Chapter Sixteen: Immortal Hate
"I despise these Je'daii—arrogant, self-righteous meddlers to a one. Either I'll be the death of them, or they'll be the death of me. I can't see any other end."
Queen Hadiya of Shikaakwa, commonly called 'the Despot'
10,647 TYA (shortly before her assassination by a Je'daii)
538 LE
Seen from the viewscreen of the Theophany, Varl was a slim white crescent limning starless black. The Holy Lights of Ardos and Evona provided the Hutt homeworld with a hundred hours of daylight at a time, but at this moment almost half the planet was turned away from its suns. To Churabba it seemed lost to darkness.
A trick of the angle, of course, but it seemed a terrible omen.
She'd hurried here with the Theophany as quickly as she could. Everything she'd heard at Karsatel filled her with dread. Oziaf's tale seemed calculated to terrorize. She couldn't be certain the rat was telling the truth, but from the apparent dread of the other bipeds, it was not just a trick aimed at her.
Despite the ancient threat that had seemingly been roused, her thoughts dwelt on her nephew. Oziaf had claimed Kossak arranged the human attack on Nar Kreeta in order to draw the Patarii into the war. It was an act of betrayal which had killed several Hutts, and the worst part was, Churabba hadn't been surprised to hear it.
But had Kossak arranged for Ontagga's death also? Had he poisoned Ardustagg? She didn't know how to confront Kossak or if she should. Never had her universe seemed so uncertain.
But one awful fact was clear: the Demon had returned, and it was out for vengeance.
Churabba wrestled with calling Kossak back from Vontor. He'd taken so many ships that Varl was left pitifully under-defended. Including the battered Theophany, only three chelan-dions were in the entire system. Depending on her nephew and all he'd done—all he might have done—made her sick, but the homeworld needed help.
She was about to cast a message to Vontor when the Demon arrived.
There was no doubt about it. The object that appeared from hyperspace did so well clear of Varl's hyperspace beacon but within its solar system. As it approached the planet, Churabba's technicians scrambled to explain what it was, but she already knew.
The Iduxians had called it a Star Forge: an ancient Warden machine the size of a small moon, resurrected by the Demon and its pawns.
"Call all ships to battle stations!" she hollered across the Theophany's command deck. "We must attack that machine! Do not let it reach the homeworld!" She told Zantor, "We need reinforcements. Hail Vontor! Kossak must bring his ships!"
The t'landa Til hesitated. "Kossak won't cede the world to Xim now."
"He must! That is no ordinary foe out there, it's the Demon!"
Zantor didn't believe it, couldn't. Only someone who'd fought the Demon at the Hell's gate could understand her terror. But he was still her hierophant, and he obeyed.
Or he tried. The Cyborreans replied timorously, and Zantor told her, "We have a problem. Our translight hails are not going through. We can barely manage short-range comms with the Expiation or Epiphany. The Star Forge must be blocking our signals."
Which meant they were on their own. Churabba's skin went dry. Doom was coming to Varl and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"Let me see it," she croaked. "On the screen. Show me the Star Forge."
A moment later the viewscreen showed a maximum-magnification image of the inbound monstrosity. It was distant enough to appear shrunken, but she could discern its spherical body and the three long angular arms stretching out, like a fist with three fingers extending downward.
The design was unmistakably of the Wardens. At its head (so Oziaf and the Iduxians said, so she had to believe) was the Demon returned. It was worse than any nightmare and Churraba quivered head-to-tail in fear, but she would not flee. Could not.
She was a Child of the Holy Light and she'd not abandon her gods to a devil.
-{}-
Even with several thousand people aboard, the gigantic Star Forge was almost entirely empty. Nonetheless, it felt dense with frenzy as Iduxians—Jedi and non-Jedi both—hurried to their assigned tasks.
Moorai's was to join one of the starships that would fly interference against the Hutts protecting Varl. She'd never been aboard one of these Iduxian ships and couldn't speak Tionese, but she'd been paired with a human who'd learned some of the Jedi tongue.
Communication was a lesser worry. She and many other Jedi, especially those who'd joined this whirlwind war a few weeks ago, emanated uncertainty. Erakas's speech in the observation room had shocked many, Moorai perhaps less than most. Still, she was discomposed.
