partially trained fools we have heard about. Trying to stop what will occur like a child with a bucket trying to stop the sea." He extended his hand. "One with a dark taint already on her soul at that! Come to us. Join us."

I could feel eyes on me. Both Mira and my friend the Handmaiden watched me closely. But I felt a jolt of elation. I still had that connection to my dark master. Marai had seen it, and accepted that as long as I did, I would never be free. As much as the bleeding hearts of the galaxy tried to free slaves a slave can only be freed by herself.

"I have dealt with your kind. A man that sees power as something to savor like a beverage, and who cares if the man or even the planet who held it lives or dies? You are a petty little monster aping greatness, and if he could not call me back, what makes you think you can bring me to heel?" I reached out, and one of the skills taught to me by my dark master reached out, and I felt his heart in my hand.

"If I were of your kind, I would crush your heart like a jelly between my fingers." I released him. "I refuse all such leanings. If die you must, it will be on my blade. A cleaner death than my planet received at his hands."

"What lies has your new master taught you then, fool? That the Force is like a bank, and you can only draw from it what you have put in? That the universe cares about those little insects that scurry around us? Preaching love and forbearance while they sink into weakness and hypocrisy?

"The Force bends to the will of the user, and you would deny that. Such a waste; a seer who is blind, a warrior out of her depth, and a child unwilling to kill. This will be too easy."

He leaped, and was past me. I heard Mira scream, but I was faced with another. The third had leaped at the Handmaiden, and light sabers spun and struck like a lightning display.

Mira

I yelped as the man leaped past Visas, and I was bringing up my rifle as he chopped it in half. "Surrender you fool."

I backed away, drawing the light saber. He sneered. "As if you even know what to do!" He chortled.

He struck at me, and I don't even know how I stayed alive in the next seconds. I could no more see or help my friends than I could look beyond that glittering deadly net he wove. I ducked, rolling, and somehow I was within it, striking upward desperately. He grunted, hands dropping to catch mine, eyes wide as he fell. Then I was up on my feet, charging to Visas' assistance. The man facing her tried to extend his net but Visas struck beneath his guard, and with a bubbling moan he fell. We both turned. The Hand Maiden and the last man were rolling on the floor, falling toward the black evil pit.

I screamed, trying to leap forward, but Visas stopped me.

They rolled into it, and I screamed again, wailing. Then with a sudden heave, she was spat out, something it didn't want.

I caught her up, but she wasn't breathing. "Oh no, gods damn it, you will not die!" I screamed at her, slamming my fist on her chest. She convulsed gasping then caught my fist on its second strike.

"Will you kindly stop pummeling me?" She asked gently. I helped her up, and we looked at the darkness. It had spread, surrounding and devouring the bodies of our enemies. But it kept a circle away from us, as if we were poison.

"Mira, can you drop that ceiling?"

"With what? If I had a tacnuke, maybe."

There was a clatter down the hall behind us, and we turned as Xarga and a dozen others came running in. "We've taken out the other men around here."

"Do you have a tacnuke?" I asked sharply.

He looked at me. "Don't use them. Too messy. But Bertano there, he loves them."

I took the weapon. It was an infantry model G-41. Adjustable yield from a microton up to ten kilotons. I set it to maximum yield and set it on the floor gently. I wondered why even I did that. It wasn't like jostling it would set it off! "Run!"

We ran. We had reached the end of the entry ramp, and I signaled everyone to keep running. I made the leap to that great ramp down, and fired the charge.

A nuclear weapon is an odd beast. If fired in open atmosphere, it blows up and out, making a fireball that encompasses the ground around it.

Try setting one off in a building made of tons of stone and buried in a mountain.

There was a flash behind me, and a jet of superheated plasma shot past above our heads, the shock wave slamming us to the ground. For an instant, we had that hell flare above us, then the mass of stone collapsed, and dust sprayed around us.

I rolled to my feet. The building, the stone obelisks that had marked its environs, had collapsed. The mountain behind it fell almost in slow motion, and an avalanche filled the crater.

