The Weaving Force: Chapter 61 (Patreon)

Chapter 61:

Sev’rance Tann:

“Shipmistress!”

The voice was barely noticed as Sev’rance trembled infront of her throne, the eye of some… impossibility passing over her, through her. Its presence is overwhelming- as vast as the planet below her.

“Shipmistress!”

She shuddered, fingers clenching into a fist as the presence moved, coalescing somewhere on the planet below, a sun shining upon the surface, blinding, all consuming.

“Shipmis-”

“WHAT!” She roared at the comm officer, who stared at her with barely a flinch as he held her gaze.

“Fleets dropping out of hyperspace!”

She grit her teeth. “Which ones?”

The image switched on the main monitor.

“Duros.” She growled, using her irritation to push away her fear. “It was always going to be Duros.”

“More incoming, hyperspace anomalies detected. Arrival imminent.” A droid called out “Analyzing. Likely fleet origins, Nubia. Warning, incoming vessels from neighboring in system planets as well.”

“We’re also getting signatures from the planet and shipyards on the other side of the planet.” A third called out. “Civilian vessels, armed.”

Civilians?

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you telling me Corellian civilians are charging at a fully armed military fleet?”

“Yes.” The comms officer answered succinctly. Almost flatly.

Huh…

She could give them credit for spirit if nothing else.

Either way, now that Duros had arrived and the Corellians were rallying- their time was limited.

(X)(X)(X)

CT-853191417:

Even wandering through the tunnels, they could hear the battle going on above. They could hear the screams of civilians, the chirping discharge of blasters and the heavy, more thunderous sounds of tanks blasting away at defenses.

The shinies put on a brave face, but they were scared, he could tell, especially when the… bugs signaled they were slipping out of range. Without… Miss Taylor watching them, the fear began to creep into the little ones. With every sound, with every rumbling shake of the world around them, stray whimpers and hissed flinching slipped through their brave faces.

He made a point to place his hand on the red Twi’lek’s head or shoulder on occasion to reassure her. The Nautolan girl, Zai, was ‘sharing’ the small pet, Angelica, between herself and Karla, the two huddling close together.

Brother 714586990 took point ahead of them, his nav-tool telling them where to go now that the bugs were gone.

The avian child, Tenhu, trilled a bird call that echoed through the darkness, his beak clacking closed as he seemed to listen to the world above.

Iskt too was placing one hand along the wall, keeping it there, sensing the vibrations through the durasteel.

Then, the world was no longer shaking but heaving.

The ground shot down from under his feet, leaving him almost in freefall before it rocketed back up to crash into his boots, knocking him to his knees. It was all he could do to keep hold of his weapon and grab the girls near him as they, and everyone around them, screamed.

The tunnels cracked, chunks of ceiling and wall falling down around them as pipes began bursting. He and some of his brothers shielded the frightened shinies with their own bodies, while others kept a firm hold of their weapons.

Good thing they did, too.

Before the trembling had stopped something gave way, an entire highway falling into the tunnels ahead, and to their left-

“DROIDS!!!” 714586990 roared, the metal contraptions picking themselves up from the collapse as his brother started firing, each shot punching clean through a B1’s head.

448672980  and 997840266 joined him, blue bolts lancing out as 853191417 turned his head around.

“Right!” he shouted to his brothers, grabbing hold of the two girls and their pet as he wheeled into a tunnel on their right, a maintenance access way, somewhere with cover!

“Go! Go! Follow them!” He heard 218556611 shouting at the boys, Decimus and Tenhu rushing after them, sloshing through hip deep water as the droids finally got their bearings.

“Clones identified. Jedi identified. Blast them!” one of the B1’s said moments before 853191417 took its head off with a clean shot, its body jerking where it stood for a second before it fell.

Then out of the debris, a huge, armored thing came lumbering out. Its right arm was crushed, still sparking with fresh damage, but it’s left caught 448672980 right in the ribs, his brother folding like a chair as he was sent flying back into the wall, armor cracked and no doubt his ribs broken.

“Zaisk!” 853191417 called, firing blaster bolts into the thing’s armored hide, only to see them unable to penetrate its thick shell as it marched towards the shell shocked youngling.

His brothers were all busy, still fighting the droids, trying to kill as many as they could before the blasted machines got their legs under them.

Then, a piece of debris shot straight down from the ceiling, almost comically fast and damn near crushed the droid’s top half like a tin can. The droid’s knees collapsed inward, and its body folded in on itself with the smell of oil and burnt wiring.

