Chapter 5: The Stark Hyperspace War: Another Choice

[High council chamber, The Ouran, orbiting Falleen, the Falleen system]

Master Eeth Koth was in the council chamber when a blinking light on his chair indicated an incoming transmission. He pressed a button by the light and a hologram of Master Shaak Ti sprang into life. She was a tall, red-skinned Togruta with white markings. Her long robes extended past the view of the projection.

"Shaak. You've already landed?" his dignified voice echoed in the empty room.

"Yes," she said, "but there's a... problem. How can I put this?" she paused for a moment, "I am on Vulpter."

"Excuse me? Vulpter?" he said, confused, "What happened to Skako?"

"No idea, something must have gone wrong with the navicomputer. I am stuck here until the mechanics can overhaul it."

"I see, thank you for telling me, we'll have to send someone else to Skako."

The holoprejector switched off and Eeth sat back, thinking.

Then the doors opened and Master Kazdan Paratus scuttled in at breakneck speed.

"Only you here Master Koth?" he asked. Eeth nodded, "Well we have a serious problem; I just finished my inspection of our transit shuttles. All their navicomputers were ruined."

"Yes, I just got a message from Master Ti; she's on Vulpter instead of Skako."

"Then she is very lucky. The algorithms in the navicomputers are a complete mess, all except one: the algorithm that avoids objects in the flightpath. That algorithm had several parameters reversed. The navicomputers now try to actively hit objects in the flightpath. And no, before you ask, this cannot have been an accident."

Eeth's eyes widened, "I'll assemble the council."

"That's not all, I ran a diagnostic on every vehicle we have. It's not just the shuttles, everything with a hyperdrive navicomputer is affected. This could be everywhere, you need to send out an emergency warning on all channels."

[Troiken's capital]

Tyvokka held the table firm as Stark's 'eye candy' unloaded shots into it and the Jedi crowded behind it.

Obi-Wan, protect Gunray. Qui-Gon, Siri, keep them off me. Adi, prot-

"Already on it," she called as she dived out from the table. She landed in front of Valorum, drawing her crimson blade in the process. She held it reverse-ways, along her arm and began to deflect the shots now diverting towards her with great swooping motions.

Plo, with me, Tyvokka continued as he ploughed forward, still holding the table, ramming it into Boor-Daa.

"Nothing unnecessary Obi-Wan," reminded Qui-Gon as he flanked around the table and ignited his own green sabre. Siri went round the other side and they both began to hack their way through the edges of the attacking formation. Before long though, they had to fall back under the the sheer volume of blaster shots.

"Yes of course, I'll just hang back with this guy. Don't mind me," grumbled Obi-Wan and glared at Gunray.

"Thank you for keeping me safe, O brave and gener-"

"Shut up"

"Ah, fucking hell there's glass in my face! GETITOFFGETITOFF!" was the only intelligible thing Stark was able to say as he struggled to pick himself off the floor.

Hey, watch this! Tyvokka smiled at Obi-Wan and suddenly the table – solid wood all the way through – splintered into a thousand pieces just as Stark got to his feet. He was very shortly on the floor again, joined by Boor-Daa and several of the 'eye candy' as fragments of table sprayed their half of the room. Quick as a flash, Tyvokka pulled out the curved, wooden hilt of his lightsaber and ignited it's yellow blade through Tam Gozon's blaster. Gozon proceeded to take the intelligent choice of hasty retreat. Plo's orange lightsaber joined the deflection frenzy. By now most of Stark's 'eye candy' had taken cover behind furniture and the doorway where it was much harder to hit them with rebound shots.

The Jedi quickly formed a barrier between Stark's troops and Valorum and Gunray, slowly advancing. Lom Porton had already left the room and Trodos was busy picking up Stark and Boor-Daa. Regardless, the number of entrenched attackers left the Jedi resigned to a long slog of a battle.

"Gunray, your security droids," shouted Qui-Gon.

"What of them?" he yelled back.

"Can you summon them to assist us?"

"Oh, right. Of course, of course..." he pressed a button on the mechno-chair, "They are coming now."

Siri suddenly had a bad feeling. A very bad feeling.

Suddenly there was a great crashing sound as three hunter-killer droids broke through the wall behind Gunray... and did nothing more.

