Disclaimer: Lucasfilm, Bioware, Disney, et al. and whoever they sell the rights to next own Star Wars and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I write this for fun and not for any monetary gain.
A/N: Shields in Star Wars appear to be penetrable by anything that makes ground contact, but not repulsorlift vehicles or aircraft. While this is not officially confirmed, it does explain several peculiar things. For example, in Episode V, Darth Vader sent AT-ATs to assault Hoth without any air support or using weapons like proton torpedoes, which makes sense if the AT-ATs were the only things able to cross the rebel shields. Similarly, in Episode I, the Trade Federation's droid army was able to cross the Gungan shields, but not the big repulsorlift tanks (AATs).
Why is this a thing? Well, presumably, shields don't cut through solid material, or turning on a shield will be really destructive: you'd be opening a crack in the ground by turning on a shield and then turning it off, effectively detaching everything inside the shield from the ground. That seems overly destructive and antithetical to protecting what's inside. But then, what distinguishes a boulder that sits on the ground from someone standing on the ground? Hence, anything solid that's making direct contact and has their weight supported by terrain is treated by the shield as part of the terrain, and as such isn't blocked by the shields…
In light of this, the shields around the temple have similar limitations: Malak will not be able to bomb the temple with turbolasers or any physical projectile, nor could he drive repulsorlift vehicles across the water. However, he would be able to physically walk troops on the seafloor. Alternatively, if there's a solid object, like a wreck that breaches the surface, one would be able to walk across the shield. Since the shields surround the entire island and extends out to sea, Malak's assault options are really limited. He'd have to either walk troops on the seafloor or build a landbridge. Either option is going to take him a while. Revan chose his defences well. Remember, the earliest walker in Star Wars EU/Legends is apparently the Eternal Empire Walker, and that's not a thing at this point in history.
Special thanks to Tracyn on AO3 for fleshing out the limitations of shields with me.
Chapter 34: Beach Training
Despite the pleasant night under the stars, not all was well. After finishing a late breakfast, the newlyweds went to the cockpit to check for incoming messages. They found one from Admiral Dodonna, commander of the Republic Seventh Fleet Group.
"Reinforcements will arrive in two days," it read. "Master Vandar will also come with a Jedi strike force. We shall put a decisive end to Malak's reign of terror and his Star Forge."
"Sabre laser du grand maître des Jedi!" Revan cursed in Old Corellian and blasted a gizka that somehow got onto the Ebon Hawk with Force Lightning. "I know the Republic is incompetent, but I didn't expect them to be so slow at such a crucial juncture. I suppose I've forgotten how painful it was to work with them. There is little doubt Malak would spend those two days preparing traps and dirty strategies… just like last time. He might also launch a ground assault on our position. The temple's shields cover the waters, but it's not an insurmountable obstacle… And what if Malak summons reinforcements and beats the Republic before we can board the Star Forge? We can only hope that all his forces are occupied elsewhere." Indeed, it would have taken less than a day to travel from the Core with the hyperspace route they plotted. If the Republic had been battle-ready and departed quickly, then they would have arrived later in the day and not two days later. Then again, if the Republic had been so efficient and functional, it would have been a functional régime instead of one desperately needing replacement.
Bastila sighed. "What can we do now? Maybe train? Or continue to remove pests?"
"Yes, there is little else we can do other than waiting and training," her Master agreed, ignoring the part about pests, "but take care to not tire ourselves out when we actually need to fight."
"At least we have much more space now," she noted, trying to bring some positivity.
"Thank the Force for small mercies…"
The couple started to do some warmup exercises on the beach, before engaging each other in a quick lightsaber-only duel. Soon, the entire crew aboard the Ebon Hawk came down to watch the couple fight each other at blindingly fast speeds, their lightsabers appearing only as a blur. Some of the gathered Mandalorians, now following Canderous, also showed up to watch. The rest of them from the other islands had also arrived overnight, having crossed the shields by physically travelling through the wreck of the Hammerhead cruiser. Naturally, to prevent Malak from repeating this feat, Revan ordered the wreck to be blown up.
Suddenly, the duel came to an end when Bastila was struck at her side, and she cried out in pain. Of course, the lightsaber was on the lowest setting and couldn't cause any permanent damage. Her skin might be red for a few days, and that was nothing a quick bit of Force healing couldn't fix in an instant.
