Audenhoen listened in on the comm transmissions initiated by Captain Hung to his superior while following the emergency communique triumvirate of Vice Admiral, Captain Piett, and a Captain Rykes. After linking his data pad into the Lambda class shuttles communications suite, his attention was pulled toward the interactions and renewed Imperial chatter planet side. General Veers had refused emergency evac in favor of assisting Lord Vaders endeavors despite Piett’s direct orders. It was the initial report from Hung that had captured his attention implicitly and the reason he was breaking atmosphere instead of landing within the Ravagers hangar bay, “assisting Lord Vader with rogue biologic.”
Walker felt a freedom he hadn’t enjoyed since speeding across the flats of Raada with the throttle of his bike opened wide, an openness his will and spirit had lacked since the days of the Republic. “And of Audenhoen?” Sylde’s voice caught Walker’s attention immediately, “Although poignant to the level of nepotism, he is as loyal to the Empire as he is his own commitments.” Hung responded, Walker smiling despite resenting the man. The transmission wavered slightly as Hung’s tone changed both pitch and topic, “by the stars Evan...I’ve never seen a creature so large.”
“What is it Chenyu?” Sylde responded, his tone leaning toward the curiosity Audenhoen had noted him for.
“A...dragon...Sir, for lack of a better description. It must be as big as we are….”
“Captain this had better not be one of those Mykapan legends you continuously bore us with…” Sylde responded with a rare sarcasm.
“Anything but Captain, look for yourself.”
Walker did as suggested, bringing the shuttle banking downward enough to fill the forward canopy with the aft of Hung’s vessel and the ground below, which did in fact… ‘it is a dragon!’ Walker thought, mouthing the words in unison. He dove in a starboard roll nearing Veers’ emergency ping, dropping his altitude quickly. He flattened out his approach letting the whine of the twin 204’s fill the cabin with their notable amplitude as he tried to gage Hung’s distance to his target. “By the stars….” He said openly, amazement finding no boundary.
Audenhoen calculated what was transpiring aboard Tagata Taia as he scrutinized the size and shape of the Captains educated initial salvo’s, coupled with the effective range necessary for maximum payload. Each measured burst grew as the energy packet was worked toward zero-point compression and vacillation bandwidth. Walker looked on expecting to view a carcass splayed wide, successive fusillade from the Star Destroyer pounding flesh and organs deeper into the planet’s surface, but what he saw made his jaw drop.
The velocity of Hung’s devastation was slamming harmlessly into the massive creatures’ hide, some deflecting harmlessly off into rock formations with annihilating consequence, others being impossibly absorbed into the monstrous scales. Walker let the improbability of what he was seeing revert to afterthought as he concerned himself with the third portion of the equation, noting the proximity Hung was gambling with in comparison to the creature below it. “Too close Hung….It’s going to lash…” He said to himself, watching on as Tagata Taia brought itself lower still.
“Tagata Taia, shuttle Veta two two seven, Hung your too low, increase altitude.” Walker almost shouted into his comm after dialing into his shuttle’s home vessel.
“Deputy Director, clear this channel.”
“Hung, this isn’t personal. I’m trying to save your life.” Walker shouted into his comm, exuberance pushing him from his pilot’s seat.
“I think I can handle a lone biologic...Audy.” Hung replied.
“And you risk the entirety of your crew in the process….” He fired back to dead air, noting the blinking red light on the comm suite. “That idiot…” he said to satiate his own anger, watching helplessly as Tagata Taia sank farther toward the stationary monstrosity. It had been half a century since he was a youth on the plains of Halloran, hunting skilbaks with his father. Although smaller, he noted the similarities between the carnivorous reptiles and the behemoth within his immediate purview, particularly before they lept to strike.