Daneel Kayn walked with her to the docking section on the Forge's outer edge. The Zabrak told her, "Olander is one of our best. Trust him to fly the ship and direct the others. Concentrate on the other Jedi. Keep your wills bound together."
"I'm not a soldier. And I have little experience with this… battle meditation."
"You can still give the others strength. Jedi are there for Jedi. Always."
She still believed that, but she'd never realized what it could mean until now. "Is this really the only way to protect ourselves? Bringing down Xim is one thing, but to burn a world…"
"The Hutts have murdered entire species and they'd do it again if we let them. If they could touch the Force, they'd be Bogan incarnate."
"And are we Ashla or Bogan today?" She'd never wholly believed in the dark-and-light division of the Force, but she knew Kayn did. Or at least, he had.
The Zabrak wavered under her gaze but didn't turn away. "I don't like this. No one does. Erakas…"
"It tortures him. We can all feel it." Respect for their leader, weirdly tinged with pity, was the one thing uniting every Jedi. "But is this really the only way?"
"I wish it weren't… but I believe it is. After we do this, I'm going to recommend we destroy the Star Forge."
She was surprised. Kayn had invested years of labor into this machine and decades of study before that. In many ways, this resurrected Rakata behemoth was his life's work.
Yet his intention was clear. Today was awful but it was necessary, and it would never happen again.
If they kept telling themselves that, they might be able to go through with it.
"Are you sure the Forge will do what you ask?" she said. "What happened those unusual readings you told me about?"
Kayn frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You mentioned you'd found traces of malterranium in the foundry smelter."
"That? Oh, that was nothing… We must have pulled it from the star somehow," he said, though he sounded of uncertain. He shook his head as if to clear it. "The Forge will work. I don't doubt that. We just need all the Jedi to do their parts… even if they're not happy with it."
"I am not happy," Moorai sighed, "but I rarely am. You are right. Jedi for Jedi."
As they neared the branch-off to Moorai's ship, Kayn slowed. "I never forgot all the old arguments at Corellia. Sometimes I think you were right. That we should have stayed out of it all. Then things wouldn't have come to this."
Moorai wondered where Jecca was now, what she'd make of all this, whether they would (for once) actually agree on some-thing. She told Kayn, "Was I right? You can study the Force for a lifetime, but if you refuse to connect with those around you, you won't really understand it. And Gedor is correct. With those connections come responsibility."
They stopped at the branch. Kayn gave her an appraising look. "What happened to change your mind?"
It was, rather, what had not. Shen had felt Master Talyak's death as it happened. After talking to other newly-arrived Jedi she'd learned they had too. But not Moorai, who'd travelled with Talyak for years. Without realizing it, she'd walled herself off from others and thus from the Force.
There wasn't time to explain. An intercom echoed down the hallway, telling all Jedi to take their stations. She lifted her head and told him, "I must go."
"Be safe." Kayn squeezed her shoulder: the simplest, purest connection.
"You as well."
"I'll be in the command room with Erakas. Just worry about yourself."
"Thank you." She raised a webbed hand in salutation. Kayn nodded, turned, and jogged down the hall.
As she headed for the ship, Moorai realized that neither had asked the Force to be with them.
-{}-
The Star Forge's arena-shaped control center was full of activity, but it seemed weirdly quiet. Voices were hush, movements jerky. Everyone was waiting for the inferno to come.
The Forge had dropped out of hyperspace well beyond Varl, but its mammoth engines pushed it at sublight speed toward the planet. The tactical display at the arena's lowest stage was an ethereal holographic light-show, the likes of which Erakas hadn't seen since leaving the Core. It displayed the Forge, the Hutt homeworld, and the fragile ribbon of Supremacy warships arrayed to intercept.
The worms didn't have enough firepower to stop the Forge, but there was no point in being reckless. Chief Fearey reported that the Iduxian ships were launching, and soon their light-points appeared on the display. There were almost forty of them, mostly Ranroon-model gunships, plus the Nemesis pressed into service. Less than half contained Jedi. Erakas faintly felt them link minds as they moved to intercept the Hutts.
