Chapter 4: One Shred of Dignity

February 1, 2227.

As expected, the military of the New Republic on Yavin were much eager to give the Jedi the rations necessary to properly feed their new passengers all the way to Lothal, and to refill their fuel canisters. It also offered Ezra and Jaral the chance to meet the young Foundlings of the Tribe, and most importantly, to finally talk with the small Yoda when he was finally awake.

To their surprise, they found out that the child was already able to use a rudimentary telepathy, which allowed him to show the Masters his past: his name was actually Grogu, and he had been raised by several Masters at the old Jedi temple on Coruscant. One of them had helped Grogu escape during Order 66 and entrusted him to some allies of the Order.

After that, Grogu didn't seem eager to share the rest of his story, yet. But it was enough for the siblings: now they were sure that Yoda would have known more about this child.

Still, they needed to get to Lothal first, so after taking a day of rest on Yavin, they were back on track, and while Din was sent onto a secondary, but less perilous route, the Bullet kept navigating the main hyperspace routes, in the hope that it would draw the attention of anyone who was hunting Grogu down.

They were about to enter the orbit of the Maridun system when the siblings' foresight into the Force sent them a warning. They looked at each other with a wary gaze and prepared themselves until they left hyperspace and detected a small ship blocking the exit point they needed on the other side of the system.

The LADAR identified it as a Corellian YV-666 light freighter with some modifications, but when the ships met over the planet that named the system, the siblings realized with great surprise that they had actually seen that ship once. Years before, on Lothal, a few weeks before the Ghost found them.

In fact, instead of opening fire, the pilot hailed them and the two quickly decided to reply.

"This is the Silver Bullet, who are we talking to?" Ezra asked.

The voice that replied was in Trandoshan, but the siblings could understand it thanks to the translators. "So it's true. The little Loth-rats have become Jedi."

"Hey, Bossk," Jaral greeted in a sarcastically friendly tone. "still a bounty hunter, I see."

"I love hunting. I wasn't expecting you two to become Jedi, though. I would've sold you to the Empire before, had I known." the lizard said with a serious joke.

"Very touching." Ezra got along with the joke. "I suppose it's too much to hope that you would let us go in honor of our past partnership?"

"Correct. However, out of respect for you, I will offer you the chance to surrender the bounty in exchange for safe passage."

While Ezra replied, Jaral prepared the ship for combat. "I'm afraid we can't do that."

"Then let me see how strong you've become." the Trandoshan concluded.

Immediately after, the Hound's Tooth, Bossk's ship, fired a salvo of six heat-seeking missiles.

The alarm sounded on the Silver Bullet to warn the passengers that it was going to get bumpy, and Ezra sprinted the ship forward to avoid the missiles.

The Gauntlet had a good chance to outmaneuver the freighter that was shooting at them, but almost immediately came out a small squadron of fighters in the form of an 'X'.

"No way we can take all of them on our own with this ship." Jaral noted.

"You're right." Ezra conceded, and his gaze immediately turned toward the planet below. "Hang on." and pulled the commands in that direction.

The Gauntlet was at full speed, but the fighters behind were gaining ground on it. Soon, green bolts started to fly around and some hit the back of the transport.

"Jinx, blast them." Jaral instructed.

The rear turret started firing. Jinx, being a very advanced calculator, had no problem scoring hits, however it turned out that those snubs had shields, and it took two snipes from the turret to take one of them out. And after the first was destroyed, the pilots became much more cautious, keeping their distances.

Only problem was that they fired some missiles. Four of them in facts. Jinx was able to destroy three of them, but before he could jam the latter, it exploded and released a swarm of buzz droids that managed to arrive on the hull of the Bullet, and they started to do their thing: tearing apart the hull and messing with the wires beneath.

"We're gonna crash this way!" Ezra loudly said.

"Not on my watch." Jinx calmly replied.

A few seconds later, the AI hacked all the buzz droids and deactivated them.

"Hey, good job, Jinx." Jaral said impressed.

"I know. However, we're not out of danger, yet."

"That's right," Ezra conceded. "We need to find some shelter on the surface. Make a scan and give us one." he added as he headed straight toward the atmosphere, still chased by the Consortium's fighters.

To try and get out of their sight, Ezra spotted a big cloud bank and dived right into it while Jinx kept scrambling their sensors as much as it could. Jaral took over the controls of the cannons to keep the chasers at a distance. The radar then pointed at the fact that they were heading straight into a hilly valley, perfect to find a place where they could land and possibly lose the pirates.

