“Most impressive Ahsoka…” Nara said, chuckling through her amazement, though warry of the raw force displayed through the Togrutan’s rage, “...and particularly why it was best you found out now.” She finished, withdrawing into the dying chuckle itself to deliver her concerns.
“Why would now matter Nara, I am no foreigner to betrayal….” Ahsoka stated flatly, an underlying aggression within the statement that begged for understanding yet sought to deliver a message she wasn’t even sure mattered at the moment.
“Ahsoka, he will push to unleash that same anger. While it may serve you in the moment, you must understand that it only feeds his own greed, his own power.” Nara was quick to point out what Ahsoka felt should have been obvious once stated, the words themselves having the calming affect Nara had intended.
Ahsoka could feel her shoulders slump forward somewhat as she let the inner rage dissipate slowly, heaving her breath to a steady rhythm and Nara giving her all the time she needed. As the adrenaline began to fade, Ahsoka felt a tiredness overwhelm her muscles, as if each one had been throttled to their limit and beyond only finding a solace now to stand down in the aftermath of thought alone. “I know your right Nara…” She stated after a heavy exhale, “...it’s just...always…”
“Something Ahsoka. It’s always something that catches you unaware. Because you do not live within your anger, you do not choose through rage, and you do not abide by the constant hatred necessary to exist within the Dark Side.” Nara said cooly and confidently causing Ahsoka to turn toward the Mirialan fully.
“There are only two that do…” Ahsoka responded with a tired expression, her eyes heavy with an unshed sorrow.
“Ahsoka, not even Vader.” Nara admitted, causing Ahsoka to raise her gaze somewhat, the sullen expression lifting toward a twisted confusion, “no, not even Vader. There is a difference between living within anger and living within pain.” Nara quickly considered the reality that Ahsoka could not have imagined. “He has chosen to express his pain, his torment, through the only emotion strong enough or capable enough to equally measure that anguish. Do you understand?”
‘It should be that simple.’ Ahsoka thought to herself, her eyes falling to the twins against the room’s far wall. Nara, whom she had come to admire of all things, continued holding the hand of her sister, without, seemingly, aligning herself with anything other than the Force. ‘Is that then my answer?’ The question was unavoidable, and she knew it, although she wasn’t ready to dedicate her thoughts to its answer outright. “We cannot kill him…” The statement seemed far-fetched as she heard her own words but knew that answer lie within reason.
“Unless your Rebellion is prepared for the ensuing aftermath, no.” Nara was quite frank in her reply, “as Rex had mentioned, a premeditated chaos was the plan since well before the Clone Wars, something even the Republic could not have delt with.”
Ahsoka slapped a palm to her forehead, “Rex!” She stated spinning toward the shattered partition.
“Glad I’m remembered...a hand please!” The old clones voice called out, both Ahsoka and Nara whirling their gazes randomly to find him before fingers stretched out just over the lower right edge of the opening. Ahsoka shot forth and reached down to grab his wrist, Nara pushing herself up to her feet to offer whatever assistance she could as well. Between the two, the wrestled him into the room with them, Rex panting through his exhaustive efforts to bypass the non-functional lifts.
“How did you get up here…?” Ahsoka said, peering over the edge and into the massive cylindrical chamber, noting slim braces between each of the floors, “I’m impressed...and you were never forgotten Rex..” She continued realizing the difficulty the man must have had finding suitable hand holds for the ascent.
“I was doing just fine till everything started rattling and shaking…” He managed, gasping for air as he rubbed at sore forearms.
“I’ll need a moment...but where...from here.” Rex asked panting, a curious eye toward Ahsoka who was returning to his side. She knelt by his side smoothing a hand over an exposed forearm and rubbing vigorously.
“I am sorry Rex, you know I would never mean you harm…” She admitted solemnly.
“I knew it was you Ahsoka, and I know you don’t mean harm. Take a moment to think about that.” Rex replied rolling to his hands to push himself to his feet leaving Ahsoka’s hand to fall away in the process. She turned her gaze toward the white flooring, internalizing the association and quickly recognizing the depth of its implications. ‘Am I no better than my Master?’ She thought to herself, only mildly cognizant of Nara’s reply to Rex’s question.