Some Jedi would die today, and more Iduxians. But the Hutt homeworld would burn. That was guaranteed.
And then—only then—would the Jedi be safe.
"Paltry their defenses are," Gedor observed. He was perched atop a console beside Erakas, to the annoyance of Tam'pres, who'd relinquished the Hand of Light to Jedi and joined the Forge's crew. "Raised, the jamming field is?"
"We should be blocking all their communications," Tam'pres confirmed. "Translight and local."
Erakas knew the necessity of the jamming field. They couldn't allow the Hutts to call Kossak's fleet for help. Still, it nagged him. Once the worms realized what he was about to do they'd plead for mercy. He couldn't afford to give it to them but he felt, as a Jedi, he should at least hear their cries. He owed someone that much if he was about to take a life.
Gedor, as always, saw through him. "Necessary this is," his teacher soothed. "Justice this will bring, and an end to strife. Gone Xim and the worms shall be. Anew the galaxy will be made, and better under our guidance."
He looked at the holo. "I just want to it be over."
"Over it will be. Soon."
Erakas didn't feel Master Kayn enter the chamber, but he heard boots clap down the final stairs to the bottom tier. The Zabrak looked up at the holo. "Are they all away?"
"Yes. Comms are being jammed. They can't call for help."
"Good." Kayn added, "Let's get this over with. I'll prepare the ejection procedure."
"Join Shen in the observatory, I shall," said Gedor.
"Are you certain that's the safest place, Master?" Erakas asked. "It's pretty exposed."
"The Force I have to protect me. What more do I need? Besides, unmatched the view shall be." Gedor hopped off the console, to Tam'pres's relief. Before starting up the oversized stairs he looked back at the two Jedi. "Difficult this is, but faith in you I have. Victory for us all, today will be. Victory for the Force."
"I know." Erakas said with hard and bitter knowledge. "Thank you, Master. We'd never be here without you."
"Flattery I do not need. About to get everything long desired, I am." Then Gedor bounded up the stairs, more quick and eager than Erakas would have thought possible.
-{}-
A collision was about to happen in the Varl system. On one side: a Tyrant behemoth, a Hutt dromon, and forty Ranroon-style light attack ships. On the other: three chelandions, four tarradas, a dozen batils and dozen small badans.
All of that, and the Gravity Scorned.
After hearing Oziaf's confession at Karsatel, the T'iin T'iin had joined Essan and Jecca in sprinting for Vontor. Oziaf said he had to speak to Xim. Essan had to find Erakas. Guiding the Gravity Scorned for thousands of lightyears with no hyperspace beacons would only slow the Jedi down, so (reluctantly but unanimously) the Krollers had agreed to be ferried to Varl with the Theophany. They didn't trust the Hutts, but the hyperspace route to known space was too dangerous to pass right now.
They hadn't expected danger to find them. Kroller detached the Gravity Scorned from the chelandion as soon as the Star Forge arrived. The giant was too far away for Reina to see, and of course she didn't have the Force, but unnatural dread prickled through her body.
Erakas was aboard that thing. She was certain of it.
And so was Gedor. The Prophet. The Demon.
The thing that had killed her son.
Erakas said hate was dangerous for a Jedi, but Reina was happy to indulge. It gave her clarity of purpose like she hadn't known in years. She wondered what Erakas was feeling as he prepared Varl's doom. Was it hate or was it something cold, hard, dry? When they'd parted, he'd seemed a husk of what he should have been.
At least now she knew who was responsible. If only she could tell him.
"The comm jamming is too strong," she snarled the others. She'd tried a half-dozen ways to get a signal to the Forge but nothing was working.
"What can we do?" asked Vaatus.
"I don't know… We might be able to tight-beam a signal if we get closer."
"How close?"
"I don't know…"
"Close isn't where we want to be right now," Kroller said. "The missiles are gonna start flying any minute."
"Do you think they can stop the Forge from reaching Varl?" asked Vaatus.
"I wouldn't bet on," Kroller grunted. "Sorry to disappoint."
