Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 401: Left Behind

“That’s not our shuttle,” Loro said flatly...or at least, as much as a Mon Calamari could manage with their gravely voices.

Jyren glanced over his shoulder and then back to the small, and obviously modified, Lambda-class shuttle that had been popular among the Empire. This one had seen its share of hard times, obvious mainly through the fact that two of the side wings that were folded off ended halfway up their normal size. Chopped in half for whatever reason. Jyren headed for the shuttle, saying over his shoulder, “This is no time to be picky.”

Things were getting worse on the planet.

Above the bay was an open, square-shaped section that gave a very good view of the sky above...and the many ships clouding it. The Vong were all over, and they had been lucky not to encounter anymore on their way through the mess that was left of these hangars. But the Vong didn’t seem to care about the hangars...as the majority of the ships within were crushed by whatever the Vong had dropped on the buildings. It had taken a good deal of searching to find one ship that looked like it would fly.

As they headed to the shuttle’s ramp, which was extended but the door above still closed shut, it became apparent there was a problem.

It was locked.

Jyren first attempted the old fashion punch to the panel, but that did no good. He sighed and shook his head. Lightsaber could cut it open, but then they’d have a problem of a hole on the hull of the starship. A bad thing. So...

“Loro,” Jyren said, remembering the Mon Calamari’s background as a technician before he had joined Starfighter Command, “Can you get this open quickly?”

The Mon Calamari, still in a state of mild shock from all of the events in the past few minutes, stared blankly at Jyren for a long moment before nodding and stepping up the ramp to look at the panel. Sounding somewhat uncertain, he mumbled, “It may take time.”

“We don’t have much,” was Jyren’s quick answer as he stepped around to look up at the sky just in time to watch a squadron of coralskippers destroy a pair of escaping transports.

This was not going to be easy.

Rea’s voice cut through the sounds of the invasion force in a somewhat timid tone, “Um...Captain...”

Sliding his lightsaber hilt back into the inside pocket of his jacket, Jyren gave looked to the Twi’lek, “Not now.”

Before anything else could be said, and from the looks of it, the Jedi woman, Venda, was about to say something, Jyren’s comlink came to life with Rulae’s voice, “Captain? Where are you?”

His hand grabbed the small comlink quickly and hit the switch to let him talk, “We’re working on getting off the planet...” he bit his lip and looked up, trying not to watch another ship being destroyed, “We could use a little help once we’re in the air.”

The pause that followed was a very unsettling one. But then the voice of the Zephyr’s commander returned, “I’m sorry, but we can’t help you. All the fighters have been recalled and we’re retreating. Obroa-Skai is lost.”

Jyren stared at the comlink...so did all of the others, including Loro, who was still having trouble with the lock on the shuttle but suddenly didn’t care. Very slowly and as calmly as he could manage, Jyren said what they were all thinking, “You’re leaving us here.”

Another pause...then, “I apologize, Captain, but we can’t get through the Vong ships. There’s just too many.”

Jyren understood. It was probably worse in orbit than it was in the sky above them, which was something that he didn’t like thinking about at all...nor did he enjoy the idea of being left behind with such a heavy invasion force. It wasn’t hard, though, to feel the mood among the others dying, and so Jyren put on a stern voice he’d learned from Marix and said into the comlink, “Transmit the jump coordinates to my datapad. We’ll meet you there.”

He didn’t think they would.

In reality, Jyren doubted they’d make it into orbit.

...but they would try.

And though no voice returned in the comlink, the datapad at Jyren’s belt lit up with information. He didn’t bother looking at where, as it didn’t matter. But they had the information they needed to escape...if they could get out. Which was doubtful anyway. But...

“Get that hatch open,” Jyren growled, putting his comlink back and knowing that time was going to be even shorter than any of them had hoped. But this was more important than any of them here. Venda was too important...she had...information. Information about the Vong’s interest in the Alraxian worlds...and that they knew where the Gate was.

That had to get off the surface of Obroa-Skai and into the New Republic’s hands. A fleet had to go to the Gate, no matter how much the Alraxians would hate it or how much the New Republic failed to care about a system so far away. Jyren cared. And he would find a way to get them there...to protect his family and his home from what was most definitely coming.

“Are you alright?” Venda asked him, breaking the thoughts and surprising him for a moment, “You look...feel...terrified, still.”

Looking the woman in her eyes, Jyren just said, “Once we get out of here, then we’ll worry about other things.”

“Got it!” Loro yelled a little too loudly as the hatch hissed open.

In another few moments, they all ran into the ship, pulling the hatch back up as they headed for the cockpit at the nose of the modified Lambda shuttle. The interior was tighter than usual, hinting at more, unseen modifications that would hopefully not be completely useless. They crammed into the cockpit, noting there were only four seats instead of the usual six, with Jyren taking the pilot’s chair and Rea next to him at the co-pilot seat. Venda took the sensor station, with Loro at the guns.

As Jyren ran through the warm-up procedures for the ship as fast as he could manage, Rea took the datapad and input the hyperspace coordinates into the navcomputer. But then Loro mumbled, “Whoever this belonged to really cared about weapons...”

“What do you mean?” it was Rea who turned to ask that, trying to see the console in front of the Mon Calamari.

Loro’s two large eyes scanned the screen, reading off, “Shields are brand new model, the usual weaponry for a Lambda, but then two rear firing linked sets of lasers, what looks to be an underside turbolaser cannon, and at least two extra torpedo bays.”

At least they could kill a few Vong on the way up.

When the engines warmed up, Jyren started to get them into the air, looking up into the chaos above one more time as they began the slow rise, and said to the others, “Ready those weapons...we’re going to need everything we can get.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 402: Night Sky

Marix stared out the window at the rest of the Palace she could see, not really paying attention to anything and barely noticing that Alraxia’s sun had set already. As she looked down on the barely-lit and definitely alive building that was encompassing most of her view, she couldn’t help but feel a certain hate for it all. No...no that wasn’t right. Not for the Palace...or the people...but...for her mother.

This was when they needed her the most, and now the Empire was stuck with an Empress who didn’t know what she was doing. At least, not in the diplomatic sense. If Marix’s mother hadn’t gone off and gotten herself killed for no good reason then they’d likely all be in better shape.

A sigh nearly escaped her, but the beginning of it was cut off by a giggle from behind. Marix turned her head slightly to look back into the room, easily finding the source of the sound. Not far behind her, the twins were playing with their toys, most of which she recognized as Jyren’s old toys. Though she didn’t particularly understand the actual reason the items existed, she had found that they were a good way to keep the twins entertained and not driving her mad.

Again, her silvery-violet eyes turned to look out the window, this time up towards the darkening sky. One of the moons was full, providing a fairly good light. Ten had made it back from the assault on the Mrrakesh. Three Tam’Day’U, including Marix, and seven Knights. But despite the heavy losses, which were expected, the mission had been a success. The Mrrakesh ship on the ground was destroyed with some clever rewiring of a few vital systems, and not long after the two ships in orbit left the system.