"Warning, the buzz droids have damaged a propulsion transmitter. I suggest we find a place to land, immediately." Jinx warned.

"Wanna give me the commands?" Jaral asked with absolute nonchalance.

"Be my guest." her brother replied, and transferred control to her post.

Jaral closed her eyes briefly, reaching into the Force, looking for a possible solution to their dilemma. With the help of her senses, she then spotted a place in the area that they could use: a crevice between two tall hills and covered by a thin but considerable layer of trees.

"Hold on, you don't want to…?" Ezra asked with a light fear in his voice.

"This baby is big enough to take down a few of them." Jaral replied with a certain enthusiasm.

"Oh, Karabast..."

Ezra watched in horror and gripped his seat as his sister charged the loosely spread trees, aiming where there were only smaller ones. The Bullet touched ground at considerable speed, but thanks to the terrain being relatively smooth, it didn't crash, despite the whiplash, and then drifted forward into the small forest, taking down a couple of plants before the cockpit smashed against a rock big enough to act as a stopgap.

"This is the last time I let you fly my ship." Ezra grunted sarcastically.

"Oh, don't be a crybaby." Jaral retorted with her favorite way to tease him. "Come on, it's not over, yet."

Quickly enough, they rushed to the cargo bay, where the Mandalorians of the Tribe were just now raising from their seats, a bit dazed by the sudden braking.

"What has happened?" one of them asked.

"A bounty hunter intercepted us with a whole squadron of Consortium's fighters. We had to make an emergency landing." Jaral explained with no apparent alarm.

"I suppose you have a plan to leave?" the Armorer asked.

"Are you familiar with this ship?" Jaral asked.

"A bit." the woman replied.

"Then me and you are going to make sure the ship is ready to launch when our friends arrive."

"Friends?" Paz asked confused.

"Remember that call I made when we left Telos?" Ezra intervened. "I asked reinforcements from Lothal, and we were supposed to meet a couple systems down the line."

"Which means, they will be here in a few hours." Jaral concluded. "We only need to fight for our lives until they come and get us."

Paz simply replied "This is the Way." and the other mandalorians repeated the mantra with much conviction.

Without adding anything more, Ezra took the other combatants and led them outside of the ship. In the distance he could hear the fighters flying over them, but the forest denied them any visibility or line of fire. Instead, in the distance Ezra also saw the Hound's Tooth landing, along with two small transports from which several Consortium's soldiers came out.

Also, two of the new Droidekas that Ezra had only heard about.

"This might get complicated." he murmured to himself, but then looked around and quickly came up with a defensive perimeter. The fallen trees had fallen down in a way that was overall very convenient to the defenders, so Ezra and Paz quickly decided how to form the line, while Bossk was gathering the Consortium's forces for the assault.

While a war between the Federation and the Commune had been avoided, the talks had brought up some peculiar and dark points in the politics of the new Terminus' state.

In particular, the fact that, since it was a heavily decentralized nation, several states that composed it were not so keen on establishing friendly relations with the Federations, instead preferring to continue 'spreading the Revolution', and the public assembly Jane had seen on Primigenia didn't have any real power to stop them from supplying the Tambaran and sending volunteers over to fight.

Of course, none of those governments would dare to cause a full-scale war with the Federation, since most of the Commune's members had no intention to follow that idea. In fact, Francesco had already brokered a peace between Primigenia and the other worlds that were at the summit. These had also revealed which worlds and people were actively trying to intensify the conflict, and recent investigations showed that warmongers on both sides were cooperating to a certain degree.

That was for much different reasons, of course: the leaders of the 'ring' in the Federation were tycoons, politicians and even two generals were suspected of trying to start this war for their own personal gain. Those in the Commune were seeking to tear down a system that they saw as corrupt and unfair, and considered their comrades who had negotiated as traitors.

Jane and the Spectre Department needed to find and snuff out this dangerous group before they could actually cause an incident that would spark total conflict. The situation was volatile as the war against the Tambaran was not over and the offensive on Doisac was almost ready to begin.

Francesco had promised that the Federation would not annex any world of the Tambaran after the war, and that instead he would help them rebuild and try to repair any wrongdoing of the last decade.

However, it seemed like Atriox and the Tambaran didn't trust the Federation one bit, for after the first contact war, they had also been silently subject to exploitative policies from the great corporations when the Council was not looking. Combined with their generally aggressive nature, this resentment was driving the Tambaran to fight to the death.

But winning the war would have to be left to John and the other Admirals of the Systems Alliance. What Jane had to focus on was stopping a bigger war to explode.