Reina glanced at Vaatus. He had his back turned and said nothing, but she had a feeling the prospect of the Hutts getting collectively vaporized didn't cheer him as much as he'd once thought it would.
Reina wouldn't shed tears for the worms, but she would for Erakas if he was forced to go through with this.
"Get us closer," she told her father, because it was either that or sit on the sidelines. "Burn fast. Keep away from the other ships. I'll keep trying to contact Erakas."
Kroller didn't touch his controls. "I just told you, it'll gonna get nasty real fast."
"Fly around it. Just get us close to the Forge."
"And what if it starts shooting at us?"
Reina gnawed her lip. She wanted to tell him Erakas wasn't that far gone, but she couldn't, and she didn't know who really controlled that thing.
"Just get us closer. Please."
After a drawn-out second Kroller said, "I guess it's too late for 'not my problem,' isn't it?"
It had been for a while. Nobody needed to say that.
The Gravity Scorned's hard acceleration pushed Reina against the back of her chair. Despite that she held tight to her console and tried again to break through.
-{}-
The Iduxians' assault on Varl was oddly defensive. The Hutt fleet, modest as it was, pushed away from the planet and a vanguard of batils launched the first wave of missiles. The gunships leading the Star Forge released clouds of chaff and fell back. Most of the initial volley exploded in the chaff screen and the straggling missiles were picked off by experienced Iduxian gunners.
But that was only the first round.
The gunships couldn't stop the Supremacy fleet alone, but that wasn't the point. The aim was to distract the Hutts and draw fire away from the Star Forge. The giant continued forward, slowly but surely, toward its destination.
From the control center, Erakas could dimly feel the Jedi in the gunships. They'd woven their minds together best they could to coordinate efforts and dampen the spirits of the enemy, but most had just arrived a few weeks ago and none were masters at battle meditation. He wished Jecca were here to help, almost as much as he wished Essan were present.
She, more than him, had been the one who'd wanted to experience the Force unleashed. He wasn't sure if she'd like it, but it was going to happen today.
As Kayn circled the control room and prepared the Forge to disgorge its star-hot core, Erakas felt Gedor and Shen too, far above in the observation dome. Everyone was doing their part. It was hard for them—it was hard on him—but he was proud to see the Jedi come together and do what had to be done.
He was admiring the tactical hologram when he noticed one small light break away from the battle zone, then made a wide arc that set it on course for the Star Forge. He went to the nearest technician, a young human, and asked her, "Can you identify that ship?"
"I'll try, sir." She tapped on her console. "Should we arm missiles to intercept?"
"Get them ready," he said, but something nagged at him.
After a minute the tech said, "Still trying to get a clear reading, sir, but the drive signature is deuterium thrust, not ion. It's a Tionese ship."
"But it broke off from the Hutts?"
"I think so."
Erakas reached out with the Force, hoping to get a sense of it. In times like this the clarity of an audio hail would have cut through the mire, but it was essential the jamming field stay up. He felt a presence on the edge of the battle, possibly that ship's, which was not a Jedi's but nonetheless familiar.
And then he lost it. A dull ache throbbed in his head. It was like the Force as well as comms was being jammed, but that was impossible. The enormity of what he was doing must be distorting his senses.
"Sir," the tech said, "it's getting close to weapons range."
"Get a lock on it… but don't fire. Not yet."
She looked uncertain but complied. Erakas moved to the comm station and asked Tam'pres, "Is there any way we can connect with that inbound ship?"
Tam'pres frowned. "We've got the jamming field up."
"I know, but can you cut through with a narrow-beam hail?"
"I can try." He shifted a hand, then froze. "We're getting an incoming signal. Very garbled. It might be that ship."
"Can you connect?"
"Maybe." Both hands worked the console. Erakas leaned close and heard static burst over the speaker.
"Can you clean it up?"
"I'm trying."
He heard a voice through the static. Sharp, high. Female. Familiar. But he couldn't be sure. Erakas looked at the holo and saw the mystery ship had drawn close to the Forge. It was well within firing range and the human technician looked the question at him.
Erakas asked Tam'pres, "Anything?"