“Up is the only direction that will provide conclusion. Landing platforms lie atop the facility, but we need to make a stop before reaching them.” Nara had said.
“A stop?” Ahsoka couldn’t stop the question.
Nara turned to face her as she reached down to grab the other woman that had yet to regain consciousness, “We need to know if there are any hosts here Ahsoka…”
“Hosts?” Rex beat Ahsoka to the punch as he straightened his overshirt across his chest and torso.
“Yes. Hosts. The source of all that you see around you. I have certain suspicions concerning their presence with the complete lack of overall security here.” Nara replied, “Sidious would not leave his trophies unguarded.”
Ahsoka had not thought of that, had not thought to think of that, “let’s go then, as you said before Nara, we are running out of time.” She responded, approaching Nara to assist placing the unconscious woman over the Mirialan’s shoulder.
“This way…” Nara said, struggling only somewhat from the new encumbrance as she slipped from the open doorway and turned right down the empty corridor. Both Rex and Ahsoka followed closely behind, Nara passing the borrowed code cylinders in Rex’s hand as they reached the lift access doors.
“But they are locked out…” Rex stated, flashing a glance between the item in his hand and Nara’s gaze.
“Not entirely.” Nara confided, urging the clone to acquiescence with a hurried glance toward the terminal.
Rex inserted the cylinder without any further questions, the doors hissing quietly open in response, “well I’ll be damned…”
“R3 did get us this far after all…” Ahsoka added lightly behind the two.
“R3 only got us to the bottom of this damned level Ahsoka, that holo was quite extensive.” Rex said quickly, following Nara into the lift.
Ahsoka followed the two after only a moment of hesitation, her mind still caught up the vast chasm of doubt she had unwittingly cast herself. The door closed silently but didn’t engage in either direction.
“Level zero zero A” Nara called into the confines of the lift, its quick response leaving little time for any form of reflection as it shot upward quickly.
✦
“Platforms are secured for your arrival my Lord.” Admiral Drummond Cain voiced through the gunship’s comms.
“Is the requested team standing by?” Sidious responded quickly, his sharp tones a reflection of the urgency that was clearly conveyed.
“It is my Lord. All other facilities personnel have been evacuated per your orders.”
“Very good Admiral. Upon our arrival you are to initiate Operation Swarm.” Sidious continued, assured the timing would comply with the multiple visions that had guided him to this point.
Cain cleared his throat, “It will take another eighteen hours to assemble across marshaling designations and transfer ordinance to point fleet commands.”
“And that is where your involvement will end Admiral, Lord Vader will relieve your command. Have you completed preparational operations on the station?” Sidious recited, the rasp and harshness of his voice providing a resolve to Jade seated next to him, still shaken from earlier events.
“There are only two vessels currently docked, the ‘Trest’ is currently thirty percent to max and the ‘Invicture’ has only just begun. They constitute the sum of assigned vessels my Lord.” Cain rushed the update, ready to have the communication come to a quick conclusion, “the team will be in place upon your arrival.”
“That would be now Admiral.” Sidious conveyed with a quick glance toward Jade, the woman nodding in acquiescence as she ended the transmission.
The X4 gunship left the confines of hyperspace with a gentle lurch, inertia dampening gravitational controls easing the transition through a graceful process. Filling the narrow canopy was the mid rim counterpart to the planet they had left, large swaths of artificial illumination denoted the reach the ecumenopolis had achieved. A breathtaking planetary eclipse gave them both reason to shift their gaze from the illuminated surface below to the halo of light around the sphere itself only moments before the system’s sun pierced the darkness with a blinding flash. Jade did her best to hide her fascination on account of company alone, assured the man seated beside her would never see the beauty within the sight.
“My Lord, would that make for the landing platforms before we arrive..? She clipped her wonder with a fresh dose of the task at hand.