In order to do that, she had to track down every member of the ring. In cases like these, there were two things that left clear tracks: money and weapons.

It was with this method that the Normandy was on her way to intercept a freighter that was illegally bringing in weapons and supplies for the Tambaran. And right now she was flying inside an isolated system. The Normandy was cloaked, ready to strike at the right moment: when the freighter would have to slow down considerably.

"The EMP missile is set, Shepard." Garrus, being the weapon officer, reported on the bridge. "Once it hits, we will have five minutes before their systems come back online."

"Meaning that we will actually have four minutes. Got it." Jane replied as she loaded her weapons. Next to her were Scott and Chief, all fully suited and ready to storm the freighter from the main hatch.

"Hey, give me some credit, here." Mazak joked. "I can get you there in just thirty seconds."

"With me, you can add five seconds to that estimate." EDI added.

"All right, top guns, then let me see it." Jane replied in tone.

Just at that moment, Wilhelm arrived with a squad of marines led by Johnson. They were to secure the rest of the ship, while Jane's squad was to rush to the cockpit of the freighter before the EMP ran out and the pilots could erase all navigational data.

"Yes, ma'am." Mazak replied clearly. "Starting attack run."

EDI sounded the alarm once, putting the ship and the crew on highest combat readiness. The Normandy approached the freighter still under the cover of the cloaking device, and only when she was at a safe-shot distance did she come out of hiding and fired the EMP torpedo.

Caught completely by surprise, the freighter had no chance to enact any evasive maneuver and the torpedo hit the ship on the bow, causing visible electrical ripples that soon enveloped the entire ship, shutting down every major system.

"Bullseye." Mazak reported. "Initiating boarding sequence." he added as he frantically worked on the controls, while EDI assisted him to make the movement as smooth and quick as possible.

Jane and her team instead walked past the first door of the hatch and loaded their weapons. And then, just as the two pilots had promised, they locked on the freighter in under 25 seconds, even if she was still moving at the same speed she was moving before the engines were shut down. Once the Normandy hooked her, however, it was stopped by the more powerful engines of the frigate.

Jane took out an M-5 Phalanx, preferring to use the handgun in the likely small rooms of the ship they were about to board. Only Chief felt confident enough to bring a Mattock rifle with him.

"Opening the hatch in three...two...one…" EDI announced, and then the door opened, along with the one of the freighter, which the AI had already hacked.

Immediately, Jane sprinted inside. As expected, there were no armed guards in the decontamination room, since the crew was most likely still trying to figure out what was going on. Chief took point and the assault commenced.

Behind the first door, they found two technicians, a Salarian and a Drell, who were checking on a panel, to see if there had been a localized failure of the electronics. Of course, when they saw the towering Legionnaire, they gasped and froze in fear.

"Stand on the ground!" Jane ordered them. "Be quiet and you will live." she added. The two aliens complied, but it would be up to the Marines to secure them. Jane's team surged forward, instead. Emergency lights lit up the ship again, giving a better view of the interior but also allowing the first armed guards to spot the intruders.

"Alarm! We're being board…" one of them yelled, but Chief quickly put a bullet through his helmet and he died.

A firefight ensued, with the few non-combatants trying their best to stay down and not being shot at.

The guards had only second-handed armors and they stood little chance against the military-level gear of the Normandy's crew, who easily absorbed bullets even if they hit the target. The Alliance troopers quickly cleared the first big room, which was already loaded with crates full of supplies.

"All right, gents. Clear the ship, and be careful for what is in that crates." Jane instructed, as there was a chance that they might run into crates full of explosives or barrels of fuel, which could make a stray bullet fatal.

While Wilhelm and Johnson proceeded to storm the back of the freighter, Jane and her two companions headed for the cockpit, which was now only separated from them by another room full of slightly better armed guards.

Still, they stood no chance against some of the most skilled soldiers of the Systems Alliance. The moment they stormed in, the Shepards and Chief gunned down five guards, and the remaining four followed their comrades soon after.

The pilot had apparently already sealed their door, but Chief just brutally forced it open in a couple of seconds, and the two helms quickly rose their hands.

"Step away from the consoles!" Scott ordered them, and they complied.

Chief got near the computers and had Cortana work to restore the energy of the ship.

Fighting was continuing at the bow of the ship, but the Marines were steadily advancing without incurring in any casualty. When power finally returned, Cortana could dig into the logs of the ship and the star maps. Thus she identified the planet where that ship had loaded her cargo.

"Seems like we found their den. The head of this operation seems to be a Turian named Minvir." the AI reported.

"Send the coordinates to EDI. We're leaving immediately." Jane said with a calm determination.