The whine of the shuttle’s engines was immediately drowned to nullification, the roar that echoed throughout the cockpit rattled Audenhoen’s very brain. He felt his eyes bleed from the sonic charge that rocked the shuttle but kept them open enough to see the creature below crane its neck, tighten every muscle along its body and spring from its stance with unnatural speed. It opened its gigantic maw then quickly closed the voracious spikes it held for teeth around the fore section of Tagata Taia, biting hard through the durasteel armor plating as it followed with its lashing tail, driving it thunderously through the aft of the vessel, all six appendages digging razor sharp claws into anything they could. Audenhoen closed his eyes to the carnage, letting the sounds of tearing metal, exploding ordinance and the signature chugging whine of overloaded Ion reactors paint the image for him. He sought out the sounds he would never hear as an homage to both his warnings and the detrimental effects of Imperial arrogance, the screams of torment and agony that immediately preceded monumental loss of life. He felt the pangs of sickness pass through him with a disgusting wave of nausea as he thought of this latest addition to the day’s death toll.
Audenhoen rocked the vessel starboard, unwilling to view the raining hellfire of the fallen Star Destroyer’s wreckage crash to the ground, focusing on the emergency ping of Veer’s beacon instead. He felt unwilling to accept the forceful wave of grief that engulfed him, a grief that had been percolating since his interview with Grand General Tagge, a man lost now to the very tenets that had given birth to the grief to begin with. Despite his unwillingness to view the horrific damage he couldn’t help but spy it through his peripheral, eschewing the grief for what it was, meanwhile contending with whatever fates intervened to remove himself from the doomed ship. He admitted to himself that it was nothing more than a matter of choice, but he wasn’t readily buying that argument either. A green light was blinking on his comm suite, pulling his attention back into the present situation, “shuttle Veta two two seven, go ahead.”
“Lord Vader is requesting…. extraction for pilots and…. crews of walkers, do you have enough room….. for six platoons?” A male voice asked sluggishly, clearly in pain as he stammered out his words between groans.
“I am solo at the moment, should be able to accommodate, what of Lord Vader?” Audenhoen responded.
“He did not say…”
Walker scanned the scene as he arced the shuttle starboard, troopers filing out from underneath the mechanical monstrosities double time, the mounted turbo lasers and cannons continued firing unimpeded. ‘Is Lord Vader actively trying to get the gargantuan beasts attention?’ He thought to himself, unwilling to dare a look as he entered his landing cycle amid a cacophony of internal noises, automated systems taking direct control of the craft. Audenhoen jumped from the seat and angled himself out of the cockpit, slapping his hand around an E-11 strapped to the cabin wall. He descended the stairs to the passenger bay and slammed the ramp actuator, weapon drawn, powered up and primed. He laughed to himself internally as he gripped the snubbed blaster rifle knowing full well the weapon was useless, ‘better than throwing rocks I suppose.’ The moment the ramp slammed onto the planet’s surface the deafening clamor assailed him, a combination of piercing high pitched turbo laser fire and the throes of a maniacal beast covered in the wreckage of a Star Destroyer, its appendages scrambling in earnest against kilometers of broken metal. The troopers began racing up the ramp at full speed, damning protocol as they whipped their helmets off drawing in enormous gulps of air. Audenhoen held the blaster over their shoulders, willing them to run faster as he split his attention between them and the roiling black creature. A sense of awe mixed with blatant fear rushed through his blood as a gigantic orange eye found him, or at least appeared to find him, he wasn’t certain. The change in uniform color drew his attention away from the fear, “General.”
“Deputy Director, Vader will not be joining us.” Veers said as he too climbed quickly up the ramp, tipping his own helmet off with the action.
Audenhoen nodded his understanding as he slapped the armor upon the General’s shoulder and raced himself up the ramp behind him. “Look alive trooper,” he said tossing the blaster rifle to an idle trooper standing at attention while turning to Veers, “could use a copilot..”
Helmet tucked under his arm; Veers scanned his troops quickly before following Audenhoen up the steps into the cockpit.
“What exactly is his plan General?” Walker asked, turning to Veers as he pulled up on the yoke, repulsors pushing the shuttle upward with haste.
“Deputy Director, the Dark Lord rarely shares precision, nor does he plan.” Veers responded uncommittedly as he stared through the canopy. “I do know he is overloading the reactors individually.”