Deciding to pull a quick prank, she slapped an illusion onto herself, making a giant cauterized wound appear on her side. She fell over onto the sand, unmoving. Sensing she was in no way injured, her husband fell to his knees by her side anyway and cried out, "Bastila! Bastila! I am so sorry!" He cradled her body in his arms and appeared to sob. The rest of the crew watched on in horror.
"Did he actually just kill Bastila in an accident?" Mission whispered.
But the mischievous Sith apprentice couldn't hold her laughter any longer. She started giggling before bursting into a full laughter, falling out of her lover's arms to roll on the sand. Revan too found it amusing, though he restrained himself more. While he was distracted, she levitated her lightsaber to poke him in the rear, which he barely dodged.
You are such a bad girl, my slave, her Master told her. You should be punished.
I look forward to it, Master, she replied, not feeling sorry at all.
"Was that one of your stupid jokes?" the Twi'lek girl shouted at Bastila. "You scared me!"
"It's a good tactic," Canderous noted seriously. "Pretending to be dead and striking when the enemy least expects it. Fooled me for a second."
"Nice illusion," Jolee remarked.
"Yeah," Juhani concurred. "I actually thought she was dead. If she pulled that on me, I would have turned my back."
"And that, my friends, is why in a real fight, you always make sure the enemy is completely dead," the Sith Master lectured. He pulled Bastila back to her feet. "Want a rematch?" he asked her.
"Maybe a full fight with the Force too?" she suggested.
"Sounds good," he answered. To the other crew, he shouted, "Go to the top of that cliff and watch. Stay on the beach at your own risk."
And so with some complaints, the crew and the Mandalorians marched around a path that led them to the cliffs above.
"What could be so dangerous to justify such a long walk?" Mission muttered to herself.
Once everyone was in position, Revan and Bastila started their duel. He jumped up high, igniting his lightsaber in midair, then fell faster than naturally possible right over her head. With Force-enhanced speed, she dashed out of the way, leaving him to land on the sand. A small dust storm emanated from his position, but she easily raised a shield blocking the particles.
The apprentice ignited her saberstaff, then raised her other hand in challenge. Her Master responded by charging at her, and they engaged in a fierce lightsaber duel in which neither could gain a decisive advantage over the other. He held back somewhat to achieve this, wanting to challenge her but not overwhelm her.
Sensing the lightsaber duel was getting her nowhere, Bastila decided to change tactics. With a Force wave, she stalled one of his attacks for a second, taking the respite to run away and hide in a bush. A moment later, three Bastilas came back out of the bush, wielding lightsabers menacingly, closing in on him. They were pretty solid, and would take longer than Revan would like to find the true Bastila.
So he leaped into the sea, but turned himself around above the surface. He raised a huge wave of the salty seawater and forced it onto the beach with a mighty Force push. He also made himself appear to ride above the wave, which was poised to crash directly into the Bastilas. It was far more dramatic than necessary—there was no need for such tactics to win, of course—yet it was done with a purpose: to make his opponent feel outclassed and demoralized, and to create future openings.
The Sith apprentice saw the coming attack and knew what her Master's plan was. He would drench her and her illusions with the highly conductive saltwater, and then unleash a storm of Force Lightning. It didn't matter if he identified her true form, as saltwater would conduct the Lightning to them all. If it hit her, the fight would be over instantly. In a real fight, she would be a smoking corpse, but of course, he would only hurt her a bit to signal the practice was over. Still, she would have lost, and she refused to lose. Abandoning her illusions, she pushed back with the Force, parting the incoming wave around her true form, leaving her dry.
On top of the cliff, the watchers were suddenly glad that Revan made them stand so high. If they were on the beach, they would be drenched and suffer collateral damage. Most of them did not realize they also dodged Force Lightning.
Revan landed behind his apprentice, now standing on the higher ground. Waving both of his hands, the water to her sides formed into two wave fronts, again poised to drench her. He also launched Force Lightning above her position to prevent her from jumping up, effectively caging her in.
Bastila forced herself to roll into one oncoming wave, and did her best to part it and slip through the gap, but the water was too close and her Jedi robes ended up wet. Knowing the drenched robes would prove to be an electrocution hazard, she threw them aside, revealing her underwear beneath. It was nothing indecent, of course, covering more than the average swimsuit, as the Jedi would never issue anything too scandalous. She was still annoyed, however, and decided to copy an old trick she saw in Revan's memories: she grabbed all the gizkas on the beach, and launched them at him, hoping they would bite him, as they were likely to do in such situations. She regretted that she could not dominate all their minds to ensure they did so. It was beyond her skills at the moment, unfortunately.