Within an hour of this, another large group of Knights arrived, this time in numbers to hold the unoccupied planet. A makeshift camp was built up in a safe location, and the previously empty planet was suddenly settled. Yes, it was only Knights, and they would not be there for too much longer, but it was settlement nonetheless. A sign to the Mrrakesh that the planet was Alraxian. The two other planets that had been taken were currently being left alone, the hope that the Mrrakesh would retreat on their own.

It was a hope that Marix was not sharing in.

She rubbed her forehead and tried to ignore the feeling of that old scar that was still there. A Vong amongst the Mrrakesh changed everything. Especially in a command position. Why the Vong even cared about their little corner of the galaxy was beyond Marix, but the whys rarely mattered. The fact was that they did, and they were using the Mrrakesh tensions to push the borders...probably even attempting to start up a war between the two peoples and leave the weak enough to be easily conquered.

And because of that, Marix found herself fighting her instincts. Everything in her told her to fight. To push the Mrrakesh out of their space and then take one of their planets to show them that the Alraxian Empire was not weak...but if the Vong were truly behind this...no. That couldn’t be done. It would lead to outright war. A war that the Alraxians likely wouldn’t win...especially knowing that the Vong had the location of the Gateway. So caution was required...a kind of caution that Marix had never before had to deal with.

All of this, she had sent to Jyren through a long-range message that would be relayed by the Knights stationed at the Gateway. The problem with that, however, was the message had been sent three Alraxian hours before...and Jyren always responded immediately. There had been no word from him. That, in itself, was worrying. He was too damned clingy, both with Marix and the twins, to not respond after so long. It didn’t help that, though the twins both still had very limited vocabularies, they were both very good at asking where their daddy was.

Turning from the window, Marix walked over to sit back in a rather large chair near where the twins were playing. Children were not something Marix had ever understood, and the twins were not much of an exception. Though she found herself learning a great deal, it was hard to see the silvery tint to their eyes and realize that they were both here...happy...playing...feeling.

By their age, Marix was learning to kill...being turned into a weapon. She shook her head. And that wasn’t happening to anyone anymore. The Tam’Day’U training was still there, but was voluntary, and now a part of the Alraxians Knights. Children of Tobias’ age were accepted into the Knights, but not infants. And so this was all something terribly new...the significance of it all was not lost on Marix, and perhaps that was one of the problems she was having. It was lost on Jyren. He understood it at one level, but didn’t feel it at another.

Marix closed her eyes and forced away the millions of stray thoughts, bringing one important thing to the forefront of her mind.

What to do next?

The message to Jyren had basically been asking what he had found out along with information on what had occurred in Alraxian space. Their link was distant that she couldn’t feel a thing from him beyond the fact that, somewhere out there, he was there. But what could be done next?

Nothing.

It always came back to that.

Any action could provoke the war that would destroy them...but no action...no action...it felt wrong. It just all felt wrong to not do anything at all. Her mother would have known what to do...damn that woman! Marix was never indecisive but she had never before had to decide things for billions of people! Damn her mother!

As that thought echoed through her mind, a series of tugs could be felt on Marix’s trouser leg. She opened her eyes to look down and see the twins both climbing up, doing their best to not use their claws, which were very sharp and something they had been yelled at about far too many times. In a moment, they were up in her lap, grinning up at her with those big eyes and Marix wondered how they could just disarm her so easily like that. Even Jyren couldn’t pull that off...but the twins...it was like nothing she had ever experienced. When they were like this, so happy for who knew what reason, it was intoxicating...and it always found a way of bringing a genuine smile to Marix’s face.

“Let me guess,” she said to the both of them, “You’re hungry.”

There was a series of nods from both, and Marix’s smile didn’t fade. In one motion, she had one little child in each arm and was on her feet, heading to find the three of them something edible. For the moment, the worries were gone. Sucked away thanks to two pairs of eyes that could dispel anything. It was not lost on Marix how much she had changed in the past years, but she also couldn’t help but think it wasn’t a bad thing. It was different, of course, but not bad.

The bad things, the truly dangerous ones, were all around them, kept out by the borders that had held for thousands of years. Borders that were failing. Borders that they couldn’t protect. The thought of what might happen if they truly fell was one that Marix would not even entertain. And yet, through the Force, she could feel it...something growing. Maybe it was what Jyren had seen, she didn’t know. But it was close, and it was coming, and it was going to make everything worse.

But for now...dinner.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 403: Straight Shooting

“The shields are down!” Rea said a little too loudly in the rather cramped cockpit as they took another hit from pursuing coralskippers.

Jyren gritted his teeth as he continued to weave and maneuver around the six fighters that were after him, “The bloody shields are always down!” he paused a moment to yank the ship hard to starboard and out of the way of a series of shots from a pair of skips that had decided to come at them head on, “Dammit, Loro, shouldn’t you be shooting things?!”

“I’m trying!” the Mon Calamari growled back, “If you’d fly straight I might hit something!”

“If I fly straight they’ll hit something!”

Though Jyren was unable to take his eyes off of the view in front of him, he gave the Jedi woman behind him a nudge through the Force. She responded to it exactly how he’d hoped, but in a much calmer tone than the other three in the small cockpit of the shuttle, “No sign of the New Republic fleet.”

“What?!” Rea spun around, one of her head tails nearly hitting Jyren in the face in the process.

Jyren shot her a quick glare before avoiding the shots of the coralskippers from behind them, “They weren’t going to wait for us. Tell me you’ve got the coordinates in the navcomputer already.”

The blue atmosphere of Obroa-Skai had given away to the blackness of space just a few moments earlier. The usual empty blackness was dotted with a series of rocky objects that could only be the Yuuzhan Vong fleet. It was also easy to tell that at least three of the smaller cruiser-analogs were slowly making their way towards their shuttle’s current course.

“The computer’s ready,” Rea said, finally turning back to face forward to see what was going on in front of them. Hundreds of other objects were turning towards them, also...more coralskippers. And though Jyren was taking a very roundabout and random path to get them out of the planet’s gravity well, he was still going towards the larger mass of oncoming ships. Very quietly, but just loud enough to be heard over the curses of Loro from behind them at the guns, Rea mumble, “...sir...”

“What?” Jyren tried not to snap at her, but considering the current situation, it was hard not to snap at himself, even. It felt like he was flying blind...unable to feel where his enemies would fire and instead having to just...guess. The Force told him nothing about these enemies. This was what everyone else must have felt like...it was amazing that anyone survived a dogfight at all, as Jyren knew that his Force senses were what kept him alive nearly every time.

Rea very carefully pointed forward, and though the ship juked(as much as a shuttle could juke, of course) to the side her finger remained fairly steady towards the same point, “More skips are coming at us.”

This time, Jyren managed to not glare at the Twi’lek. He may not be able to use the Force to detect the Vong, but he wasn’t an idiot. Instead, though, Jyren simply ground out, “I know.”

He sent another Force nudge to Venda behind him, who responded exactly as he had hoped for the second time. She was good.

“One minute at our current speed and we can jump,” she said in the same disturbingly calm voice. It was the one thing that always made Jyren angry about the Jedi that came from Skywalker’s academy. They sounded so damned arrogant. Always calm when it was definitely stupid to be so.

