Better than a stale meal shared on the field after battle…

[Corvus Raaf]

The young officer stood outside the command cabin door and tried to swallow. Really, this was too much: to be summoned before two Jedi. Not only Jedi, but the GrandMaster. And now the officer had to meet her. Face-to-face!

He tugged at the collar of his dress-blue uniform tunic, slid a finger behind it to try to stretch the fabric just a hair more. He grimaced at how difficult he found this simple task to be; surely his tailor had miscalculated-again-because he couldn't possibly have put on so much weight since he'd had this made. Could he? In, what had it been, three Standard months? A man of his admittedly advanced age – he would never see seventy again – should have settled on a size, and left it at that.

He was not much in favour of dress uniforms, anyway. He'd left his own behind on his home-world decades before, trading it in for mufti; in those days, Republic Intelligence had been a largely covert service, and had had no use for uniforms. And for a number of years he'd been forced to make a living as a freelance broker of information while doing his best to avoid attracting any official One Sith attention.

Eventually, he'd offered his services back to the Republic. Though he had little interest in politics – his primary political conviction was a profound interest in his own safety and comfort – he'd recognized that the Republic would, owing to its youthful amateurish untidiness, afford him a great deal more opportunity for the freedom to make his own way in his own way. Which was another way of saying: to live and work in the lucrative shadows outside official scrutiny.

Which made his current situation all the more ironic.

He sighed. Nothing ever works out how we wish, yes? Doesn't mean one can't turn it to one's advantage. He sighed again and raised a finger to trigger the cabin's door chime . .. but before he could, the door slid open, and a voice that sounded a great deal more pleasant that he had expected said, "Colonel. Please come in."

He grimaced again. He'd become accustomed, this twenty-plus years past, to a life without Jedi. He wasn't at all sure he was looking forward to meeting one again – let alone two.

He took a deep breath and waddled through the door. "Master Jedi," he said with a slight bow to both – no salute. "How may I be of service?"

Two Jedi faced him. One was sitting on the edge of a desk, head lowered and hands clasped before her. She wore standard robes. Why did Jedi always look so casual when he’d had to wear this stuffy uniform?

Corvus lifted her head as though she had felt his annoyance – and she might very well have, the Colonel reminded himself. Karking Jedi.

"Colonel," Corvus said slowly. "I know a little about you. You were a military governor and director of planetary intelligence."

His too-tight collar suddenly seemed to tighten further, "Briefly. At the beginning of the..."

"Then you were a One Sith spy."

"Well..."

"And after that, you made your living tracking targets for bounty hunters."

"Not specifically for..."

"And now you're back with the Republic. Through all this, there's a running theme. You have a talent."

The old man said carefully, "Do I?"

"You seem to be pretty good at finding the truth."

The officer relaxed. "Oh, well, thank you for..."

"And at making money off it."

"Erm." He cleared his throat, but found he had nothing to say.

Corvus pushed herself to his feet. "That's what I know about you. What do you know about me?"

The officer blinked. "Master Jedi?"

"Come on." Corvus smiled. "Everybody knows stuff about me. What do you know?"

"Oh, well, you know, the usual – Grand Master, fought most of the One Sith Lords and lived to tell the tale…" The officer realized he was babbling and shut up.

Corvus nodded. "The usual. The stories. The press releases. The problem is that those stories and press releases aren't really about me at all. They're about the woman everybody wants me to be, understand?"

The man eyed him warily; he sensed that he'd been manoeuvred onto dangerous ground. "I'm afraid," he said slowly, "That I don't understand."

"You're an investigator. I want you to investigate."

"Investigate what?"

Corvus’ face twisted. "Me..us." For the first time she referenced Voxyn in all of this.

"Well, I, ah... erm." The Colonel could think of several dozen ways to earn a tidy sum from such a project. "If you don't mind, may I inquire as to how my name came up for this?"

Corvus shrugged. "It doesn’t matter really, a member of the Republic Intelligence Service."

The Colonel’s nod was non-committal. "What else did this advisor tell you about me?"

"He said you're vicious, venal, and corrupt. That you don't have a shred of decency, and about as much human feeling as a glacier lizard."

The old man nodded abstractedly. "That does sound like the sort of thing someone who knows me would say..."

“Then we have an agreement?”

“Yes…I’ll begin right away, just give me access to the logs.”

Corvus handed him a data disk. “It’s all there…”

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona crouched low to the ground and stared closely at the footprints that were pressed into the dirt there. They moved in single file for the most part, though every now and again a stray boot landed outside the standard parameter. Digging her hand into the soil, she drew a fistful of it and ground it up. Streams of sediment and dust showered the earth below her, until the majority of it was gone. Alyona looked up at the group of Republic soldiers standing around her in a half-circle, clapping the dirt off her gloved hands. "They clearly went this way," Alyona said. This drew a chuckle from some of the other soldiers. Alyona smirked herself. "But we don't know how many of them there are, so we've got to tread carefully. They came through here near half an hour ago." Captain Jenet Tork nodded, "Let's rally up and move out then, Master Jedi." Alyona shook her head, "I'm no Master ma'am," she corrected, smiling. Captain Tork rolled her eyes. "Quit being so modest, you've done great thus far." Alyona laughed, letting her hand fall onto the woman's shoulder as they moved out with the rest of the company. "Why I thank you."