Xarga stood, dusting himself off. "See if they ever invite you to a party again." He said. I was bubbling with laughter, and I held my sisters as we walked down the ramp the rest of the way.

"Her style needs improvement." Visas commented. "But it will come in time."

"Hey, I won!" I protested.

"That you did." The Handmaiden said. "But it is like the old saying. The best swordsman in the galaxy doesn't fear the second best, he fears the worst. Because no one know what the idiot might do."

"Now I'm an idiot?"

She smiled, ruffling my hair. "No, my sister of battle. Just untrained. Let us go."

We walked down to that shuttle. Xargas motioned. "Your friend are already on Onderon." He tapped a control in the shuttle, and it warmed up. "Best be joining them."

The shuttle leaped into the air. Behind us, we could see the Ebon hawk also airborne. It was running as fast as it could toward Onderon. We were following.

The evil men do

Marai

There are times in battle where something never imagined occurs. The first I remembered was on that moon behind us. A thousand men of the combined 2nd Marines and 14th scouts had trapped one hundred enemy troops in a valley. There was no way out, and we were preparing to advance when a lone figure in an officer's armor came into view. He stood there until he was sure we saw him then he walked toward us slowly. I signaled for the men to stand fast, and walked out to meet him.

He gave me his name, and I gave him mine.

"Commander, you are trapped. It gives us no pleasure to murder such brave men. Surrender, I beg you."

"I have my orders."

"But your first blade is a fool!" I wanted to scream at him, but it came out softly.

"He is that. But he is our first blade, and my orders were to stand to the last able man." He looked past me, then back at my face. He had a livid burn on his face where someone had missed killing him by centimeters. "Remember this day, Marai Devos. Today you see how well the Mando'a die." He saluted, and turned. He stopped. Looking away from me. "One last thing, Jedi. Watch over our wounded."

I returned to our lines, and as he reached the lip of the canyon men straggled out. There were 25 of them, some of them grievously wounded. A number held their stomachs or arms. One man had rigged a crutch out of a damaged heavy blaster. We watched in silence as their commander dressed their lines, speaking to one man or another as if it were a parade ground. Then he took position in their center.

I watched his face through my electro binoculars. He was tired, sad, but at the same time so damn proud I wondered how his heart could stand it. He waved at me, and then he screamed.

"Death! Or Glory!"

The cry was taken up, and without issuing a command, they charged as one. We stood knelt or sat there, watching them approach. It was not a neat clean charge. Men staggered and fell; the man with the crutch was acting as if it were a three-legged race. They came at us in an inexorable charge and at 30 meters my men, also without an order given, opened fire as one. I saw the face of their leader right up until the moment a charge blew his chest open.

We stopped firing, and I stood. I understood if my men did not. "Medics, guards for them, check these men, then enter the valley." I ordered. "The first man that kills an injured man I will personally kill with my own hands."

There had been almost 200 wounded in there, they had wanted to make sure we would not assault the only hospital they had, for angry men in the heat of battle don't worry about if an enemy is standing or not. Even as he died, I blessed Caspian Fett, son of Cassus.

The second time had been at Samar. We had caught thirty enemy ships, and they had to break past us to flee. Suddenly, in the midst of the hell we were creating, we received a parley call. I was aboard Revan's ship at the time, and as I raged, she merely asked. "Why."

"Scan sector four, at 31 degrees. Once you have done so, reply." came the terse reply.

She did so then ordered a cease-fire. I went to a screen, and stared at a sight that would have lit my heart with joy in peacetime. Someone had arranged a solar sailing regatta, and approaching our battle, unable to change course, were a hundred or more solar sailors.

As the fire died, we received another signal. A line had been drawn, above the ecliptic by 20 degrees, well clear of the people in those flimsy craft. We peeled up and away, the enemy moving to the position they had marked. They had not tried for additional advantage, they had merely moved so that only warriors would die this day. We took our position, and as if nothing had happened, the battle began anew.

We won, and dozens of their ships had died before the remainder had fled. But we spent an extra day there to collect every pod. When we finally found the senior officer, we brought him to our mess deck. We saluted him, and his men. We gave him aged Tihaar we had taken on Dxun the year earlier, and our first toast was not to our honored dead, but to those people who would not let war interfere with something important.

