Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it.

Phase 21: Skyfall

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Part 3

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KDY HQ

Press Conference auditorium

Jagged pieces of durasteel rained all over the room scything through people as if they were wheat ready for harvest. Accurate blaster fire burned through stunned guard as cloaked figures poured out of the shattered transport. Zash moved faster than a human had any right to and raised barrier that protected her and Onara from the initial onslaught. She pushed the stunned woman back just as Perrion rushed their position. Now that the Jedi Master was no longer hiding, his presence burned brightly, yet black tendrils spread all over his aura like demented vines.

If the situation wasn't so dangerous, Zash would be laughing – Jerrod Perrion, one of the best if not the best the Order once had was busy falling to the Dark Side. She only hoped that his condition would give her an edge so she would live and could rub it into his face.

Zash vaulted back and wrenched the Force and with it the floor itself. The thick sheet of durasteel buckled and broke under her command with a huge section flying right at the Jedi. Perrion barely slowed down to shatter it, which bough her enough time to bring down the ceiling upon his head along with multiple desks, cabinets and office workers. More screams and whimpers of pain rose only to be drowned by the shriek of alarms and blaster fire. Finding herself with a moment of respite, Zash turned her head towards Onara, who had landed near a pair of dazed guards.

"Run, you fools!" She snapped at them and gave them a telekinetic shove that made the men stumble through the closest exit, while Kuat skidded over the metal floor.

That was all the time Zash had to spare because Perrion chose that moment to erupt through the hole in the floor where the collapsed ceiling shoved him into. A rain of debris preceded him, thrown with enough speed to approach the acceleration a rail-gun could have given them. The Sith countered with a telekinetic barrier and the resulting collision was enough to shatter the incoming projectiles while those that missed her shredded all the furniture and people unlucky to stand behind her. Perrion vaulted her way surrounded by a bright almost blinding cloak made of the Force itself. Instead of facing him head on, Zash tapped her foot on the floor a gesture that helped her control her power more precisely and the metal below her feet collapsed. The moment she landed on the floor below, the ground shattered again letting her get further away from the Jedi. Perrion wasted no time and jumped after her. When he entered the new hole, Zash was already three floors down falling towards the fourth surrounded by a constellation of floating metal debris. The moment Perrion came into view, she sent a torrent of crackling lighting at him, one that she channelled through the metal fragments to form a net of Sith lighting and melting metal that snapped around Jerrod's form. Instead of trapping and frying him, the attack merely closed around a tangible aura caused by the amount of Force energy he was using to enhance and protect himself. Molten metal splashed over a form fitting shield of light, lighting harmlessly crackled and arced over his form only to discharge itself through the holes in the floors he fell through thus tearing large chunks off them.

When Zash reached the next floor and found herself within a large mostly open office space, instead of breaking through it and going further down, she rolled away. Moments later Perrion arrived followed by a shower of sparkling and smoking debris that rained upon his armoured form to no effect. His two lighsabers hummed omniously, held in a low guard. The moment his feet touched the ground, the Jedi charged all the while Zash threw metal and wooden desks alike at him. She used that attack as a distraction to hide the real danger – a spear forged from the Dark Side itself that she hurled at him just after throwing yet another desk.

The Jedi Master used his will alone to batter aside a pair of objects that flew at him from both sides intent on squashing him and as he ran at the Sith he cut through a desk thrown his way. The two pieces bounced off the Force surrounding him and he jumped vaulting over another piece of furniture busy shattering itself where he just stood. He lightly landed at another desk thrown at him while still in mid-air and jumped off it heading straight at Zash. He rolled over the next one as a warning flared through the Force. Jerrod could feel a build up of Dark Side energy from where Zash was still hidden by a wall of floating furniture but that didn't deter him nor slowed him down. He crossed his lightsabers, a mental aid to more easily craft a telekinetic battering ram in front of him, one which he shoved forward with his next step. His will broke apart the furniture shielding the Sith and as she shielded herself from the onslaught shaved off shards of metal, sparkling circutry, broken pieces of metal and shattered glass flew in every direction as if picked up by a hurricane. The resulting storm was more than enough to ground an unprotected being to the bone. Even the metal floor and ceiling didn't emerge unscratched – the flying debris left jagged gorges before the chaos ended and threw the large room in twilight lit up only by three lighsabres – two azure ones and one crimson. Dust burned and sparkled when caught on the blades and soon the room slowly began to glow from the Force surrounding Perrion. The increasing brightness on his side only served to deepen the shadows thrown by Zash which along with the dust appeared to be moving until they engulfed the Sith, hiding her from sight but not the Jedi's senses. The light also revealed that Zash's attack missed and the proof was the collapsing far wall that was slowly being corrupted and eaten by Dark Side energies.