“They will not.” Sidious replied, Jade turning slightly to see the man had closed his eyes. “It is good that you question the matter Jade.” He continued, eyes fluttering slightly under the closed lids, “knowing your choice of confrontation is just as important as knowing your opponent.”
Jade returned her gaze forward, observing as the sun swallowed up the night upon the planet, casting its dazzling light over the sprawling array of cityscape, viewable from even their vantage. “The education continues…” She uttered.
“You know neither Jade. There is something of interest to our quarry, conveniently placed to assure they will be precisely where I mean them to be.” Sidious offered, unsuccessful if his intent were to clear the matter in Jade’s opinion.
✦
‘The Monnok’...Sylde realized, his eyes flaring open in a conundrum his mind would never have conjured. Despite his admissions to Imperial Intelligence’s Director, he had never considered the possibility credible, yet here it was standing before him. In the blink of an eye the child that had proclaimed his own doom had given way to the only symbol that caused him either pause or fear, “how is this possible?” He shouted his question into Ciutric’s heavy night air, the devastation settling to a quiet crackling of continuous fires and the distant hoots of the planet’s hairless primates. “You are dead Fardi..I saw to that myself!”
“You only witnessed what you thought Evan, having never considered the sum of what is truly possible.” N’dali said through the maw of the slender serpentine alien, pulling the spear from the ground with its powerful muscles.
“You’re not real! You can’t be!” Sylde began foaming at the edges of his mouth.
“Because it surpasses the limits of your own imagination Evan. Look to the heavens and ask how real this is…” N’dali stated, the voice that seemed to echo from all directions, boomed between the two combatants.
“What does that even mean!?” Sylde was becoming increasingly possessed by the broad parameters he had never even considered just before his comm device began chiming at his side. He raised his wrist quickly, confusion only confounding the scrambling of his own thoughts, “Telmac Sir, Fosauri is in position as commanded.”
“What? How? Who issued the command?” The questions were rapid fire, Sylde’s confusion evolving into complete bafflement.
“Seven.” Captain Telmac replied. If there was anything to follow, Sylde would never know as the comm device burst into static. His gaze dropped from the raised device to the image that stood meters before him, the staff aiming high above its head. Sylde followed the path and continued looking skyward to see a singular ball of white that he could pinch between thumb and index finger, its edges flaming silently with hints of red and orange. The white faded quickly, filling the planets upper atmosphere with pin pricks of orange, lacing burning trails of red behind them in a sweeping blanket toward the southern horizon.
Sylde’s heart began to hammer in his chest, slamming viciously into the fine bones of his rib cage, his blood began to burn within his veins as his fingers and toes turned to ice. His body felt like it was failing him despite the vivid reminders it was very much alive, realizing only then that the thing he had relied on the most had become his greatest adversary. The comm device chirped again, “Hans Sir, Morintroll in position…” The message was lost to him as a second voice overlapped the first, “Geulth Sir, Abalder in position. Recording orbital deb……” again, the comm device fell into a static laced epitaph, Sylde’s gaze inexorably drawn skyward once more. Two more white flares mimed the first, adding their own scattering debris on a one-way journey to the planet’s surface in long streaks of flaming demise.
The comm device began to chirp with a fury, Sylde removed his gaze skyward to lift the device toward his opposing free hand. He unclasped the device and looked at it briefly before throwing it with a surging fury directly at, and through, the image of the Monnok with a guttural shout of agitated rage. Sabine, witnessing the confrontation several meters removed to N’dali’s right, could sense the dangers of growing insanity within the man that had drawn the Thebeskan’s wrath. She raised her visor skyward herself, watching as silent explosion after another filled the night with a morbid sense of fascination. Although her methods were well above Sabine’s understanding, the Mandalorian could sense that what was taking place was a long time coming, morally decent or not, it felt unavoidable, almost scripted. She was certain N’dali had only provided the means to an end and the man who was currently eviscerating himself verbally was truly the one responsible for the grand and majestic display of Imperial wreckage currently raining down upon Ciutric’s landscape.
