"This is Asmodeus, calling all members of the Halcyon Clan. The Academy is under attack. Michael has fallen. We have pushed the enemy back but need reinforcements and supplies. I am asking all Dawnbreakers and all Halcyon clan members to come to Yavin IV immediately to assist."

The transmission went out on all private channels used by the clan, sent all throughout the galaxy. And all throughout the galaxy, the Halcyons answered the call. They dropped their current missions, abandoned their posts, boarded their ships and set courses for the Academy. Their home was under siege, and they would not allow it to fall. One by one, they returned to Yavin, and one by one they were set upon by Zahavi and the ever-growing force under his control. Within 36 hours of invading the Academy, he had assuming direct mental control over a full three-quarters of all that could oppose him. All the Dawnbreakers, all of the Academy staff, and every Halcyon who answered the distress call that he had forced Asmodeus to send out as bait, they all served with those unnatural glowing golden eyes, obeying every one of Zahavi's wordless commands.

He could have simply ordered them to turn on each other, rip themselves to shreds. He could have ordered them to throw themselves from the nearby cliffs en masse. But Zahavi had a job to do, and it was not finished yet. The galaxy was not safe as long as a single Halcyon yet lived, and there was still the matter of the escaped students to address, not to mention his own traitorous assistant who made this attack possible in the first place.

Zahavi looked out upon the jungles of Yavin as night fell, closing out the second day of his command of the Halcyon Academy. He would have them all soon enough.

"I am asking all Dawnbreakers and all Halcyon clan members to come to Yavin IV immediately to assist."

The holo was playing on repeat on all channels, including the student channel. Now and then Sesna pulled out her communicator to see if the message had changed. The first class of the Academy was living out in the jungles of Yavin, terrified but alive. The wilderness training provided by Haran'buir was paying off in spades. It took them very little time to establish shelter in a camp a few miles south of the Academy. At Khalon's suggestion, they had doubled back around after escaping from the north end of the campus, hoping to throw off the trail any pursuers that might be tailing them.

They were cautious, keeping their fires contained, dousing them with sand to avoid the telltale black smoke. There was enough edible vegetation growing in the area around the Academy that finding food was not a terrible concern. Exposure, however, was becoming an increasingly credible threat. Nights in the jungle were cold, and it was not uncommon for storms to form quickly, forcing the group to huddle together in a nearby cave to wait out the worst of it.

Their clothing and robes were wet and muddy, even Zhejari had ended up ditching the heavier pieces of the ceremonial armor he wore. Kaikorero was constantly cleaning filth from her cybernetic leg, and Fiachra was doing her best not to have a mental breakdown every few minutes. She feared for her friend Bersk. He had stayed behind to help them escape, but Asmodeus had come after them only moments after. What had happened to him?

Sesna was more concerned about their Headmaster. The message that Asmodeus had sent out, obviously a trap, had mentioned that he 'had fallen.' She hugged her knees as she looked around their little camp. They would not last out here forever. There was no Academy if Michael had died while protecting them. In her mind, escape was the only viable option.

Out here, they were barely surviving. Back at the campus, they were doomed. They were rapidly running out of options.

Onboard the flagship of the Order of Mercy, Lothärius and Otso were preparing to head down to the surface when Dawnbreakers attacked. There had been no warning, no demands, no call for surrender. A troop of soldiers boarded the ship and immediately opened fire on the crew. Running on a skeleton crew made mostly of droids kept the casualties low, but there were still good men and women who fell under their fire. The two soldiers were forced into a retreat in the lower sections of the ship, where they barricaded themselves outside the Engineering wing.

"Damn that Mando! Never trusted him for a minute!" Otso growled while pushing the barricade into place. "Training them soldiers all on his own, 'course they'd be loyal to him. I'm telling you now, it's that bastard that's doing this."

Lothärius pulled a cigar from his workbench and lit it, puffing on it while looking over the swoop bike he had been restoring in this private sanctuary of his. "We don't know what is happening yet, Otso." He took off his jacket and grabbed a hydrospanner. "Have you been able to get ahold of Bersk on the surface?"

Otso shook his head and pulled his comm from his belt pack. "Sent out the alert an hour ago. No answer."

Loth nodded and took another puff off the cigar. "Then we have to assume he's been compromised. Whatever, or whoever, is staging this coup, we're going to have to handle it ourselves.

"Not entirely."

Otso drew his weapon as the turbolift doors parted. Haran'buir approached the barricade, his sniper rifle in hand. "I can get us to the surface."

Otso fired up his plasma cannon and growled at the Mandalorian. "You must think we're stupid."

At this, Haran let the statement hang in the air for an awkward second before turning to Lothärius. "Permission to enter the barricade, Commander?"

Something about the man's tone didn't sit right with Lothärius. "Let him in, Otso."

