Chapter Text
Ryloth was running out of everything.
Food had gone first.
Then clean water.
Then fuel cells, medical supplies, replacement parts, and the ammunition for the heavy guns.
Now Captain Keeli was counting rifle power packs.
He did not like the number.
He counted them again anyway.
"Same?" asked the clone beside him.
Keeli shoved the half-empty crate closed with his boot.
"Unless six more appeared while I wasn't looking."
"They didn't."
"Then yes."
Beyond the low Republic barricade, heat shimmered over the ravine. Smoke smeared the horizon in several directions. Some came from wrecked droid armor. More came from Ryloth itself.
Homes.
Storehouses.
Crops.
The Separatists had been thorough.
A shadow passed over Keeli. He looked up instinctively, but it was only a cloud of dust moving from the cliffs.
No Republic gunships.
No fighters.
Nothing from orbit.
That had stopped being worth hoping for a while ago.
General Di stood with Cham Syndulla near what remained of their command post. The Nikto Jedi had lost most of the lower half of one sleeve. His robes were filthy, and a dark burn mark crossed one shoulder where a blaster bolt had come too close.
Cham looked worse.
Not physically.
Keeli had seen that expression on civilians before.
People got it when they had finally grown tired of being told that help was coming.
"The right flank is gone," Cham said.
Di looked toward the ridge.
"I know."
"Then we're finished here."
"We're not finished."
Cham laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"The Republic fleet is gone. Your communications barely work. My people haven't eaten properly in days."
Behind them, Twi'lek civilians were gathering what little they could carry.
There wasn't much.
Some had nothing at all.
Cham pointed toward them.
"Those are families, General."
"I know."
"My family is among them."
Di's answer did not come immediately.
"They have to move."
"Where?"
Keeli joined them.
"The gunship's ready."
Cham glanced toward the battered LAAT/i parked farther up the ravine.
"Ready to evacuate?"
Keeli shook his head.
"Too many people."
Cham's face hardened again.
"Then why did you bother telling me?"
"Because we're not using it to evacuate."
Keeli crouched over the terrain map.
Di pointed at the narrow western passage.
"If we move the remaining explosives into the gunship and overload its fuel system, we can bring down this wall."
Cham understood.
His eyes went from the map to the canyon.
"The droids lose the western route."
"They'll have to come through here."
"Straight at you."
Di nodded.
Cham stared at him.
Keeli busied himself checking his pistol.
After a moment Cham said, "No."
"Get your people moving."
"No."
"Cham."
"This is my world."
"And those are your people."
Cham's lekku shifted behind him.
"You want me to run while you die for them?"
"I want you to make certain this accomplishes something."
Cham didn't answer.
Di didn't press.
There wasn't time.
A clone trooper came scrambling down the rocks.
"General! Movement in the ravine. Lots of it."
Keeli picked up his helmet.
"How long?"
"Minutes."
"Of course."
He fitted the helmet over his head.
Di looked at Cham.
Cham stayed where he was for another second.
Then he turned.
"Gobi!"
One of the resistance fighters looked over.
"Get everybody across the ridge. Wounded first. Nobody stops for anything."
"Yes, General."
The refugees began moving.
Keeli watched Cham go.
"Think he'll listen?"
"No."
"Thought so."
Di drew his lightsaber.
Keeli checked the charge in his DC-15S.
Half.
Better than some.
"Let's make it count."
High above Ryloth, there was very little left of Admiral Dao's fleet.
A Venator burned in silence.
Broken pieces of another cruiser drifted among escape pods, dead starfighters and fragments of armor. Some would remain in orbit. Others had already begun the long fall toward Ryloth.
Captain Mar Tuuk watched the wreckage from the command deck of the Separatist blockade.
The operation had been costly.
That did not make it unsuccessful.
Dao was dead.
The Republic fleet was destroyed.
The surface garrison had been isolated.
Relief efforts had been detected.
Wat Tambor remained in control of the planetary occupation.
Soon Ryloth would be secure.
The Neimoidian captain folded his hands behind his back.
"Status of Republic transmissions?"
A tactical droid turned.
"Intermittent. Surface communications remain active in several regions. No significant orbital assets detected."
"And the relief ships?"
"Not yet in system."
"Maintain the blockade."
"Yes, Captain."
Tuuk began to turn away.
A B1 sensor operator raised its hand.
"Sir?"
Tuuk stopped.
"What?"