Sylde fell to his knees at the very moment Sabine was certain he was ready to rush the Morai, “Why?” He sobbed toward his own chest, his shoulders wracking through some muscular spasms Sabine found awkwardly timed.
“Why indeed Evan. So many lives lost simply because you unwisely placed more importance in your precious finite systems, than to your own initiatives and moral compass.” N’dali stated, skewing her image from the serpentine Monnok to the woman Sabine had known her to be, the same tight braids lining her scalp as she forced her projection to walk closer to the grieving man. The vibrations she had felt before tore through the ground once more with considerably more force, only to be met with a rumbling that was new.
The ground felt as if it were ready to split beneath her feet, Sabine sliding her feet apart to maintain her balance.
“Your fleet was mine to usher to its visual display Evan, your own system initiated the devastation you see...but it had help Evan...and you can thank Ms. Isard for that if my calculations are correct.” N’dali confided as she mockingly placed a holographic hand upon his head. “Your fate however…” She began as she knelt before her adversary with the intention to look him directly into his eyes, “has been promised to another…” She finished, the man unwilling to match her gaze. The moment she rose to her feet once more the ground began to swell all around them, patches of dark grasses wavering most unnaturally in the glowing ambiance of N’dali’s projection and the assistance of the Morai’s forward flood lights. Soft, moist dirt erupted from the edges of newly formed sinkholes, each rolling in increasingly wider bands as they pushed the steppes thick vegetation to the side effortlessly. A screeching chitter, and erupting howls, proceeded the emergence of bulbous protrusions from each of the many sinkholes, continuing through the dazzlingly sparse light and darkness to reveal thick plated carapace and innumerable legs that slammed into the ground beneath them.
Sylde lifted his gaze to the new horror, in no position to flee, he only covered his head with his arms and buried his face into the moist ground at his knees, screaming his horror with muffled groans. Sabine closed the distance between herself and the Morai realizing precisely what had emerged from the ground and wanting no part of a repeat confrontation. To her surprise, the creatures only bypassed the self-shaming pitiful man that remained pinned to the ground. They carried themselves with surprising speed toward the largest of the smoldering remains of the former Captains own vessel, quickly oozing some secretion over the broken fragments that hissed menacingly before they began feasting and gorging themselves on the quickly rusting metal.
N’dali shook her projected head and turned for Sabine’s new position at the small forward ramp, “the man is lost to himself.” She said loud enough for Sabine to hear.
“What did I just witness?” Sabine offered with a normalized tone, removing her helmet in the process with its own hiss and ping.
“A confrontation of opposing intelligence’s Sabine. He and Isard had been plotting against one another, her system tripped my countermeasures and Sylde’s own system concluded that its parameters and variables had been compromised. I was only responsible for a singular command that was issued through his system before its own demise.” N’dali regaled quickly.
“Convergence on their Captain’s own location…” Sabine understood, casting a pitiful glance toward the shamed man.
“Precisely.”
“And his fate?” Sabine felt sure the answer was about to reveal itself but asked anyway.
“Is about to be delivered.” N’dali answered, extinguishing her projectors subtly as she turned to walk into the ship. Sabine followed the image until it vanished, swinging her gaze slowly back to the man who had risen to his knees in the sudden darkness of the immediate area.
Sabine placed her helmet back on her head, changing her settings quickly to night vision just in time to witness Kowani’s arms pulling her body through one of the sinkholes. She understood immediately what N’dali had referenced, dropping herself to a knee to honor the confrontation for what it was. She knew how important this moment was to the Mirialan, and what it meant for her to face this particular opponent alone. ‘Old business is old business…’ she told herself, knowing her own people would bow to similar customs and practices, “par ijaat Ani.” She whispered into her helmet, willing the honor be met, although quite sure the opponent had none of his own.
Kowani walked forward toward the trembling man, his features clean and crisp despite the darkness within which she would operate. Guttural belches and splashes of things she didn’t want to know about drove the returning chimes of the area’s insects back into an unswerving silence as Kowani reached the sobbing man. Sylde coughed slightly into the ground as he lifted his head toward the Mirialans’ own.