Iskt slithered out of the murk, grabbing hold of Zaisk and near carrying the boy across the wide tunnel towards the relative safety of the maintenance tunnel.

“Come on!’ he called again to his brothers. “Move! In here, now!”

Each one scrambled back, offering covering fire as 665928441 scrambled back to go collect a clearly injured 448672980, who screamed as his ribs were jostled.

A red bolt came sailing out of the mob and struck 853191417 on the top ridge of his helmet, jerking his head back. He heard the lil ones scream behind him, certain he was dead before he righted himself and ducked into cover, shooting blindly around the corner as 665928441 and 448672980 made it to him.

They slammed the door shut behind them, but not before hearing “After them!” from the droids.

(X)(X)(X)

Sidious:

He always prided himself in knowing his enemies. On knowing as much as he could about any subject that might be a problem. In politics, the Force, his apprentices.

But here.

He wasn’t sure what he was even looking at, nevermind have knowledge of it.

It looked human, but it most certainly was not. Its presence in the Force was too cold, too vast and inhuman to be anything that base and mundane.

Fires danced around it and before Palpatine could contemplate his observations further, he felt its Force manipulations converge around him, a million tiny hands, grasping and reaching.

He tried to shove the reaching tendrils away, only for them to bat aside his influence, smacking ethereal hands away as they proceeded to light this puppet ablaze with fire.

The Master of the Sith reeled, surprised to be sure. Even considering his weakened influence in the Force, being so far away and having so much of his power being used to keep the body intact as it was, it shouldn’t have been possible for someone to resist his capability so casually, so easily.

The flames kept burning, fueled through the Force, ready to reduce him to cinders as he saw the flesh on his hands blacken and peel, his mind scrambling for a quick answer before he used all his considerable strength to shove all oxygen away from the body and keep it away.

If he were here in person… this might not have been possible. A sobering thought.

The flames died away, the air around them turning into a vacuum as they died.

Even so, he smiled, the skin of his face cracking and peeling, weeping red bubbles.

“No hesitation,” he noted, voicing the thought as the flame wreathed wraith began to march forward. “You are no Jedi,” he chuckled.

A warning, a danger.

The green blade of their victim snapped to life, her golden one smashing into it, seemingly trying to cut the blade in two through raw strength alone.

The impact drove him back and he danced on stiff feet, regaining his balance as he thrust, the tip of his blade missing her head by inches as she smoothly stepped past the thrust, dipping into his guard as she tried to cut him in half.

He made the puppet bend, broken bones and torn muscles grinding within the corpse as he slid under her strike, aiming a swipe at her legs only for her to leap over it with a smooth flip, a retaliatory swing reaching for a decapitating strike as he deflected it with barely any time to spare.

He snapped to his feet, rounding on the girl only to see a wave of fire rushing towards him.

With a telekinetic blade he parted it like a sea,only for the Force to scream danger as the roaring fires encircled him.

He stepped to the side, just barely avoiding another swing that would have taken off the top half of his head, the woman stepping out of the dancing flames, without them ever touching her

He pushed, and she was sent sailing back into the inferno as he lunged after her, blade tip extended to where he knew her heart to be.

He passed through the fires, more of his flesh cooking and peeling before the lack of air around him smothered them.

He stepped past the flames and into the swarm.

Darkness shrouded him. A billion bodies and wings devouring the light, noise vanishing, his blade still plunged straight and true, following the glint of those yellow eyes, only for a glimmer on his left to reveal something else.

There was no warning in the Force, no danger, even as he saw a lightsaber flicker to life, those yellow eyes appearing to his left and the blade coming to swing.

Flames sputtered like dying candle flames, an impossibly precise illusion enabled by fire and chitinous bodies moving in pixel perfect synchronicity.

But his patience was rewarded, the true warning coming as the fire blade vanished against the remains of his blackened flesh as he jerked his head to the side, a thrusting lunge nearly spearing the back of his skull clean through as he snapped his head around, finding the yellow eyed wraith thrusting her palm forward to plant it directly onto his spine.

The telekinetic blow punched through his personal protections like an armor piercing slug. He felt his grip on the corpse slip as its insides were pulped, the body tumbling down the street to smash through a sky bus stop, glass shattering and steel bending around him.