"Let me try one more thing…"
For a few seconds the static cleared and he heard Reina's voice. She sounded frantic, even breathless, but he knew it was her. "—turn this around right now. Erakas, please, it's me. I've got the Gravity here and—"
More static. Tam'pres twisted knobs and tried to adjust as Erakas's head wheeled. Reina and her father were here, at Varl, now, for this chosen apocalypse. It was the most impossible thing in the galaxy.
Her voice cleared again. "—do this, Erakas. It's Ged—"
More static. He leaned close to the grille and begged, "Reina, hold on. Please, can you hear me? Reina?"
Tam'pres shook his head. "We lost them."
Erakas swung back to the holo. The Gravity was so close it was practically skimming a tight orbit around the Forge.
"Sir," asked the other tech, "Weapons?"
"Hold your fire. Hold fire!" He threw up a hand and begged Tam'pres, "Are you sure you can't connect with their comms?"
"Not unless we drop the jamming field."
He craved to know what impossibility—maybe the will of the Force itself—had brought Reina here at this desperate hour. But he couldn't drop the jamming field. If Kossak brought his fleet to Varl they might lose everything.
Justice. Peace. The survival of the Jedi themselves.
"Don't drop it." His throat was like ashes. "Don't fire. Don't stop jamming."
"Then we just… leave them alone?"
It was the only thing to do. "Yes," he said. "Ignore them. Those people… they don't matter anymore."
It broke his heart to say it, but it was true, and there'd be much more breaking before the day was done.
-{}-
Kroller never thought he'd miss Oziaf, but he wished the rat was aboard his ship now. Then they'd have somebody with magic to ward off danger and maybe reach other magicians on the Forge. Instead they were just three Force-blind fools blundering to their doom.
Not that there was anything new about that.
"Damn it, I can't get through." Reina actually punched her console. "I heard him for a second. I know it was him."
Kroller decelerated as they closed upon the Star Forge. He tugged the control yoke to the left and curved alongside the sphere, just a few hundred meters above its metal hull.
"You want to try again?" he asked.
"I… I don't know." She sounded on verge of tears. "We were so close! So close!"
Another meat-to-metal thwack. She was going to break her hand soon. His daughter was on the brink again, and again he couldn't do a damn thing to help her because they'd stumbled into a war between gods but they were just Krollers, force-deaf and useless, every one of them.
"Father, we can't do this," Vaatus warned. "We should fall back."
But they'd gotten this far. Kroller was surprised nobody had shot at them earlier. They were flying so close they were beneath range of the Forge's guns right now, but if they turned tail someone might decide they were too tempting a target.
Which meant they were trapped. No safe haven, no way to run. He knew this thing had a bunch of exterior airlocks and it was possible—just possible—they could cut their way aboard. He kept turning around the Forge's hull, looking for ports, then veered away to avoid the blaze of a massive ion thrusters, as long as an entire Imperial polyreme.
And that was when he got an idea.
"Vaatus," he said, "What's the status of those warheads?"
His son was so surprised he fumbled the response. "I've, ah, I rigged them for remote arming, like you said. They're inert now."
But still weighing down the back of his cargo section, like they had been since he'd pushed from Far Barseg an eternity ago. All this time, through all the run-around, he'd vainly hoped someone would actually pay to take those things off his hands.
This, he admitted ruefully, was a better cause.
"Arm 'em all," he said. "Get ready to open the hold, unlock the racks and de-magnetize."
His kids knew what he was thinking. They just didn't know how to respond.
"Come on," Kroller said. "We can't hang here forever."
That got them moving. As she tapped her console Reina asked, "Are you sure we can do this?"
"I can do it." He was just a stupid, useless old man, but this was his ship and he could wrest miracles from it. He tilted the Gravity so the main hold doors along the ventral side of the hull faced the blazing engine. He killed all thrusters and allowed the Gravity to coast after the Forge's hot glow.
Now came the tricky part. He warmed the maneuvering jets on the Gravity's flanks and said, "Are we ready?"
"Doors are open," Reina reported.
"Warheads armed," said Vaatus. "Still locked in."
"Get ready to demagnetize. And hold on tight."
"Holding on," he said, and Reina echoed.
