"From Commenor or Denon," Octa said into the ship's comm console, "nothing will stop us from returning home." Her tone had complete and utter conviction, as if she were a true Corellian instead of a born-and-bred Chandrilan.
"We're all very glad to hear that, Captain Kershok," the voice of the Centerpoint Station operator on the other end replied evenly. "Proceed to Docking Bay 38C. And welcome back home." The line was then cut off from the other end.
"Not bad," a disguised Jacen commented from the copilot seat. He now bore a prosthetic jawline and set of cheekbones that masked his true features; his hair was dyed completely blonde; and he even had contact lenses that turned his brown eyes to an innocuous grey. "Sounded pretty convincing there, Master Ramis."
"We're on a mission, Master Solo," Octa replied as she piloted the YT-2400 toward Centerpoint. "Sounding convincing is kind of a requirement here, just as your disguise looking convincing is as much of a requirement."
"Fair enough," Jacen responded.
They said nothing more to each other as Octa concluded the short journey to Centerpoint, landing in Docking Bay 38C as instructed. Soon after that, the two Masters, along with their apprentices - Garis and Octa's apprentice Seha Dorvald, who casually held a portable holoplayer in one hand - disembarked down the open boarding ramp, where they were met by the man whose holoimage Jacen and Octa had seen before in the Council meeting.
"I overheard your declaration," Toval Seyah said in a low tone. While no one else was with them, it didn't hurt to keep a low profile in the busy hangar. He then took out two holodiscs, handing each out to Jacen and Octa.
"That one-" Seyah nodded at the disc that Octa held "-gives you the private schematics to the station's control center, as well as how you can get there and back discreetly." He then similarly acknowledged the disc that Jacen held. "That one contains the virus; I have neither the authorization to enter the control center itself or to even upload the virus if I could get there. I leave that all up to you."
"Thank you, Mister Seyah," Jacen said.
Seyah nodded at the four Jedi one last time, then turned and headed off to a private shuttle; it was clear to all five of them that when the Jedi had fulfilled their mission, it was a good idea to be out of here as soon as possible.
Even before Seyah had boarded his ship to leave Centerpoint, the four Jedi were already heading toward a comm booth, where Octa discreetly handed the holodisc she held to Seha.
At the booth, Jacen, Octa, and Garis held back while Seha used the privacy that the booth and the other Jedi afforded her to set both the disc and the portable holoplayer with a self-charging power source down on the stand before her. She inserted the disc there, where she and her fellow Jedi then looked to find out how they would get to Centerpoint's control center.
However, before she managed to get her fellow Jedi's attention, Jacen noticed a mysterious woman whose traditionally attractive looks appeared conspicuously fake to him. And it wasn't in a way that any competent plastic surgeon would have put together... unless the woman had suffered from horrible injuries.
But the real reason that she caught Jacen's attention was that he felt an undercurrent of darkness radiating from her; and though she didn't look directly at the four Jedi - she was leaning against a wall reading a holozine - Jacen felt that she had her full attention on him, Octa, and the apprentices.
"All right, here it is," Seha finally said when she had the disc played.
As Jacen turned away from the woman in the distance, he kept his Force-senses open to keep a tab on the figure. He and his fellow Jedi then gazed at the holoimage to see how they would get to the control center.
"The sewage system?" Jacen asked once they saw how they would get there. "Why not an airshaft or something?"
"They have those monitored," Seha reported without looking away from the holoimage. "Looks like we can't sneak in through the holodrama way." She cocked her head when she looked at Jacen. "Sorry, Master Solo."
"Well, personally, I'm not afraid to get a little dirty," Octa said.
A few minutes later, they had all entered the men's washroom, and no one already in there paid any real mind to two women being there until Octa used the Force to rip a toilet out of an empty stall.
"You won't say a word of this when you leave this washroom," Jacen said with a wave of his hand to the bathroom's occupants, hoping that they were all weak-minded.
Luckily, they all were, and they left in a daze, having completely forgotten about what had stunned them to begin with.
Then, with only a moment's hesitation on their collective part, the four Jedi filed in, one-by-one, as they jumped into the hole that Octa made. The latter had jumped in first, followed by Seha, then Garis, and finally Jacen.
Fifteen minutes later, during which Jacen and Octa had used the Force to guide their way to where they needed to go - thanks to Seha using the portable holoplayer to mark their location - the four Jedi finally reached their destination.
Garis activated his blue-bladed lightsaber and cut a human-sized circle against the locked door before using the Force to blow it in. He led the way inside just as alarms started blaring all throughout the station.
That became no wonder once the Jedi were all in the next room - the control center, where a ten-foot-tall robot stood in the direct center.
And it was the sight of the robot that gave Jacen pause.
"Who are you?" Anakin Solo's voice emitted from the robot that also bore a silvery facsimile of his features. "Why are you intruding in my space?"
"Anakin?" Jacen asked.
"That is my name," the robot replied. "Anakin Sal-Solo. But Anakin Solo was the name of the one whose DNA was harvested from this station to make me, the one that controls its operations and its ability to act as a battle station."
Of course! Jacen thought in horror. Thrackan Sal-Solo must have had his flunkies do just that to give to some scientists to make this robot. And now, here it was, all that remained of his brother, as it was being used to suit Thrackan's own ends.
"But you haven't answered my question yet," the Anakin robot continued. "Who are you?"