"We have a hyperspace reading."
The tactical droid moved toward the sensor console.
"Republic?"
"No."
"Separatist?"
The B1 checked again.
"No."
Tuuk's attention sharpened.
"Transponder."
"Nothing recognized."
"One vessel?"
The droid was quiet.
Tuuk walked toward it.
"How many?"
"Um..."
The sensor board changed.
Five contacts appeared.
Then four more.
Then three.
Twelve.
The first vessel tore back into realspace.
It was followed almost immediately by the others.
Five relatively small warships formed the outer layer of the formation.
Four heavier vessels appeared behind them.
Then the last three arrived.
The bridge crew stopped talking.
The largest ships were battleships.
There was no mistaking their purpose.
They were broad, heavily armored vessels without any obvious Republic or Confederate lineage. Their forward structures were thicker than Tuuk expected from modern capital-ship design, reinforced so heavily that his first assumption was that the armor protected some kind of forward weapons array.
"No identification?"
"None."
"Open communications."
A droid transmitted the standard Confederate challenge.
No answer.
It repeated the signal in Basic.
Nothing.
Binary.
Nothing.
Emergency channels.
Nothing.
Tuuk studied the formation.
They had arrived together.
They weren't drifting.
They weren't lost.
Their weapon systems were already coming online.
"Shields."
The tactical droid looked at him.
"Captain?"
"Raise shields."
The order went out.
Separatist vessels shifted position around the Lucrehulk. Vulture droids began launching from their racks.
The unknown fleet altered course.
Not toward Ryloth.
Toward them.
Tuuk frowned.
"Transmit again."
Space lit green-white.
The first barrage struck a Munificent-class frigate across its shields, throwing the vessel sideways.
A second unknown cruiser opened fire.
Then all twelve did.
"Return fire!"
The blockade answered at once.
Turbolasers crossed between the fleets.
Vulture fighters rushed forward in great clouds, meeting unfamiliar interceptors pouring from the smaller ships.
One of the unknown frigates took a direct hit along its port side. Shields flashed and failed over part of the hull. The vessel rolled away, leaking debris.
Good.
They could be hurt.
"Concentrate fire on the smaller vessels," Tuuk ordered. "Do not allow the battleships to dictate range."
The tactical droid began transmitting new targeting instructions.
The strangers changed formation before it finished.
"They're adapting," the droid said.
"So are we."
Then one of the battleships accelerated.
Tuuk watched the tactical display.
"Target?"
"Munificent Three."
"Weapon charge?"
"None detected."
The battleship continued accelerating.
The tactical droid tilted its head.
Tuuk saw the projected lines intersect.
"Move the frigate."
"Already ordering evasive—"
The two ships collided.
Even on a battlefield already filled with fire, the impact was impossible to miss.
The unknown battleship drove its reinforced bow directly through the Munificent's forward hull.
Armor folded.
The frigate broke around it.
The battleship's shields collapsed across the prow. Huge sections of its exterior plating tore free. It emerged through the other side with fire pouring from several compartments.
But it emerged.
The Munificent did not.
A B1 on the bridge stared at the sensor display.
"They hit us with a battleship."
Tuuk had noticed.
The damaged vessel slowed and began falling back behind the larger formation while two escorts moved alongside it.
Not suicidal, then.
They had planned for the collision.
Designed for it, perhaps.
"All ships maintain distance from the heavy units," Tuuk ordered. "Deploy bombers against their engines. I want one captured intact."
Another warning appeared.
A very small contact had separated from the unknown fleet.
"Fighter?" Tuuk asked.
"No."
"Boarding craft?"
"No."
"Missile?"
"No."
The magnification increased.
Nobody said anything for several seconds.
The tactical droid finally spoke.
"Humanoid."
Tuuk looked at it.
"What?"
The image sharpened.
A person was flying through space.
Not inside a fighter.
Flying.
The individual wore a sealed white-and-black pressure suit. Large black wings extended behind the shoulders. The helmet ended in an absurdly long red nose.
A camera was mounted against the chest.
Something resembling a folding fan was held in one hand.
The B1 operator leaned closer.
"That's a person."
"Track them."
"They're moving too fast."
The contact vanished.
Reappeared.
Changed course without any obvious thruster discharge.
Vanished again.
The tactical droid tried to predict the next vector.
The figure ignored the prediction entirely.
Tuuk narrowed his eyes.
"Target destination?"