Kroller tapped the directional thrusters on the Gravity's tail. The ship swung like the spoke of a wheel, cockpit at the fulcrum, tail and cargo section at the moving edge.
"Now!" he barked.
Vaatus released the warheads. Inertia flung them from their berths, through the open doors, into space. Kroller reversed thrusters and spun the Gravity away but the bombs kept spilling out. Acceleration from the Gravity's wind-up and throw hurled them fast, right toward the Forge's massive thruster.
It wasn't a perfect throw. A few bombs scraped the hull noisily as they tumbled out, and for a heart-stopping second Kroller thought one would blow—and just one was enough to kill his ship.
But nothing detonated. The warheads spilled ahead. Through the cockpit porthole he could just see a few: dark specks about to be swallowed by the ion-burning glow.
Without bothering to close the hold, he slammed acceleration. Unloading those bombs made the Gravity half as heavy and twice as fast. Main thrusters pushed them ahead, just before the first one detonated.
And when one blew, the others weren't far behind. Concussive waves rocked them in their seats and for a second time Kroller thought they were dead, but they shuddered through.
Behind them, the Star Forge's largest engine detonated. The explosion tore parts of its hull to shreds. Lights-out power failures cascaded through its exterior and chunks of the outer hull went dark. Not enough to break the thing or even stop it, but enough to slow it down.
When small miracles were the best you could do, small miracles were enough.
But there was a problem with miracles. You usually had to pay for them, one way or another.
"Father?" said Vaatus, "Maybe we should get close to the Forge again."
Kroller did just that. As he swung them toward the super-structure Reina squawked, "Closer? Now?"
"Yeah, now," Kroller grimaced as g-force briefly blurred vision. "They weren't shootin' before but I bet they will."
The immense gray shape peeked into view. Kroller nudged them closer still, killed main engines and used directionals to skim above the hull, keeping pace with its curves.
"What now?" Vaatus sounded like his heart had briefly stopped. "Can we magnetize to the hull?"
"I'd rather find us an airlock."
"You think they'll let us aboard?"
"Let's got nothing to do with it. This thing is huge and there can't be that many people on it. Let's see if we can sneak inside this bastard."
"And then what?"
"What do you think?" Reina's voice no longer trembled. "We find Erakas."
And Gedor too, but nobody said it. Kroller knew one other thing: if he could take a piece out of the freak who'd killed his grandson, he'd do it, even if he had to get in line. Even if he had to pay.
-{}-
Shen and Gedor sat in the observation dome atop the Star Forge. The Hutt ships were still far away and the view was perfect starlight unmarred by explosions or missiles. With the Force they'd reached together to hold the core of the Star Forge and prepare it for expulsion onto Varl. It was a great task but it felt so simple, so easy.
Then something went wrong. Shen has halfway out of his body, halfway merged with his ancestors' great machine. He didn't even notice the decks' tremor until it bucked beneath him, tipping him out of his meditation pose.
He opened his eyes and struggled upright. Gedor was levitating a meter into the air, legs crossed and eyes closed, a picture of serenity.
Shen wished he could be so strong. He had a communicator badge patched to his shirt and tapped open a line to the command center. "What has gone wrong?" he asked.
Kayn replied a second later. "Our main engine array just exploded."
"How?" He hadn't felt any attackers draw close.
"It doesn't matter. The explosion was massive. We have several hull breaches and power overloads in two more engines. We can barely move."
It sounded catastrophic. "What can we do?"
Another voice said without sound: Move the Forge ourselves we shall.
"We can still push our way through the Hutt line," Kayn replied, "but it will be harder. You should move to a more secure location."
"Y-yes. We'll do our best to help." Shen closed the link. Gedor remained perfectly still, seated on air. "He is correct," the Rakata said. "We should leave."
Fear you must not. Protected we shall be.
"Even here?" he looked at the dome and stars above.
Concentrate you must. Rely on us, the Forge now does. Move it, compel it, become it we must.
Everything had easy before, but now his confidence wavered. "You may be asking too much."
Your destiny this is. A fate meant only for you.