The planet was Jakku, the mission was the One Sith, and the heat was...nearly unbearable. The Republic troops were garbed in loose-fitting tan colored robes and shawls to capture air flow and keep cool, with torso armor worn beneath. Many of the soldiers were wearing head wraps and face masks to keep the sand out of their eyes and mouths. Alyona herself was garbed in a loose-fitting tan blouse with a low-cut collar, baggy white linen pants, the hems of which were tucked into the wrappings of her boots. Her utility belt was strapped around her waist and left thigh, which made her left leg uncomfortably warm due to the reduced air flow. She wore a brown shemagh wrapped about her neck and face to ward off the sun. Her lightsabers were clipped to her belt, Luke's at her left, Corvus' shoto at her right.
"Voxyn, our scout just returned," Alyona opened her eyes and identified the speaker in the dark of the night as Leftenant Cyrill Ward. "Let me see him." Alyona requested, following Ward to the foot of the dune where the rest of the company was arrayed in a wide, wide circle that formed their patrol base. Sergent Giffen stood waiting for her, his rifle resting on his shoulder. He nodded his face hidden by the light cloth he had wrapping it. Alyona looked into his steely grey eyes and knew he was disturbed. "What is it?" She demanded. Giffen remained silent, but squatted down and rested his blaster rifle across his knees, then began drawing in the dirt. Alyona squatted down as well and observed the lines and images he outlined with a finger.
"There is an entire battalion, six klicks East of here. They are on approach Tuanul. I believe their intention is to test the weapon there." Alyona frowned, "What weapon?" Giffen shook his head, "I know not. My directional mic gave me glimpses of conversation from their outermost scouts and guardsmen. They have no idea they're being followed. Their grunts speak of a weapon being carried by the battalion. Says it will change the course of war between the Sith and the Republic. But must be tested first."
"So that's why they're on Jakku," Captain Tork muttered, "It's remote enough, word won't ever reach the Republic through normal channels." Alyona looked up and began climbing the sand dune on all fours until reaching the top. She gazed out at the wasteland around her, seeing nothing in the vastness of sand and wind. Giffen had followed her.

"We cannot stop this. We are too few."

Alyona didn't admit it, but began wondering if he was right.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus lay flat on the jagged hilltop, squinting through electrobinoculars that had gone foggy, their front lenses scored by too much exposure to the clouds of windblown grit that passed for atmosphere here on Jakku. The hunks of broken rock around her masked her silhouette, and she didn't have to worry about thermal imaging, because the rock around her was warmed by the noontime heat.

Which was a necessary factor in her position, which was less than ten kilometres from the camp the One Sith were setting up.

She paid the discomfort of her postion no heed; she cared only about the gnat clouds of One Sith fighters that streamed in and out of every visible cavern mouth on the mountainside.

Which was exactly how it had looked every time she'd gotten a glimpse.

She scowled, pushing a lock of her hair off her forehead, and dialled the electrobinoculars up to a higher magnification. "I don't get it," she said. "Are we sure about the jammers?"

From a few meters below and behind her, a man who wore the uniform of a Republic scout answered with a shrug. "All 1 can tell you is what intel tells me. Subspace is clear. If we wanted, we could send a signal all the way to the Trigaskian Blur."

"I got something!" This shout came from farther down the hill-side, within the mouth of the cave where the rest of her men waited. "Hey, Master Jedi! Hey, I got something!"

Corvus flattened herself into the rocks and hissed, "Please tell him to keep his voice down!"

"What for? It's not like there's anybody around to hear."

"You're sure?"

"Aw, Corvus, come on..."

"The One Sith could have seeded these hills with sonic probes."

"Corvus..."

She remained silent.

"All right, all right. Shee, relax, huh?" The scout chuckled quietly as he let himself half slide, half scramble down the hillside toward the cave.

Corvus jammed the electrobinoculars back against her face. She'd relax when she got these men off this planet alive – and not before. And there was the small matter of her Padawan too – looking after a small force of troopers herself..

From behind her came the scrabble of boots on lava as the scout worked his way back up the slope. "It was nothin'," he said.

"What kind of nothing?"

He waved a hand disgustedly. "A nothing kind of nothing. Just a couple pings."

Corvus’ voice was low and calm. "Pings?"

"Yeah-some kind of signal, and an echo, like a transponder response..."

"I know what a ping is," she said, smiling. "Where did the initializer come from?"

He shrugged. "Outside the system, prob'ly. A HoloNet repeater or something."

"And the response came from here?"

"Well, yeah. Um . .. how'd you know that?"

She was already backing herself out of her position. She scrambled down the slope. "Up! Everybody up!"

People in camouflaged armour scrambled to their feet from all around the little cave.

"Lock and load, people." Corvus started moving through them toward her scout bike. "I want every speeder, swoop, and skimmer in the air in five. No supplies except weapons, power cells, and medikits. Full alert."

"Alert?" the scout said as he scrambled after her. "What's going on?"

"You think it's a coincidence that after months, those jammers go down just now? Just in time to let through a transponder ping that's probably coming from some kind of tracker?"

The scout frowned. "What, it's a trap?"

"Not for us. And we need to make sure we don't step into it." For an instant, she smiled. But only for an instant. "We'll wait and watch, but we need to be ready to move."

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

"Night has fallen, Mistress," Tork whispered, shaking Alyona from sleep. The Republic soldiers had taken to calling her "Mistress" after her affirmation she was no Master earlier in the day. She cared little what they called her, their devotion to the mission was all she wanted of them. The night was cold, Jakku was little different from any other desert planet. The air cut through to Alyona's skin; she belayed it by donning a shawl, draping it over her shoulders and buttoning it along her chest. She rewrapped her shemagh around her neck and lower face, letting her ashen hair free in the night breeze. It whipped about softly, her locks listing back and forth across her face.
Alyona had not yet received the same warning her Master had. Corvus was arrayed along a series of bluffs some distance away; the communications silence they were required to maintain prevented them from speaking. Even so, Alyona was guarded, and so were her soldiers. Tork was maintaining a strict operative guard, only every fifth soldier was allowed any downtime. She followed Tork to the edge of the perimeter, laying down in the sand along the lower bank of the dune that separated them from their prey. Through the macrobinoculars given to her by Tork, Alyona gazed out across a blue horizon and over black ground speckled with white where animals, rocks and plants rested. It didn't take her long to identify the Sith guardsmen. They were wearing full battle kit and night vision optics built within their helmets, giving their eyes a dull red glow in the black of the night.
"Three hundred meters, at their closest point." Alyona muttered. Tork nodded and relayed the information to the attack group that was forming behind them. Alyona had decided to take Tork and several other soldiers out on an assault into the enemy camp, using the remainder of their force as a distraction to draw their soldiers away. The goal was to locate intelligence regarding the weapon, or hopefully the weapon itself. "Are you ready?" Alyona asked. Tork glanced back and reviewed her soldiers, then nodded. "Yes, we are, Mistress." Alyona lowered the macrobinoculars, clipping them to the backside of her belt. "Then off we go..."