The body tumbled and rolled, a jagged spike if twisted steel now goring its side, black blood oozing out as he made it reach its feet mid tumble, blade in hand, already rising to deflect a descending saber strike as the woman lunged after him, diving in from above.

Her boots hit the ground and she was already swinging again, green and gold blades moved with such impossible speed he could see its trailing light almost lingering around them even as he and she were striking again and again at each other, flames and insects swirling around the two.

He let loose with a burst of lightning from his fingertips, crackling electricity crashing into her hastily raised sword before he swung for the exposed opening, only to miss by impossibly narrow margins with barely a shift of her weight, his own body turning to avoid a downward strike that would have cleaved him in two, their blades meeting again and again.

Neither of them let up, neither of them backed away even a single step, matching each other blow for perfect blow.

Sidious found an opening, a gap in the dance of blade against blade and he reached out, his grip in the force strong and firm as he reached and pulled.

A duracrete wall broke off the side of a building toppling sideways, several tons of stonework and steel tipping over to crush the woman beneath.

Her head snapped towards it and when her hand reached out the wall was smashed apart, its component pieces becoming infinitely easier to hold as she let the rest fall to the ground around her uselessly before she sent the chunks of debris and masonry hurtling towards him, only for his own telekinetic grip to cast them aside with ease.

Then the ground began to collapse around him.

Sucked into the tunnels beneath the city, asphalt and roadwork was torn down under his feet, his body beginning to fall before he used the Force to leap up as the road folded in on itself to slam shut over where his body would have been like a carnivorous plant.

The woman lunged after him mid flight, their sabers meeting once more before she battered his aside with pure brute strength, a fireball swirling in her hands as she reached for his face a moment before he plunged his hand to her chest, wreathed in lightning.

The blast went off inches from his face, and the only reason she didn’t kill him outrighht was his own lightning sending her sailing back, just out of reach as the two of them tumbled through the air, but where she was able to land and recover he found himself still under attack on all sides from the biting, clawing hive of insects that descended on him.

She was relentless, merciless.

He felt a smile splitting his cracked and weeping face, yellow eyes dancing with malicious joy.

“What fun!” He laughed.

(X)(X)(X)

Vicky:

She was exhausted.

Flight and super strength didn’t translate to superhuman endurance. She was better than most. But even with her advantages and Jedi training she felt her lungs burning, her arms growing heavy, her muscles across her back burning.

Floating in the sky, she was unironically on her last legs. The Green Jedi that had followed her, forming a half ring, their backs to a building, piles and piles of droids gathering around them as they kept attacking, kept pushing and marching.

For every Jedi that died at least a dozen droids died beforehand but still there were always more droids, and the ring of Jedi grew ever smaller, always less and less blades to hold back the tide of blaster bolts.

Even so, they moved with vigor, with focus and with hope; the effects of her aura, now working in tandem with her own force abilities, a power known as ‘Force Valor’ master Plo had taught her so she could better understand the tangible effects of her aura.

Both now worked together building on eachother in a cycle that perpetually reinforced each.

When the Orbital strike had been incoming she’d felt it, she’d seen it a warning in the Force that urged her to open her mind towards the Fragile one, unshackling its capabilities that let its forcefield detach itself from her, widening and saving everyone for that one split second shot.

Her aura was similarly more powerful, as was her strength and even the damage threshold of her force field.

But it wasn’t enough.

She couldn’t be everywhere at once, she couldn’t save them, and it felt as though all she was doing was delaying the inevitable.

Then- she felt Taylor.

She felt that thing, the Queen Administrator. Its eye passed over the world entire like a lunar eclipse, blotting out the light of the Force itself before settling somewhere along the horizon, a second sun shining opposite the true sun in the skies above.

It was… overwhelming and it scared her deeply, wondering what could have pushed Tay to do this. To call on the Queen Administrator in a way that Vicky knew still scared her; terrified her down to the bone, regardless of how much she tried to force herself not to be scared anymore.

She reached out, tugging on their mutual link, but it was like grabbing hold of a hot iron and her mental touch recoiled, spiking her worry even further.

“The Queen wakes” Fragile one whispered at the back of her mind, a note of awe in her ‘voice’- her feelings.

Then- Vicky felt a bug at the back of her neck- its skittering leg giving momentary relief.

“Tay-” She began, only to stop.

A saber was floating next to her.