I saw it again that day. The two elements of the fleet, loyal to Vaklu, loyal to the queen, had seen our approach. One Basilisk is not an invasion. It is a statement like that solar sailing race, deserved respect. The fleet elements peeled up and away, and then began killing each other again.

We plunged into the atmosphere. A few fighters shot at us, ground based cannon fired, but the Basilisk is made for such an embrace, and it seemed to lunge eagerly toward the planet. We came out of the heat haze, and then before we had even known it, Davrel slammed us down in the market square.

The hatch blew, and we piled out. Troops loyal to both the queen and Vaklu were staring at us. They remembered that shape so well. "For the Queen!" I screamed, and leaped into the fray.

There were cries of betrayal, that the Queen had allied with the Mandalorians, but the answering roar as the royalists saw my light saber drowned them out. We swept the market clean. Davrel had stopped beside the still smoking nose of his craft. He looked so happy.

An instant later a sniper shot him. I ran to the boy as a dozen Royalists blew that building apart. I lifted his head. He looked at me, and said only two words.

"Thank you."

Then he was dead.

We swept the market clean, and reached the end of the sky ramp. Captain Bostuco led the charge into the enemy defenses.

Kavar

"Your plan seems to have succeeded, Master Kavar. The enemy has indeed revealed himself."

I ignored the sarcasm. "Yes. I expected the Sith but not all of these beasts!"

"Then you have forgotten our heritage." She said. "If my own beast denies me, or the beasts themselves attack me I am not worthy of the crown, so it is said."

"Your majesty!" The commander of her guard Captain Kadron began. She waved him to silence.

"I know of your loyalty, Captain. It is the simple people that will not hear my words."

"But we must have hope, your grace." I said. She rounded on me.

"Your fellow Jedi? The one you have roundly condemned with every other word? Why is her arriving here now a blessing?"

"I grinned. "Because when it comes to war, Vaklu is out of his league."

Marai

We fought up the sky ramp, a narrow bridge five meters wide, and as we reached it's center, almost a kilometer high we came under fire. Considering what we faced, only a madman would have used it. It was a pen any idiot could have defended merely by shooting toward the opposite end. But it was the quickest way to our destination.

When Captain Bostuco caught a bolt and died I was in the lead. I led, screaming Talia's name over and over and the shattered remnants of those I led screamed in answer as they followed me. We cut through the men assigned to keep the off duty guardsman in their quarters and when I screamed Talia's name twice as many echoed it now.

Men peeled off to man the anti fighter guns, and suddenly it was worth the life of any Iron Eagle to fly anything but nape of the earth. Above me I heard a booming roar, and the Ebon Hawk was there, dropping onto the pad ahead of us, guns hammering into the men that had assembled to stop us. It slammed down and Manda'lor and fifty men that had been jammed in like sardines charged out.

The men with me paused, then cheered as Manda'lor roared 'For the Queen! Death or Glory!"

We were a wave of men and fury, and Vaklu's men could not stand against us. I saw Visas, Mira, the Handmaiden leap from a shuttle, the Sith looking for reinforcements instead met three light saber wielding maniacs screaming the Queen's name.

It was a rout.

We plunged into the palace, and ahead of us a huge Drexl larva was being forced to attack a massive door. As we charged, the door went down.

I saw Tobin, and he screamed 'Why won't you just die!" at me. Then suddenly the drexl roared, spinning and charged toward us. I though it was an attack, but it slaughtered a dozen men between it and us.

I reared back with my weapon, and suddenly Mira was before me.

"Calm down." She whispered. It looked confused then grumbled a purr. She took a length of rope they had bound it with, and threw it around it's neck. "Come on baby. Let's get out of here."

I spared no time for the amazing scene. There was a roar of battle in the throne room.

Kavar and the Queen were backed to the throne room. A number of men were already dead in front of the Master, and more in front of her. She stood, chest heaving in a way to bring cheer to an adolescent man, and screamed at her cousin.