Alyona and her soldiers had garbed themselves in little but their loose-fitting clothing and body armor. No heavy weapons or equipment were to be taken. Their bodies were wrapped efficiently, and their movement through the still-warm sand would hide them from the Sith's night optical devices. Alyona started first, crawling on her belly through the grit and the sand and the dirt, one arm out in front of the other as she carried herself along. At times they were able to slide forward down the dunes, their weapons dragging alongside them from slings and other carriers. Many of the Republic soldiers bared knives and suppressed blaster pistols for when they closed range with their enemy. In silence they moved, stopping at times to wait for changes in the enemy positions. The Sith rotated guards every other hour, and a shift change was coming up.
Alyona signaled for the group of soldiers to halt, then immersed herself in the Force to glean the positions of the rest of her force. They were shuffling forward quietly far off to the East, some thousand meters away. They were intent on setting up a two-squad support-by-fire line atop one of the dunes to the East, before sending a detachment force of two squads further North from that position to draw the enemy away from Alyona's chosen entrance into their camp. The camp itself was set up within an oasis, with a small lake at its center and a dense growth of foliage bushing outward. Large, leafy trees sprouted from the water itself and tall rocky formations divided the terrain. Alyona intended on entering from the West, using the water to hide her forces once they broke the perimeter, and to dismantle the Sith force from its interior. It took some time, but finally Alyona could sense the minds of her soldiers to the East settling, their thoughts focusing inward on the oasis and the enemy it contained. They were utterly without communications, though the operation had been well timed; in just under a minute Alyona expected to hear blaster fire from the East and North-East.

As scheduled, the first shots rang out loudly in the darkness. Alyona and her force remained nearly seventy meters outside the Sith perimeter, still unseen even by their night optical devices. Blaster fire began to rain down through the East perimeter, scouring the sand and turning fist-sized balls of it to glass. Rocks showered the desert floor with sparks as blaster bolts struck them, and here and there small fires were started by stray shots. The Sith along the Western front started and turned away from their positions, looking East to see what was going on. It was then Alyona and her force acted.
She drew her flare gun and fired it into the sky above the Oasis. It streamed invisibly into the air before exploding into a shower of red and white starlight. Those Sith soldiers that looked up to the light instinctively were temporarily blinded, grasping at their eyes and faces and tearing off the night optical devices they wore. Alyona and her soldiers were already on their feet, bursting forth across the sand with great speed to close the distance between them. Her lightsabers remained at her belt, in her hands Alyona grasped two durasteel knives, with hilts wrapped in leather.
Alyona's force moved in silence while the Sith were still disoriented, their soldiers in the East struggling to organize against the streams of heavy blaster fire that cut a swath back and forth through their lines. Alyona pressed herself forward, identifying a Sith soldier in her path and leapt, launching herself low across the ground though high enough to stab downward and catch her target on both sides of their neck, burying her blades deep and bringing the Sith to the sand. On either side of her, Republic soldiers, garbed in dark tan linens, streamed passed her, silencing their own targets before moving to the water's edge beyond. The Sith's Western front had partially fallen and none of them had been identified. Things were going well.
Next, they entered the water, to hide and wait as the Sith organized their response to the Eastern attack. Shouts and screams were heard all around as orders were given and countermanded, only to be given once again. It took several long minutes, but finally the Sith gathered two platoon-sized elements and sent them out to flank the Eastern Republic soldiers. Some time later, blaster fire rang out from the North-East, catching the Sith response elements by surprise and cutting many of them down. The Sith reorganized and split their force in half, then sent each to handle their two respective targets. Neither element would return.

As blaster fire continued to ring in the distance, Alyona signaled her force. Together they moved through the water at a crouch, faces just protruding far enough from the lake's surface to see the area around them. Several Sith remained at the water's edge, wounded or gathering equipment. Ahead, by the bank, two large boulders flanked a tall prefabricated structure, clearly the tactical operations center of the Sith camp. Alyona pointed to the structure with a slender finger and Tork nodded her understanding. She took several Republic soldiers and paired them off with the rest, providing a two pronged force to tackle the structure from either side. At Tork's command, the two groups of five soldiers left the water behind, their weapons ready, and knocked lightly on the door barring entry. At the same time, Alyona crept up to the structure's backside and gripped her lightsaber, holding the emitter nozzle toward the back wall and waited.
"What do you want!?" A male voice barked from inside. Sergent Lesko cleared his voice and answered, "I wanted to personally update you on the security situation on the Western perimeter, sir!" A moment of silence passed, and then the voice asked, "I thought the attack came from the East! What happened to our soldiers!?"
At that moment Alyona ignited her lightsaber, the brilliant green-white blade jumping into existence with a snap-hiss. The tip cut through the back wall and pierced the thigh of a Sith Lieutentant she'd sensed on the other side. Alyona heard a scream as she ripped the blade to the right and severed the Leftenent's other leg and then upward, simultaneously making herself an opening through which to enter. She stood over the Sith writhing in pain and cut the tip of her blade toward the Captain that stood before her, garbed in a horrifying mixture of formal military wear and Vong technology. At the entrance to the command tent, Tork and her soldiers kicked open the door and barged their way in, rifles and pistols held up at the various Sith command staff that occupied the structure.

Alyona looked up at the Captain and smiled. "That happened to your soldiers, Captain. Now if you'll kindly enlighten me as to the details and whereabouts of this weapon of yours, I'll be on my way."

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

The R2 unit was in a snug little cave near the rim of the crater, unconcernedly repairing his damaged arm. With his enormous array of onboard tools, a good-enough repair was simple, though R2 did file a memo in his maintenance archive to have the arm replaced the next time he could find his way into a fully outfitted service centre.