Seeing the oncoming gizkas, her Master sent out a Force wave to push them back, and the tug of war created by two Force users pushing against each other tore the gizkas apart in a shower of gore. They were both forced to dodge the nastiness. Neither of them felt too bad at the demise of the gizkas, however. They were an invasive pest that bred like… gizka, after all.
"You are basically naked now, Bastila," he taunted. "Are you going to surrender? Or should I humiliate you further?"
"Never!" she shouted back, and they engaged once again with lightsabers. This time, he slowly gained an edge over her, forcing her to disengage once again. She jumped away, pulling her legs away just in time to avoid being struck by his blade. If she was a millisecond too late in a real fight, she would have lost her legs. She landed with the Ebon Hawk between them, and she ran around it, always keeping him on the other side by looking at his feet.
After a few seconds, the Dark Lord gave up on running around. He instead lifted up the entire Ebon Hawk with the Force, revealing Bastila. They stared at each other in the eyes, neither wanting to run under the floating ship, feeling it was an excellent way to get injured.
With a wave of his hand, he sent the Ebon Hawk over her head. She immediately ran away, but the ship followed her. Knowing he was planning to drop it on her (naturally, stopping right before it hit her), she ran to a bunch of rocks, hoping the uneven surface would discourage that course of action, as she knew he would not destroy the ship while she hid in the gaps. It worked, and he was forced to put the Ebon Hawk back down. He placed it behind him and continued his pursuit.
He jumped onto the rocks, and the couple engaged in a lightsaber duel on the uneven surface, both in danger of falling down. When Revan lost his balance for a moment, Bastila pushed his blade aside and ignited her second blade, poised to cut him at the waist. Almost too quick to see, he summoned a second lightsaber, and ignited it to deflect the blow. She almost cursed, but jumped and kicked at his legs, pushing him off the rocks and onto the beach. She turned off her lightsaber to avoid being dragged down by his fall, but ignited them again to give him an additional push once their sabers were no longer entangled.
The Sith Master turned in midair and landed gracefully on his feet on the beach. His apprentice jumped down, and copying his earlier trick, tried to land directly on top of him with one blade pointing down at unnatural speeds. With a Force push, he caught her and pushed her away, directly into the rocks that she jumped off of. She cursed herself for neglecting the possibility. She stood too close, and did not make herself fall fast enough. Fortunately, she managed to rotate herself so that her feet faced the side of the rocks. She launched herself off the rocks, and with her lightsaber pointing straight at him, she hoped to impale him.
He responded by quickly leaping out of the way, knowing that he would not be able to deflect her in time. He barely made it, but not before she tried to kick him. He ducked under her leg, then slashed at her leg with his lightsaber. She deflected the attack with her own lightsaber. Landing on the beach, she ignited the second blade to attack him, but his other lightsaber blocked her. Now with one lightsaber on each side of Bastila's saberstaff, he twisted it out of her hands, disarming her. The twin yellow blades fizzled out as it left her hands—a safety measure.
The apprentice immediately reached out with the Force to summon the weapon back to her hands, but her Master's grip was stronger and he took possession. Dramatically putting it in his pocket, he challenged, "Are you going to give up now?"
Unwilling to lose, Bastila reached down to her legs and pulled out her backup saberstaff. Igniting it in her right hand, she raised her left hand in challenge once again. "I don't give up so easily," she boasted.
Revan frowned. She had broken the unspoken rule of not using backup lightsabers, which aimed to avoid making the fights drag on for too long. He couldn't exactly blame her though, having never explicitly forbidden it, but decided to end the fight then. He jumped directly in front of her, and his two lightsabers moved in a flurry so fast that all Force sensitives watching were forced to use Force-enhanced speed to see more than a blur. His apprentice desperately spun her saberstaff, deflecting all the hits, but it was clear she could not hold on for long. Still, Juhani and Jolee gained a new respect for her, seeing she was able to react when they could only barely see the glowing blades.
With bursts of Force pushes on the tip of the lightsabers boosting their strength, Revan's flurry of attacks became more and more difficult to resist. Bastila used the same tricks, but was just a tad too slow to fully counter him. Slowly, she was worn down, and with another twisting motion, she was disarmed once again.
"Surrender now?" her Master asked.