And it was true. Besides Gedor, nobody else had his natural affinity with the Star Forge. It was the embodiment of the terrible history passed down his ancestors, which only he could redeem. This was the reason he'd been granted the Force in the first place. The purpose of his very existence.
So he did as Gedor asked. Putting aside all doubts, Shen sat on the deck, closed his eyes, and stretched into the heart of the Star Forge. Gedor joined him, bound will with will, and they compelled the behemoth to move.
-{}-
Churabba wondered if her destiny to die fighting the Demon. When the Star Forge shuddered under the blow of an inexplicable explosion, she'd dared hope for salvation. But then, just as inexplicably, it began to move again.
There was no stopping it. She knew her warships weren't enough. Never mind that she was no Dominion and hadn't seen a battle since Hell's inferno. She simply didn't have enough firepower.
But perhaps there was another way. As the Star Forge inched closer, the magnified view aboard the Theophany's bridge revealed that chunks of its curved superstructure were pocked by explosions. Two of its arms had been mangled. That wasn't enough to stop the Forge but, she dared hope, damage rendered weak spots in its defenses.
"Zantor!" she called to her hierophant, "we must rouse troops. Load them into boring ships and launch them at the Forge."
The t'landa Til was quick. "Some may reach the hull. Many will be destroyed first."
"We'll all be destroyed unless we stop the Demon. If we can board it, we may have a chance."
"It will be done. Zantor dipped his horn respectfully, then charged off to coordinate.
She didn't think it would be enough; she remembered all too well the Demon's way of wreaking destruction. It fought not with weapons, but storms of hungry black magic. Yet in this desperate hour, they had to try anything.
Her thoughts flicked back to the Rebel Angels she'd met. Those flimsy, ugly, foolish bipeds might by the only hope for her race. Heart and body trembling, Churabba uttered a quiet prayer to unlikely gods.
-{}-
Purpose had become a palpable thing. Erakas touched it in the hard deck under his feet, heard it in the urgent murmur of the technicians ascending nine tiers above him, saw it in the dance of lights on the hologram overhead.
Most of all, he felt it in the Force. The echo of his past life—Reina and the Gravity Scorned—was gone. He was suffused in the urgent struggle of Jedi, Iduxians, Hutt minions, and the worms themselves. For all of them this was life-or-death, kill-or-be-killed, and he'd never felt the Force more primal and volatile than he did now.
He might have been scared of that once, but no longer. Looming over the battle, over everything, was the Forge itself. The ancient machine no longer felt hungry, nor sated. With Gedor and Shen to guide it, the Forge was like fate itself: slow, unstoppable, inescapable.
There were annoyances, pebbles in the road that needed to be stomped over. The Hutt chelandions launched wave after wave of small attack craft. They were too many for the Iduxian gunships to block and some reached the Star Forge. The Forge unleashed its missiles, and every time one struck its target Erakas felt the deaths of dozens of Hutt minions packed inside the flying deathtraps.
The worms used those lives callously, but not without purpose. A few attack ships slipped past the missiles and impacted on the outer hull. Erakas didn't understand what they were doing at first, but reports reached the command center that attack teams were burning their way inside the Forge.
More than pebbles, perhaps. The Star Forge was huge but its crew was few. Any intruders posed a danger. Worse, most of his Jedi had been sent out in the gunships. For a moment, purpose wavered.
It was Kayn who said, "We need all personnel to fall back to secure key areas! That means the command center, the engine section, and every place that can access the core. Come on, move it people!"
The technicians, frantic yet sluggish, tried to adapt to the new threat. Erakas asked Kayn, "Are you sure this is the best idea?"
"If we send people to every landing point we'll be spread too thin." The Zabrak pointed at the holo, where a half-dozen red circles were scattered over the Forge's skin. "We still have the advantage. This place is huge and they have no idea where they're going. If we fortify the essentials, we can hold."
Erakas was glad one of them could be rational at a time like this. Kayn squeezed his shoulder. "The Force wants us to do this. And we will."
"I know." Erakas tried to clear his head. "The 'essentials' includes Gedor and Shen, doesn't it?"
"Definitely. I'll tell them to move, if they haven't already."
"Send people to get them." Erakas looked at the display. One of those landing points was worryingly close to the topside observation dome.