The computer drew a line.
Straight toward the Lucrehulk.
"Seal all exterior access points."
Aya Shameimaru was having a wonderful day.
Admittedly, this was not what she had been assigned to do.
Her actual instructions had involved observation.
Observe the battle.
Observe the ships.
Observe the combatants.
Do not reveal herself.
Do not provoke anyone.
Definitely do not enter an unknown enemy capital ship.
Aya had obeyed most of those instructions for nearly an hour.
That was respectable.
She angled around a stream of defensive laser fire and brought her camera up.
The Lucrehulk filled the frame.
She took three photographs.
The first was poor.
The second had a fighter crossing the foreground.
The third caught one of the huge battleships ramming a Confederate frigate in the distance.
That one was going in the paper.
Aya accelerated.
A bolt passed behind her.
"How unfriendly."
Her radio crackled.
"Shameimaru."
Aya turned the volume down.
"Shameimaru."
She reduced it again.
"Aya."
She sighed.
"I'm working."
"You are approaching the enemy command ship."
"I noticed."
"You were assigned reconnaissance."
"That's what I'm doing."
There was a pause.
"From inside it?"
Aya considered.
"Potentially."
"Aya—"
She shut the channel off.
An exterior hatch opened ahead.
Several battle droids emerged onto the hull.
Their magnetic boots clamped down.
One pointed at her.
The others raised rifles.
Aya took a picture.
The first bolt passed under her arm.
She moved.
For the droids, she simply disappeared.
One tried to reacquire.
"Where did she go?"
Aya touched down behind them.
The droid began turning.
She shoved it away from the hull.
Its magnetic boots tore free.
The B1 floated into space.
"Oh."
The others fired.
Aya slipped between the shots, caught the edge of the open hatch and pulled herself through.
The inner lock closed.
Atmosphere returned.
Her helmet display confirmed breathable air.
The internal hatch opened.
Three B1 battle droids stood on the other side.
One looked at Aya.
Then at the fan in her hand.
"Is that a fan?"
The second leaned toward it.
"I think so."
The third raised its rifle.
"What are they going to do? Blow us over? That would be ridic—"
Aya flicked her wrist.
Wind filled the corridor.
Not a breeze.
The blast struck all three droids together.
They crossed the compartment, slammed into the opposite wall and came apart loudly enough that one of their heads bounced twice before rolling back toward her.
Aya looked at the pieces.
Then at the fan.
"Yes."
The ship's alarms began.
Aya checked the signs at the nearest junction.
She couldn't read all of them yet.
Fortunately, arrows were universal.
She picked one.
Wat Tambor did not appreciate being interrupted.
He appreciated the reason even less.
"What do you mean the blockade is under attack?"
His tactical droid remained perfectly calm.
"An unknown fleet entered the system."
"What fleet?"
"Unknown."
Tambor's respirator clicked.
"You have said that."
"Yes."
"Whose ships are they?"
"We do not know."
"Republic?"
"No confirmed Republic transponders."
"Pirates?"
"Unlikely."
"Hutts?"
"Unknown."
"Stop saying unknown."
The tactical droid processed this.
"I cannot provide information that we do not possess."
Tambor stared at it.
The droid stared back.
"Current status."
"Twelve hostile vessels. Five frigate-scale. Four battlecruiser-scale. Three battleship-scale. They have engaged Captain Tuuk's blockade."
Tambor turned toward the windows of the command center.
Far beyond Lessu, Ryloth remained under Confederate occupation.
That was what mattered.
"Tuuk defeated the Republic fleet."
"Correct."
"He will defeat this one."
"Current projections are inconclusive."
Tambor looked back.
"Then recalculate."
A signal interrupted them.
The tactical droid received it.
Its head moved slightly.
"Captain Tuuk reports enemy boarding action against his command ship."
"How many troops?"
"One."
Tambor waited.
The droid did not continue.
"One what?"
"Individual."
Tambor's respirator clicked several times.
"Tell Tuuk to deal with it."
The gunship exploded exactly when General Di expected it to.
The canyon wall came down.
Stone swallowed the western route. Dust rolled outward in a heavy brown cloud, hiding the droids nearest the blast.
For a few seconds there was only noise.
Then the first B1s began emerging through the remaining passage.
"Steady!" Keeli shouted.
The clones held.
Di waited.
More droids appeared.
B1s first.
Then B2 super battle droids behind them.