But one minute they could make. From the looks of it, the oncoming skips were far enough off that they wouldn’t get close enough to fire...Jyren glanced to the larger ships, having no idea the range for the cruiser-analog’s weapons and hoping they were just large and very far away instead of simply getting very close. Which just left the skips behind that Jyren was doing fine with keeping their fire off of the ----

Suddenly, a violent explosion rocked the shuttle, deafening all of them for a few seconds. Jyren had been thrown forward, but had managed to catch himself before going face-first into the consoles. Alarms were blaring suddenly, and a quick glance to the viewport showed a dizzying spin that made him feel sick, so instead Jyren quickly looked down at all of the alarms and very red lights.

Shields were out. That he already knew. Sublight drives down...right stabilizer wasn’t functioning...maybe that was the grey blur he had seen for a moment flash past the viewport...the outer hull was breached but the cabin and most other important areas of the ship were still safe...

He looked to the side to see Rea hadn’t caught herself, and was currently face down on the console with a trickle of red from her forehead. Looking back, Loro had managed to grab Rea’s seat but it looked like his wrist had broken from the force of the hit, and Venda had managed to hold herself upright through the Force. Alright...people were alive. Next focus. Quickly. Think.

You can’t fly this thing. No drives. Spinning. Easy target...one minute to hyperspace jump...the Jedi held herself up...

“Venda!” Jyren yelled behind him, noticing his voice sounded muffled and actually noticing he was hearing a ringing in his ears now, too, “Get the ship straight and point us to our jump trajectory!”

“I don’t know if I—"

"Remember what Loro and I were just yelling about?” he cut her off, speaking a lightyear a second, “We’re in a spin, but we’re flying straight. That means someone’s going to get shot very soon and I highly doubt Loro can aim at anything in the spin we’re stuck in. Do you understand that?!”

Venda understand. Immediately, Jyren could feel her drawing on the Force, projecting it outwards as she had done around herself when they’d taken the heavy hit. He risked a glance up to the viewport and watched their spin slowing. He saw two red-orange blasts shoot passed, and managed to trace them back to one of the cruiser-analogs that couldn’t have been more than kilometer away before losing it in the spin. And then it was righted and they were going forward again from their previous moment.

Jyren didn’t wait. He doubted it had even been a minute, and didn’t even know if Venda had managed to get them facing the right direction. It didn’t matter anymore. It was die to a not-so-lucky shot from a Vong or die trying to get the hell out of that system. Jyren chose for all of them, and he picked the latter.

His hand shot to the side, pushing Rea’s unconscious form to the side, and pulled the hyperspace levers as fast as he could.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 404: What's Left

“Jyren...you were right when you said things were going to get worse before they get better. We have just driven out a force of Mrrakesh ships that attempted to take three of the border planets, and though they have no retreated back into Mrrakesh space, it will not likely be long.

“But the attack on our planets is not the problem. There was a Vong leading them in one of their skin-suits. He looked like a Mrrakesh, spoke their language, and fought like them. If they Vong was commanding them, then they are behind more of this than the Mrrakesh are. They are being manipulated and driving our peoples to war. The only reason I can think to do this is to weaken both of us for the Vong to come through and destroy both sides. We know the Vong know where the Gateway is, and now we know the Vong are inside the Mrrakesh’s command structure.”

There was a pause, and the blue-tinted image of Marix shifted slightly, but still held the stern, neutral expression, “There are also likely to be more Vong among our people, also. We have found no others since the first, but they are there somewhere, hiding and waiting. I don’t know, and I don’t care why they are doing this, but they are. We need to find a way to stop the war that is coming. You know as well as I do that we cannot win in a fight. The Mrrakesh are better armed, stronger, and larger in number. The best we can hope in any war is to bring them down with us.”

Another pause, and a rarely seen shade of doubt crossed her face for a moment, “Despite this, the Knights are recruiting anyone that can fight and training them as quickly as possible. The Jendari are...assisting us in ways I would never have dreamed, as if they were waiting for a war all along and just holding back. But even with all of this, it is a delaying tactic for the next time our borders are breached.”

Marix’s eyes narrowed for a short moment before she adopted a nearly unreadable mask, “The Mrrakesh know where we are weak, though, and they will fight us in the air. We will not fall so low as to harm the Kanyaks by grafting weapons to them, and we are therefore defenseless in space. We will attempt to capture a Mrrakesh warship in the next few days, but it will not be enough alone. What we need is a real defense against them, and that is something we simply do not have access to.”

The mask was lifted suddenly, and right there, staring through the blue-haze of the holoprojector, Marix’s emotions could actually be seen on her face, “I’ve sent your father and the twins away from Alraxia, to the other end of the Empire where they will be safe. Since the Mrrakesh have known where Alraxia is since Halpak gave them the location, we are not safe even here...”

The voice trailed off, and her eyes simply stared out as if waiting for a response that wouldn’t come. When it didn’t, for obvious reasons, the previous mask returned and she was once against defended, “All of our scouts have returned except for two ships. Hermes is one of them, and he and his pilot reported back to us an hour before I sent you this message. There is a small Vong fleet that is jumping from system to system within the same sector as the Gateway. They stay for only a matter of hours, then jump again to appear only a few lightyears away and repeat the process....

“There is nothing out there, as you know. Nothing but dead rock and empty star systems. It is the reason the Gateway has been safe for so long...it is empty. That is obvious to us, to the New Republic, and it must be to the Vong. So they cannot be simply jumping around for no reason. They are looking for the Gateway again, and they are going to find it soon.”

This was allowed to hang in the air for a little too long, and when Marix spoke again, her tone had not grown any lighter, “I know you can feel something coming. I feel it, too. I have tried but I cannot see beyond the haze and I do not know what is coming, only that it could end everything for all of us. This isn’t about you and me anymore...this isn’t about a rogue running around the galaxy for revenge and trying to take out our home and our people.

“This is a tipping point like our people have not seen for thousands of years. The last time we fell into the Darkwing Wars...this time I cannot imagine where we could fall to. But we must find something to stop this. We have to protect the Empire, our people, and the twins. This cannot tip against us, Jyren.”

A rare, true sigh escaped her and she shook her head, a lock of her white stripe falling down and in front of her face. Marix seemed to ignore it, “I know Tobias made his choice about what he wants to do, but it has reached a point where it is too dangerous for both of you to be away from the Empire. I cannot focus without you here, and I know you cannot focus, either. You know I will not order or beg you to come back, but you need to be here with our people and stand with us. Tobias needs to be safe with your father, also...this is not his war, and you know I will not let it become his war.”

And then she went silent. But with the silence came something else...the features of her hardened face slowly grew softer. Her expression did not change, but something happened in the eyes. Something that words could not accurately describe. And in them, were things that words could not describe.

The closest they would ever come was ‘I love you’, but that was also so far from what was there that it was almost laughable.

As the image disappeared, and the room was left silent again, Tobias looked at the empty space in the quarters where the image had hovered. He had not been able to identify the last part, and, in fact, much of it was confusing to him. Currently, though, his mind was latched onto the fact that they had received this message not a minute before the fleet had jumped away from Obroa-Skai...leaving Jyren behind...