Soon the R2's auditory sensors registered the characteristic shriek of air whistling through the accumulator panels of Sith fighters – always heard when they were used in-atmosphere. R2's onboard threat-assessment algorithm estimated the shrieks to be coming from several kilometres overhead, which meant that a quick peek outside carried an acceptably low level of risk. First came an extensible mini-dish, with which R2 made a quick scan of sensor channels; discovering no droid-sensitive scans in progress, the little astromech extended his now-functional loco-motor arms and whirred up to the surface.

"There you are, my little beauty!" The shout registered in R2's auditory sensors as a series of sonic impulses whose wave characteristics corresponded to the natural vocal production of a human male speaking Basic with a distinctively Inner Rim accent; R2 instantly filed a copy in his medium-term audio log.

R2's threat-assessment algorithm also registered the origination point of the shout-some eighty-seven degrees from planetary north, at a range of less than three meters-and so when the shouter grabbed the little droid, R2's anti-tamper capacitors were already fully charged. "Master Jedi! I've got him! I've got hi-youerghh..." was the new shout, the youerghh being the shouter's response to receiving a burst of static discharge that hurled him back a metre or so and left him twitching, sparks still spitting from half-charred gloves.

"Kuckartz!" a different human male, though with a similar accent, shouted. "That little grubber killed Kuckartz! Give me that ion blaster..."

"Cancel that!" This voice, by contrast, was clearly the product of a human female, who, based on the harmonic overtones of authority, was equally clearly accustomed to instant obedience. "Stow the blaster."

"But-but it killed Kuckartz..."

"He's not dead. He's just learning about keeping his hands to himself. "

"But I was only..."

Corvus stood impassively, hands on hips.

"All right, Corvus. I mean, jeesh, you can't fault a guy for getting..."

R2 also subjected this recording to real-time multispectrum analysis and discovered, through a combination of thermal and bio-electric field output, that what appeared to be nineteen human beings who were wearing armour and survival suits. Which was a particularly compelling example, R2 observed in a note appended to the file, of the endless human inventiveness with camouflage.

"Hey, little guy," the authoritative woman said, approaching R2 with open, empty hands, crouching a little, as though the droid might be a nervous Shistavanen cub. "What are you doing all alone, way out here? Waiting for somebody?"

"Waiting for a junk dealer, I bet," the scout said. "Can you believe how old that thing is? If it ain't defective, who'd leave it out here? I say we blast it and break it up for parts."

"Don't mind him." Her voice was gentle.

"But-but listen, Corvus, seriously. Our last three astromechs are barely functional – and they're all newer than this one. We really need those parts!"

The woman's face shifted into an expression that R2's optical-analysis algorithm couldn't parse, which triggered his threat-assessment system to initiate a measured response: R2 decided that a prudent course would be to warn these humans of the possible consequences of aggressive action.

A quick scan of his data archives brought up a recording. This process took only .78 seconds, and when it was complete, the R2 initiated its holoprojector array to display its handiwork: a miniature Luke Skywalker wielding a lightsaber of shining green-white, who leapt and spun and somersaulted among images of an ancient R2 unit, cutting them down on every side.

"What is that supposed to be?" the scout said. "Is that little grubber threatening us?"

The woman’s face softened, her eyes went wide, and her voice went hushed with awe. "That's Grand Master Luke..."

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the Sith sneered, turning his chin upward at the tip of Alyona's lightsaber. She frowned, a false front. "Unfortunate." Alyona drew back her blade and deactivated the weapon, striking the man's head, which dropped him to the floor unconscious. Alyona looked to the next man in line, a much younger soldier, and reactivated the lightsaber, drawing the blade back for a solid slice. The soldier threw his hands up and whimpered, "Wait, wait." Alyona halted for a moment, arching an eyebrow at the man. "Go on," she replied, turning the blade tip back toward his neck.
"Five klicks from here, there's another oasis, one inside a crashed Star Destroyer. It's to the North-West. I don't know what's there, but if there's a weapon of any kind, it'll be kept there. There's lots of sensitive equipment and data in that cave." Alyona listened to the man betray his Order. "Thank you," she murmured, deactivating her lightsaber and returning it to her belt. The soldier's visible relief was short-lived. Captain Tork drew her pistol and put a stun bolt into his chest. Alyona, standing near the front of the tent, stopped and looked back, "Do what you will with the rest," she allowed as the man's body crumpled beside that of his commander. Alyona had little idea how she viewed their handling of the Sith soldiers, though she knew in her heart what Corvus would think. Killing individuals who were prisoners was certainly wrong from a certain standpoint, but Alyona did not have the resources to spare in order to keep them restrained and eliminated as threats. Stunning them was simply better for the mission.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Though she was far from conscious, Corvus knew something was wrong. It was nothing as dramatic as thousands of voices crying out – but it felt awry. Pure and simple. Corvus put it down to the growing Force Bond between her and her Padawan. She was not exactly in trouble – but something was troubling her. That much Corvus was sure about.

And she felt... cold.

Unbelievably cold. She'd been cold before but this was different. That cold had been a creeping numbness, and weakness, and a growing inability to force her hypothermic muscles to move. This cold, though, froze her without the comfort of numbness. Tiny razor-edged crystals of ice-colder than ice, so cold they burned, cold as liquid air-grew inward through her skin at every pore, becoming hairlines of freeze that crept along her nerves.

And with the cold came silence.

Physical silence, deeper than a living creature can truly experience: not just the absence of external sound, but the absence of all concept of sound. No whisper of breath, no hush of blood coursing through arteries, no faintest beat of her heart. Not even the vaguest sensation of vibration, or pressure, or friction on her skin.

But the cold and the silence went deeper than the merely physical. They were in her dreams.

These dreams were glacially slow, actionless, featureless hours of empty staring into empty space, hours becoming years that stretched into numberless millennia, as one by one the stars went out. She could do nothing, for there was nothing to do. Except watch the stars die.