The coordinates were leading to a system in the Hourglass Nebula.

The first assault had been repelled, though it wasn't that difficult since it was only a scouting party of the mercenaries with little to no heavy weapons.

The second attack was already much more intense. The Consortium's troopers used thermal detonators, disruptor rifles and heavy repeaters to try and blow out the Jedi and their Mandalorian allies. Bossk also intervened in the fight, firing precise shots with his Relby rifle and even a couple of toxin grenades.

Ezra fired precise bursts with his TL-50, and luckily the members of the tribe were true to one of their people's tradition: they could place a shot wherever they wanted. The mercenaries hardly survived when they were hit, as it was always at the head or a vital organ.

But that didn't mean they weren't suffering casualties: four members of the Tribe were laying dead, and while he fired another burst, Ezra saw with the tail of his eye the mandalorian next to him being hit right in the neck, where his armor didn't cover him, and fall on the ground.

Meanwhile, Paz kept laying down a strong suppressive fire with his repeater cannon. Two more mercenaries fell down as they tried to advance, and eventually Bossk ordered the survivors to fall back behind a few rocks and trees to seek cover and reorganize.

"Ezra, the Bullet is repaired." the voice of his sister suddenly spoke from behind.

Jaral and the Armorer were coming out running from the Gauntlet, both holding weapons to join the defense, although the first thing the Armorer did was to get to the bodies of her fallen kin.

"Nice work, but I doubt we're going anywhere, at the moment." he replied just as two of the pirate's fighters passed again over them, firing a strafing run that missed them by a long shot.

"You didn't get any news from Sabine and the others, by chance?" Jaral asked with a relatively relaxed tone.

"They're close. I can feel her presence." Ezra reassured. "We just need to hold off the next wave."

And the next wave was quite big. Another transport had arrived, bearing another platoon and two swamp speeders. Not very tough, but they were small and agile, carrying two auto-blasters that could be very dangerous even in that terrain.

"We'll have to pick them out the old way." Jaral said to her brother.

Ezra hummed a positive, then turned toward Paz. "Viszla, we'll take care of the speeders. When we jump, you and the others give us some cover."

Paz nodded without hesitation and then checked his blaster, ready to do some damage. The siblings temporarily put away their repeaters in favor of their lightsabers, which were going to be more important to go and cut the vehicles down with speed and precision.

The next wave came and opened fire. The mandalorians used their jetpacks to make short dashes that allowed to stay mobile and avoid the launch of grenades, but still another one of them fell down. The fight was bitter as neither side spared tibanna, but the superior skill of the mandalorians was definitely making the attackers pay a disproportionate price.

The siblings saw an opportunity and surged forward. Paz saw them and immediately laid down a suppressive barrage that took out three mercenaries one after the other.

But just as they were about to reach the speeders, they were confronted by an asset that they had almost forgotten about: the Droidekas.

Apparently, Bossk had decided to use them now, at the final push. And these droidekas packed quite the punch, having three blasters even on the face, improved deflectors and could switch the weapons on their arms to ion cannon.

However, the siblings kept their cool and remembered the tricks that Rex had taught them about the predecessors of these droids and that Ezra had had the opportunity to try during that confrontation with the droid remnants on Agamar, years before.

And most importantly, Ezra and Jaral could count on their omni-tools. They immediately used a powerful overcharge on the droids. It wasn't enough to have them lower the shields, but it basically froze their system for a few, precious seconds.

The siblings popped out some thermal detonators, slid past the droids while delicately letting the bombs inside the shields. As they ran past them, the droidekas exploded with the detonators. It all happened in the span of moments, a testament to their growth as fighters.

Without even feeling the need to compliment each other down the bond, they headed straight for the speeders. The drivers had saw how easily the Jedi had dealt with the feared droidekas and were now firing wildly, fearing the chance that those two might bring their lightsabers too close.

It abated to nothing. The Bridgers were moving all around the battlefield with a fluency that came from their constant Jedi training combined with seven years of fighting against much more powerful and dangerous foes. They didn't kill the drivers, though: all they did was to cut off the cannons and damage the engines of the speeders. The drivers stumbled out and then ran for their lives.

Just as they had done it, another strafe from a fighter started coming their direction. Ezra and Jaral barely had the time to think about running that they heard a massive explosions coming above and the green bolts stopped coming at them.

They rose their gazes and it didn't take long before, even between the branches of the trees, they spotted the Millennium Falcon flying over their heads.