Tobias had known he should have left the holo but...with Jyren gone and...and nothing he could do(and he had tried)...he just...activated it, needing to see some kind of familiar face. What he found, though, was not something he wanted, and it was something he regretted viewing quickly after it was over. That had been for Jyren, who was definitely still alive and was going to make it back soon. But not just that...more importantly, it was not for Tobias. Not just the part directly about him, but all of the details of what was going on.

He didn’t need that...and, honestly, he didn’t want it. But now it was there, sitting in the front of his mind with a thousand other things, and the young Alraxian could do little but wonder what was going to be left of his galaxy when all of this was over.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 405: Short Jump

Other than the hum of the ship and a few other noises from the cockpit, the shuttle was relatively quiet. So far, they weren’t dead yet, which was a good sign. For all any of them knew, a star could be coming right into their path and then there would be nothing left. The three conscious people in the cockpit of the shuttle were, however, ignoring this fact as best as was possible.

“She’ll have a bad headache for a while, but she’ll be okay,” Jyren said after sitting Rea’s still unconscious body up straight in the co-pilot’s seat so that he could get a look at how bad she’d been hurt. From the looks of it, just a good pounding to the head from the sudden hit they’d taken. Yes, there was blood on the console where she had hit, but it was a small amount, thankfully.

After making sure she wouldn’t fall over again, Jyren turned around to look behind her to where Loro sat holding his webbed hand, “How are you holding up?”

“Its broken,” the Mon Calamari said in a rather bored tone while nodding his large head to the hand, “But I’ve had worse.”

Jyren nodded, and turned his eyes behind his own seat to the Jedi woman, “You going to make it?”

The blonde haired woman gave him a simple nod, “I’m fine...” she paused a moment, and then spoke up again, sounding a bit cautious all of a sudden, “What about you?”

“I’ve had worse,” Jyren repeated Loro’s words but in a dismissive way.

He would have turned around then to look forward, but he caught sight of Venda’s face forming a thoughtful stare as he eyes narrowed slightly, “I saw you when we took the hit...you went forward as fast as she did. I can believe you caught yourself, but not without breaking your own wrists in the process...” she trailed off, then added, “I would have felt the Force if you’d used it.”

Jyren’s face went blank. It was a defense mechanism he’d learned all too well from Marix. He became as unreadable on the outside as he was doing his best to be on the inside, and managed to somehow not sound trapped when he said, “Just lucky, I guess.”

That was when he took the opportunity to turn back to the consoles in front of him and pretend to be busy. The thing that bothered him now was just how damned aware of everything this Venda was. He was sitting directly in front of her so she shouldn’t have seen a thing, but he could tell she knew something was up. And something was, in fact, up. The sudden impact had broken both of his wrists as he pushed himself back from going face first into the consoles as Rea had, but Jyren hadn’t felt it. Years with remorphing meant that it happened far too naturally in most cases, and in seconds his bones were fine and he was grabbing the hyperspace lever and getting them away from Obroa-Skai as if nothing was wrong.

Just lucky.

That wouldn’t fly for long.

But now he had another problem.

Her mind was likely trying to figure this out, and that would just bring more questions. Not to mention the fact that Loro was also giving him a somewhat odd look. Though most looks from a Mon Calamari were a bit odd compared to human-like faces, Jyren had been around enough to know when they were thinking hard. It was in subtle shifts near the eyes, not unlike in humans, but off to the sides and not where one would normally look for them.

A beep from the navcomputer pulled Jyren out of his thoughts and he could only hope it did the same for the other two. He gave each a quick glance over his shoulder without saying a word before reaching over to the hyperspace levers. Part of him felt like he should say something or be dramatic about it in some way...but another part, the part that was likely Marix from the link, told him that was stupid and would likely have found a way to hit him if he did.

So, Jyren simply took the levers and pushed them back. The stars slowly came back into existence, and there they were again...Realspace...

A new beep picked up, and Jyren knew that one, too. The comm system. He quickly looked over to the IFF broadcaster and made sure it was saying something helpful, then opened up the channel to hear the familiar voice of the Araddon’s comm chief, “Unidentified vessel, this is the ----“

”This is Captain Jyren BlueIce of Zephyr Squadron,” he cut the officer off, truly not in the mood to deal with the usual formalities, “I’ve got two of the other pilots that were on the ground with me and a Jedi here. I’ve got wounded, so I suggest you get a medical team to meet us in the hangar bay.”

Before closing his end of the channel, he made sure to transmit his clearance code just so they knew it was actually him. Or, of course, something that had killed him, sounded just like him, and was about to blow them up. The latter was unlikely.

After a few short moments, the comm chief’s voice returned, “Good to hear you made it off that rock, Captain. The Admiral and Commodore Nok would like to see you immediately after you have landed.”

And then the other end went silent. Good. Jyren wanted to meet with them, anyway. He still had no idea what he was going to do about the information Venda had, but maybe she would push the two into doing something...and then Jyren would just have to nudge a little more. He closed his eyes and shook the thoughts away for the moment.

Right now, he still had to land the half-beaten hunk of junk that had, before their leaving of the planet, been a shuttle.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 406: Protection

Jyren and Venda stood in the small briefing room near the bridge of the Araddon, with only the Admiral Tarus and Rulae as the other two in the room. Jyren had arrived last, having taken a quick detour to his quarters to check on Tobias...and had then seen the message that Marix had sent.

Being greeted by armed marines had been expected. The medical team had quickly moved them out of the way as it was...but when he saw that message, an icy chill had fallen over Jyren. Everything was coming together to a horrible point that he could feel there, just as Marix could. And so, the entire way up to the briefing room, his mind had whirled around how to do what had to be done.

Currently, the Jedi woman was going over everything she had found out. Though it was a good deal of information, it hadn’t taken too terribly long to get it all out. It was as the Admiral and the Commodore were working the information through their brains that Jyren decided to speak up.

“The Vong are going to attack that point,” he said in a surprisingly restrained voice considering the current insanity in his head.

Again, the two officers looked at the projection of the galaxy map. It was the Admiral who spoke up, in slow, cautious tones, “Light years from the Imperial Remnant...practically the Unknown Regions...” he trailed off a moment, then looked up to Jyren, “There is nothing there, Captain. Even if there is, it is behind the front line. I fail to see why this has you so distressed.”

Jyren hadn’t realized he was so easy to read, but when the words were spoken, he wasn’t so surprised. Trying to focus his thoughts to make sense of everything and get where he needed to be, Jyren looked straight to his Duros friend, “Rulae, you reported the information about that Gate I showed you after we got back, yes?”

Commodore Nok nodded, “Of course.”

“I remember reading that report,” the Admiral noted, shifting his glance to Jyren yet again, “But I still fail to see the relevance to our current situation.”

Stepping over to the holo that was currently being projected in the center of the circular table in the room, Jyren put his finger right on top of the red dot that was representing the point of interest that Venda had found, “That is exactly where the Gate is.”