"Would you kindly order them to assist?" grunted Plo as a contingent of heavily armed soldiers ran in and joined the 'eye candy' in hammering against the Jedi's wall of lightsabers.

Siri froze, nearly paying for her carelessness as a shot barely missed her face.

"Uh, right... yes. Droids, kill them!"

The droids levelled their blaster arms at the nearest target. Which due to Gunray's total lack of precision was Tyvokka. Or at least where he had been, as he was suddenly shunted to one side due to Siri's attempt at tackling him out of the way. The shots meant for Tyvokka instead flew across the room and mowed down a large group of Stark's troops. They narrowly missed Trodos as he ducked out of the room with Stark and Boor-Daa on each shoulder. The droids attempted to re-target Tyvokka but Adi and Qui-Gon quickly ducked behind Plo and used the force to lift the droids up and throw them over their heads, across the room.

"Give me a moment," Adi called out as she turned off her lightsaber and assumed her opening stance, electricity beginning to dance around her fingers. The electricity grew and cascaded across her hands, building in intensity and brightness, becoming more and more frantic until:

"MOVE!"

Plo casually stepped aside and lightning flew from Adi's hands, across the room and struck one of the droids' fuel cells. The resulting explosion wasn't as impressive as Siri was hoping for but it certainly cleared out most of Stark's forces. She and Tyvokka quickly ran across the room, deflecting shots from the few remaining troops and 'eye candy'. She hopped over an upturned chair, burying her lightsaber in the head of a Gran before swiftly removing the right arm of a Trandoshan in a flash of purple. She looked around the room to find Tyvokka advancing on a quivering Nikto. She was barely more than a child. Behind Tyvokka was a line of destroyed blasters and unconscious thugs.

The Nikto struggled to keep her blaster steady as she backed into a corner, Tyvokka closing in on her. Suddenly the tip of her blaster was gone in a flash of yellow.
Then another segment was gone, then another. After Tyvokka's fourth strike, there was little more than the handle left. Dropping the useless remains, she cowered before Tyvokka, who grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and hoisted her up to his face.

THIS! IS WHAT! YOU GET! FOR FUCKING! AROUND WITH PIRATES! He yelled in her face, GO HOME TO YOUR PARENTS! He dropped her and she ran out the door in tears as fast as her legs could carry her. Tyvokka then turned to Siri, Thank you, Padawan Tachi. You may not realise it, but you saved my life just now.

"Um, don't mention it," she replied, "Um... is that girl gonna be okay?"

She'll be fine. Something tells me she doesn't think pirates are cool anymore.

They returned to Gunray, Valorum and the other Jedi.

We need to leave, before they decide to bomb us from orbit.

Plo nodded, "Very well."

"One thing first," Siri turned to Gunray and punched him in the face, "You sir, are a bastard."

"SIRI!" shouted Adi.

"Oh come on Master! Look me in the eye and tell me he didn't deserve that!"

"Be that as it may, Jedi are expected to exhibit self control. We'll be talking about this later."

"Enough," said Plo, "We need to leave."

They ran off, Gunray's mechno-chair bringing up the rear... where it began to fall behind, forcing them to stop for him.

"Leave the chair Gunray," said Qui-Gon.

"But-"

"Despite all your cowardice and duplicity has cost us today, we will protect you," Snapped Qui-Gon, rounding on Gunray, "But you listen to me right now: You will be silent, you will follow our instructions to the letter. If you do not, we will leave you behind. Your life is insignificant compared to what is at stake here."

"But my chair-"

"GET UP AND WALK," shouted Adi from down the corridor.

We need to communicate with Tarkin's remaining space forces; they may be our best hope of victory over Stark. If nothing else we can help to reduce the casualties. said Tyvokka as they ran across the building towards their ship.

[The Invincible, space above Troiken]

"General, enemy fighters are raking us to port, our hangars are destroyed and three cruisers are bearing down on us! What are your orders?"

Tarkin had frozen, staring out at the devastation.

"Orders sir?" said Jace.

Tarkin didn't move.

"Sir?"

Still nothing.

"General Tarkin?"

"I heard you, Dallin," Tarkin finally responded, as yet another of his cruisers plummeted from the sky trailing smoke "How much of our fleet remains?"