Soon enough, the sky saw the arrival of Fang fighters; Kyle's ship, the Raven's Claw; the Razor Crest,and another Gauntlet from the House of Atin. The reinforcements from the Order had arrived and they quickly engaged the fighters in the air. Only Kyle jumped out from the Claw along with Sellion, Lissia and Jaden. It wasn't hard to guess that the one left to pilot the ship was Jan Ors.

The new Jedi quickly made their way through the lines of the Consortium's troopers, which quickly started to panic and crumble.

"Sorry we're late." Kyle greeted the Masters with a quip.

"Not a moment too soon, guys." Ezra replied in tone.

Using the opportunity, Paz rose and yelled a war cry, triggering a charge from the Tribe, just while the new Gauntlet was airdropping a whole new 16 warriors, including Tristan, Sabine and Asha.

By the next five minutes, the fight was over. The whole contingent of the Consortium was laying dead or had been captured, and Bossk had been wounded on the right arm. Now he was kneeling on the ground with Kyle's lightsaber at his throat and Han pushing his pistol against the back of the Trandoshan's head.

"Not your lucky day, uh, Bossk?" the smuggler joked.

"Solo." the sentient lizard hissed. "You should have disappeared after paying your debt to Jabba."

"What can I say? I found out I like noble causes." Han quipped.

Ezra dematerialized his armor and stepped closer to the bounty hunter.

"I don't know how deep your relationship with Tyber Zann is, Bossk." Ezra started in a diplomatic attitude. "But I suggest you stay away from him. In any case, now go tell him that the child is under the protection of the Jedi Order. And wherever he will try to seed corruption, exploitation or theft, we will not stand aside and watch."

Bossk made another hiss, though not one of hostility, before replying. "You have become strong, kid, I'll give you that. But today you have made an enemy even more dangerous than the Empire."

Then he stood up and limped back to his parked freighter, while the few prisoners were also released and forced to go away with one of their transports.

Finally, it was time to regroup, and for the two mandalorian sub-cultures to meet, at last.

"So...these are the deal?" Sabine asked with a whisper to Jaral.

The Jedi hummed in thought, then stepped forward between the two groups.

Despite a few tensions, the first meeting was overall cordial. The Tribe was officially invited to settle on Lothal, on the territory that the local administration had assigned to the House of Atin. On the condition that they would be allowed to be a separate settlement, so they could have the privacy dictated by their rule about the helmet, the members of the Tribe accepted.

"Hey," said Luke after the encounter was over. "Can we at least take a look at the kid that caused all of this mess?"

Ezra turned his head toward the current warden of the child. "Din?"

The mandalorian nodded and went inside the Razor Crest. It didn't take long before everyone started gathering around the ramp.

February 6, 2227.

Despite being crippled, the Golan-III was still standing in orbit, and still in the hands of the Commonwealth. It seemed like the imperials had renounced the idea of storming the platform, as the presence of Ahsoka, Kota and the Padawans more or less balanced out any edge that Starkiller and the Astartes could give to the attack.

So, the imperials had gone for the second pattern available to them: go around the platform and simply start the invasion of the surface when the rotation of the planet allowed it.

Since the Golan was locked in a geostationary position over the planet's main fortress, another way to win was to try and secure a few of the islands on the surface and then proceed with a more traditional terrestrial warfare while the Navy kept a modest control over the orbit.

That way, if the imperial Army took the surface, and the main supply base of the Commonwealth, it would only be a matter of time before the crew of the defense platform died of starvation or ran out of food and water, which needed to be constantly resupplied via shuttles departing from the main base, and the supplies were regularly sent in by daring convoys of the Commonwealth that made the run exactly every 37 hours, the moment where the part of the planet they needed to land would be facing directly toward the Commonwealth's territory.

Still, without a serious fleet to contest the imperial one, it meant that the ground invasion was feasible, and that was why Jordan found himself on the surface of Llanic, onto an island called

Kyrtos, where there was an airbase that the Empire intended to capture and use it for an assault on Albian, the main island of the planet.

Using the cover of the previous night, the Empire had landed two battalions onto the shore of Kyrtos, since the anti-air defenses on the island would not allow a rapid air-land maneuver. Just like the wars of two centuries before on Earth, Jordan reasoned, the Empire had to start the invasion with an amphibious landing and then fight its way toward the rest of the land.

The imperials had gathered inside an abandoned farm estate, which had a few buildings that were decrepit but still standing. In response, the Commonwealth had rapidly deployed barricades and dug trenches to form a perimeter just outside the landing zone.

Per Jordan's suggestion, the local commander had agreed to simply hold the position and wear the imperials down while reinforcements arrived.