And this was it. The secret that he was supposed to be protecting was gone. But Jyren didn’t care now. This still wasn’t enough. He still wasn’t there yet, and he could feel the darkness coming. Be it the Mrrakesh or the Vong...or both...he needed to be back to Alraxia as soon as possible.

To the others in the room, well, the two officers at least, things began to make sense. Keeping a very diplomatic tone, Admiral Tarus said, “I understand your concern, Captain, and I believe I know what you are wanting to do. However, our orders are to return to Corellia for supplies that you know we badly need. Despite that, though, you should know very well that we cannot take a fleet to some unknown location just to protect your family.”

Jyren was barely holding a neutral face, keeping back the anger at all of that which was, in the end, irrational. He bit his lip, shook his head, then turned to Venda, who was giving him a rather concerned look, “You said the Vong are after something, yes?”

She nodded carefully, “From the information I recovered, there was something at that location of great interest to the Yuuzhan Vong. Its impossible to say what but...one would expect it to be some kind of advantage they could gain in the war if they are diverting resources that far back from the front line.”

Perfect! Jyren held back a smile. She had said exactly what he’d hoped, and in such a way to show it was important. He had a damn good idea what the Vong were interested in. How they knew was beyond him, but the very idea of the Alraxian natural ability to change their form, in addition to their technology, was definitely something that could interest even the Vong.

Eyes then turned to Jyren, even Venda’s, as if waiting for something. When that something didn’t come, the Admiral spoke up again, “You seem to agree with this, Captain. As you say it is your home...what is there that would interest the Vong so?”

It was extremely difficult to hold the Admiral’s gaze. Marix’s, Jyren could manage...but something now...he just couldn’t do it. After only a few moments, he shook his head and broke away, glaring down at the table and nearly hitting it. Through gritted teeth, he ground out, “I can’t tell you. Its not my right to.”

The odd statement was not lost on any of the others. Rulae was the one to push it, “You have come this far, Jyren. If you cannot tell us, you wouldn’t have done any of this. What is so important about your home?”

“I can’t...” he trailed off, his voice just barely audible. He took a few deep breaths and then looked up again, the desperation very obvious on his face now as he spoke, “The people there are defenseless against the Vong. That Gate is all there is, and it will not last. If the Vong take the Gate they will do worse than kill my people. They need my...they need our help. They would never, ever ask for it, but they need it.”

Silence held for a moment.

“Captain,” the Admiral’s voice was still calm, but not obviously attempting to calm Jyren down, “We cannot take this fleet to protect those people without knowing why. I cannot disobey Admiral’s Kre’fey’s orders without a damn good reason. You have one. I don’t need to be a Jedi to see that. But if you do not tell me, I cannot take this fleet there.”

Jyren stared at the Admiral. The man was actually considering it...but...but Jyren couldn’t say it. Marix was going to kill him enough as it was but...if he didn’t...

“I need you to trust me, sir,” Jyren’s voice was slow as he found himself having trouble making the words come out.

It was not the answer that was hoped for, but it was all that Jyren could manage. That Admiral blinked a few times before shaking his head and sighing, “You have lied about who you are, refused to tell anyone where you really come from, and continue to hide a great deal of information that could very well remove all of this suspicion that is following you around, Akan. How can I trust you, Captain?”

He had no answer to that. The fact that the Admiral knew the name “Akan” more or less destroyed it all for Jyren. His hand was shaking now, and he tried to grip the table to stop it as he looked to Admiral Tarus, hoping to find something but unable to. Unable to make the man do what had to be done, knowing that he could force the Admiral to go, but also knowing that forcing the man was against everything he was.

“He is being honest,” the voice of the Jedi woman cut through the silence like a vibroblade. All eyes, including Jyren’s, darted to the blonde woman. She seemed to have no problem letting the eyes simply pass through her and then directing a pointed look to the Admiral, “The Captain is not lying. He is protecting these people as best he can, and I can feel that telling us anything about them existing is bad enough...but the Vong are interested in them, even if we are not. They will go one way or another, Admiral. And the Captain is not lying to you that they will meet no substantial resistance if you do not take your fleet to protect them.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 407: The Enemy of My Enemy...

Marix looked calmly at the image in front of her. She stood in a small room near the ‘north’ section of the Gate. It was the communications area, with long enough range to communicate with roughly anywhere in the galaxy with a fairly short amount of delay. The Gate was definitely more than physical, as this function had a way of keeping the galaxy out, and the Empire in.

But currently, the image in front of her was unlike anything the screen had ever projected. Staring back at her with a very predatory and angry look was Zeven Sacul, the current leader of the Mrrakesh Confederation. Truthfully, Marix wasn’t sure if it was an angry look, as she had never anything beyond the current one on a Mrrakesh before. Their lupine features and visibly sharp teeth seemed to make them incapable of any expression out of the ranges between mildly annoyed and murderous. Even though there were the human-like qualities there, just like the Alraxians had within the feline ones, the Mrrakesh just looked so much more...animal...

The line of thought went on its own in the back of her brain, while the front latched onto something else. There was a good reason that Sacul wasn’t looking very happy. As the Alraxians were a matriarchal society, the Mrrakesh were almost militantly patriarchal. One of the main reasons that the two peoples were always on the brink of a very one sided war was simply due to the fact that the Mrrakesh were downright insulted by the fact that they were forced to speak with a female.

But he was there on the screen, actually having answered the communication that Marix had reluctantly sent. That said a great deal about the situation, even if he was being incredibly difficult.

“You invaded our space, Sacul,” she said, speaking Trade, in a firm tone, deliberately ignoring the Mrrakesh’s formal title, “We had every right to act. You are lucky that was as far as it went.”

There was a soundless snarl on the Mrrakesh’s face and his eyes narrowed and he, too, spoke in a rather accented form of Trade, “The planets were within no borders according to our records. And if you cared so much about them then perhaps you should not have left them completely empty.”

On the inside, Marix laughed. On the outside, she did nothing but look right back into his orange eyes, “We protected them, did we not?”

That was met with silence.

What Marix was currently finding so interesting was the fact that Sacul was not being nearly as aggressive as was normal for a Mrrakesh, especially in such a situation. He was being cautious. She could not see it in his face because she had no experience in truly reading Mrrakesh expressions, but she could hear it in his voice and tell from the way he would not press a fight. The Mrrakesh were, indeed, having problems of their own...or perhaps just Sacul was. It wasn’t as if the rulers of the Confederation had very long terms. Assassinations were common enough that they were pretty much expected.

After allowing the silence to run its course, Marix allowed herself to blink before saying, “I did not contact you to discuss the attempted invasion of our planets. I also did not contact you to start a war.”

“Of course not,” Sacul cut in, shaking his head, “The destruction of our ships was enough to do that.”

This time Marix’s eyes narrowed, “If that began fighting then why is your fleet no where near our border? In fact, why is it that I have very reliable information that nearly all of your ships are on the other side of your space, fighting another war of their own?”

This was also met with silence, but also by the widening of Sacul’s eyes.