"I'll designate a team." Kayn turned to go, then pivoted back. "You might want to give the Hutts a taste of their own medicine."
Another good idea. And Erakas knew just who should deliver it.
-{}-
The Nemesis was durable but it was not a combat ship, and it had so far lingered on the edge of the battle zone. Koltatha's body was on the bridge with the Morgukai but his soul was with the Jedi in the gunships. He was no Jecca Tholme, but he did his best to help. As long as they clung to their purity of purpose—noble, brutal purpose—they'd prevail.
He was jarred by a special, personal touch. It was Erakas, reaching to him from the heart of the Star Forge. He couldn't communicate much across this distance, only a simple desire. But that was enough.
Koltatha understood the plan, but he wasn't sure if the dromon was capable. He opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and called Morguk and Sakaaf to him.
He told the Nikto, "We need to take the fight to the Hutts. Can we get close enough to one of their ships to board it?"
"I have been looking." Morguk pointed to the tactical screen. "One chelandion holds back. Sensors say, damaged. Easy pickings. And more." Nikto didn't smile, but Koltatha could feel his glee. "It is Theophany, of Churabba the Liberator." Not a smile, but a sneer. "She is the worm who 'liberated' Kintan. She brought slavery to my people."
Koltatha understood. In a war against gods, this was a personal as it got. "The Theophany then?"
"Theophany," Morguk nodded. "I want Churabba. I want her to watch Varl die. Will you fight with us, Jedi?"
How could he not? Koltatha wouldn't hold back, as he had during the taking of the Nemesis. He was a different Jedi now; he'd learned to make light through darkness.
How strange that he, who'd so long distrusted the Force-deaf, now gave of himself for their cause. But the cause was righteous; he was certain of it, and that justified everything.
"I will," he said. "Jedi and Morgukai fight together."
-{}-
Shen was wrenched from meditation when lethal intent crashed into the observation done. He fell into his body and his body toppled to the deck. As he struggled to his feet he saw figures rushing through the entrance door.
He did not know their race, but they were tall, lean, creatures dressed in black armor, with firearms aimed and ready.
Shen knew he couldn't fight them all, but he fumbled for his lightsaber anyway—
—and was thrown like a doll across the room. Shen hit the deck shoulder-first and rolled side-over-side until he slammed against a wall. He groaned, tried to rise, and looked up.
Two dozen armored troopers had fanned out. Between them and Shen, there was only Gedor. The little Prophet stood with both feet on the ground, facing his attackers. He lifted a three-clawed hand, as though begging them to stop.
They opened fire.
The thunder-crash and muzzle-flare lasted five seconds and forever. Shen stared into the light, expecting a round to crack his skull any second. But when the shooting stopped, nothing had happened. The soldiers were standing where they'd been.
So was Gedor.
Shen blinked. He saw the hundreds of tiny black dots that pocked the space between Gedor and the soldiers. Hundreds of bullets, he realized: a wall of them, all frozen in place by the Force.
Gedor flicked his wrist.
There was no sound, but the bullets shot back at the soldiers, fast as if they'd burst from a barrel. A second later the chamber echoed with grunts, gasps, the crack of armor and the rendering of flesh. One body sagged and fell, and then another. Dropped guns and corpses made a cacophony against the deck.
After twenty seconds, only five soldiers were standing, though they wavered in confusion and fear.
Five soldiers, and Gedor.
The Prophet didn't move a muscle, but in perfect unison five heads flew from shoulders to the far side of the room. Blood gushed from torn necks as the last bodies collapsed.
Shen's heart pounded. He could barely breathe. Gedor turned and walked slowly toward him. When he drew close enough, the small creature made a motion with his hand. Shen was gently lifted, tilted upright, and lowered onto two feet.
He stared down at Gedor and the deck filled with blood and corpses, stunned beyond thought or feeling.
Gedor said, "Welcome you are, and correct you were. A more secure abode we require. To the command center, we should go."
Shen nodded shakily.
Gedor turned and moved for the door, nimbly moving around corpses with his tiny steps. He called back, "Hurry we should. Time, I fear, works against us after all."