And in their place was left nothing. Not even absence. Only her. Floating. Empty of everything. Without thought, without sensation. Forever. Almost.

Her first thought in a million years trickled into her brain over the course of decades. Sleep. This is the end of everything. Nothing left but sleep.

The second thought, by contrast, followed instantly upon the second. Even in frozen dreams of eternity, the Force was strong. She opened herself to the dream and drew it into the centre of her being, where with the Force to guide and sustain her, she could examine the thought, turn it this way and that like an unfamiliar stone.

It had weight, this thought, and texture: like a hunk of volcanic basalt around a uranium core, it was unreasonably dense, and its surface was pebbled, as though it had once been soft and sticky and somebody had rolled it across a field of fine gravel. As she let the Force take his perception into greater and greater focus and detail, she came to understand that each of these pebbles was a person-human or near-human,, every single one, bound into an aggregate matrix of frozen stone. And they were dead.

As the Force took her deeper, she came to understand that this stone she held was also holding her; even as she turned it in her hand, it also surrounded and enclosed her -that it was a prison for every one of these pebble-lives, and that these imprisoned lives were also imprisoning her.

She was the stone itself, she discovered: the very matrix of dark frozen stone that bound them all. She was trapped with them, and neither could let go. They were bound together by something. But what?

And then she woke up…

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

​

Alyona had never seen a Star Destroyer in person. The vessel was massive, even from such a distance. Though rusted and ancient, its sandswept hull still gleamed in the moonlight. The Destroyer's superstructure stuck up into the sky from its sandy grave, the interrupted dunes continuing from along its bow. Between Alyona and the Destroyer, the carcass of an old Incom T-65 X-wing Starfighter lay half-buried in the sandy ocean, pitted with rust and wear.
"Even in the desert, eight-hundred years will claim you." Alyona found herself muttering. Captain Tork was laying beside her along the top edge of the dune, wiping sand from her goggles. Alyona's makeshift desert garb was keeping her quite cool in the warm night air, a fact for which she was grateful. After taking the Sith camp at the Oasis, Alyona's force had moved out in the direction of the supposed weapon holding site: A Sith base built into the empty wreck of a Star Destroyer. The camp was built into the vessel's belly, which was hidden to Alyona, who could only see its dorsal side.
"How long would it take to navigate around?" Alyona asked Tork, who consulted her datapad briefly before answering. "Roughly four hours. And we've only got the night for three." Alyona chewed on her lip for a moment, then shook her head. "Not enough time. We'll have to cross the expanse."
Tork frowned. "I don't like it. We could be seen. They have scouts and snipers on the dorsal superstructure. I can see them now."
Alyona nodded, looking at her subordinate. "But can they see us? Tork, we don't have a choice." Alyona replied calmly, shrugging. "Either way we risk being seen, by light of morn or by scout." Tork breathed in deeply and let out the air in a huff. A small cloud of sand burst into life below her nostrils before dissipating. "I know you don't like it, but it's our only option. We go slow, should take no more than two hours. We eliminate the scouts and leave our own in their place. Then we scale through the superstructure from above, secure the weapon, and we're on our way."
Captain Tork nodded. "It's as good a plan as any. We've got snipers of our own that can cover us on approach, but they're weapons aren't quiet ones."
Alyona winked. "I've actually got a trick for that, just make sure we keep two of the snipers close to me."
Tork nodded. "Will do." She said, then scurried down the backside of the dune where the rest of the company was waiting. Jenet quickly outlined the plan and organized the soldiers into small teams. Within ten minutes they were ready to head out, and began filing around the base of the dune in single file, low crawling with their weapons wrapped in cloth and strapped to their backs.
Alyona left with the first group, Jenet left with the second-to-last. The moonlight was behind them, thankfully, illuminating their enemy's position while back-lighting their own. It would make them harder to see, as the sharp angle of the moonlight would interfere with the night vision optics of the Sith's scouts.

One shuffling body length at a time the Republic soldiers crept their way forward, like sandworms. They were half-submerged in the sandy ocean, almost swimming through it. The groups did not all move at a time, but sporadically, reducing the chances of their enemy identifying their presence through the easily recognizable pattern of movement. Closing the distance between them and the Star Destroyer seemed to take forever. It was half an hour before they reached the crashed Incom Starfighter. From there, Alyona ordered one of their snipers to remain, holed up behind the snubfighter's body. Two more snipers remained with ten meters of her, plenty close enough for her to redirect the sonic waves from their weapons firing with a small application of the Force.

It took nearly two hours, but they at last came within one-hundred meters of the Star Destroyer's port side, the side buried in the desert sands. The teams began to separate, drifting toward the bow and stern parts of the dead behemoth. Alyona could sense the Sith scouts looking down from below; their attentions focused too close for her comfort. Opening herself gently to the Force, Alyona planted an impression of insecurity within the Sith's minds, alluding not to a specific threat, but to the idea of a greater chance of attack from the distant dunes through which the Republic had already passed. Suddenly, the scouts were not so worried about defending their immediate surroundings, but focused their attentions kilometers out, along the horizon. They began fantasizing about swarms of Republic cannon fodder to feed to their rifles, heavy vehicles with which to demolish with rockets and missiles from afar. Their bloodlust grew to a peak and was sated by these dreams, fueled by past combat experiences and the sense of camaraderie they shared with their brethren.

With the scouts distracted, Alyona signaled to Captain Tork with a brief sense of urgency applied to the woman's mind. Republic soldiers began scaling the edges of the Star Destroyer's structure, hiding behind minor structures and weapon banks, finding natural recesses in the ship's design that may have once served a purpose, but now served the Republic. Alyona herself crept upward along the bow, keeping a low profile. They were now on par with the Sith scouts, and the moonlight would not hide them anymore.
Alyona and her soldiers pressed forward in silence; the first Sith scout died swiftly as a blade was punched into his neck and his mouth covered. Alyona stalked passed the two soldiers as the one died, drawing a small durasteel blade wrapped in cloth and stepping behind her own target. She wrapped her arm around the Sith's throat and held them tight while she thrust the blade into their temple, withdrawing it swiftly and gently lowering the body to the hull to rest.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus had committed the biggest mistake of her life, and she'd a few in her time. This mission was far from routine. She should have her Padawan at her side. Not that she doubted Voxyn — but because her training wasn’t complete.