She had been bluffing, actually, but it confirmed much. Marix did know that the usual defense fleets that patrolled the Mrrakesh border were no where to be seen. Alraxian spies always had difficult getting into Mrrakesh space, due to Alraxians having a very distinct smell to their neighbors, even when in another form. So there, in fact, no spies. Instead, Marix had used the information she already knew about where the Vong had entered the galaxy and put a few pieces together and then...hoped.

She was right.

By now, Sacul had put himself back together and was back to being unreadable and angry looking instead of shocked, “If you are attempting to show off, end it. The business of my fleets is not yours, and I do not take kindly to your assumptions.”

So...the Mrrakesh were losing. That was why they needed more planets. They were losing planets. Losing space. Losing everything. And they didn’t even know the Vong were in their ranks...or did they? Either way, it didn’t matter. The Mrrakesh were being pushed hard and weren’t able to push back hard enough. Now that was obvious to Marix.

Not being a diplomat, Marix quickly tired of the dancing around the point and instead shot right for it, “I don’t care what you think of my assumptions or my information, Sacul. I contacted you because you have a problem. You are losing ground. You are losing your ground. I know who you’re losing it to.”

A strange look came across Sacul’s face, as if he was trying to inspect her through the image but failing to succeed. Slowly, he asked, “You would insult me by insinuating that we need your help?!”

“No,” Marix ended that before it went anywhere, “I do not care about your planets. I care about mine. And what is affecting you is affecting my people,” she put a firm note on the last few words, and then, before he could attempt to be insulted again, got straight to the point, “You are falling back, and the only place you can fall back to is my space. But it will do you no good. Not only do you know that will start a war between our peoples, and leave you fighting on two fronts, but the invaders you are fighting are preparing to attack us from the opposite end.”

There. She’d said it. Against all better judgement, she’d just told the leader of the Mrrakesh that the Alraxian Empire was in a weak position. They were exposed and vulnerable. But she was counting on the fact that the Mrrakesh were, too, and that this Sacul would be intelligent enough to see the danger this posed to his own Confederation. It was a time she hoped this Mrrakesh was selfish like the rest of his people.

But his expression did not change. He continued to examine her and, after seemingly finding what he was looking for, leaned back slightly, “So you are telling me that we are both trapped, and these invaders that you seem to believe are out there are going to pit us against each other while destroying the both of us in the process...” he trailed off a moment, and after not seeing any denial from Marix, leaned forward again, “Then you did not contact me to help me. You came for help. And you think I should care about you and your miserable Empire, don’t you?”

“No,” again, Marix put that to a stop with a single word, “I expect you to be intelligent enough to realize that, once they are done with my Empire, you will be surrounded and then destroyed even easier than you are being destroyed now. What will you do when you give yourself no where to run to anymore, Mrrakesh?”

The last word was said with enough venom to poison a dragon, but Sacul seemed immune to it. Instead, a grunt escaped him that could have been a short laugh, and then his tone seemed to change, “Then tell me, little Empress, why did you contact me?”

So here it was. This was it. Somehow, she’d managed to keep the Mrrakesh listening for long enough to get to the point. Though she was inwardly tense and was currently in the mood to hit something very hard, she kept her outer appearance as dangerously calm as it had been the entire time. She did, however, allow her narrowed eyes to widen slightly to remove a hint of the threat that was there when she finally spoke, “I want ships. You have more than enough to push back the invaders on your side if you start thinking like a pack instead of a bunch of lone wolves. Give me enough to fight the invaders on my end and I will allow you to settle your refugees on our border planets until this is over.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 408: The Black

From the black, they came.

Four identical objects jutting into reality from seemingly nothing.

Their metallic sheen caught the light of distant stars, causing an odd contrast against the black that surrounded them. And for a long time, the objects simply sat there in the nothingness, doing nothing.

But then other objects, smaller ones, appeared from the four, turning and moving as one to what would, in the gravity of a planet where orientation mattered, have been behind the four objects. And then, in a matter of short moments, they were gone...gone into the nothing that these four things had appeared out of.

And, again, the objects sat in the nothing.

After another lnog period of time, a series of smaller objects approached cautiously. These did not shine. Instead, the distant lights simply bathed the new objects and highlighted the dulled colours as they approached the shining metal.

When the new objects disappeared within the original four, there was yet another long period where nothing seemed to happen. But then, some time later, the four objects began to move again.

It was slow at first, but they seemed to stay even with one another the entire time. And then, all of a sudden, they disappeared.

Into the black.

They left.

* * * *​

“Four, my lady,” the Knight said quietly. She was standing at attention but staring at the Empress’ back, which made it difficult to decipher any reaction...well, more difficult, at least.

Marix stood there without moving for a long minute, simply looking out the viewport and to the space beyond the Gate. Eventually, though, she turned and nodded to the Knight, “I trust they have been carefully looked over?”

“Yes, my lady,” she nodded, ignoring the loose strand of hair that fell in front of her eyes in the process, “They have not been altered in any way as far as we can tell. There are no...traps, either.”

Marix returned the nod, “When will they be operational?”

This was not such an easy question to answer. The Knight tried to figure out the best way to put it, but eventually gave up, and simple spoke in the best tone she could manage considering the tension of the previous few hours, “It is...hard to say. Everyone is wearing gloves and focusing on the task at hand but it is...difficult.”

Sadly, that had been expected. All of the Knights aboard those four ships were wearing a light armour usually reserved for the rare battles they got involved in, but with the extra addition of a pair of simple gloves so that they did not have to actually touch the metal. Apparently, being surrounded by the metal was bad enough.

“The ships must be operational and ready to fight within a day,” Marix said sternly, and the Knight could read nothing of her expression, “This is all we have, and it is enough, but you will have to push them past their natural instincts.”

At that, the Knight bit back a comment. But her expression showed it and the Empress had little trouble in reading it.

Aloud, Marix said, “Yes. Like Tam’day’U...” she trailed off for a moment, then nodded to the Knight, “You wear your gloves even here on the Gate, as do nearly all of the Knights. We...” she paused and changed the wording quickly, “The former Tam’Day’U that have joined you among the Knights do not. But there are not enough of them to operate these four ships alone.”

“Y-yes, my lady,” the Knight managed a slow nod, and noticed it was also her cue. She bowed simply, then turned and left the Empress alone in the small room.

When the door slid shut with a barely audible sound, Marix let out a long sigh and turned back to the view. She could almost see them from this angle...glints of light that weren’t quite stars. A decade ago she had been aboard one of those Mrrakesh ships with Jyren, trying to stop Halpak and all of those damned ships.

And now...

...now there were four Mrrakesh ships sitting there outside the Gate, and with Alraxian Knights aboard them. She had expected less. One, maybe. But, apparently, the Mrrakesh leader understood the danger of the situation. It was even more unnerving that there were no traps or explosives or anything wrong with the ships at all. They were in perfect fighting condition. The Knights simply had to learn to fly them.

And that was the tricky part. Ignoring the fact that the ships were metal and the Knights had enough difficulty even being inside them. The problem was a thing of time. Marix quite literally had no idea how much time they had. The Vong were out there. Scouts confirmed a small flotilla exploring nearby systems. They were out there, and they would find the Gate again.