Farther back, the high profile of an AAT moved through the dust.
"Now!"
The Republic line opened fire.
Blue bolts filled the ravine.
Droids fell.
Others climbed over them.
Keeli shifted his aim from one target to the next, firing in short disciplined bursts.
The men beside him did the same.
They couldn't waste shots.
There were too many targets.
There would always be too many.
A B2 took three bolts in the chest and kept coming.
Di met it halfway.
His green lightsaber severed one arm.
He turned through the follow-up burst, blade moving fast, and cut the machine down.
"General!"
Di ducked.
Keeli's shot passed over him and struck a B1 behind his shoulder.
Di nodded once.
Keeli didn't have time to acknowledge it.
The AAT fired.
Rock and bodies went everywhere.
Keeli hit the ground.
His ears rang.
Somebody was shouting over the comm.
He couldn't make out the words.
He rolled onto one side.
Three clones were still standing nearby.
One wasn't getting back up.
Keeli found his rifle.
The power pack warning flashed.
He fired anyway.
The droids advanced.
Di moved beside him.
There were fewer clones now.
The refugees should be across the ridge.
Keeli hoped so.
"Captain."
"Still here."
Di looked ahead.
The droid line was spreading.
"They're trying to surround us."
"Yeah."
Keeli fired.
"Not very sporting."
Di almost smiled.
Another explosion threw dirt over them.
Keeli's rifle finally clicked empty.
He dropped it.
Pulled his sidearm.
The first B1 stepped over the barricade.
Di cut it apart.
A second fired.
Keeli shot it.
The third went down to one of the remaining clones.
Then the B2s arrived.
Keeli backed up.
"Well."
Di's saber hummed beside him.
"Captain."
"Sir?"
"Whatever happens—"
Something screamed overhead.
Keeli instinctively looked up.
Its cannons fired.
The first volley ripped through the droid formation.
An AAT exploded.
Another fighter came behind it.
Then another.
The droids stopped advancing.
Keeli stared.
"General?"
Di was looking up too.
"I don't know."
"Republic?"
"No."
"Cham?"
"No."
"Good talk."
More unfamiliar fighters swept across the canyon.
The droids began firing upward.
They hit one.
Its shield flashed violently, and the fighter peeled away trailing smoke.
So these weren't miracles.
Someone was flying them.
And someone was being shot at.
Dropships descended behind the Republic position.
Other craft came down directly among the droids.
Doors opened before they touched the ground.
People jumped out.
Keeli saw wings.
Actual wings.
Another soldier had horns.
Several appeared human until they started flying without jetpacks.
Some carried rifles.
Others didn't.
One dropped directly in front of the droid line.
Small.
Keeli couldn't decide what species he was looking at.
The stranger wore a pressure helmet adapted around two long horns.
The figure swayed.
Just slightly.
A B1 pointed.
"Who is that?"
Another droid turned.
"I don't know."
"Enemy?"
"They landed with the ships shooting at us."
"Oh. Right."
A third raised its rifle.
"Well, blast him."
The stranger looked at them.
"Hello!"
The translator embedded somewhere in the armor rendered the word a fraction late.
The B1 fired.
The stranger moved forward.
One punch.
The B1 ceased being assembled.
Pieces flew past the other two droids.
Neither reacted in time.
The second punch folded another battle droid around the stranger's fist.
The third was kicked hard enough to disappear into the dust.
Keeli lowered his pistol.
"Sir."
"I see them."
A B2 marched forward.
Its wrist blaster opened fire.
The horned stranger walked straight through the barrage.
Not untouched.
One bolt struck the armor.
Another cut past the shoulder.
The stranger seemed annoyed more than hurt.
Then they were beside the B2.
A hand closed around its torso.
Metal bent.
The super battle droid was picked up and smashed into another one.
Keeli looked at Di.
"Are they using the Force?"
Di's concentration had shifted.
Keeli knew the expression.
The Jedi was reaching outward.
Searching.
Trying to understand.
The horned figure caught a B1 by one leg and threw it through another group.
"No," Di said.
Keeli waited.
"No?"
"I don't sense it."
"You mean they're hiding it?"
"I mean I don't sense any use of the Force."
The AAT farther up the ravine fired.
The stranger vanished into smoke.
Keeli flinched.
Then a silhouette came walking out.
"That can't be good for him."
"I don't believe that's a man."
Keeli looked at Di.
"You're correcting me now?"