And this mission was going from bad to worse right now.

For one, her regularly shattered ankle way playing up. But that was the least of her worries now.

The air smelled more like a hospital than a camp-site. She stood on a rock, adjacent to a forty-meter fall into a cavern large enough to swallow a battle cruiser and lose it.

Above her, the vaulted illuminated ceiling stretched as far as the abyss did below. The prospect of the fall didn't worry her half as much as not understanding what he was now seeing.

She was alone. She’d sent the others back outside to guard the entrance to the cave.

The cavern — surgically clean, polished durasteel and permaglass — was filled with structures that seemed almost like fractals. At first glance they looked like giant toroids stacked on pillars; then, as he stared, the toroids resolved into smaller rings of permaglass containers, with containers within them, and inside those

No, this wasn't happening.

Inside the transparent tubes there was fluid, and within it there was movement.

It took her several minutes of staring and refocusing on one of the tubes to realise there was a body in there, and it was alive. In fact, there was a body in every tube: row upon row of tiny bodies, children's bodies. Babies.

"Clones," she said aloud.

She thought he'd come to this Force-forsaken hole on a routine intelligence gathering mission. Now she knew she'd stepped into a nightmare. She heard boots behind her on the walkway of the gantry and turned sharply to see a trooper coming slowly toward her, chin lowered as if in reproach.

“The men are spooked. They figured they knew what they saw before you shooed them out. So…what do we do?”

“We came to gather intelligence. Which we have done.”

“We came to gather intelligence and take out as many One Sith as we could on the way.” The sergeant threw a thumb in in the direction of what could be thousands of identical tubes, “They just happen to be growing them.”

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona drew her knife from the neck of the last scout, gently lowering the woman's body to the hull plate at her feet. She wiped the blood off on her cloak, then stashed the weapon at her utility belt once more and drew upon the Force as carefully as she could, hoping to get a sense for the individuals located within the decks below. "No one's been alerted from what I can sense," Alyona muttered quietly to Captain Tork, who sat crouched beside her. The body of the scout at their feet began leaking blood onto their boots, causing them to shuffle aside. "So what now?" Tork asked, glancing back at the rest of the attacking force. They were hidden behind bulging structures and weapon emplacements, keeping a careful eye on their surroundings; this was the most exposed they had been the entire mission.
Alyona placed a hand on Tork's shoulder. "We've got to scale over the port side of the ship and drop down on them from above. Get the climbing gear ready; you have three minutes." Tork nodded and turned away while Alyona stood at the very edge of the dorsal hull plating on the port side of the Star Destroyer, which was jutting upward into the air hundreds of feet. The wind was gusting powerfully up this high, tugging and whipping at Alyona's clothes as she stared down on the Sith encampment below. There were three main camps, two along the base of the sand dune that rose up away from the Destroyer's crash site, and one constructed within the belly superstructure of the vessel itself. The former featured marksmen and a turret or two; the latter was more heavily fortified with active patrols and weapon emplacements. Neither, however, were built to withstand an attack from above, which Alyona was intent on administering. Hurt, pain, these were things her enemies would feel.

At the moment, Corvus Raaf was just discovering the existence of cloning chambers within the bluffs far from Alyona's position, but even so her padawan felt the dying wave of shock emanate from the great distance. Her body tensed, and while she knew the source to be her Master, there was little else she could glean from the moment. "Stay focused, you cannot help her, and she cannot help you. You are your own Master right now, Voxyn." Alyona reminded herself of this several times, taking a deep breath while Tork readied her soldiers. They planted mag-grips onto the hull surface, careful to avoid rusted spots of durasteel that would give way, and prepared themselves to climb over the edge. Alyona settled her mind and fastened her own harness, securing herself next to Tork and as a team the platoon began lowering themselves silently down.
Alyona drew her knife once more and tucked it into the wrapping around her wrist as she dropped lower and lower. They moved slowly, their harnesses fastened low to allow them to hang head-first. Using hand-held mag-grips they walked themselves down through the holes in the superstructure, disseminating as best they could before crawling among the beams and rafters that supported the dying vessel's great bulk. They crept through the sand-coated and rusted environment, careful not to make noise as they immersed themselves within the shadows lurking above ranks of the Sith below.
Alyona lowered herself like an arachnid over the fighting position guarding the passage to the outer camps. The two Sith manning the post were garbed in full desert gear, cloaked and wrapped, without helmets. They carried high powered blaster rifles and sat in an awkward silence that had followed an uncomfortable conversation about sleeping together the night before. Alyona dropped in behind them, her breath expelled from her lungs, and stabbed the first in the temple, leaving her blade buried in the woman's skull. Using the Force, Alyona drew the man's blade from his belt and pulled it into her hand, then thrust down as he turned in alarm and stabbed him through the neck.
She reached out swiftly and gripped both corpses by the collars while lowering herself with them silently to the ground. Alyona lowered herself onto her belly and lay still for several moments, listening and feeling the air around her for a change in alertness from the camp. Nothing.

Alyona disconnected her cable and looked around, spotting Tork lowering a victim of her own to the desert floor and hiding it behind a pile of scrap metal. The rest of her soldiers descended like spiders, picking targets and stashing the bodies, though little could be done about the blood. So much killing wet ones clothes, and soon enough her soldiers' arms were running with it. This was tempered by a swift dip in the sand, drying the blood against the fabric and removing the metallic taint from the air.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

She stared down corridors of tubes, spotting the occasional Kaminoan with its long gray neck and snake-like head.

And she saw a small group of them talking, so moved closer to overhear.