But this time they would hopefully find a fight.

Marix ran a hand through her hair and let out another sigh, shaking off the sudden reach she made for the painfully distant link. She understood that change was necessary and would come one way or another but this all felt so...wrong to her. Her people weren’t fighters but they were being forced into a fight. The problem was figuring out who was doing the forcing. The obvious candidate was the Vong, of course, but Marix had a disturbing feeling that she was the one driving them to something they could avoid.

You are the fire.

That voice was just an echo now. A phantom she had seen in her reflection a decade ago. It had terrified her then, and for some reason, it had come back to her memory in the recent days. She had once thought she had figured out the meaning of those words that had come from seemingly no where...but now she was rethinking that. Marix looked at the thousands of years of her people’s history since the Darking Wars.

She looked at the thousands of years of peace. The fact that there had been galactic conflict throughout it, and yet the Alraxians had remained separate. But now...

Now she brought the fire. She could not help but feel it was her fault this war was coming to the Alraxians. She had, along with Jyren, simply sought it out. The flames of change had been burning in the Empire since her mother had died...but Marix worried suddenly about all of it.

And she worried because of the lingering darkness that she could almost see with her eyes. It was there, in front of all of them, slowly coming down like a curtain of black over everything she knew. The worst part of it all was that she could do nothing to stop its slow falling...

No.

No, that was a lie.

The worst part of it all was that she could see no one through the blackness. As it was falling, Marix found that she was utterly alone in the galaxy. Perhaps she was raised differently than most Alraxians because she was Tam’day’U...but she still felt her people’s strong connection to the Force. Her people’s strong connection to one another.

And when she closed her eyes to see the black and find a way around it, she felt none of that.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 409: Out of Darkness They Come

An Alraxian day was a good five standard hours longer than the galactic standard. Probably more, as the hours were off, too, but that was something Marix had never contemplated. The odd thing, she found, was how her mind worked in two different measurements of time. She knew the hour, day, month, and year in both the Alraxian calendar and the galactic standard without any effort. It was so very clear to her that she wondered if part of the other personality within her was still ‘alive’ somewhere, albeit in a very small form.

Shadow.

The cloned child that could never have grown up, and would have died long ago, was not technically dead within her now. She was not technically alive, either. And though Shadow had been the dominant personality for the first few years after they had merged, certain...things occurred that caused her to fall back and Marix to ‘step up’, as it were. Most of these things centered around Jyren. Though both clone and original had been wiped of emotions and turned into weapons, Marix, after so many years to herself, had seemed to move past it, growing to what most would call something close to normal.

It likely came hand in hand with having truly grown up, something that Shadow was never very good at handling. The physical changes were enough to drive the child’s mind off the deep end, and the mental ones sure didn’t help. So Marix became the dominant. And somewhere along the line, Shadow seemed to disappear. Or, at least, fade so seamlessly with Marix that the difference was simply not noticeable.

It was odd, really, as Marix couldn’t pinpoint the exact day when she really had begun thinking herself as ‘Marix’ instead of ‘Shadow’. She was sure it was before the twins were born, and was also fairly sure it was before they were conceived at all. But she was ‘Shadow’ when she and Jyren were...married(a word that somehow still sent a shiver down her spine, another hint of the Shadow personality)...so it was sometime in that gap. That gap of...barely a standard year. Not even a full Alraxian year.

So much had happened. Back then, she wouldn’t have stood like this, staring out at the six Mrrakesh ships from her vantage point on the Gate, really just thinking. Her mind had always found a way to just be blank so that it wasn’t clouded with all of these...things. But now...now things were different, and that was all she could come up with.

A surge of emotion through the Network caused her to slip back into the moment, her eyes refocusing on the view and her mind working through the Network to do her best to calm the sudden panic. As she did so, she found the source and sent a very simple message. What is it?

But no response came from there.

Instead, one of the Knights that was at a console behind her, as she was standing in one of the many control rooms that dotted the huge, ringed Gate, turned and spoke up in a somewhat alarmed voice, “My lady, a group of ships has just appeared from darkspace.”

Marix tried to reach out with the Force to confirm this, but found nothing beyond the occupants of the six Mrrakesh ships. She cursed to herself and then turned to face the Knight, noting that he was definitely not one of the former Tam’Day’U, as he had too much worry slipping into his voice. Keeping her voice calm, she asked, “Can you identify them?”

She caught sight of the Knight’s tail swish behind him, which answered her question. He did, however, glance down to the console and put a gloved hand to the metal screen to touch, carefully, a command before looking back to her, “It is the same group that has been searching the nearby systems. At least ten objects, many of them close to the size of Thor...”

His reference to the largest of the Kanyaks was notable, as the ship, which was technically supposed to be her ship, as the Empress, was massive. But, then again, it was only massive by Kanyak standards. The Mrrakesh ships weren’t much smaller, which meant that these ships, that were definitely Yuuzhan Vong, were about that size, too. Cruisers of some kind. Maybe not a true battle group.

That was wishful thinking.

“My lady,” the Knight cut in, and when her eyes focused on him again, he went on, “There is an audio transmission coming through...it is...originating from the new ships and it sounds like it is in Trade.”

“Put it on,” Marix said in Trade, not meaning to but her mind was already switching to prepare to hear it rather than the Alraxian they had been speaking before. Thankfully, the Knight understood her, even if he didn’t speak the language, and did so.

In a moment, a gruff, angry sounding voice echoed through the control room, and Marix noted that odd accent she had heard from a Vong trying to speak Trade before, “...Subaltern Juula Kreesh. Your defense is an insult to my warriors, infidels. These unliving beasts will be torn from the skies by the power of Yun-Yammka!”

And then it ended. Cut off into the usual nothingness of the ‘airwaves’ of space.

Marix looked out towards the Mrrakesh ships. Apparently, this Subaltern Kreesh was as fanatical as the rest of his people. So much so, in fact, that he had transmitted that message simply as a boast than to make any real demands. It was, however, not surprising. The Vong did not seem to make demands. They simply took.

She turned her eyes from the view of space outside the Gate and walked over to the console where the Knight sat. Reaching down past him, she hit a few simple buttons on the screen to set the comm unit to transmit what was supposed to be a secured channel to what was the flagship of their defense, the Mrrakesh ship that the Alraxians had renamed Sekhmet.

“Commander,” she said in a firm voice, and speaking Alraxain again. She did not need to identify herself or even wait for acknowledgment that they had received the message, “Your training is over. The Yuuzhan Vong have arrived in system and are coming towards you...” she paused a moment, and then could only find one other thing to say, “Mar Dresio ni achla pann.”

May the Force Protect us all.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 410: Assistance

There was a small shockwave through the Force as the Amunet was engulfed in both flames and the swarm of coralskippers. Marix closed her eyes and forced the deaths out of her mind, trying to keep both herself and the Network as peaceful as was possible at the moment. A great many Knights died in that moment, and it was likely that many more were soon going to follow.