It was early afternoon. There were movements in the imperial camp that seemed to announce an attack, and the rebels were taking positions at the barricades. The current battlefield developed on the single paved road from the estate, a hollow on its right and a small forest on the left, those were the only points where an army could transit. Those sides were covered respectively by Michalina and Thabo.

Jordan noticed Dhara and the other members of the Jedi militia preparing stretchers and aid posts with the only two medics that the Commonwealth had on that island. The lack of medical personnel in the Commonwealth was a critical problem that Jordan had already reported to the UACT. For this reason, Dhara had decided that she and her escort would focus solely on rescuing the wounded.

The Legionnaire's senses went on high alert as he heard a familiar whisper in the air.

"Raise the shields!" he ordered promptly.

Most of them were activated quickly, just as the sound of the mortar's projectiles became loud and clear, but one of them needed for the first grenades to fall in order for the operator to shit his pants and finally getting it up.

The imperials opened the battle with ten minutes of barrage. To Jordan, who was used to this and had his helmet anyway to reduce the sound, it wasn't much of a problem. A few of the recruits of the Commonwealth, though, were already huddling against the barricade, covering his ears with a face on the verge of crying, but at least they didn't give in to panic and ran away from the safety of the shield.

Probably seeing from the estate that they weren't getting results, the imperials halted the bombardment and an entire battalion sullied out.

The shields were powerful but small, so they had to be deactivated in order for the defenders to open fire.

"Blast them!" the rebel Major yelled and all hell broke loose.

On the other side, the imperials started firing too. A stray blaster bolts hit an Ishi Tib in the chest and he fell down. Jordan was returning fire while Dhara immediately sprang into action, diving next to the wounded to rescue him.

News came that the other two sectors were also under attack. The Major called in the artillery support, consisting of a single battery of plasma mortars not far from the fighting, but as they started to pound the road, the attackers, forced to fight in a narrow passage, suffered terrible casualties.

Jordan only barely managed to ignore the screams of those who were abruptly severed from their limbs and laid on the ground in front of him.

In just a few minutes, most of the imperials had been slain, out there in the open. Only a few dozen survivors decided that it was useless to keep attacking upward and with no cover, and ran back to their positions.

"They're fleeing. Chase them! Cut them down!" the Major ordered with enthusiasm.

"What?!" Jordan muttered to himself.

But, to his horror, the soldiers yelled and ran over the top. Blinded by victory, they didn't realize that they were going to suffer the exact same fate as their enemies.

"Major, call off the attack! It's a suicide!" Jordan yelled, but the officer himself didn't listen and ran past the barricade, charging at the head of their men.

"Bloody wanker!" he muttered angrily.

The voice of Thabo then came on his communicator. "Jordan, we repelled the attack, but the Commons are attacking!" he said alarmed.

"Same here. Follow them and draw enemy fire, they will have to realize it at some point." was all Jordan could do.

Unfortunately, just as he predicted, the counter-attack was already turning into a slaughter. The Commonwealth didn't have the capacity to supply its soldiers with good defenses, meaning that these soldiers were still wearing the wool uniforms of the early Rebellion. When an E-Web started firing from the second floor of one of the estate's buildings, the bolts tore through the ranks of the troopers.

Jordan sprinted forward at the top of the line, just to find out that the Major was already missing and the rebels were paralyzed. Of course, the imperials had left a rearguard in the perimeter of their main base, and that, combined with the survivors of the failed attack who were now turning and firing again, unleashed a rain of blaster bolts on the unsuspecting 'Commons', as the Legionnaires had nicknamed them.

"Fall back! Fall back! Get your bloody asses back to the trench!" Jordan yelled and gestured from the top of the line, where he was already drawing the attention of the imperials.

He activated his directional shield while he walked backward, but the E-web quickly focused fire on him. Before the shield collapsed under the intense rate of fire, Jordan promptly acted by throwing two smoke grenades that created a screen big enough for him to retreat relatively safely. While avoiding to stomp over the tens of bodies laying on the ground, Jordan rushed back and jumped back into the fortifications when the last Common survivor had already got to safety.

All were shaken and tired, some were lightly wounded. Jordan noticed the mandalorians and militiamen putting other men on the stretchers and then on a truck that was preparing to reach the airbase. Jordan threw another glimpse at the horrible show of death that was separating the two sides of this battle. Bodies of both the imperial and commons soldiers were laying on the ground. Some barely moved, others were still crying out for help. A miserable sight, indeed.

"Dhara!" he heard Zare yelling. Then he saw the young man frantically walking up and down, looking around. "Sis, where are you?!"