“And how are the walkers still firing?” Audenhoen asked.
“Deputy Director, there are questions that I simply don’t ask.” Veers responded; his stoic features tight, unreadable. He pinched his eyebrows as he looked through the canopy, “Please take us to Executor Deputy Director, they are expecting our return.”
Audenhoen turned to look at the General, “you understand that ship has no….”
“Power? Captain Rykes will have restored emergency backup at the very least. To the Executor please?”
“What about Lord…?” Audenhoen attempted what he thought was an obvious question.
“Vader? There are simply questions…” Veers began.
“That you don’t ask…” Walker finished for him.
✦
She breathed in slowly, her finger an afterthought as it lightly stroked the trigger. Kowani remained unmoving, unblinking as she let the breath go, her left eye shut tight as she focused intently through her right. The grotesque orange bulb continued to swivel in all directions offering her one of the most difficult shots she could have imagined. ‘One final breath…’ she whispered to herself, drawing in the air slowly. Without a blink, the target she had worked so hard to line up was gone. “What the frak!” She blurted as she dropped the rifle awkwardly, stumbling backward and throwing her helmet off in the process. “Ahsoka!”
“No need Ani, we see it.” Ahsoka shouted in return, her own view toward the heavens as she followed the impossible leap. She took several steps instinctually backward, noting only then the uselessness of the gesture.
“That was easily two hundred and fifty meters!” Rex added, shock registering loudly as his voice wavered through the words.
Nara simply stood, watching. Ahsoka eyed her curiously, working through the facial expressions that she felt she should expect, instead finding her eyes pulled tight, the rest, unreadable.
“There is no place safe if that thing can leap that far…” Rex concluded his assessment, the sour notes of encroaching dejection fueling every syllable.
“And given the amount of firepower it has already shrugged off….” Kowani added, stopping herself mid-sentence as she watched in shocked horror.
“That’s impossible.” Ahsoka said, quickly snapping her eyes shut in reaction to the horrendous noise shredding every sensory organ. Her mind was left to its own imaginations as the grating sound of tearing metal echoed loudly through the valley and beyond. Additional sounds buffeted her senses into a miasmic delirium, a continuous baritone that began working its way higher in pitch and volume. She could feel her skin tighten on her arms as the sonic waves beat against her flesh. “GET DOWN!” She shouted, hoping the others would be able to hear the warning as she dared not open her eyes. She planted herself onto the rocky terrain, covering her head and montral as best she could seconds before the inevitability of the creature’s target registered a reactor core breach with a thunderous report. Her face was pressed hard into the ground below her, jagged edges carving gouges into her cheeks, her arms taking a beating as they lie prone over her head, tiny shards of durasteel penetrating deep into her bone. She was grateful that the sonic burst eliminated her hearing, knowing full well the others that hadn’t been able to shield themselves properly were roiling in outright agony. Ahsoka lifted her head momentarily and opened her left eye enough to let in the light, shock renewing itself to her core as she saw Nara standing amid the rest of them. Her senses were decidedly faulty as she opened the other eye, lifting her head another few centimeters and saw dagger-like metallic projectiles pass harmlessly through the Mirialan, pinging in the rocks and sand directly behind her.
Ahsoka continued to rise, feeling the warm wash of her own blood seeping from garish wounds on her face dribble unhindered down her neck. Nara was standing there as assuredly as she felt the pain, her black hair taken by the wind as it curled behind her head in fine strands. She saw Nara turn to her, mouthing something unintelligible, the look on her face quizzical, almost nonchalant. Nara began shaking her head from side to side, her expression folding inward as she mouthed the words again that Ahsoka couldn’t hear. Ahsoka couldn’t comprehend the woman’s actions, couldn’t comprehend her own surroundings. All she could feel was pain, bone wracking pain that shot through her nerves and set her head aflame. A source less sorrow embraced every ounce of the pain as she stared into the Mirialans’ eyes, a persuasive nothingness she hadn’t felt since Malachor. Ahsoka could see her own reflection in Nara’s eyes, a reflection that she didn’t recognize. A reflection that stood in contrast to what she knew herself to be.