The stranger reached the AAT.
Put one hand underneath the forward armor.
The tank shifted.
Keeli stopped talking.
The second hand joined the first.
The AAT's front end rose.
One tread spun uselessly.
The turret tried to turn downward.
The entire tank left the ground.
Keeli's pistol lowered all by itself.
"Sir."
"Yes."
"They just picked up the tank."
"Yes."
"Without the Force."
"Yes."
The horned stranger turned.
The AAT went with them.
Then they threw it.
It struck a formation of battle droids and rolled onto its side.
Something inside detonated.
Keeli considered this.
"All right."
Di looked at him.
"What?"
"I've got nothing."
That was probably sensible.
The clones resumed firing.
The unidentified soldiers were doing the same.
Not perfectly.
One of the winged troops moved straight across Keeli's line of fire.
"Down!"
The stranger didn't understand.
Keeli grabbed the back of their armor and hauled them behind the barricade as bolts passed over both their heads.
The soldier said something in a language he didn't recognize.
Keeli pointed at himself.
Then at the firing lane.
"Don't."
The stranger looked.
Understood.
Nodded.
"Good."
They got back up.
The fighting continued.
Chaotic.
Violent.
Very short.
The droids had expected to overwhelm exhausted clones.
They had not expected fresh aircraft.
They had not expected unidentified infantry appearing behind them.
They had definitely not expected Suika Ibuki.
The last AAT tried to reverse out of the ravine.
Three unfamiliar fighters caught it before it made the turn.
Its wreck blocked the retreat.
B1s scattered.
B2s continued fighting until they were dismantled.
One droid dropped its weapon and raised both hands.
BGM End.
"Wait! I surrender!"
The horned stranger stopped in front of it.
Looked at the raised hands.
Looked at Keeli.
"Uh."
Their translator buzzed.
"This one yours?"
Keeli blinked.
"What?"
The stranger pointed.
"Prisoner?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
They stepped aside.
The B1 looked visibly relieved despite having no face capable of the expression.
Keeli pointed toward the Republic position.
"Go."
The droid walked.
Slowly.
Hands still raised.
Nobody shot it.
Keeli released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
Silence began creeping into the ravine.
Not real silence.
Wounded men.
Burning machines.
Engines overhead.
Loose stone falling from the cliffs.
But no blasters.
For the first time in days, nothing nearby was trying to kill them.
The horned stranger turned around.
"Everyone good?"
Keeli looked at the bodies.
"No."
The stranger followed his eyes.
Their posture changed.
Not dramatically.
They didn't apologize.
They didn't say anything clever.
They just stood there for a moment.
Then reached for something attached at the waist.
Keeli tensed.
The stranger twisted the stopper free.
There was, incredibly, a narrow access port in the helmet.
They drank.
And drank.
And continued drinking.
Keeli stared.
The surviving clones did too.
The gourd finally came down.
The stranger sounded considerably happier.
"So!"
They held it out.
"Who wants some?"
Nobody answered.
Keeli looked toward Di.
Di looked away.
"General."
"No."
"I didn't ask yet."
"No."
The stranger laughed.
"More for me."
The reactor room aboard the Lucrehulk was busier than Aya had hoped.
She had been forced to take a detour.
Then another.
Then she'd found a hangar and spent seven minutes photographing the fighters.
That hadn't technically been necessary.
It had, however, been useful.
Then she'd found the reactor.
Unfortunately, so had the security droids.
A BX commando swung a vibrosword at her head.
Aya ducked.
The blade hit the wall.
She folded the fan against her palm and slammed its reinforced spine into the droid's elbow joint.
The arm twisted.
The BX recovered quickly.
Better than the B1s.
Interesting.
It attacked again.
Aya stepped sideways.
The blade missed.
She caught the droid in a concentrated burst of wind and drove it backward into two of its companions.
One recovered immediately and fired from the floor.
Aya moved.
The shot burned across the edge of one wing.
Her suit screamed a warning.
She hissed.
"That was expensive."
She put the fan away.
This part did not require elegance.
Aya accelerated.
The first BX managed to turn its head.
Then it was missing a head.
The second made it halfway upright.
Aya hit it hard enough that it stopped.
The third got a shot off.
It missed.
The reactor room became quiet.
Aya checked the damage to her pressure suit.
Superficial.
Good.
She reached into her pack and removed the charges.
The instructions had been very clear.
Reconnaissance only.