The larger man made no effort to conceal the string of profanities he uttered as he lowered his weapon and allowed Haran to enter.

Upon crossing the barricade, Haran paused at the sight of the swoop bike that had become Lothärius pet project over the past several years. The sight of it took him aback, and he paused in his gait for the briefest of moments. He then looked up to Lothärius and returned to the matter at hand. "I believe the Academy is under attack, and that our allies have been forced under the control of an outside force. It is up to us to resolve the situation."

Loth ignored the skeptical grunt that came from the other side of the room. "What makes you think this?"

"Because my Dawnbreakers would never follow a command that wasn't mine otherwise."

The statement was made in such a matter-of-fact sense that Lothärius could tell that Haran truly believed it. Still, the risk was considerable. But if Haran'buir was truly behind this attack, he could have simply struck when Loth had ordered Otso to stand down. Why bother playing the game? What was he getting at?

Loth tapped his cigar, allowing the ash to fall on the floor. "You know I don't trust you." It was not a question.

Haran'buir sighed. "I had hoped to bring this up at a more appropriate time. But this attack has forced my hand, and with Michael gone..."

Otso grunted. "What does Michael have to do with you?"

Haran turned to Otso. "Michael was the gatekeeper for all of our secrets. You know this. He's the only one that could be trusted. He knew my secret, as he knew all of ours. It why he allowed me to join the clan with little to no experience."

Loth narrowed his eyes. He did not like where this was heading. "What are you saying?"

Haran'buir paused for a moment, then depressurized his helmet, preparing to remove it. "It was in front of you the whole time, Loth. But none of you idiots ever bothered to learn Mando'a."

Forty Years Earlier...

"Nobody gets to live forever."

"As you say."

The leader of the Hellfathers sped away on a swoop bike loaded down with stolen Mandalorian weapons. His leg was screeching with pain, having caught a blaster bolt in the thigh. He had no illusions about surviving this, he knew the Mando's would kill him when they caught him. But he was giving his brothers a chance to escape, a chance to live. For them, he was willing to die.

The trip was short. The Mandalorian clan quickly overtook the swoop and blasted the engines, causing Kuno to ditch the bike in mid-air, landing hard on his side, bruising his ribs. He wasted no time reacting to the pain, however. He grabbed a vibroblade from his back and squared off against the advancing Mandos. "Come on then! Which one wants to go down first?"

The fight was over in a matter of seconds. The highly trained Mandalorians subdued the swoop gang leader, and stripped him of his vest bearing the Hellfather seal. They brought him before their Ruus'alor and forced him to his knees. The Mando commander kneeled down in front of Kuno, examining the feisty spirit who had dared to rob them of their weapons shipment, and then showed such bravery in sacrificing himself for his brothers. Kuno spit in the commander's face.

One of the soldiers struck Kuno, dislocating his jaw. Another presented the prisoners vest to the Ruus'alor, commenting on the logo stitched into it. "Te alii'gai jorhaa'ir haran buir."

The commander was amused. "Haran buir?" He looked back down at their prisoner. There was a raw strength there, a nobility. Honor. Yes, this one would do nicely. "Vi Kelir gai bic haran buir."

"No...that's not possible..." Lothärius was taken aback. "You died."

Kuno, called Haran'buir, shook his head. "The old me died. Kuno died, so that you could live. I was given a chance to live a new life, a better life. And I took it." He looked back at Otso and smiled. "I always knew the three of you would survive without me. And you did. You did very well, didn't you?"

Otso stood dumbfounded, trying to wrap his head around the fact that his childhood friend had been living among them in secret for years. "But...why didn't you say anything?"

Haran frowned. "Michael felt it was important that you all eventually knew the truth. But you all harbored such a hate for Mandalorians, he didn't feel it was the right time. He wanted to establish trust, establish a relationship first, before revealing." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter anymore. Our people are under attack, and they need us. Bersk needs us."

Loth approached Haran slowly, carefully. Looking over him. Kuno had aged terribly, though Loth supposed he had as well. Unlike Loth, Kuno still had a full head of hair, though every bit as grey as his own. But those eyes, there was no mistaking those eyes. This was Kuno, his friend, his brother. Back from the dead.

Loth fought the urge to embrace him, and put on a serious face. There would be time for that later. There were more important matters at hand. "Fine. Explanations later. How do we get to the surface?"

Kuno set his helmet down on the workbench and activated the holomap on his gauntlet. "I can arrange orbital drop platforms to release through the escape pods, I have an LZ designated a few dozen kilometers from the Academy. We drop in, we scout the situation, find out what is going on."

Otso growled again. "There's no time for us to hump our way over ten klicks, Mando. How do you figure we're going to get there in time to do anything?'

Haran looked down at the swoop bike, carefully restored by Lothärius. "Oh, don't you worry about that."