Vicky’s eyes widened, feeling Taylor’s presence in the force, her power, threading through the air, a million gossamer thin threads that reached and plucked and pulled, the sabers of fallen Jedi once more igniting and taking to the air, six formed a ring around her, deflecting and defending Vicky herself as the rest encircled the Jedi, a ring of blue, green, purple and gold now defending their confused fellows as the world around them began to buzz and hiss.

Vicky’s lips pressed together, realizing the answer to her question.

This was why she did it…

To help.

“Tay-” She muttered under her breath, worry tugging at her heart before that same heart fell into her feet- the tiny bug at her neck tapping out the code they were so used to.

“My. Kids. Danger. Reach. Them.”

(X)(X)(X)

Plo-Koon

“Sir.” A clone panted, struggling to catch his breath as he spoke. “The dormitories have fallen.”

Plo took the news with grim perseverance.

“All that’s left is the vaults and the inner sanctum.” He surprised.

“The Sanctum is about to fall too.” Tapal said at his side, the large Lasat Jedi had been bandaged and treated for his injuries, but he was still injured.

“The floating swords are helping some-” The clone answered, “Whoever’s doing that needs to keep it up. And the bugs are still going at it too, but this place is too indefensible, the droids are still pushing through, casualties or not”

Taylor… It was Taylor who was doing this. Plo knew that and he knew what it meant.

He wasn’t sure how long she could maintain this. As selfish as it was, a part of him couldn’t help but hope she’d hold on for just that little bit longer, push herself for that little bit further.

“We need more time.” Plo lamented turning to look as the ever shrinking group of Jedi kept descending into the tunnels. The injured, the young and the feeble taking the most time but they would not be abandoned.

There was a pause in the room, before Master Tapal grunted. “Trooper. How many men do you have left?”

“Around four hundred sir.”

Four hundred.

It had been two thousand just hours ago.

The Lasat Jedi groaned as he stood,straightening with a grimace. “Would they be willing to sally out?”

Plo felt his heart stop in his chest.

“Master Tapal-” He protested.

“A sacrifice was always going to be needed.” The Lasat interrupted, turning to look at Plo with a sad smile. “We couldn’t all just… slip underground and pretend like they wouldn’t follow in short order… Hebert had the right of it. We were always going to have to… give them what they wanted Master Plo.”

It was true. He had known that eventually someone would need to stay behind, to cover the retreat if nothing else.

“Its my responsibility.”

“Your responsibility is to lead the Jedi, not die for it.” Tapal retorted before turning to the trooper. “Well, trooper?”

“Sir.” The man nodded. “Its what we were made for.”

Plo felt his frown deepen, and Tapal’s answering smile was a subdued, conflicted one.

“Pah.” Pong Krell shoved himself to his feet, “As if I’d entrust this task, to a bunch of clones and a half dead Lasat”

Tapal raised an eyebrow. “Are you volunteering to charge out with us Master Krell.”

The Besalisk snorted. “You’d die too quickly otherwise.”

(X)(X)(X)

853191417

Their flight from the droids had evolved into a running battle. The B1s were not bright, nor skilled, but they were relentless and there were seemingly endless numbers of them. The super battle droids were slower, but when they arrived it almost took the whole damn squad to take ‘em down quickly.

The nightmares were the droidekas.

Fast and nimble, they’d been let loose into the tunnels like bloodhounds. Coordinating with the slower B1s

They didn’t get tired, they didn’t need to catch their breath, and in the tiny spaces under the city it was damn hard for even droids to miss their shots.

Even the little shinies tried to help. No, he was being unfair. They did help. More than once they’d been caught out in junctures with little to no cover, and it had been the lil ones that had shorn panels off the walls, or lifted chunks of debris to act as the cover the clones desperately needed to survive that little bit longer. More than once, a droideka had been lifted into the air and hurled into a wall when they couldn’t blast past its shield.

But they were getting tired, they all were. 665928441 was down to his last ammo pack, 997840266 to his last grenade, 448672980’s breathing was getting more and more ragged, and each time it was harder and harder to carry him, even if they cycled the job.

448672980 had noticed, of course he had. His brother was already demanding they leave him with his back to a wall so he could “shoot at the damn droids without having to turn around”.

“Not good,” 218556611 muttered, eyes on his nav-tool.

“What is it now?” he whispered, not wanting to alert the others, or the kids.

“We’re approaching a water treatment facility,” his brother answered, just as quiet. “If we lead the droids there and they got half a processor, they can flood these tunnels and drown us.”