“Something isn’t quite right with the first test batch," one said. "I've tested them and they aren’t going to make the grade."

"Gentlemen," said another in a soothing monotone. He had a prominent bony fin running across the top of his skull from front to back."I always believe in being honest about setbacks in a program. We value the One Sith as a customer."

"I would still be happier if you confirmed that the first batch of units is below the acceptable standard."

"Bring them to me, then."

Six identical little boys — four, maybe five years old — were brought to them.

Even to one who did not fall prey to sentimentality? This did the job just fine.

They were children: not soldiers, not droids, and not units. Just little kids. They had curly black hair and were all dressed in identical dark blue tunics and pants.

The boys huddled together, and it ripped at Corvus’ heart. Two of the kids clutched each other, looking up with huge, dark, unblinking eyes: another moved slowly to the front of the tight pack as if shielding the others.

Which, of course, he was. He was defending his brothers.

"These units are defective, and I admit that we perhaps made an error in attempting to enhance the genetic template," the one with the bony fin said, utterly unmoved by their vulnerability.

Kaminoans were known for despising everything that didn't fit their intolerant, arrogant society's ideal of perfection.

The kids' gaze darted between the Kaminoans, as if they were checking for an escape or appealing for help.

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Their plan began to unravel with the death of a single Republic soldier. They had already killed their target, but the bastard's blaster went off and blew a hole in their attacker's chest. Both bodies tumbled down from an ad hoc catwalk end over end before crashing into a scrap heap below. Alyona felt her heart wince and she whipped around to locate the disturbance. Shouts began ringing out all around, and camp lights started flickering on as Sith soldiers struggled to orient themselves to what was going on. Calls for answers were flung back and forth with no real information being traded, but it wasn't long before Alyona's soldiers were becoming exposed by the increased lighting and Sith soldiers started picking targets. That's when the shooting started, blaster bolts careening back and forth off of durasteel plate and rusted duranium. The ricochets alone killed a handful, and others were taken by untimely explosions. The din reached a crescendo and the shouting only added to the chaos. Alyona's own troops had no communicative devices for the sake of discretion, and were unorganized and disoriented.
"Fight toward the camp interior!" Alyona shouted, igniting her lightsaber and kicking off into a run. The steel walkways that laced the ground and hanging levels of the Star Destroyer's innards crossed over and under large durasteel beams and through chambers that used to serve a purpose. She ducked and leaped where necessary, dipping out of the way of enemy fire or deflecting it back at them with her lightsaber. Around her she could see her soldiers gathering themselves and pressing forward, stopping just long enough for a quick shot here and there at a Sith soldier. Several died, more continued onward.
The Sith forces were lightly armored to accommodate the heat of the planet, making them just as easy to kill as were the Republic soldiers, who had arrived unarmored. Nearby, Alyona spotted Captain Tork tearing toward the interior of the camp. "Tork!" Alyona shouted, ducking through a doorway half-buried in the sand. "We've got to find that weapon!" Tork looked at her and nodded, firing her rifle from the shoulder as she ran. Her blaster bolts exploded against a far structure, showering the area in sparks and flame. Alyona continued forth, cutting down several Sith soldiers along the way.
"It'll be inside the superstructure!" Tork screamed back as she jumped the body of a dead man. Alyona waited for a catwalk crossing to gather the Force inside her and leap across the gap to where Captain Tork was located. "I'll watch your back!" Alyona promised, extending her senses outward in all directions as they continued forward. More and more Republic soldiers were arriving from their positions above, though their numbers were thinning, and soon the Sith from the other two camps would be collapsing inward to reinforce their brethren. Continuing further inside the crashed Star Destroyer was beginning to feel more and more like a terrible idea.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

“The Chief Scientist apologises, as do I," said one of them. "Six units did not survive incubation, but these developed normally and appeared to meet specifications, so they have undergone some flash-instruction and trials. Unfortunately, psychological testing indicates that they are simply too unreliable and fail to meet the personality profile required!'

"Which is?" said another.

"That they can carry out orders:' he said, blinking rapidly: he seemed embarrassed by error. "I can assure you that we will address these problems in the current Alpha production run. These units will be reconditioned, of course."

Finally Corvus could hold her silence no longer and stepped forward. "What do you mean by reconditioned?"

"In this case, terminated."

There was a long silence. Evil was supposed to be black, jet black; and it wasn't supposed to be soft-spoken.

“There must be another way?”

The tallest one stood blinking at Corvus with those awful reptilian yellow eyes. "This is uncalled for. We care only about our customers' satisfaction."

Corvus could hear her pulse pounding in her head. Killing someone in combat was terrible enough, but there was no honour in destroying unarmed kids. Or standing back and allowing it to happen.

"What are their names?"

"These units are numbered. And I must emphasise that they're unresponsive to command." He persisted as if talking to a particularly stupid Weequay. "Our quality control designated them Null class and wish to start—"

"Null? As in terminate?"

A little hand was grasping hers for dear life. She reached back with her other hand and another boy pressed up against her leg, clinging to her. It was pitiful. "I can train them."

"Unwise," said the leader.