"Maybe an eighth of our fleet, less with each passing moment," said Jace.

"Keep them off us, I need a moment to think."

"General," called one of the bridge crew, "receiving a message from Senator Valorum."

"On the projector," said Tarkin.

Valorum's decidedly displeased face flickered into view, accompanied by Tyvokka's.

"Ranulph, we will discuss your monumental lapse in judgement later. Right now we need to consolidate our forces," said Valorum, "Troiken is a planet of extreme temperature variation, broiling heat where the sun falls, and extreme cold where it doesn't. There is an inhabitable strip at the equator, we are sending you co-ordinates of an abandoned spice mine in Mount Avos in the Hormick Range. You can land on the Lycinder Plain by the mountain, then retreat into it. Avos can be held and fortified until help arrives-"

"This is MY command Valorum, not yours, MINE!" said Tarkin, "I give the orders here."

There was a large explosion that rocked the whole ship. Alarms blared and all the fire-suppression systems sprang into life as emergency reports sounded over the comm.

"General, our shields are failing," said one of the pilots, "We're beginning to lose orbit!"

It seems, Senator, that the decision has been made for you. said Tyvokka.

Then the signal cut out.

There was a short silence.

"Do it," Tarkin quietly said to Jace.

"Yes sir," Jace let out a breath he'd been holding for longer than he realised and hit the P.A. button, "All hands to the escape pods, fighters and non-troop craft circle around and protect the pods at all costs."

"Do not evacuate until all escape pods are safely away," Tarkin said to his bridge crew, "Am I made clear?"

"Yes sir," they said in unison.

"Dallin, with me," said Tarkin as he left the bridge, "Is my shuttle prepared?"

"The hangars are destroyed, General. You will need to take an escape pod or the life pod," said Jace.

"Life pod," said Tarkin instantly, "It is smaller and will be a harder target. In any case the enemy will focus on the escape pods."

[diplomatic landing pads, Troiken's capital]

Do you think Tarkin will heed our advice? Tyvokka asked Valorum as the latter leaned back in his seat and massaged his temples.

"I don't know, Tarkin is not a reasonable person at the best of times. I do not know if he is willing or even able meet us now" came his reply. Adi put a hand on his shoulder.

"We cannot control what others do. Ranulph is responsible for himself and his crew. We can only take responsibility for our own safety at present, Finis," She turned back to the ship controls, as Gunray rose from his seat.

"I insist that we use my ship," he said, pointing out the cockpit window at the Trade Federation Shuttle on the other side of the landing pad, "I have many more droids on my ship."

"That is actually a good idea," said Plo, "providing you give them proper parameters on who is the enemy this time."

Then Gunray's ship exploded under a barrage of heavy fire.

"Well so much for that plan," Siri said.

"Dammit, they know we're here," said Adi as she fired the engines to full power and activated the shields, "Hold on tight, this is going to be a rough flight; damage report says we took a hit in the barrage. We're down one engine."

The consular-class diplomatic cruiser flew out of the dock leaning sightly to one side and trailing fire out of an engine. Another barrage was sent in their direction but wasn't able to penetrate the shields as a gunship flew into view.

"I'm guessing that's what blew up Gunray's shuttle," said Qui-Gon.

Can we outrun them? Tyvokka asked Adi.

"Not with one busted engine," came her reply, "No weapons either, diplomatic vessel."

Do what you can, he said, We have to reach Avos.

"I have one idea..." said Plo, "Can you bolster me with the force please?"

"Siri, take over," said Adi. Siri sat in the second pilot seat and took the controls as Adi rose to join Qui-Gon and Tyvokka in linking hands with Plo.

They all closed their eyes.

"I have a lock on the ship and it's shields are failing; It'll be dust any second," The pilot of the gunship smirked as he fired another volley at the cruiser. Then suddenly things went drastically wrong. The sky above him was filled with starfighters streaking down towards him, "What th- WHERE'D ALL THESE FIGHTERS COME FROM?"

"Repeat, Blue-9. Did you say ships? What ships?"

"They're everywhere, I have to eject!"

"Negative Blue-9, do not abandon ship. Repeat, do no- Oh for the love of..."

The cockpit of the gunship blasted away, causing the gunship to spiral into the ground below with a great crunch.