Nara was losing her patience but understood the power of the Togruta’s psychological state, as well as the nature behind the perception. “It’s not real Ahsoka.” She repeated, shaking her head slowly from side to side, an effort to press her point. The woman at her feet was losing her grip on reality and Nara was uncertain what to do about it. She was certain she would have fallen victim to the sorcery herself had she not gone through her own trials on the forsaken planet and without the efforts of Thon and Zannah holding the power at bay, it was scouring with lethal intent in every direction. She didn’t have time for this. Nara clapped Ahsoka hard across the face with an open palm.
Ahsoka saw the incoming blow but was powerless to dodge it. She clenched her jaw in preparation for the open palm to tear the remainder of the flesh from her cheek and pinched her eyes shut. She felt a brief sting as Nara struck her but nothing more, the sharp clap she heard ringing through her montral surprising her exponentially. “What is happening?” Ahsoka said hesitantly, her mind a muddled chaos.
“I’ll explain but we need to rouse the other two.” Nara said quickly, falling to Rex’s side. Ahsoka shot over to Kowani and tugged lightly at her arm, feeling a reactive lurch from the muscles under the Mirialan’s skin, “Wake up Ani.”
“Wha...what happe….” Rex mumbled, slurring his words as Nara sat him up. He fired a hand up to rest on his forehead, bracing for the sudden wave of dizziness.
“We’re dead aren’t we…” Kowani muffled into loose sands and stone.
“We will be if we don’t get it together.” Nara responded sharply as she reached for Mushi’s head, the giant cat breathing lightly under her touch.
“None of that was real?” Ahsoka said softly as she rose to her feet, her gaze stretching out toward the twisted pile of mangled metal, flames and billowing black and gray smoke streaking upward with haste more than a kilometer away.
“Real enough for that Captain…” Nara responded.
Ahsoka heard the reply but was lost to further response by what she didn’t see, “where did that...creature..go.” She asked turning slowly to Nara, stumbling through her uncertainty.
“It was never there.” Nara said, “although the source hasn’t gone anywhere. It is searching for a vessel.”
“I don’t understand Nara.” Ahsoka responded in truth as she reached up to make sure her montral hadn’t broken again, the pain that severe. “My head is killing me...”
“Your mind conceived the pain to establish the correct response to what your senses were telling it.” Nara said patiently, despite her growing haste and solemnity. “In the same way the collective mindset aboard that Star Destroyer doomed them all.”
“Nara…” Ahsoka began.
“Please. I know I may not have the right to ask for it, but I need you to trust me.” Nara responded before Ahsoka could say anything more. “Certain truths bring with them the responsibility of knowing them.” She breathed heavily as she wore the statement, a certain freedom opening before her that she was only beginning to feel was deserved. “I do not know her name Ahsoka, the Sorceress I mean.” Nara swiveled her head as if in search of something, her eyes narrowed to thin black lines. “Only that she didn’t survive a ritual of her own creation eons ago.” Nara recited from memory, “physically that is….”
“What is he doing?” Rex blurted out, no need for the quadnocs as he pointed an outstretched finger toward the montage of Imperial walkers that had not yielded one bit in targeting the crash area with heavy blaster and turbo laser fire.
“His rage will never let him see the truth; I assure you that.” Nara said in response, her eyes shifting toward Vader still perched atop them. An ascending Lambda class shuttle angled away from the site and quickly headed skyward.
In turn Ahsoka whipped her aching head behind her, the heavy freighter nowhere in sight, a lone Sheath I resting in its stead. On the precipice of giving it her full attention, she felt a subtle wave of peace from its direction. Whether it was the source, or more particularly, its occupant, she wasn’t sure, but felt no measure of hostility from it either.
“Whoa!” Rex shouted again. Ahsoka whirled back around to see one of the Imperial walkers glowing a hateful red, hull cladding beginning to melt from within. “We can’t stay here. We’re too close if those reactors breach Ahsoka.”