Instead of surrendering or pulling out her single-bladed secondary backup lightsaber, she summoned a whirlwind. The technique was most commonly used on enemies, but she used to create a sandstorm, hiding herself. With a wave of his hand, the Sith Master stopped the whirlwind, but the sand took a bit of time to settle. By the time it did, the apprentice was standing on top of the cliff, behind their audience, Force Lightning arcing between her hands.
With a mighty Force jump, he flew up the cliff, and landed behind her. "I guess we are done here," he said finally.
"So who won?" Mission asked, still confused as to what happened.
"I didn't lose!" Bastila insisted.
"Knowing when to retreat and fight another day is important," Revan stated, "though it does defeat the purposes of training combat skills, no?"
"Yes, I suppose you did win this battle," his apprentice conceded. "How did I do, Master?"
"Pretty well, I would say. You are almost at the level to fight the top Jedi Masters at the Dantooine enclave in single combat," he praised her. "A great achievement in such a short time."
"Thank you, Master!" she said happily.
"But you won't be able to fight Malak," her Master warned, "especially when he's definitely going to cheat."
"Yes, Master," she acknowledged.
Suddenly, a ship overflew them above the shields. "Well, it looks like Malak might be doing an assault over the water soon," the Sith Lord observed. "Canderous, deploy your people to prevent Malak's forces from crossing the shields."
The Mandalorian quickly set up a rotation to watch over the edges of the shields. The remaining Mandalorians and the Ebon Hawk crew settled on having a nice lunch on the beach. The entire afternoon was spent training the other members of the party.
That night, Malak's forces made their first attempt to cross the shields. A group of divers swam to the edges of the shields, conspicuously marked by waves crashing against an invisible barrier at the surface. They walked through the shields by pushing off the seafloor. Evidently, they counted on stealth and the element of surprise.
Unfortunately for them, Mandalorians were diligently keeping watch and had sensors that could detect lifeforms underwater. They were even able to see through most stealth technologies, although not the Baragwin one. As soon as the divers were spotted, they signalled their comrades, preparing a nasty surprise for the surprise attackers. Once the divers finished crossing the shields, a few thermal detonators were thrown into the water. When they detonated, the divers nearby were instantly vapourized along with the water. They were the lucky ones. The explosions sent massive shockwaves radiating from the epicentres, bouncing off the shields. Wave after wave stretched and compressed the bodies of the remaining divers, ripping apart all their internal organs. When they washed ashore the next day, blood was still flowing out of various orifices.
The next morning, Malak's people started dumping sand on the seafloor next to the shields to build a land bridge across the shield, where the water was the shallowest, having evidently learned their lesson from the previous attempt. Due to the nature of sand, the grains easily slipped across the shield as they rolled down the mound, creating a surface above the waterline to push powered off repulsorlift vehicles across.
Unwilling to leave the protections of the shields and be subjected to the overwhelming numerical superiority, the Mandalorians didn't attempt to stop them. Instead, they shouted obscenities at Malak's soldiers while making rude gestures in an attempt to distract the enemy, and being unable to resist the taunting, they started shouting back, slowing down the construction.
Still, by that evening, the land bridge was ready. Just as Malak's soldiers attempted to push the first repulsorlift vehicle across, Canderous detonated the thermal detonator he'd ordered to be buried at the shallowest point the previous day, knowing Malak might attempt something like this. In fact, he ordered explosives to be buried underneath all the shallow locations at the edge of the shield. The explosion instantly blew apart the entire mound of sand that took a day's worth of effort to create. Seeing this, Malak's people retreated—for now.
The day after, Malak's soldiers made no attempts to approach the shields. "It seems like Malak's people are gathering on the nearest island, for reasons we can't discern with our equipment," Canderous reported that morning to Revan.
"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" the Sith Lord asked.
"I think they are digging tunnels," the Mandalorian replied. "Perhaps with the Force, you can confirm it."
Revan reached out with the Force, searching for what was happening on the other island. "Yes, they are digging tunnels," he confirmed. "Fortunately, sand is a terrible material to tunnel through, so they'd likely have to dig down to the bedrock and tunnel through that."
"It'd take ages to dig through bedrock by hand, like they are doing," Bastila noted. "Is that something to worry about?"
"They are digging by hand for now, but I am sure the engineering department on the Star Forge is already preparing a tunnel boring machine from the moment Malak noticed our arrival. If they are as good as I remember, the machine is probably on its way here and they could be finished tomorrow."
"The Republic said they are supposed to arrive later today, didn't they?" she noted.
"Let's hope they live up to their word…" the Sith Lord remarked darkly, remembering the occasions during the Mandalorian Wars when Republic reinforcements were delayed.