"Hold!" Vaklu roared. There were only four or five men left on his side. "By honor I demand it!" Everyone backed away from their enemies. He held up a holopad. "I have proof that the Queen has been refused by her mount! She is foresworn as our queen asking the Mandalorians to attack, and the Jedi are proof of Republic duplicity!"

Talia threw her hair back with an insulting gesture. "As long as we are members of the Republic, the Jedi will be our guests as I command. The Mandalorians asked permission to use a base on our moon to reorganize before they returned home, and if you had held this farce a month from now they would have been gone.

"As for my beast, I will mount and ride my beast before the entire council, not in front of some man who brings lies into this room!"

"You've lost!" He screamed. "Even if they prove this is a lie, you will never sit upon the throne again if I live!"

"You admit that you are lying?" She demanded. "What of honor my cousin, what of your own personal honor? What of the honor you used to demand this truce?"

"If it frees us from the Republic, to hell with my honor!"

"Your grace." I called softly. I threaded through the people. "Is it not said on Onderon that no one who forswears honor can sully the throne?"

"Yes, why?"

I flipped a flash bang grenade into the air; everyone flinched away as it went off except for me. My blade punched through Vaklu's chest, and was shut off before he fell. I walked to the Queen, handed her my weapon, and knelt.

"Under your own laws, I place myself before you in judgment."

She was confused. "What?"

"Under the laws of Onderon, of the Beast Riders, I have murdered a member of the royal family, and violated a truce in so doing. I have committed offenses demanded by my own honor, and for that only the Queen can judge." I said aloud. "May I speak?"

"Yes."

"Your Grace, before these witnesses, General Vaklu did throw aside his honor in an attempt to gain the throne. But if you had slain him, or had him killed, it would have stained the throne with blood. A trial would have spread his lies beyond easy repair.

"I understand his concerns. That the Republic will drain Onderon dry, but the Galaxy needs Onderon too much and this would be a boon to your economy. Telos and other planets need your help desperately, and I took it upon myself to do what would have been damnation for you.

"By killing him, I have ended the rebellion. But I am not of your land, and my crime is against your family, so I must answer under your law.

"I ask you, no, I beg you. Slay me if you must. But the honor he once had must be what is remembered of him. Not that he gave up his honor, and that he spread lies. But that he gave of his life for his people, and in the end was misguided. Do not let him be remembered as a traitor. It would stain not only him, but the children of his own children, and to save them I have done this." I looked at her face.

"I place my life in the hollow of your hand." Then I knelt forward, exposing my neck.

"Your grace?" Manda'lor walked forward, and he knelt beside me. "I swear to all here that we came because the true queen needed our assistance. If we have committed offense, I will expiate it." He also bowed low.

She looked down at us, and I heard the lightsaber leap to life. Then it went still again.

"Jedi, rise." I stood. She handed me the weapon. "My Cousin had his trial. It was the span of his life and only in the end did he falter as you have said. For my late cousin, and his family for the next three generations, I thank you for what you have done, and if ever you have need, you have but to call upon me, and it will be done. You have taken the stain from his name along with his blood.

"Manda'lor, rise." Manda'lor stood. She looked up at him. "Our people have reason to hate you, but when you controlled our lands, you were honest to a fault. To come to our aid without being asked speaks of your own honor, and I am humbled. When your nation is returned to your home, I will welcome your ambassadors, and pledge that we will match Mandalorian honor, or die trying.

She looked to her people. "Enough blood has been shed this day. My cousin died an honorable man, before he could spread his dishonorable taint. He will lie in state, and the truth of his death will be revealed, but not of what he spoke. If you love our world, you will do this."

Kreia had sidled away as her student was abasing herself. Odd, she had considered pushing the girl to have Vaklu executed, and that would have tainted the Monarchy ever so slightly. Of course it would have also made the Monarchy stronger, something to fear. Talia quite honestly, was not brutal enough to be a good queen. People better appreciate a royal hand when blood dripped from it when necessary. She could have hung her cousin years ago, but had not shown that much stomach. Perhaps it was Kavar's influence.