If boarding became necessary, gather intelligence and leave.
If combat became necessary, escape.
If sabotage became necessary—
Actually, nobody had included instructions for that.
Aya smiled.
She placed the first charge.
Then another.
Then another.
The timer defaulted to ten minutes.
Aya considered the size of the ship.
Considered the distance back to the hull.
Considered her own speed.
She changed it to five.
"Much better."
Mar Tuuk received the reactor warning thirty seconds later.
He did not shout.
This distinguished him from several less disciplined Confederate commanders.
"Security status."
The tactical droid answered.
"Multiple units destroyed."
"The boarder?"
"Alive."
"Location."
"Reactor complex."
Tuuk turned.
"Damage?"
"Explosive devices detected."
"Disarm them."
"Attempting."
Another alarm sounded.
The tactical droid checked it.
"Timer active."
"How long?"
The answer came.
Tuuk's face tightened.
"Evacuate command personnel."
The B1 operator looked around.
"Are we abandoning ship?"
Tuuk was already moving.
"Yes."
"That's bad, right?"
"Move."
The bridge emptied.
Aya reached the outer hull with forty-three seconds remaining.
She didn't count.
The suit did that for her.
She jumped.
The Lucrehulk fell away beneath her.
Thirty-nine.
Aya spread her wings.
Changed direction.
Thirty-five.
The battle outside had dispersed across thousands of kilometers. One of the unknown battleships was withdrawing under escort. Several Separatist vessels were already retreating.
Thirty.
A Confederate escape craft launched from the Lucrehulk.
Aya raised her camera.
Photographed it.
Twenty-three.
Her radio came alive.
"Where are you?"
Aya turned away from the ship.
"Coming back."
"Why is the command ship evacuating?"
"Complicated."
Seventeen.
"Aya."
"Yes?"
"Did you do something?"
Ten.
Aya looked back.
"Maybe."
The Lucrehulk exploded.
The flash swallowed half her view.
Her visor darkened automatically.
Debris spread outward behind her.
Aya held the camera over one shoulder and took the picture without looking.
Click.
Then she accelerated toward Ryloth.
Wat Tambor was informed about the blockade eight minutes later.
The tactical droid approached carefully.
"Emir Tambor."
"What?"
"Captain Tuuk has evacuated his command ship."
Tambor stopped.
"What?"
"The vessel was destroyed."
"The fleet?"
"Retreating and reorganizing."
"Retreating?"
"Yes."
Tambor stepped toward the droid.
"You told me there were twelve ships."
"Correct."
"We had an established blockade!"
"Also correct."
"And Tuuk has lost it?"
"For the moment."
Tambor's breathing apparatus became louder.
The tactical droid continued because that was what tactical droids did.
"Enemy landing craft have also entered the atmosphere."
Tambor looked toward Ryloth beyond the windows.
"How many troops?"
"Unknown."
The droid paused.
It had apparently remembered the earlier instruction.
"Insufficient data."
"Better."
"Several droid formations have ceased transmitting."
Tambor's mood did not improve.
"Who are these people?"
"No identification has been obtained."
"Then capture one."
"Yes, Emir."
Tambor turned back toward the planetary map.
The blockade had failed.
Fine.
Ryloth was still his.
The droid army still controlled cities, infrastructure, prisoners, supply depots and road networks across the planet.
Twelve ships could not occupy a world.
A handful of strange soldiers could not defeat an army.
He would find out who they were.
Then he would deal with them.
BGM End.
Suika had made herself comfortable on a rock.
Her helmet was off now.
That answered several of Keeli's questions.
The horns had not been decorative.
Neither had the drinking.
Her orange-brown hair stuck messily around them where the pressure seals had flattened it.
Keeli's medic was treating his shoulder.
Suika watched.
"You people get shot a lot."
Keeli looked at her.
"We noticed."
"Bad habit."
"Working on it."
She nodded as though this were acceptable.
Di approached from the far end of the ravine.
The refugees were being brought back cautiously. Not all of them. Cham had refused until the unfamiliar fleet's intentions were clearer.
Reasonable.
There were too many unknown armed people in the area to declare the situation safe.
Di stopped near Suika.
"Thank you."
Suika drank.
"Sure."
"Why did you help us?"
She lowered the gourd.
"The metal guys were shooting people."
Di waited.
Suika seemed to think that covered it.
Perhaps it did.
"Are you part of the Republic?"