Jordan quickly walked up to him. "What happened?" he asked.

"I can't see Dhara. She left to take the Major back…" Zare replied in fear, pointing briefly at the officer. Jordan saw that that man had lost an arm, but was still breathing.

"And then?"

"She ran off to somebody else...then we retreated and...I lost sight of her." he said, fear gripping his voice. "I need to go find her." he added as he already reached for the barricade.

Jordan immediately held him. "Where do you think you're going?! You're gonna get killed, too!"

Dhara regained her senses. Her head felt heavy, but she quickly realized that she was fine. The mortar shell had only sent her flying without breaking bones or mutilating her.

She looked around, taking cover behind one of the few bushes around. There was an eerie silence compared to what she remembered last. It didn't take long fore her to figure out that the battle was over, for the moment, and that nobody had won.

Doubt and fear suddenly assailed her mind: she knew she was stranded in no man's land, and there was no telling if the imperials would be shooting at her or not if she came out.

But as fear was gaining ground in her heart, a hum came from the kyber crystal. Dhara took it in her fingers and rubbed it, seeking solace and counsel in the Force. All around her became even more quiet, but a peaceful one.

'What do I do, now?' her mind simply asked.

She wasn't actually seeking some divine guidance, she was simply thinking rationally. However, loud and clear came a voice from the sea of dead people laying along and on the sides of the road.

"Mother...Mother...please…" the voice whimpered weakly.

Dhara looked in the direction the voice was coming from. As she did that, there was no doubt, no more fear in her. Only a clear intention and goal.

She stood up, checked up the stim-packs, medi-gel and other supplies she still had and ventured out. It was dusk, and even if she hoped that the imperials would not see her, she knew it was impossible with her bright white uniform. Still, she didn't hesitate. She stood up and sprinted toward the voice, which came from the opposite side of the road.

Surprisingly, nobody shot in her direction.

When she arrived, she saw the source of that voice: a young imperial soldier, his legs both had a massive hole on the knees and near them, but the limbs were still attached, if barely.

She didn't waste a second and knelt next to him. She looked at his face: he was a boy of perhaps 20 years. At first he was terrified, thinking only that Dhara wasn't an imperial medic.

"It's all right. I'm here to help you." she whispered gently as she reached for a stim-pack and showed it to him. "See? I'm sure you know it."

She then injected it into the right thigh of the man and his fear abated, leaving place to relief.

Dhara then put a hand on that same leg and closed her eyes, reaching into the Force to do what she had trained for in the last few months. Through her connection she felt what the man's wound was: muscles destroyed, the bone exposed and a lot of missing nerves.

He might have lost the legs, unless she did something.

She remembered everything that Mira taught her and put her regeneration at work. In her mind she had to figure out every strata of tissue that she had to rebuild and see it rebuilt.

Eventually, she wasn't able to restore all the flesh, but she did restore the muscles and most of the nerves, the rest could be regenerated inside a bacta tank.

Dhara made a silent sigh and reopened her eyes. The soldier was looking with popping eyes at the miracle that was occurring on his body. After a moment, the amazement gave way to an immense and radiant smile.

"I thought I lost them!" he said with a voice choked by the sheer happiness, then he chuckled uncontrollably.

Dhara felt sense of peace and fulfillment in seeing that reaction, and smiled herself before patting the man on the chest. "Come on, we need to get you back. Can you walk a bit?"

"I don't know." the soldier replied with a tone still contorted by the happiness.

Dhara offered him her shoulders and the man managed to stand up, then they walked both toward the imperial post.

At first, the sentinels aimed arms at her, but some of them noticed that she was carrying one of their comrades, so instead they called up the stretcher-bearers, who ran toward them when the two were practically at the door of the mansion's fence.

The medics didn't seem to bother as they loaded their wounded on, but the other soldiers were looking flabbergasted.

A field officer showed up and waited until they were done with the wounded.

"Thank you...thank you…" the man said in the most sincere way imaginable while the medics carried him to the field hospital.

Dhara took a breather and looked at the officer, who simply nodded a positive. Then he asked humbly "Who are you?"

She took a moment and replied. "Just a Jedi."

The officer didn't flinch, but his aura was a whirlwind of contradicting thoughts. Of course, Dhara had been an imperial cadet, and she knew perfectly what kind of reputation the Jedi had in the Empire. Yet, the soldier in front of her had just seen all those prejudices vanished in front of Dhara's action.

"I'll be back with anyone I can find." she said. "You better keep your stretchers ready."