"That was... That was incredible!" said Obi-Wan, "How? How did you?"

"The power of The Force," smirked Plo, "never underestimate it."

Adi returned to piloting as the ship juddered off into the horizon.

Siri left the second pilot seat and moved to sit next to Obi-Wan. Then something tugged at her; there was something she'd been meaning to ask him for some time now, "Obi, why... why did you choose to stay?"

"With the Order?" he looked up at her, slightly puzzled.

"No, on... Melida/Daan."

Obi-Wan paused for a while before answering, "I... they needed me, I wasn't going to abandon my friends."

Siri's brow furrowed, "What about Master Tahl? Weren't you abandoning her?"

"Qui-Gon was there too. He wouldn't have let anything happen to her," Obi-Wan wasn't looking at her anymore.

"And what about the Order? Bant? Reeft? Garen? Quin? Me? Are we not your friends? You turned your back on us. Do we mean so little to you?"

"Of course n-"

"Then why didn't we even get a message from you?"

"You wouldn't und-"

"No. You're right, I don't understand."

There was a long silence, filled only by the hum of the engines and the background conversations of the others.

"I thought I hated you at first." said Siri, "Did I ever tell you that?" Obi-Wan shook his head, "As far as I was concerned you were an embarrassment to the order, took me a while to realise that wasn't true. Then you were back and it was business as usual.. as if nothing had happened... I don't know if I'll ever understand why you did it but... I missed you, Obi."

"I'm sorry."

Siri sighed, "Don't be. I'm just glad you're back. Can't believe it took me five months to say it," Obi-Wan smiled at that. They fell into a comfortable silence... which eventually turned a little uncomfortable.

'Come on,' Siri thought, 'Say something, do something. This shouldn't be so hard,' If only he'd start the conversation; that'd be much easier.

"Hey Siri," said Obi-Wan, "I thought Gunray deserved it."

She gave him a massive grin.

"WHAT'S THE POINT IN MANUFACTURING A BACTA SHORTAGE IF STARK'S COMBINE STOPS US CASHING IN ON IT?" roared Xucphra Chairman Adol Bel. He was a rather large fellow and was suffering greatly in the climate. his current tantrum wasn't helping him much either.

"The plan was sound, you cannot blame the Trade Federation for that pirate's actions," replied Viceroy Hask of the Trade Federation, a prim, proper and dignified Neimoidian.

"Not the Trade Federation, Hask. We both know this was exclusively your little retirement fund, yet for some reason me and my company are stuck with shit-loads of alazhi we can't even shift," said Bel.

"Profanity, how dignified," Hask curled his lip in disapproval.

"Hask do you even realise that if word gets out about our scheme, the galaxy is going to blame this hyperspace war on us?" Bel slammed his fist on the table.

"Do I need to point out that keeping suspicion about the plant down is your responsibility? Yet I heard Jedi broke in to it," said Hask, trying to wave in a breeze from the open window to fight off the humid Thyferran air.

Bel grinned, "You don't need to worry about Jedi, you aren't the only ones with Hunter Killer droids. Very reliable, you give them an order and they carry it out exactly. The best part is that droids can't fall prey to those little mind tricks Jedi like to play."

"No, they can just be thrown around, chopped up or tampered with," said Hask.

"Mark my words, those Jedi aren't getting off-planet alive. Even better news is that one of our freighters got a new navicomputer mere minutes after Stark's little navicomputer stunt; it's not much but we can at least get one shipment out."

Outside on the window ledge, Tholme grinned as he pressed 'Stop' on the recording device.

[near The Xucphra Tower,Thyferra, the Polith system]

"So, how d'you think he'll spy on them?" asked Aayla.

"Probably from the window."

"But that's ninety six stories up!"

"Wouldn't stop him," Quinlan said with a small smile as he crouched monkey-like on the front seat of the air-speeder, surveying Xucphra Corporation's Thyferran headquarters through the binoculars.

"He'd just hide in corridor, Force-camouflage would make it easy," countered Aayla.

"No, he'd go for the windowsill, he would use Force-camo though," Suddenly Quinlan straightened up, "He's on the windowsill, he just de-cloaked!"

"What?" asked Aayla.

Suddenly alarms blared from the tower and flying sentry droids zoomed to the speck that was Tholme.