“Shit,” he hissed. “Options?”

“Surface,” 218556611 answered succinctly.

“We’re not clear of the battlezone yet,” 665928441 cut in, his voice crackling through the compiece in their helmets. “We’ll be surrounded.”

“I’m just telling you reality,” 218556611 shrugged. “Gamble wherever you want, but make the call now.”

Before he could give any kind of answer, the kids shuddered, hugging and almost curling themselves into a fetal position, giving sharp screams and pained, surprised shouts.

“What is it!? What’s wrong?” 714586990 demanded.

But the kids didn’t answer. Only the pet, the small insect-like thing seemed to be doing anything, the tiny creature crawling onto each child's head and easing the pained expression into something slightly softer.

Then, the walls began to hiss.

“M-miss Taylor?” Decimus asked, the Twi’lek boy daring to open one eye as he looked at the bug that crawled onto the back of his hand.

“DROIDEKAS!”

The shout from 665928441 by the door brought his attention away from whatever Jedi magic was going on with the kids, each of them getting ready to move or fight before the door, the wall and 665928441 were hit with a frakking rocket.

The blast sent duracrete shards flying back, a piece of shrapnel slicing into the bend of his own elbow. Iskt, the Trandoshan, placed himself between the danger and the other crechelings, with a burst of what 853191417 could only assume was a display of telekinesis that sent the shards in front of him sailing back down the hall.

665928441 hit the floor, unmoving; a quick check on his armor’s diagnostics told him his brother was alive but barely. 218556611 scrambled forward, grabbing their brother and dragging him back shortly before two more rockets hit the walls around the door to bring the whole edifice crumbling down.

853191417 and the rest of them scrambled back in what little cover they had. Four droidekas with shields already deployed skittered forward on their spindly legs, and behind them another super battle droid, this one with mounted wrist rockets.

He tried to take aim, ready to take his chances at firing on the large thing to try and take it out. The droidekas were dangerous but those rockets, in this tight space, were a death sentence.

The droids caught sight of his movement and fired.

Four blaster bolts cracked into the front of his chestplate, heat and force sending him sailing back, wondering if he was going to die as he heard the younglings scream in fright around him.

Then, the ceiling fell.

“Another O-strike?” He wondered distantly.

But no, it wasn’t.

A woman marched out of the debris, two droidekas reduced to twisted scrap metal under her feet, a third’s neck being crushed in her fist.

“MISS VICTORIA!”

He wasn’t sure which one of the children screamed out the woman’s name, but the relief in their voices was a palpable thing, and it made a strange sort of relief fill him too.

They’d done it.

He and his brothers… their first mission. And they’d succeeded.

It felt good.

As he looked at the woman’s back, he almost felt the pain of his wounds ebb away, the aches of his exhaustion fade, and even as his body wanted to fail, he still kept fumbling for his rifle, ready to press on and follow her.

The super battle droid raised its arms for another volley of rockets. Even if it didn’t hit any of them, that much ordnance in these hallways might just do them in outright anyway.

It fired, six rockets blasting down the tight corridor before the woman reached down, fingers digging into the duracrete before she *heaved*.

The slab came up and intercepted the projectiles, shattering the duracrete wall between them but keeping the concussive force bearable to something they could survive.

But as the wall was blasted apart in fire and shrapnel, he saw the woman reel back, a startled scream escaping her lips as she jerked her head with the sudden force of an impact, her body recoiling in pain

—

“MISS VICTORIA!”

I heard my kids screaming, I saw through a million eyes, heard through a million more ears and felt with one heart as Vicky cradled the side of her face, a single piece of shrapnel doing what an orbital bombardment couldn’t.

And the Sith Master laughed.

“I sense your fear… your desperation!” he taunted, even as my attention was drawn to a thousand other vectors.

And yet, in this moment, so much of my mind was there, watching them. I was diverting whole ecosystems of bugs through those tunnels to reach them too fucking slow!

And this bastard was laughing!

A roar built up within me and I let it loose, a scream both physical and in the Force. I saw him reel, recoiling, his hold on the corpse almost slipping, the oxygen he’d pushed away returning enough for me to set fire to his legs before he quickly smothered it out.

His blade danced against mine, the insects I had on his body allowing me to keep up. But he was fast. Faster than Jorus. Faster than anyone I’d ever fought before. Distantly, I recalled my fight with Jack. The two of us moving and fighting in ways that were simply beyond human capability. Every move I made he could react to, every move he made I knew about in advance.