The officer nodded firmly and turned around to give the instructions. Dhara turned around and ran back to the killing fields, following the next voice that the Force was amplifying for her. Night was almost completely fallen and this time she found out a soldier of the Commonwealth, breathing meekly as a bolt had burned one of his lungs. She even recognized him.

"Hey, Rimby. It's Dhara." she reassured him before using a capsule of medi-gel on him.

Rimby groaned in response. At least that meant that he was conscious.

Dhara again focused on the wound and managed to remove the burn, restore a bit of tissue in the lungs and close the hole with a new flesh that she forced to grow. Once again, it strained her mind, but she had no intention of stopping there.

"We'll fix you up. Ready to get out of here?" she asked.

"Sure I am." the man replied, but he still wasn't able to walk.

Dhara grabbed him from the tactical vest and started dragging him uphill for more than 200 meters. She felt like her arms could tear away any moment, but she kept going on, invigorated by her faith in the Force.

When she showed up at her trench, the amazement on everybody's faces was the same as the one of the imperials. Dhara made another effort and put Rimby on his feet, so that the soldiers on the other side could grab him and drag him over the barricade.

"There are others out there." she said to them. "Keep the stretchers ready."

"Wait, we're calling your brother…" one of the soldiers said.

"No. Tell him I'm fine, but the imperials already know me. They won't shoot unless they see any other uniform but mine." she promptly explained, her breath heavy but the voice firm and decisive.

The Corporal who listened made a nod and let her go.

Dhara headed back, finding another Commonwealth's soldier. Then an imperial NCO. And so on, and on she went, until dawn set in. The fights were probably going to resume shortly, and her muscles just couldn't hold anymore. She brought back the last of her allies back to the trench, where Zare was waiting for her.

Then she collapsed from the fatigue.

February 7, 2227.

The report seemed just...absurd. And yet, Iulius had no problem believing it.

A single Jedi girl had just saved 19 imperial wounded soldiers from a slow and painful death during the night on Llanic, and presumably more rebels, but that wasn't the matter.

Even if his experience showed that they weren't the bloodthirsty wizards that the imperial propaganda depicted, Iulius still thought of the Jedi as enemies who wanted to tear down the Empire, and everything it stood for.

Yet, here was the proof that it wasn't the case. At least, not for all of them.

Looking through the ISB database after confronting the pictures taken by the troopers on the surface, Iulius had also found out that the woman's name was Dhara Leonis, and he remembered her name from his time at the Academy on Lothal, for she was top of the First Year when he was transferred on Coruscant at the end of his Second.

Now she was a Jedi without a lightsaber and healing wounded so casually?

The Lord-Protector wasn't sure what he wanted to do with this intel. The imperial policy was to not recognize any other organization or state inside the galaxy. Only the Federation had some legitimacy in the eyes of Coruscant.

But how could he ignore this? How could he ignore the fact that there were still plenty of people out there who were trying to preserve the slightest shred of dignity for all beings in the midst of such a brutal conflict?

His conscience was clearly against doing anything to censor this story. He decided that he would publicly ignore its spreading.

That said, he couldn't help but confront this episode, and the attitude of the Jedi, with the Force-users on his side. And he knew full well that Vader or Starkiller would have most likely killed every defenseless wounded rebel while ignoring their own subordinates.

He called up Qathora to his office.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Do you think you can pass a message to the Jedi?" Iulius asked with a whisper.

Qathora's expression became more serious, realizing that something wasn't right. "One way or the other...yes. Why?"

"Nothing. Just wanted to send my thanks." Iulius replied with a smirk. "Wait here, I'll just need a moment."

He wrote down a few lines where he sent his thanks to Dhara Leonis; he didn't sign just in case someone intercepted it, then loaded the message inside an empty holodisc and gave it to his assistant. Qathora made a small nod and left the office, leaving Iulius alone with his thoughts for a while before it was time to find a way to break the stalemate.

Hello there.

This chapter will come out earlier than usual, but I just couldn't hold back from writing since I have been waiting for this last piece for a while. I guess I am glad it comes out the same day as the new episode of 'Ahsoka' comes out and gives us Rebel's fans more emotions.

Anyway, I think the actions of the Bridgers and Dhara describe the best what the Jedi Order will become in this Saga, and also that this work will also cover the most sinister aspects of war that Star Wars, for justified reasons, usually glosses over. All the horror and suffering are however vital to shape the characters and the future of the galaxy that will come out at the end of this journey.

See you on the next chapter. And I hope you're enjoying both my book and the 'Ahsoka' show.

Ganel750.