"We're here to blow up this station," Octa said confidently. "Now are you going to get out of our way and let us complete that mission, or are we gonna have to cut you down in size?" She unhooked her lightsaber from her belt but didn't activate it.
"If you wish to destroy the station," Anakin Sal-Solo said, "you will have to upload some sort of computer virus into my head; destroying me will simply render this station worthless as a weapon. But I am afraid that the ladies and gentlemen about to enter this room will not allow that to happen."
As if on cue, portals opened up along the walls of the room, and men and women in a mix of humans, Selonians, and Dralls poured in, firing blaster rifles at the four Jedi. Almost immediately, the aforementioned targets had their lightsabers out, active, and whirling to fend off the incoming laser bolts back at the shooters.
But during his lightsaber-swinging, Jacen was suddenly caught off-guard by a sudden flash that brought him out of the Centerpoint control room. From there, he found himself standing amidst a blank, dark background, with only the outline of the galaxy that Jacen lived in before him.
The galaxy grew larger before him in an instant, and he found that it was not only lit up by stars, but also by all-too brief flashes of fire and energy. A closer look, and he found that the flashes were the explosions of various warships encompassing every system in the galaxy.
From Coruscant to the Unknown Regions and Wild Space, the galaxy was at war with itself; a conflict that would make the Yuuzhan Vong War and the Galactic Civil War combined look like a minor skirmish in comparison. And because of that, every living being in the galaxy would die; the Galactic Alliance would splinter away into nothingness, and the Jedi Order will have nothing to salvage from the ashes.
And it would all start with the destruction of Centerpoint Station; Corellia and the rest of the Five Worlds of this system would take this as an act of total oppression on the part of the Galactic Alliance, and Aidel Saxan and Thrackan Sal-Solo would convince other systems to join their cause against the mainstream galactic government.
Once Jacen realized that, he was snapped back into reality, and resumed his lightsaber-swinging against the blasterbolts coming his way as if nothing happened.
"Octa!" Jacen called out over the blaster shots. "We have to abort this mission!"
"What?" Octa asked, taking less than a second away from batting away the laser bolts to look at Jacen.
"This will only lead to the destruction of the galaxy!" Jacen said. "We have to get out of here!"
He then turned and headed back through the hole in the wall that Garis made. Wordlessly, Octa and the apprentices followed suit as they headed back up the tunnel from which they came. Naturally, the thugs shooting at them gave pursuit.
"We can't just let Centerpoint remain active as a weapon like this, Master Solo!" Octa called in between deflecting blasterbolts back at their attackers. "We have to render it inert, at the very least!"
Jacen thought for a moment as he continued to run and bat laser bolts back and away. Yes, the vision didn't say that it would lead to the galaxy's destruction if the station itself were simply rendered useless as a star-destroying gun.
"Then I'll be right back!" Jacen said. "You take the apprentices and get out of here ASAP! I'll take care of that robot myself!"
And with the use of his Aing-Tii teleportation technique, he simply disappeared out of where he was running, and ended up right back in the room with Anakin Sal-Solo.
By now, there were no more thugs left in the control room; they were either dead, severely wounded, or still chasing Octa, Garis, and Seha. And that left Jacen alone with all that remained of his late brother.
"How did you appear like that?" the robot asked in what amounted to shock on its part.
"Long story," was all Jacen said on the matter. "Point is, though, if Centerpoint is to remain for the sake of the galaxy, then I'll at least make sure that it doesn't work. I'm very, truly sorry about this."
And he was; as Jacen unleashed a volley of Electric Judgement in the robot's direction, he knew that he was destroying all that remained of Anakin Solo, his baby brother. The DNA that had been harvested from him aboard the station was blasted away into absolute oblivion as the robot was enveloped by the electricity and blown up, without a single trace of metal left.
It was a decision as simple to commence as it was hard to make on Jacen's part.
He stood there for only a moment in contemplation that he destroyed the last of his brother. Then, without anymore hesitation, he turned and once again headed out through the hole that Garis made.
Jacen soon put on a burst of Force-speed to catch up with the thugs that remained in chasing down Octa and the apprentices. With none of them hearing the blaze of his lightsaber coming from behind them until it was too late, he cut the last dozen or so to the ground before catching back up with his three fellow Jedi.
Once they had all returned to the men's washroom through the stall, they found that they were now surrounded by a legion of Centerpoint guards aiming military-grade blasters at them. But instead of promptly dispatching them with their lightsabers in close-quarters combat, Jacen commenced a Fallanassi illusion that had the guards began shooting each other in fear. They were all down and out in a matter of seconds.
"I made them think that mynocks suddenly manifested in the room," Jacen said. "I know it's against the Fallanassi way to use illusions to enact violence, but-"
"Whatever," Octa said. "Let's just get out of here."
The four Jedi then rushed out of the washroom to end up in the milling throng of people who were now evacuating the station because of the alarms still going off. But Jacen soon stopped in his tracks when he saw the woman who caught his attention staring directly back at him from across the hangar bay.
"Jacen, where are you going?" Octa asked once Jacen began heading away from the YT-2400 that brought the four Jedi here.
Jacen ignored his fellow Master as he continued to head over to the mysterious woman. She continued to stare straight at him once he was in talking distance from her.
"Who are you?" Jacen asked sternly.
"My name is Brisha Syo," the woman answered. "And I'm here to help you stop this pointless conflict from getting out of control."