It was the same here.

The Sith Master almost danced with his sword, cackling with raw, genuine delight as the sabers crackled and snapped as they came into contact.

And my mind was split - one mind here, in the dance of blade against blade, another helping the evacuees in the Temple find their way, another directing clones to fallback points, yet another tracking the remaining Masters and directing them to places where they could make a final stand before they were able to retreat, and more still watching as the Green Jedi stood, a crumbling bulwark, defiantly holding back the rising tide around them.

And still more drew my thoughts away, the fleet in orbit, the tiny sparks of life, the millions of citizens in danger here or watching in horror on their vidscreens across the planet.

Chaos. My mind was chaos. It was overwhelming, even for me. The fight was swinging - the Jedi would survive this day - but would I?

I felt… a touch, a whisper at the back of my mind, overriding all other concerns, all other distractions, making certain I knew.

Cognitive degeneration, imminent.

Already?

It… It hadn’t been that long yet? Three minutes? Five at most?

The fight was still going

The words came. Reassurance. There was no sound but they rolled through me like thunder, quaking between my bones.

“Victory. Inevitable.”

“You’re sure?” I couldn’t help but ask in the privacy of my own mind, seeing Vicky bleeding still in my mind's eye.

If they needed me, if she needed me, I would keep going.

I would do it again.

“Victory.” She assured again. “Inevitable… Trust- Me.”

My grip, tight like a vice over the power that shot through my body like a lightning rod, released.

Like the falling tides, my senses shrank, my mind returned to normalcy, the pain ebbed, and I was… aware. Of this place. Of myself.

I was… aware.

My grip on my blade shifted.

When the swing came, the cut was perfect, poised to take my head clean off.

But he’d gotten sloppy, the sudden shift in me throwing off his own senses for a moment.

Because the hand that started the swing was missing its top half by the time it was done, the momentum of his arm sending a tickling breeze across my mask as three fingers and half a saber were catapulted over my shoulder.

The corpse puppet stared at his fingers, wide eyed in surprise before it laughed.

“You’ve abandoned your friends to win,” It declared. “Impressive, For a Jedi.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I let go of that power so I wouldn’t lose. Winning…” I shrugged. “I already did that when you started paying more attention to the fires than the bugs.”

He was confused, but that confusion cleared up pretty quick when his left arm fell clean off of its socket, a hive of insects crawling out of his insides.

“You never noticed them stinging you,” I explained with a shrug. “Fair to assume you’d never notice them eating you from the inside out either.”

The Sith’s milky yellow eyes were wide in surprise.

Then he really started to laugh. “Perfect!”

Not even cackling, but full on belly laughs before his remaining hand burst into bright, crackling lightning.

I lifted my blade, the lightsaber’s blade absorbing the burst of raw, dark side hate and deflecting it aside harmlessly.

Even as the puppets body fell apart, collapsing utterly as more and more of it was devoured… the Sith spoke, his voice carrying on the wind as his grip finally slipped.

“You… are… perfect.”

I scattered the bugs away as I let my fires consume the corpse, leaving nothing but cinders before I turned and ran as fast as I could.

(X)(X)(X)

Vicky:

She returned to the world above with five kids and six clones.

She’d wanted to escort the green Jedi down below… but the risk of them just drowning everyone down below once they realized what was happening was too great, too immediate. She searched for an answer in the force… and as strange as it was her instincts told her here is where she needed to be.

She carved her way through the blockade of droids. She’d given Iskt and Tenhu two of the blades she’d picked up, they were the oldest and had the most practice and the two used them to deflect blasters as Zaisk, Decimus, Karla and Zai focused on creating a moving wall of cover for them and the injured clones, who still let loose with their rifles and blasters at any droid they could see.

The Green Jedi, still holding firm behind their pseudo barricade of debris, droid bodies and flashing sabers, made way for her and the others to enter.

There were less than a hundred of them left.

And still from end to end, horizon to horizon, the droids kept coming.

She tried to move, tried to rise again into the air only for her exhaustion to damn near make her fall flat on her face, as it was, she hovered in the air almost listlessly, struggling to catch her breath.

“What in the force is that!?” Someone shouted.

She almost wanted to cry. ‘What now’

She forced herself to rise, climbing slightly above the barricade.