An hour and half before the Republic fleet was scheduled to arrive, Revan ordered everyone who wasn't busy taking watch to don their battle gear and prepare for departure anyway. If the Republic were to arrive on time, it wouldn't be his crew who'd incur any delays. He also hoped to leave as soon as possible, since as predicted, the tunnel boring machine had arrived already and Malak's forces were already drilling through the bedrock. In a few hours, they'd cross the shield, and by the next day, they'd be under the island with the temple.
Back in their bedroom, the Sith couple removed their casual clothing. However, Revan did not move to put on his combat robes. Instead, he appeared pensive, staring at the collar that permanently adorned Bastila's neck.
"What's the matter, Master?" she asked, sensing his mood. "In a few short hours, Malak would be dead and we would have dealt the Republic a huge blow."
"Or we could be dead," he countered. "Don't let the ease of our previous victories fool you, for Malak is no ordinary foe, and there is the additional complication of the Republic fleet…"
"You aren't confident with our plan?" she frowned. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"It's the best plan we have, but it still leaves much to be desired," he replied. "As the hour nears though, the future is not becoming clearer. It could go either way, we just don't know."
"Then shouldn't we do the best we can and hope it's enough, Master? We can't give up now. Like you said before, prepare for the worst and deal with whatever comes our way…"
"Of course we will," he agreed. "It's just… easier said than done. I… I can't stand the thought of losing you."
"You won't," she promised. "Whatever happens, we will share the same fate. I will always be with you, in life or in death."
"Do not kill yourself for my sake," he protested. "I can't ask that of you. I will not ask that of you."
"Well, it's not exactly my choice," she confessed. "I haven't been too forthcoming about what I did on your flagship… I didn't just use the power of the Force to heal you. That could never have made our Force bond what it is now."
"What have you done?" he hissed.
"You were dying. You were losing blood fast. By the time I could heal you with the Force, you'd be long dead," she whispered, the memories of that moment still haunting her. "I couldn't lose you. Through the Force, I saw that there was a chance for a beautiful future together between us. It was everything I dreamed for and more, and I refused to let it slip away no matter what. I wanted nothing more to keep you alive long enough for you to have a chance of being healed. I know it was reckless and irresponsible, but I didn't care. We were on a falling ship, and I didn't think I was going to make it either way."
"What have you done?" he asked again, genuinely afraid.
"I decided to lend you my life, Master. With the Force, I bound our lives together," she revealed. In fact, she had almost died doing so, having expended a significant portion of her own life force to keep him alive until she could heal him with the Force. She had not been whole after that, not until Revan started to drain the lives of their enemies. "We are forever linked by my actions on that bridge, the bond far stronger than any marriage," she declared, and the Force itself attested to the veracity of her claim.
It was not often that Revan was rendered speechless, but this time, Bastila managed it. "You do realize that if you failed to heal me, you would have died?" he said after a full minute of silence.
"Yes, and as I already said, I didn't care," she replied. "Whatever happened, I wanted to share your fate."
"Just checking. Well, that explains a lot," he muttered to himself. "How can I possibly repay you for what you did?"
"By surviving our mission," she observed. "While you are much more difficult to kill with my life force holding you up, if someone managed it, I would die with you. Well, that doesn't really count. If I got myself killed, you'd die too. Let's just promise to be careful."
"Yes, let's try to not get each other killed," he agreed easily.
"As for how you can repay me properly… just love me and keep me enslaved, like I saw in the vision given by the Force," she decided, holding the collar that encircled her neck for emphasis. "That's all I want."
"Of course, I will," he promised. "Although normally, people would ask for the opposite," he remarked.
"And we are not normal people. You know, if this ends up being the last time we could be alone together in life, then let's put it to good use," she suggested.
"I like the way you think," he agreed with a wink.
And with that, they put the soundproof bedroom to good use.
In the end, the Republic fleet arrived half an hour later than promised, which mattered little in the grand scheme of things. They were soon able to destroy Malak's capital ships that hovered over Lehon, and with Revan's prompting, also destroyed Malak's forces on the nearby islands from orbit. Now, the fully armed Sith couple received a call from the flagship.
"This is Admiral Forn Dodonna to the Ebon Hawk, do you read us?" the flickering hologram said.
"Admiral Dodonna, this is Bastila Shan of the Jedi Order," the secret Sith apprentice confirmed. "We are receiving your transmission."