"Such passion!" Zash crooned. The light engulfing Perrion had darker undertones. There were shadows flickering within it. "It's really wasted on you." She smiled.

The shadows flickering within Perrion's aura became deeper. The glow surrounding him turned sinister, cruel.

"I must thank you, you know. If it wasn't for you, Master Perrion, none of this would be possible..." She gave him a tiny curtsey.

The Jedi tilted his head to the side as if debating something with himself, then without uttering a word, charged. The Force pulsed within and around him and with a single pulse he appeared in front of Zash, swinging. The dust blew behind him and the floor buckled and cracked from his passing. Lighsabers hissed and cracked with releasing energy as they met and the Sith found herself thrown back from the power and ferocity behind the attack. Another crack of displaced air echoed as Perrion hurled himself at her and all she could do was backpedal and frantically defend herself.

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Part 3

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KDY HQ

The sound of tortured metal shrieked down a long, well lit corridor and then, a durasteel wall cracked, bulged and then shattered when a dusty form slammed through it and only stopped when it crashed into the far wall. Zash fell on the ground, her silk covered knee scrapping painfully on the floor.

She was still alive, at one piece even and that was all that was going for her. While Perrion was unbalanced, which was obvious to everyone with the eyes to see, the bastard was still a powerhouse who could batter through everything she could throw at him and didn't give her time for anything too fancy.

Plane Arubesh – murder the kriff of the bloody Jedi herself thus went out of the airlock. Plan Besh – rely on local forces for a distraction enough to either get away or wound him to even the odds thus far didn't work. The few Kuati security they passed by during their engagement so far died without being able to even inconvenience Perrion. The rest were likely too busy dealing with his backup, whatever plan he had and getting Onara out of the area intact. Thus Zash had to go outside where backup could reach her more easily, not to mention could bring to bear heavier weapons.

That unfortunately was a bit easier said than done. She was barely up on her feet when a large chunk of metal torn from the ceiling finished demolishing the far wall of the corridor and she had to halt it with the Force then dive away when Perrion charged through it, blasting it apart. A hastily raised telekinetic barrier took the brunt of the debris, however a few chunks managed to get through and slammed into her with bruising force. Zash spat a curse and tore the floor below her feet with a thought, then propelled it along with herself down the corridor and away from the crazy Jedi. She was beginning to reconsider her choice of attire – there was something to be said about being clad in nice heavy armour most of the time, even if it was damn uncomfortable and usually plain bloody ugly.

A pulse came through the Force and Perrion appeared close, almost reaching her with his lightsabers. He did miss however and for his troubles Zash tore the surrounding walls along with the ceiling and did her best to squash him like a tin can. Another pulse and the sphere of twisted durasteel that would have killed or at least contained a lesser opponent exploded like an oversized fragmentation grenade that tore that whole part of the building apart. The glow surrounding Perrion increased and he came right after Zash preceded by a murderous whirlwind of twisting debris.

The Sith sensed a relatively large concentration of people nearby and when she was close enough halted her flight. She tore the floor in front of Perrion and when he jumped tore the right wall and hurled it at him, thus conveniently opening her a way to said people. It was time to see if the time honoured practice of placing people in danger would work on him. At worst, their deaths would make for even better propaganda to keep the Jedi's collective coffin nicely sealed for posterity.

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Star Dreadnought Defender

high orbit

Kuat

The gargantuan ship burst into real space above her homeworld. Immediately became clear that despite Zash's cry for help through the Force, whatever was happening down on the surface hadn't been noticed by the Kuati SDF. A flurry of challenges and demands bombarded the ship and the Captain had to do some fast talking to confirm that Defender hadn't been taken by the CIS while no one was looking and about to lay waste to Kuat.

I got all that by being patched in the ship's command net despite my current location – in one of the huge hangar bays standing next to an orbital insertion pod along with a whole battalion of Kuati marines. It took precious time to get confirmation that there was in fact a disturbance at KDY's HQ planet-side, even longer for clearance to make an uncontested orbital drop, time I spent monitoring my connection with Zash. I could sense she was hard pressed and no wonder why – Perrion was down there and he wasn't bothering to hide himself any longer, on the contrary. I could clearly sense him all the way from orbit and regretted that taking him out along with a few thousand square kilometres of surrounding city wouldn't be something I could get away with.

"General, we just intercepted distress calls multiple terrorist strikes all over the planet. We've got permission to insert troops and secure critical facilities and personnel." The Captain informed me.