And though she saw the others fret and worry, she felt the relief cut through her like a knife, cold waters dousing the fires  of anxiety and fear at the sight of a black, buzzing cloud drawing closer and closer, a bright immolating glow at its center, marching closer and closer.

She felt the touch on her mind, warm and comforting as she opened her thoughts.

“I’m here” Taylor promised. The words carrying weight and so much meaning as Vicky sobbed, tears stinging the bloodied ruin of her missing eye with its salt.

“I’m here Vicky.”

(X)(X)(X)

Tapal.

The sanctum doors began to buckle, the blasts and impacts heavy on its gilded surface.

As they gathered, Clones and Jedi alike, wounded, healthy, battered and bruised- Tapal realized something-

“What’s your name trooper?” He asked.

The clone turned, looking at him.

“Mine is Tapal.” He said. “I’d like to remember your name, if you’d allow it.”

The clone stared. “I… don’t have one sir. I’m… CT-78954213

Tapal found that… incredibly sad.

“But if I were to ever have one-” The clone continued. “I think I’d have liked George.”

He nodded. “Then… you’re George.”

“For a moment longer eh.” He laughed with black humor as

“If you two are done.” Krell sneered, his multiple double bladed Lightsabers igniting.

The doors were nearly collapsed now, the left archway snapping off its hinges, the door hanging off its edge, allowing them to see just past the barrier the swarm of B-1’s, B-2’s Droidekas and heavier droids still

Tapal lit his own saber staff, other lightsabers flaring up behind him from the two dozen volunteers as clone rifles primed.

The doors finally gave way- and with a final, defiant roar they, Jedi and clones charged forward onto death.

(X)(X)(X)

Sev’rance Tann

Sev’rance watched the feeds from the droids, as the final charge of the Jedi and the clones cut through line after line of droids, digging deep into the army with the frenzied abandon of men who knew there would be no return home. That death was innevitable.

It was pure defiance. It was savage, desperate… beautiful.

But as fierce as their fires blazed… they died.

One by one, bit by bit.

They died.

The last two, a Besalisk and a Lasat Jedi fought back to back, tearing through her heaviest troops and vehicles, almost unstoppable in their ferocity.

But they too… died.

The Lasat fell first. Already injured, already tired, and the Besalisk stood over his fallen body, defending it before he too was gunned down from every angle, body torn apart by hundreds of bolts as her droids made certain to kill the resilient species.

Nine of the Lucrehulks in her fleet contending against the Duros and Shipyard loosed forces, were calling for a retreat. Nemoidians really had no stomach for a real fight.

Four more of her ships were beginning to lock horns with the recently arrived Nubians and another five were arraying themselves against the ships sailing in from Corellia’s neighbors.

She could fight- try to win the fleet battle, but there was no point anymore, the Jedi, most of them anyway, were dead, and with the droids surrounding the Greens beginning to go offline as a massive heat source approached she had no interest in finding out what other complication had arrived on the surface battle.

“Give the orders-” She said from her command throne. “On ground assets of value are to be retrieved, lesser assets as well if possible. All ground operations are to cease, return to their respective ships- and fleets are to prepare to disengage and jump to hyperspace in short order. Our undamaged Lucrehulks of battle group nine will cover the retreat.

“Yes, shipmistress!”

It had not been a flawless victory, but it had been a victory; she would take it.

(X)(X)(X)

And its done.

The battle for Corelia is done!

This was a lot of work but was also a lot of fun. So I can't complain too much :)

As usual here's a link for the discord for those of you who'd like to join the fun times and discussion there:

https://discord.gg/5YExHBhA

Now then; There's gonna be *a lot* to unpack here in the upcoming chapters tbh in every respect. Politically, militarily, sociologically and with the characters involved especially. I daresay the aftermath will be more complex than the battle itself

In that same vein tho, I'm probably gonna take a bit longer than usual with the next chapter, unless I get hit by a bolt of sudden inspiration. Both because I need to kinda "map it out" in my head a bit AND because if I don't slow down at least a little bit my Beta's are gonna fucking kill me xD

Also, slight spoiler, but there will be a surprise next chapter. Not a bad one, I promise :)

PS: (Also, yes, "Force Valor" is the first of Vicky's "Exceptional Force powers" like Taylor has with Pyrokinesis. Her second is indeed a *relatively* keen foresight/danger sense. Her third power has yet to be revealed but in the same vein as these two its a bit more 'low key' than Tay's Pyrokinesis as well.