“And we cannot leave either…” Nara began, “not without containing her.”
“Nara...please, what is it that you’ve been trying to tell us, because this isn’t a good time for being cryptic.” Kowani followed up immediately, approaching both Nara and Mushi with a hand on the cat’s massive back. Both Rex and Ahsoka turned to face Nara as well. “You’ve asked for trust. I don’t trust you, but I do trust her.” She continued, a finger pointing toward Ahsoka. “And I know Rex feels the same way.”
“Well…” Rex stammered as he cast a glance downward, palming his bald head through his awkward hesitation, “...I do trust her to be honest about it.”
Nara was a sea of unemotional tides as she surveyed the entirety of the components before her, components that she would need to utilize to draw out the remnants of the spirit. “Do you feel her? Do you sense her? She is everywhere, searching…” Nara began. “She has no tether to contain her….”
“Yes. We know. The tether died with the passing of Thon and Zannah...you’ve mentioned that enough, but what does it mean Nara?…” Ahsoka asked, a soft and gentle tone within her voice suggesting the desired trust be communicable.
“She is nameless to the best of anyone’s idea through the passage of time, but a Sorceress who had strayed well beyond the tenets of the Sith in both ideology and practice.” Nara replied calmly, breathing deeply through the words as they came to her. “She came here, to an Ambria rich and full of life in its day, to experiment with the culmination of those two things...Life which provided the fuel for her machinations. She posed the idea of channeling those forces through a way gate and into herself, thus providing her with the nourishment of a thousand generations. Immortality.” Nara continued with a heavy breath. “A process, spell if you will, perfected by Emperor Vitiate ages ago. Nathema was his fuel. A world that will never again breed life of any sort.” Nara concluded as the parallel rang true. A tear in her eye shimmered as it trailed down her cheek in the reflection of chaotic light sources. She could feel the determination of the vengeful presence scouring her mind for suitability, and in that instant the remainder of the past broadcast itself into a full view of understanding. She thought it easy enough to evade her intrusions, but she knew the spirit was only pathfinding with the pensiveness of vulnerability. “She is here...with us now. Close your minds.”
“We’re meditating? Now?” Kowani barked, her eyes bouncing between Nara, the smoldering wreckage, and the growing whir beneath the hull plating of the walkers.
“The alternative would be more disastrous than you could imagine.” Nara responded.
“Ani, I think I understand where she is going with this.” Ahsoka chimed in, her eyes portraying the calm she intended to impart on the Mirialan. “This entity...spirit..needs to be drawn out fully.”
“Precisely Ahsoka.” Nara said, her voice tinged with hope. “She will not focus on the Captain, so it is to the two of you to guide her toward me.” She finished, nodding to both Kowani and Ahsoka.
“I don’t see anything?” Kowani sounded out, alarmed as the instructional left far too much leeway for interpretation.
“Not your eyes Ani, see through the Force.” Ahsoka guided, “you are uniquely gifted my friend. Time to put it to use.”
“What of Vader?” Rex added, “if the three of you are otherwise occupied, he could redirect his actions…”
Ahsoka had wondered that same thing. She looked upon his form, watching as he braced his stance upon the AT-AT with Anakin’s signature resolve. She could not sense any form of motive to intervene, only a stoicism toward the one agenda he had come to Ambria to explore. Despite Nara’s brief description concerning immediate threat, Ahsoka knew the Dark Lord would never provide as a suitable host. He would crush the attempt through determined rage. His motivating fuel. “He won’t Rex.”
Rex flashed her a glance that spoke volumes. In it his face registered betrayal and anger but also gratitude and a hopefulness they both shared.
‘This is suicide…’ Kowani thought, trying her best to focus as instructed but finding the objective elusive as the whirring grew louder. ‘Become one with the Force...become one with the Force…’ she began repeating to her subconscious, willing the distractions to whittle themselves into oblivion. “I see….it” She mumbled softly, unsure if the dark form she saw was male or female in presentation.