The Amunet had led the defense, pushing in with two of the other Mrrakesh cruisers, the Horakel and the Dresian, and had taken the brunt of the Vong’s forces. Two of their cruiser-analogs had charged in with waves of coralskippers, and though the three ships put up a significant fight, the smaller fighters were too fast to hit. Which meant they had to be ignored while the three cruisers fired on the Vong capital ships. And, so, it wasn’t a surprise to see the swarms of tiny asteroid-like ships tear apart the Amunet.

It reminded Marix so much of what she had seen at Agamar. The green blasts from the Mrrakesh weapons on the ships were constantly firing, but few shots seemed to do any damage...and it was too hard to tell if they were actually causing any real damage to the Vong ships anyway. But while this was not a surprise, the loss of the Alraxians aboard that ship caused a deep scar in the Force and in the Alraxian Network. This was something new. Something their people had not encountered in thousands of years. And now, after so long, they were fighting, and dying, again.

Marix closed her eyes a moment. She would not falter from this decision. It had to be done. The Knights on those ships knew it had to be done. And while she could feel the panic of the Alraxians aboard the Horakel, which was now the one under the swarm of coralskippers, she knew they would fight to the deaths. It was a symbol that the Alraxian people would not lay down when they were threatened. They would fight, and if they had to, they would all die. And these Knights, with many former Tam’Day’U among them, would be the first to fall.

A ringing sound from behind her caused Marix to open her eyes and turn away from the viewport to look at the Knight operating the sensor station of the Gate...which was surprisingly similar in design to what Marix had seen aboard the Mrrakesh ships. A simple ripple through the Force was enough to get his attention, and he immediately turned to look at her, a pair of deep silver eyes meeting hers and showing he was one of the many Tam’Day’U now among the Alraxian Knights.

In a calm, almost cold voice, he answered her unspoken question, “Another group of ships has appeared, Commander.”

Marix raised an eyebrow at that, but stayed focused on the Alraxian sitting at the station in front of her. She always found it interesting that the Tam’Day’U still called her ‘Commander’, despite the fact that she technically did not lead them, as they were now a part of the Knights and not a single, hidden away, group. Their loyalty was disturbingly strong...and Marix couldn’t help but find it interesting that many still expressed the same cold, emotionless attitudes as they had before. Such strong conditioning didn’t seem to leave very easily...

“Yuuzhan Vong?” she asked simply, knowing that she did not need to elaborate at all for this Knight...who’s face she found herself recognizing but, as with all the former Tam’Day’U, one that she had no name to attach to.

There was a pause from the Alraxian, as he turned to look to the screen, his bare hand touching the metallic surface with no hesitation at all before his ear turned slightly in the thick mess of grey, mottled hair. He then said in the same tone, without even turning to face her, “I do not believe so. They are broadcasting on an encrypted frequency, but our systems cannot decipher the encryption.”

Marix had to think about this a moment. But before she could say anything, the Knight’s ear twitched back to the forward position and he added quickly, “There is another signal coming through...” he trailed off, then looked up to her again, “It is on the frequency used Kanyaks and the systems are automatically bypassing it to Alraxia...”

“Keep it here and put it on,” she said flatly, knowing exactly what they meant. Well, no, she didn’t. The thought crossed her mind that there were two people that could do that, not one. But she sure as hell had a feeling of who it was...especially considering the link had gone ablaze the second the Knight had reported the arrival of the other ships.

It took a moment for the Knight to complete the task at hand, but soon a familiar voice sounded through the Gate’s control room...and it was speaking Trade, “...there, and I know you’re getting this. I had to pull way too many strings I shouldn’t have to do this and you damn well better accept the help.”

If she hadn’t been surrounded by so many Knights, Marix might have smiled. She didn’t want to look outside the viewport again, for fear of what she would see, and knowing that it would destroy the happiness brought on just by feeling Jyren in the same system again. It was still a bit distant and weak, but it was there, and she could feel him. It was...only emotions due to the distance, but that was more than enough.

And then, of course, the moment was ruined when the Tam’Day’U spoke up, “The transmission is coming from a battlegroup roughly the same size as the Vong fleet. They are...holding position at the edge of the sector.”

Inwardly, Marix cursed. She didn’t need to look outside to see what was out there, and likely couldn’t see it with the naked eye anyway. But a short glance to the sensor screen confirmed it. Jyren had brought that damned New Republic fleet with him. Now, not only had he given his secure comlink to some random Jedi, but he’d brought an entire fleet to the exact location where the Gate was! She was going to kill him!

But the rage disappeared in a flash. Another shockwave went out through the force, and Marix turned quickly to see a flash of fire disappear into the vacuum of space. And that was the last of the Horakel and her compliment of Knights. There were only two Mrrakesh ships left, with the Dresian holding the front line by itself, and the ‘flagship’, the Sekhmet, towards the back as a sort of rear defense, if it could have been called that. But now, that ships was turning to face the rather large New Republic fleet that had just jumped in system.

Immediately, Marix stepped past the Knight in front of her to one of the comm stations and hit the crystalline switch to activate it on a return channel, “You know you’ve done something very stupid.”

Jyren’s voice returned like he was right there, snapping back, “The Admiral will have no problem leaving, I assure you. But I won’t. And you need us.”

Marix bit her lip, not looking out to the viewport again but instead reaching out with the Force. She could feel the Alraxians of the two remaining ships...she could feel the panic...and, farther off, she could feel the New Republic fleet, with so many aboard the ships. And she could even pinpoint Jyren, but that was due to their link, and her being so used to exactly what he felt like. They did need the help. It was true. She knew it, and so did every single Knight on those ships and on the Gate.

That was not the issue.

The issue was the sudden loss of the one protection the Alraxians had...their secrecy. And now it was gone, in a second, thanks to Jyren. She wanted to blame him for it all, but knew she couldn’t. He had, as always, done what he felt was right and, not like always, actually been right to do it. It would make some situations difficult, but it would also give them a stable defense rather than a show of force while they got wiped out.

But she didn’t get a chance to say anything like that. In fact, she knew she didn’t have to. The link was enough at this point that the feelings of it all flowed through, and Jyren knew. She could feel that, too. And so, when his voice returned, his tone wasn’t nearly as combative, “I sent a short burst transmission with the New Republic battle codes. The Admiral won’t make a move until he knows he has the support of the leader here.”

Marix let out a sigh. At least, with that, Jyren had done something right. She despised it, but it was the right thing. Some might scream the rest of the galaxy were coming to take them over, but this would show them listening to the Empress and might just smooth out the extra chaos all of this was going to cause.

With a quick glance, she saw the transmission from Jyren, and watched it get encoded into the Gate’s comm system. The Knights that operated the station worked fast, especially in such a situation...and especially the ones that spoke Trade.

When it was all in, she hit the small activation switch again, and said in the most firm voice she could manage, which sounded, to her ears, at least, disturbingly like her mother’s, “This is the Empress of the Alraxian Empire to the New Republic fleet...” she paused a moment, noting that all of the eyes of the Knights were suddenly on her, as even the ones that didn’t speak Trade could understand what was happening through the Network, “Our ships cannot hold back this attack. We welcome any assistance you can provide.”