"We have arrived and engaged Malak's fleet," the admiral stated. "However, it seems like the Sith fleet here is bigger than expected."
"Unfortunately, additional reinforcements arrived yesterday," Bastila reported, looking as apologetic as she could be. It was, of course, a lie, and she had been the one to underreport Malak's strength, but she did it convincingly enough that her Master doubted even the Jedi Council could see through it. "We tried reaching you, but you were already in hyperspace by then…"
"You did your best," the admiral consoled her. "It took longer than I'd like to muster this armada. Hopefully, we'd still have an advantage, especially if you can help us with your battle meditation."
Suddenly the admiral turned her head elsewhere. After a moment, she touched the comm and her hologram moved aside, revealing another form.
"This is Master Vandar," Dodonna explained. "A number of Jedi Knights have joined the fleet, under his command."
"Bastila's power could help you win this battle, Admiral, but it will mean nothing if Malak escapes," the old Jedi Master said gravely. "Destroying the Star Forge is secondary to stopping the Sith threat… once and for all."
"What are you proposing?" the admiral asked.
"While we press the main attack, a small squadron of Jedi Knights in snub fighters could penetrate the Sith blockade and dock on the space station," Vandar suggested. "If they can find Malak we can end the threat of the Sith… forever." Something about the way he said it disturbed the Sith couple.
"But what of Bastila and her battle meditation?" Dodonna asked, rather annoyed that Vandar prevented her question from being answered.
"Bastila, you and…" the Jedi Master paused for a bit, "the Padawan… should join us. We will need the combined strength of our entire Order to defeat Malak."
"As you wish, Master Vandar," the Sith apprentice answered without any hesitation. She had no intention of following his instructions, but it was prudent to answer immediately to avoid suspicion.
"And may the Force be with you," Vandar said and terminated the connection, the holograms fading.
"Bastila, can you confirm I didn't mishear?" Revan asked as soon as the call ended. "Admiral Dodonna and Master Vandar want us to board the Star Forge to kill Malak while, at the same time, they would try to destroy the Star Forge?" He frowned hard.
"That's how I understood it too," she agreed, also frowning. "I don't understand why you would ever want both. Either you board the Star Forge with your best fighters, kill Malak, and seize control, or you destroy it from afar with the fleet. Why board if you are going to destroy the Star Forge anyway? They just need to prevent Malak from escaping. To do that, they need fighters and interdictors, not a boarding party."
"Maybe the Jedi wanted to engage Malak in combat to prevent an escape until the Star Forge could be destroyed?" he suggested. It was the best explanation he could think of, given how little strategic sense the plan made.
"But that doesn't make sense! If Malak is still alive when the Star Forge is disintegrating, he would still have a decent chance of escaping in the chaos," Bastila observed. "Remember how I escaped from your burning flagship? Most people who could stop me were dead. At one point, one of your soldiers tried to fire at me, but the ship broke apart in between and he quickly went out of range. So if they wanted to guarantee Malak's death while destroying the Star Forge, a boarding party would be pointless."
"True, and then if they could kill Malak, they could simply seize control of the Star Forge and use it for the Republic," her Master agreed. "Perhaps the Jedi simply wanted it destroyed because it's a 'Dark Side artifact.' That would be very much in character for them. Or perhaps the Corellian and Kuati shipyards saw the Star Forge in Republic hands as a threat to their profits. That's also very much in character for them."
"I just hope they don't plan on destroying it with us still onboard…" she muttered.
Revan stiffened and frowned. "I have a feeling that is what they plan on doing. I think after Malak's demise, we would have outlived our usefulness. I can't imagine the Jedi letting Darth Revan of all people live afterwards, when they try so hard to remove anything that's 'tainted by the Dark Side.' As for you, you have a Force bond to me, and they don't need your battle meditation if the Sith loses the Star Forge. The way he said 'ending the threat of the Sith… forever' really sounded like we are the threat as well…"
She sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised. I guess our plan to board the Star Forge is still on track though, and in the end, that's all that really matters."
"Yes," he agreed. "Now, get the Mandalorians onto the ship."
As usual, Bastila was eager to comply with anything that felt like an order. "Yes, Master!"
Half an hour later, the Ebon Hawk was filled with all the Mandalorians stranded on Lehon, numbering forty total. Mandalorians sat on the floor, filling the cargo hold and various walkways. It was the best they could do under the circumstances. With that, T3-M4 lowered the shields around the temple, and the Ebon Hawk took off.