“Good. Convince her to reveal herself.” Nara whispered through the mystic silence Kowani had finally achieved.
“She is coming…” Kowani stammered, a shiver running through her spine.
“She is approaching.” Ahsoka added, her voice a gentle echo in the communal space the three of them now operated.
“Come to me.” Nara said, a directness within the command that even Kowani felt compelled to follow as it echoed irregularly in her mind.
A flickering shadow began to take shape in earnest as it neared the three of them in physical space, to Kowani it became a she as the shadow itself left her form, the shroud of inconspicuousness falling away to reveal the refined features of an elderly woman. She presented herself meekly as if in distress, her eyes a dull ochre beneath silvery strands of unkempt hair. Lines of extreme age criss crossing her face in a complexity of geometric anomaly, presenting herself as both aged and ageless. She opened her mouth to speak, Kowani expecting some form of a call to assist, but nothing audible emerged. The lips continued to stretch impossibly upward and down, revealing the same pointed teeth the phantom hssiss had earlier. Kowani felt a fear flow through her as the image began to flicker imperceptibly, than unanimously to that of the black serpentine features. ‘You are not real.’ She told her subconscious at the same time she stopped the flow of the Force leaving her own body. The old woman was back instantly, her head turning away from Kowani and beginning to focus on Ahsoka.
Ahsoka felt the old woman approach without moving, the form gliding over the artificial terrain of her subconscious. She felt the knot in her stomach twist itself into a ball of the hatred and anger she had been trying to let go of. She could feel the promise of power the boiling rage would grant her, the totality of its sum more than ample to destroy this pathetic form before her through thought alone. She would ignite her sabers and….she stopped the thought instantly, her subconscious alerting her to a resurfacing memory. Her anger not unlike the seething tool of destruction she had become on Malachor. ‘Malachor,’ she thought, uniting the anger coursing through her to the location that had birthed it. She smiled inwardly as the old woman stopped, the creases lining her face pulling tight to reveal their depth before she turned her gaze toward Nara.
Nara narrowed her eyes, partitioning her thoughts from her own subconsciousness as an old woman turned her gaze from both Kowani and Ahsoka respectively, slowly lifting her head to stare into her own. ‘I’ve got you.’ Nara thought.
‘Not without a name you don’t’ the old woman seemed to reply. Nara heard the voice but was certain her mouth hadn’t moved. Despite the declaration, Nara felt an impossible connection to the knowledge she had been able to sequester while in preparation for this very encounter, the discovery of her own truth only a sub text to her reasons for embracing the assignment to begin with. Although the calculations and conclusions she had drawn were rife with supposition, she had convinced herself they were accurate enough to trust with her own mortality. Nara compressed her presence within the Force, narrowing the window with which the old woman could perceive her. The spirit continued to advance, hellbent on absorbing the soul of the Mirialan that was offering herself to it, the greedy obsession taking complete control. Nara could feel the spirit’s essence devour reason as she presented herself to it, giving it just enough to feed irrationality, to draw her in through maniacal desire.
“You are mine Mirialan...through you I will free myself.” The spirit proclaimed, a haughty chuckle following quickly behind the statement that continued through its own echo.
Nara was prepared for the assault. She had taught herself through the Bacta sessions to retreat so far within her own soul to become little more than an automaton of flesh and bone. The spirit brought with it an entropy that expanded immediately through Nara’s subconscious, seeding a chaotic depravity that willed what little was left of her soul to cater in every form to the intrusive malevolence.
“I will own this vessel, Nara of the Bendu….I will own….” The spirit echoed throughout Nara’s mind but suddenly faltered, stuttering over the remainder of the proclamation as a child learns of its own insignificance regarding the magnitude of the universe around it.
“You are the consumer of worlds. The arbiter of the eternal struggle. Mortal once to be banished into immortal exile. You are the mother whom no one seeks. You are damned…..and will continue to be damned from this existence.” Nara shouted through the ethereal realm, shocking both Ahsoka and Kowani out of their respective meditations. “It is just you and I now Abeloth, I am the only one standing between you and this galaxy.”