"Oh my kriff, he just jumped off!" Quinlan siezed the controls as the binoculars fell into the cityscape. He put the vehicle into a sudden dive, Aayla holding on for dear life.

In a matter of seconds he was under Tholme and began to slowly lower his speed, slowly catching Tholme without splatting him like a bug. It was stressful under blaster-fire, but eventually he was safely in the rear seats. Aayla ignited her lightsabers - one blue, one green. She began to deflect the blaster-fire coming from the sentry droids as they sped off across the city, with the droids in hot pursuit.

"Okay, what the shit was that?" demanded Quinlan.

"I knew you would catch me. And I certainly wasn't climbing all the way down again"

"I am moved by your faith in me master, but I would much rather you gave me some more warning next time."

Tholme snorted, "You presume much Quinlan. I place my trust in The Force first and you second."

Aayla had destroyed a few of the droids by deflecting their shots, but more were joining the pursuit now.

"Well Master, place your trust in me now please," said Quinlan and dived towards the entrance to a sewer tunnel.

"You're not serious," said Tholme.

"What's he doing?" asked Aayla as she continued to deflect blaster-fire.

"He's taking us into a sewer."

"I want a new master," she grumbled.

"Trust, remember," Quinlan said in a sing song voice as they entered the dark cylindrical tunnel, the only light coming from the tunnel's opening, the speeder's lights and manhole covers overhead.

"TUNNEL GRINDER!" shouted Tholme as he pointed at the gigantic mechanical cleaner that suddenly lurked into view filling the tunnel ahead as it scoured the tunnel of debris with is razor sharp blades. All three of them leapt out of the air-speeder just before it careened into the grinder and was mashed into scrap.

"And that's why we don't drive in sewers," said Tholme acidly.

"Master," Aayla asked Quinlan, "Tell me. You wouldn't happen to be testing my faith in you would you?"

"Er, no Aayla... this is just... a complete and utter mistake," said Quinlan looking disgruntled. They were now pinned between the rapidly approaching grinder and the remaining droids.

"Master, the grinder!" said Aayla.

"Focus, Aayla," said Tholme, "You and Quinlan Force-push with me. NOW!"

They pushed their hands out with all their might as the droids were thrown into the tunnel ceiling and crushed against it.

"Come on," he said and they ran for the entrance of the tunnel, the grinder snapping at their heels. Suddenly more droids flocked in through the entrance.

"They've pinpointed our location," said Quinlan, "and this grinder doesn't leave us much room to use."

Tholme smiled devilishly, "Then we make that work for us, follow my lead."

He Force-jumped up to the ceiling and grabbed a manhole cover, using The Force to push it free and climbed up.

"You first," Quinlan said to Aayla. The grinder was now almost on them, tearing up moss, roots, excrement and who knew what else. To make matters worse, the droids were getting more accurate with their shots.

"But-"

"Go!"

She jumped, up and out the manhole.

Quinlan leapt immediately after her, narrowly evading the grinder as it tore the hem of his cloak. The droids attempted to pursue, but found their path blocked by the grinder. It mangled them like crisps in a food processor.

Quinlan shot out of the manhole onto the pavement.

"And now, they think we're dead," said Tholme, "We have what we need, all we need to do is get off-planet. Of course that would be easier if we didn't stink of sewer," He levelled a piercing gaze at Quinlan.

"Master Jinn says that Jedi shouldn't place too much importance on one's appearance, but should focus more on who they are," said Quinlan with a smile.

"Contrary to Qui-Gon's opinion, his every word is not gold dust," Tholme retorted, "He looks and smells like a bantha for goodness sake..."

"Yeah Master, if Master Jinn's right why don't you just take this? go ahead and rub your face all over it," said Aayla with a wrinkled nose as she shook something that looked suspiciously like faeces off her cloak sleeve.

"Very well, oh wise and noble one," said Quinlan, bowing to Tholme.

"In any case Quinlan, your first priority should be to check if your Padawan is alright – not to make smarmy quips. Now stop smirking; we need to get to the space port. Some sort of sabotage has happened to all navicomputers except for one on a Xucphra ship that just got overhauled. They're going to use that ship to transport some alazhi out of system for bacta processing. We need to be on that ship."