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Blaster bolts burned through passed Alyona's head, turning Jakku's night air crisp and smelling of ozone. She dipped around a pair of soldiers as she neared them, her lightsaber cutting at their lower legs and sending them to the ground screaming. A third soldier caught his own blaster bolt in the neck as Alyona lifted her blade to return it to him. She gathered herself and leaped into the air, soaring over the heads of several more Sith, which were cut down by Republic blaster fire in their moment of distraction. She landed behind them and near the hatch she was looking for, cutting its latch off and throwing it open with a Force enhanced shove. As Alyona barreled into the corridor beyond, she encountered a stream of blaster fire, sending her scurrying to the floor and balling herself up inside an alcove as sparks rained down on her. The hall filled with fire, smoke rising from damn near every surface to obscure sight for all but Alyona herself. Gently, with a light application of the Force she send the smoke down the hall, then used it to cover her approach as she rushed down the corridor and pushed herself off of one wall, cutting down her attackers in a single stroke. Picking up a blaster rifle before reaching the end of the hall, Alyona followed its twists and turns, gunning down opposition at nearly every corner. Republic soldiers filtered into the tight chambers behind her, picking up after the mess she was leaving behind while she continued charging through the halls.
Eventually, Alyona returned her lightsaber to her belt, relying solely on the firearm in her grasp. She lifted it around a corner and sprayed for several moments, the paused and shot the face of the helmet that poked itself out a moment later. Continuing onward Alyona cut down fire team after fire team, pressing further into the Star Destroyer and encountering more resistance with every turn. Teams became squads, blaster rifles became E-WEB's, and soon Alyona was stuck longer and longer at each encounter.
"We can't keep going like this!" Alyona called back to Tork as an E-WEB pinned them down around a corner. Tork nodded her agreement as Alyona used the Force to send a grenade down the hallway. It exploded, but only took out half the squad; another Sith trooper returned to the still-functioning E-WEB and began firing once more.
Alyona groaned in frustration and threw the blaster down on the ground. Grabbing her lightsaber she cut into the wall beside Tork, tearing at it violently until a large triangular hole had been rent in the hull. Stepping through it, the Republic soldiers followed Alyona into the bowels of the vessel, passing by, over and under the various squads and teams set up along the halls to stop them. It wouldn't be long before they investigated the sudden lack of resistance and discovered the alternative route Alyona and the Republic had taken.
"Do we know where we're going?" Tork asked Alyona as they clambered over a large coolant pipe. "There's a large gathering of Sith up ahead, I think they've set up shop in the hangar bay on the buried port side."
"But wouldn't the bay be filled with sand and dirt from the crash?" Tork asked in response.
Alyona shrugged, "Likely not if the bay shields were still up when the ship went down. The whole ship doesn't die at once, it takes time considering all the power relays and capacitors dispersed throughout a vessel like this." She looked around at the bulk about them. "Pretty impressive to have lasted this long even."
Tork seemed satisfied with Alyona's answer, and asked no further questions. Soon, they reached a large bulkhead which Alyona felt separated them from their target. Swiftly she cut away at the wall with her lightsaber, using a powerful Force Thrust to send the debris flying as she stepped through the newly cut hole. The metal plate had struck a duo of Sith troops on its way out, collapsing them to the deck. Alyona stepped along the plate on top of them as she approached the large hangar bay beyond. The angle of the deck sloped severely downward, though it had been compensated for by lightweight metal catwalks installed by the Sith that leveled out the flooring. A series of scaffolding and stairwells led to the hangars "lower" levels (or rather more to the port side of the Star Destroyer). On each level were sensor stations, computing terminals, and everything else necessary to support a major base of operations. Alyona felt the cold grip of fear grasp at the bottom of her heart, but her Echani sense steeled herself against it. Behind her, Captain Tork and her soldiers flooded the corridor back the way they had come, shooting down the Sith soldiers still waiting to be engaged from ahead. She returned and gazed down at the sight Alyona was stuck evaluating now.
"There are a lot of Sith down there." Tork said unnecessarily. Alyona nodded as one of them, a sensors operator, glanced up at the commotion above and stared at her with fear in his eyes. Quickly he rushed from his station to put out the warning, something which Alyona allowed. She reignited her lightsaber with a snap-hiss and held it outward, tripping the man with a subtle application of the Force and sending his head careening into a nearby console. His skull cracked and he immediately lost consciousness as he struck the ground, sliding along several feet and leaving a wet streak of blood behind. His comrades rushed to his aid to assess him as Alyona approached the main walk unnoticed for the moment. Gathering the Force within her, Alyona looked down at the hive of activity that was the Sith base of operations and projected her voice to them in a firm, even forceful, tone.

"Sith. The Republic has found you." On either side of her, Republic soldiers lined the catwalk, their blaster rifles aimed down over the railing at the Sith on the several levels below. One of the soldiers had even brought a rocket launcher, which gave Alyona a moment of alarm. "Now you will face justice."

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

The Kaminoan took a gliding step forward. They were such graceful creatures, but they had a way about them that irked so many races.

And then the little lad grasping her leg suddenly snatched the hold-out blaster from the trooper that had joined her’s boot. Before she could react the kid had tossed it to the one who'd been clinging to her hand in apparent terror.

The boy caught it cleanly and aimed it two-handed at the lead Kaminoan’s chest.

“Please put that down,” Corvus said.

But the lad wasn't about to stand down. He stood right in front of Corvus, utterly calm, blaster raised at the perfect angle, fingers placed just so with the left hand steadying the right, totally focused. And deadly serious.

The kid clicked the safety catch. He seemed to be checking it was off

"It's okay, son," Corvus said, as gently as she could. She cared about the Kaminoan but she cared about the consequences for the kid even more."You don't need to shoot. I'm not going to let him touch any of you. Just give me the blaster."

The child didn't budge; the blaster didn't waver. He should have been more concerned about cuddly toys than a clean shot at this stage in his young life. Corvus squatted down slowly behind him, trying not to spook him into firing.

But if the boy had his back to him . . . then he trusted him, didn't he?

"Come on . . . just put it down, there's a good lad. Now give me the blaster." She kept her voice as soft and level as he could, "You're safe, I promise you."

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Within an hour, the mission was complete. The Sith forces bunkered within the decaying Star Destroyer were either killed or captured in the fighting, and many of Alyona's Republic soldiers had been lost. The prisoners they now held in custody were to be transferred to Republic military control, leaving Alyona and her remaining forces to secure the weapons the Sith had locked away within the rusting vessel. Jakku would serve as a catalyst of sorts for Alyona; a place where she had learned that her place in life straddled a line between the Jedi and her people, the Echani. Combat was her life, and Master Raaf had endeavored to show her the ways of peace. It was a struggle that would tear Alyona to pieces in the coming years, perhaps decades, but Corvus Raaf had proven shining enough of an example to set Alyona on the right path.

Au revoir, [member=Corvus Raaf].​