Colonel Tobin had been struck by one of those massive paws, and had been thrown into one of the stone walls. Patiently Kreia melded those shattered bones back together. She didn't leave any of them un-repaired, and that seemed to ease the pain of who she had once been. But pain was still necessary for this one to complete his mission.

She fired a spark of life into the man's chest, and he gasped, staring around him in shock, then at her.

"We do not have time for discussion, Colonel. General Vaklu sent me with a message. He has been taken, but the war is not yet lost if you move with haste. The Jedi have merely been hiding. They have a secret base on Telos, and all but what stands here are there.

"You must go to this system." She handed him a pad. "Those that will redress this will be there when you arrive. If they slaughter the Jedi on Telos, the battle will still be won!"

Tobin stood, still confused, aching in every joint. But he held the pad as if it were the last semblance of order. "Out of my way, woman. Onderon will still be free!"

She watched him leave. Pathetic. But the die had been cast. She turned as the men moved from the throne room, seeing her student standing there in conversation with the queen. She could only hope that the girl was ready for it.

Discussion.

Marai

A wise man once said the only thing worse than a battlefield lost, is a battlefield won. Several hundred men had died, and the few remaining of the Iron Brigade were put to work moving the bodies and debris. I found Mira on the first landing pad, the Drexl laying on it's back as she scratched its stomach. It was funny, a short woman rubbing the stomach of something the size of a cargo lifter with 25-centimeter claws, yet with her it was just a puppy. She had a pensive look on her face. "Are you all right? The others told me of the tomb."

"Did blondie tell you about the evil goop? She gets sucked in, then it spits her out like she tastes bad!"

"I smiled. "They forgot to tell me of that. She did tell me that you killed some men with their own turrets accidentally."

"Yeah." She wouldn't look at me. "I've killed people before. When there is no other option, you do what has to be done. But I never liked it."

"But you didn't hold back on Dxun."

"I know, and that bothers me." She looked at me, and she was crying. "Before I could always back away from it, leave the bounty alive. But since I've met you, it's like a reflex. I don't like it, and I don't know why it suddenly became easy."

I remembered what the Handmaiden, what Kreia had said. I was their leader, and they were being molded by my example. "Mira, do you think that I like killing people?"

"You were a soldier. Isn't it pretty much part of the job description?"

"Yes and no. Please, walk with me."

We walked away. The Drexl gave a querulous grunt, and followed.

"A soldier's job is to kill an enemy, but a warrior kills because he must. I gain no pleasure from the death of those I face. Every life is as precious to me as it is to those whose life it is. I have always tried to limit that, even when it was armies rather than myself fighting."

"Yeah." Her tone said she didn't really believe it.

"Mira, have you seen a doctor work in surgery?"

"Only at a MASH unit."

"If a doctor gloried in cutting you open, would you let him?"

"No way! I like my insides right were they are, thank you very much."

"A good soldier or warrior is a surgeon. He must remove that which hurts, and try to leave as much good flesh as possible. I do not want you to glory in a battle, or in the deaths of those you fight. I mourn every man I have led who died. I have mourned even for my enemies. Someone must shed tears for them and the one who understands those dead best are those they fought.

"Because all too often it is some damn fool politician who sent them to their deaths. Soldiers, at least good soldiers, do not kill anyone just because they can. The most peaceful person in this life is the warrior that knows his world is at peace."

I took her in my arms. "Shed your tears, my love. Feel pity for them, but know that when I ask this of you, I will get no more joy than you do."

We were nudged. She reached out, scratching the Drexl. "I'll think about it."

A soldier came up. Master Kavar had finished his meeting with the queen, and awaited me.

More question, more answers

Marai

Kavar was alone in an anteroom of the throne room. He saw me approach, and for a moment I thought he was going to hug me. But there was a wary shadow in those eyes.

"The Force works in mysterious ways. There are times when I am sure it even has a sense of humor. Or of irony at least.

"We spent the last five years trying to find you and instead you came to us. I thought you might return to Dxun and Onderon, and I was right. But I thought you had left."

"I had. I made a brief stop on Nar Shaddaa. I found Master Zez-Kai Ell there."