I was already securely sealed within my pod along with the rest of the battalion. The Defender rotated a bit until the hangar pointed in the general direction of KDY's HQ a green light blinked within my pod and then extreme acceleration slammed into me despite the inertial dampening system. In a blink I was launched out of the ship and soon my pod hit the atmosphere. With no defences to content with the ride down was smoother than it could have been and as importantly, there was no jamming or need to keep the net down to avoid pinpointing the locations of real pods instead of decoys, which would have made the bulk of those launched in a contested insertion. That allowed me to gain a very rough understanding of the situation in no small part thanks to the analysts and combat controllers safe aboard the Defender.

There were five bombings and four attacks on Kuati Security substations in the general area of KDY's HQ with at least a dozen more confirmed all over the planet… and that was after multiple raids by security forces on suspected or confirmed BSN cells last night – in fact that was what Onara Kuat's press conference was about, the same one that Perrion crashed. Not for the first time I found myself missing more or less loyal and competent Intelligence agency on my side. For all the troubles that Imperial Intelligence put me into, they were worth their weight in any precious substance one might care to name and more.

I felt the screams of horror of a lot of dying people followed by a tingle of apprehension. Something bloody just happened, potent enough to feel it.

"Oh my god..." Someone gasped over the command channel breaking the expected chatter of incoming intelligence.

"General, be advised, a massive explosion just occurred on the KDY Array. Homeworld Defence Command is activating Case Omega. Planetary Shield will be coming online ASAP."

Outraged chatter exploded all over the battalion net until the officers and NCOs managed to make everyone shut up and concentrate on the task at hand, something that I immediately tuned out.

The first thing I did was check the altitude – we should already be below the planetary shield, though certainly not any theatre ones yet. Using the data-link between my armour, the pod and Defender, I called and image from the ship's sensors. A window opened on my HUD showing a tactical display – the star dreadnought was accelerating towards the array, which was blinking red and a significant chunk of it was missing, with the jagged ends being surrounded with the warning signs for debris.

Seeing that called some bad memories – of space stations bursting into fire, some falling from orbit, of orbital defences ready to be turned upon Imperial planets by an insane Dark Council members… the effect of the array breaking up and hitting the surface before the planetary shields could initialize would be as bad if not worse than a brief but potent orbital bombardment.

At the same time, what was happening, what I was seeing, it was an opportunity. Spin right, we would be able to blame it all on the Separatists and Perrion and it didn't matter if this was an enemy action or more unlikely an accident. I would bet a lot that this was a part of Perrion's exit strategy, one that likely kicked off earlier than expected. Well, it didn't matter. If I had anything to say about it, he wasn't getting away no matter what he had up his sleeve.

Soon, the pod came low enough and strategically placed explosives cracked it like an egg letting me into free-fall less than a kilometre above KDY HQ. I could clearly see smoke coming from one side with emergency vehicles beginning to swarm the place all the while people were streaming out either through emergency exits or after running to the nearest garage and getting aboard some kind of vehicle.

Zash's position was easy to make even without our connection – she and Perrion were like a beacons heading towards one corner of the building.

"Strike Actual to all Strike Elements, primary target is nearing the western corner KDY HQ." I placed a marker in the rough area where we were headed to and kicked on the anti-grav harness added to my armour for this mission. The deceleration was jerky and sudden and my free-fall turned into controlled glide towards the building. I spared a moment to look up and saw half the battalion still streaking like falling stars above us. However, that wasn't what got my attention.

A huge bright shock-wave was slowly dissipating high above us with its edge causing the atmosphere to ionize and creating northern lights. A ring of smoking debris slammed into the stratosphere and began burning and above them I could clearly see the jagged edges of the broken orbital array. It was testament to the skill and paranoia of its designers that despite the grievous wound the rest of the structure appeared to remain intact and structurally sound. I hadn't even finished that thought when a flash of light caught the corner of my eye. I turned my head, the HUD helpfully zooming in to a second, smaller explosion that tore into the array about a thousand kilometres to the east of the first one. I didn't know if the rest of the array might be safe, however a huge chunk of the array was now torn apart from the rest and it was anyone's guess if the Kuati fleet could prevent it from slamming into the ground.

It was no surprise at all when shrill sirens began screaming all over the city just as the chatter over the battalion net spiked.

"Strike Actual to all Strike elements – change in plans. We neutralize the primary target, evacuate VIPs and get the hell out of here before the array can fall on our heads." I shook my head and turned my undivided attention to the task at hand.

This was going to krifing suck.

"God's speed, Strike Actual. Defender is moving in to intercept the broken piece of the array. We're launching all available craft to assist SAR." The shocked yet decisive voice of Defender's Captain echoed in my helmet and I wanted to pat myself on the back for sending Panka to sulk in his quarters before heading here. The last thing anyone needed was that fool falling apart during this mess.