“On your feet Evan.” Kowani’s tone was deep, the command unquestionably given.
Whether or not he even attempted to acquiesce, Kowani didn’t wait, slapping him hard across his left temple and sending his head skittering to the ground. “Get up!” Kowani shouted, leaning over to drive her point home.
Sabine felt torn, but only for a moment, noting the harshness of the directive in conjunction with the reverberating slap that was loud in her helmet. She thought she should feel some pity for the man, but her own adrenaline began to funnel through her veins, almost relishing in what was to come.
“You’ve made your point!” The grieving man shouted into the dirt, his tone bypassing insanity and directly into the realm of outright madness.
“I haven’t even started Evan. Get up, so this isn’t cold blood.” Kowani said calmly, Sabine sensing the urge within the Mirialan to kick the prone body before her. “Get up!” She shouted again.
The man began to acquiesce, rolling on his back to push himself to his knees again while presenting open palms forward. Sabine shaking her head at the open act of surrender.
“Not tonight Evan, you will fight for your survival, or you will die. You have already removed any other option.” Kowani said, again with an odd calm and delicacy that Sabine found intriguing.
“I am not armed…” Sylde tried, only to feel the thud of a lightsaber vibrate through his knees, Kowani assuring the situation would proceed as she intended.
“Take it and defend yourself.” Kowani said, taking a step back and flashing her pink blade to life with vivid activation. She raised it perpendicular to the ground in front of her, letting its reflective light convey the seriousness in her eyes. The man fumbled for the hilt before rising groggily to his feet, pulling the saber with a weak grip into his right hand. “There is nothing left for Evan Sylde beyond this confrontation. Like you had intended to leave me, you now have nothing.”
“It was never anything personal KT-3…” Evan began.
Kowani cut him off immediately, “my name is Kowani Y’mmat, and it is the last you’ll hear.”
Sylde gave himself a shake and ignited the saber, falling instantly into Shii-cho’s first stance, then wavering his feet slightly to adopt Soresu’s third. Kowani instantly shrugging the defensive stance off. She observed the purple glare as it danced over her opponent’s features, finding the man’s eyes glaring in direct opposition to the perceived bouts of shame he had obviously pretended.
“Perhaps you won’t die right away it seems, and in that I can learn.” Kowani stated, grasping her own hilt a little tighter with the newfound knowledge.
“I will not go quietly Miss Y’mmat, you will earn this victory.” Sylde said shedding the act altogether.
“Never underestimate your opponent, assume everyone is stronger than you at all times.” Bane whispered into Kowani’s mind. “Search his mind, clarify your opponent’s ability.” He continued, Kowani quickly assessing as requested.
‘He does have the Force, but it is only through the conduit the man has remaining to him. He does not believe he is strong.’ Kowani replied with her instantaneous findings.
“Then assume he can level worlds.”
Kowani took the advice and laced into two quick feints to judge his speed and accuracy, flashing the pink blade through the movements with a ferocious hum and blinding speed toward the man’s shoulders in quick succession. A charged spark met her initial thrust as he crossed over expertly to absorb the blade just before it touched the outside of his left shoulder but was too slow to mimic the maneuver to his right, shrieking in pain as Kowani glanced her blade lightly into the flesh beneath the tattered uniform the hung loosely over his right shoulder.
Sylde changed tactics with a quick shuffle of his feet, lowering his back in a straight line with his extended left leg, thrusting the purple blade forward only to slice harmlessly through the air where Kowani had been. He recovered quickly switching the blade with an angry hum over his shoulder to deflect the vicious arc Kowani’s blade was making in a decapitating effort. The discharge sparked wildly, both opponents dancing to face each other once again.
“He is sloppy and uninspired, through negligent training or disinterest it is not clear.” Bane issued, Kowani already sensing the same.
‘Pride.’ She thought in return, arcing her blade through a quadruple feint, finding purchase on the man’s left shoulder this time and right knee.
Sylde fought the urge to drop to a knee in response, stumbling backward to compose another offensive volley, but to his credit did not cry out in pain.