He looked at me coldly. "And what, murdered him? Gained your revenge?"

I returned his cool with my own. "Master Kavar, none of you seem to understand that while your judgment hurt me, I did not disagree with it, and still do not challenge it. I ordered the Mass Shadow Generator brought to Malachor. Even though neither Revan even wanted to use it, what is done is done. I am guilty of murdering all of those men. Because if I had not had the weapon brought there, it would not have happened. What you and the council decided was not the worst you could have done, merely the most just in your eyes."

He sighed in relief. "And you returned just in the nick of time. A trait I am told you seem to have made a fine art. I just wish you had turned up sooner."

"Why?" I looked at him. "Master you and the council cast me out. Why was I important enough to look for?"

"Because even as Revan was rehabilitated, this evil struck at what was left of our numbers. It has touched only one person that is still not under its sway, and that person is you."

I felt a chill. "I was touched by it?"

"Yes. You are the only surviving Jedi that stood close to the Mass Shadow Generator when it was fired. All the others were thousands of kilometers away. You of all of them must have within you some clue to what it caused. I told the others that we had to keep you where we could examine your condition, but you had already left.

"I don't know how well you have been informed, but this evil not only hunts us using the Force, but kills using it. Master Vrook didn't believe me, but he and the others went to where we thought you would return. To the places where millions died at your command. Vrook had the attitude that it would be a gloating tour. I thought perhaps you would come to make peace with yourself.

"But our search was too late. The Sith have revealed themselves, and all of us must gather on Dantooine. From there we can plan our counter attack."

"Why not Telos?" I asked. "Atris was there. She is the one that sent me to find the rest of you."

"Atris? I thought she had died on Katarr! And why of all places Telos? There was no reason for you to go there. It was not your war that laid the planet waste." He shook his head. "Only eighty of us are left scattered. The masters you are calling together will try, but the others must remain in hiding. If we fail, there must be something to rebuild from."

"There is worse." I told him of Goto's prediction.

"There is not a moment to lose then. There is much I must do here before I go, but you can help me. I have contacted Master Vrook, and you told me what both Atria and Master Zez-Kai Ell know. But I have not been able to contact Master Vash."

"Atris had records that showed she was on Korriban."

"Korriban? Why there?" He looked confused. "Korriban was laid waste without our help three years ago. She had intended to try to see if you went to Malachor."

I felt a chill. Going back to Malachor would not have been gloating or even expiation. It would be climbing into a grave, and locking the coffin from the inside. "I would not have gone there. But I still don't understand. What happened on Katarr?"

"Only the dead know. Two dozen Jedi were there in secret conclave to decide what must be done when all signals from the planet suddenly just... stopped. A Republic Corvette went there to investigate. Everything that lived on the planet had been killed, with no physical explanation as to why. A young Jedi was sent to assist, and he reported that every touch of the Force had been drained from the planet. The shock of that mass death reached across the galaxy! Surely you felt it."

"How?" I asked bitterly. "You and the council had stripped me of the Force before I left."

He sighed sadly. "Though we could have, we did nothing of the kind. Somehow you had severed yourself from the Force before that meeting. Taking your light saber and exiling you was a formality, nothing more. Yet I can see it has returned."

"Yes. I am still puzzled as to why. One of my companions has been with me since Peragus, and I find that a force bond of extraordinary strength was formed between us somehow. Strong enough that I think I might die if she does."

"I have never heard of a bond of such strength. Then again, you always surprised your masters. You seem to form such bonds readily, almost instinctively. It was a gift that was both blessed and cursed by your masters. As a teacher it made you able to teach even the most recalcitrant. As a student it made you learn and grow quickly. But it is disturbing to a master when a dozen do or try the same thing because you did it successfully. We believe that is why so many from the main temple followed when you went. And why your troops earned a reputation for excessive loyalty. That is why we feared so much that you would return to Revan. A lot of the troops that fought against her when she returned leading the Sith had been at one time or another led by you. If those bonds had still existed..." He shrugged.

"That is the past and now we must act quickly to save our future. Go to Korriban. Find Master Vash. Bring or send her to Dantooine!"