Kowani could sense a surge of Force energies around her, although invisible to her now, the flows always found a way to make themselves known. She focused immediately on negating their flows, directing the volatile energies in sprawling directions outward.
Sylde gritted his teeth audibly, working to replace the suddenness of the Force’s retreat with the blind rage he held in reserve.
Evan Sylde laced into a fevered cadence of aggressive strikes that only found Kowani’s blade at every angle, the sparks flying in a mad fury to keep pace with the blinding action. Finally, Kowani had had enough and dropped to a low crouch, pulling her hilt close to her body, the blade humming with its own anger just over her right shoulder. Sylde placed himself into Soresu’s third stance again as she had expected just before she fired from her coiled position, twisted herself out of his high and low defensive strikes and planted herself before unleashing a fury of articulated wrist snaps and movements that confounded the overmatched man. He tried to block the initial burst but was quickly lost to the blinding pink that scored his flesh in a dozen separate places. Sylde was suddenly beside himself, unable to even comprehend the speed he had just witnessed much less defend himself against it, the pain of each strike only now registering.
Kowani turned her back to the man as he wavered upon his feet, knowing full well none of the strikes were by any means fatal. She wanted the point to be made before she laced into a killing blow, turning only to remove herself from gloating over her own prowess.
“It is unwise to turn from your opponent Kowani Y’mmat. When you think yourself victor without confirming the kill, you have succeeded in delivering nothing at all.” Bane instructed.
‘And you underestimate me Bane…’ Kowani thought in reply, feeling the man’s presence directly behind her, sensing the internal conviction to end her own life and finalize a pledge made to his Emperor. “So, it was a directive after all….why then would Sidious find reason to hunt down his science projects Evan?”
“Because the line is contaminated Y’mmat, me included.” Sylde said, breathing heavily in the same place she had left him.
“There is another phase...isn’t there?” It could be the only truth if he himself were being truthful with her.
“Kowani Y’mmat, there will always be another phase, another level, another project, another directive….Do you not understand! The Empire cannot be simply erased…” Sylde sounded almost hysterical.
“But you can…” Kowani stated, turning so fast Sylde only registered her presence the moment her blade was thrust through his chest. She held it there knocking his feeble attempt to counter with a slap to his wrist, sending the purple blade back into its hilt with a forceful snap and resulting silence. The sounds of his own surprise working their way out his open mouth, spittle dripping from his crooked and twisted mouth, his eyes conveying the inevitability of the death he had yet to embrace. Kowani stared into the pink speckles that danced through tears the man would never shed, basking in the low-pitched hum of blade as it cooked the man’s flesh.
Out of nowhere, Sabine slid through the slick grasses that had been trampled and overturned, igniting her own inherited saber with shock of bright green straight through Sylde’s waist, cleaving the man in two. As both halves thudded without mercy to the ground, Sabine deactivated the saber and came to a sliding halt on her left knee, panting with a seething anger Kowani could hear despite the helmet on the Mandalorians head.
Not at all disappointed in the results, Kowani turned toward the emotionally charged woman who assured Sylde’s death complete.
“I don’t know where that… came from…” Sabine heaved the statement with noted exhilaration.
‘That can’t be good.’ She thought to herself, willing a response from Bane, and finding nothing but silence within the confines of her own mind.
“Ani...Sabine...we need to go.” N’dali sounded out through both women’s comm devices, Kowani already walking toward Sabine while deactivating her own saber, reached down to take the Mandalorians hand. Kowani sensed the flows of the Force within the woman but no mutual connection, realizing Sabine could utilize, perhaps had been for some time, certain facets of the Force without anyone, including herself, cognizant of it. She felt an inherent danger work its way into her thoughts, one that would affect the Mandalorian without question in some fashion, but one that could affect them all if her assumptions were right.
“Cmon sis, let’s bring em home.” Kowani said, Sabine squeezing the offered hand and relenting to the assist as Kowani pulled within the Force to bring Windu’s hilt into her free palm. Both tossing arms over one another’s shoulder as the forward access ramp lowered for them, then quickly hissed closed with a definitive finality.