"Nope."
"The Confederacy?"
She looked toward the burning droids.
"Probably not."
Keeli made a noise that might have been a laugh.
Di gave him a look.
Keeli shrugged with the shoulder that wasn't injured.
The sound of air being displaced came from overhead.
Everyone looked up.
Something black and white dropped toward them at extremely high speed.
Clone rifles rose.
The figure stopped a few meters above the ground.
No repulsor pack.
No jets.
Black wings snapped outward.
Boots touched stone.
The newcomer wore a pressure suit marked with symbols Di didn't recognize.
One marking had been translated into Basic.
REPORTING
A camera hung against the chest.
A folded fan rested at the hip.
The helmet had a long red nose.
Keeli looked at Suika.
"You know this one?"
"Unfortunately."
The helmet turned.
"I heard that."
Suika grinned.
The stranger removed the mask.
Dark hair fell loose.
Red eyes went immediately to Di's lightsaber.
Then to Keeli's armor.
Then the wreckage.
Then the Twi'leks.
Then back to Di.
Her hand moved toward the camera.
Di raised one finger.
"No."
She stopped.
"I haven't done anything."
"You were going to."
"That's an accusation."
"Is it inaccurate?"
She considered.
"No."
The camera remained where it was.
Di looked at the black wings.
Then at the damaged pressure suit.
"You came from orbit."
"Yes."
"Without a ship."
"Yes."
Keeli looked between them.
"Apparently we're past that being strange."
The woman looked at him.
"What's strange?"
"Never mind."
She turned back to Di.
Her eyes dropped to his lightsaber again.
"You're a Jedi."
Di didn't answer immediately.
"You recognize the weapon?"
"Of course."
That mattered more than the flying.
He kept his voice neutral.
"How?"
The woman's expression became mildly puzzled.
"Because it's a lightsaber."
Suika took another drink.
Keeli muttered, "Very helpful."
Di continued.
"My name is Ima-Gun Di. Jedi Master of the Galactic Republic."
The stranger's eyes sharpened at one part of that sentence.
"Galactic Republic."
"Yes."
"Hm."
She took out a notebook.
Wrote something.
Di watched.
"You don't know the Republic?"
"I didn't say that."
"What did you mean?"
"I'm thinking."
"What about?"
"How much I'm allowed to tell you."
That was honest enough to be worrying.
Di glanced at Suika.
"And you?"
"Suika Ibuki."
"Species?"
"Oni."
Keeli's helmet tilted.
"Never heard of them."
Suika smiled.
"Yeah."
Something in the answer made Di pay closer attention.
Not pride.
Not exactly.
Something older.
The winged woman closed her notebook.
"Aya Shameimaru."
She touched two fingers to the camera.
"Bunbunmaru Newspaper."
Keeli stared.
"You're a reporter."
"Yes."
"You boarded that command ship."
Aya looked toward orbit.
"Yes."
"The one that exploded."
"Yes."
"And you're a reporter."
Aya's brows drew together.
"I already answered that."
Keeli looked at Di.
"General, I don't understand these people."
"Neither do I."
Aya brightened slightly.
"Good. Neither do we."
That answer produced silence.
Even Suika looked at her.
Aya corrected herself.
"I mean we don't understand you."
"That wasn't what you said," Keeli replied.
"I know what I said."
Di let the conversation drift away from that problem.
"Where are you from?"
Aya smiled politely.
"Far away."
"Which system?"
"Farther."
"Government?"
"Complicated."
"Name?"
"Even more complicated."
Keeli muttered, "Convenient."
Aya heard him.
Of course she did.
Her attention went beyond Di.
The Twi'lek civilians had begun returning.
Children first.
Wounded.
People who had been hiding in the hills while the battle raged.
Aya's expression lost some of its amusement.
One little girl stopped when she saw Suika's horns.
Suika waved.
The child moved behind her mother.
Suika looked offended.
Aya quietly took a photograph of that.
Suika noticed.
"You better not print that."
"No promises."
Di watched them.
Whatever they were, this wasn't behaving like a formal invasion.
No officers had demanded surrender.
No one had raised a flag.
No one had tried to seize the Republic position.
Their soldiers were helping carry wounded clones.
One of the winged personnel was trying unsuccessfully to communicate with a Twi'lek medic using hand gestures.
Another had given a ration pack to a child and was now trying to explain why the wrapper wasn't edible.
Di turned back to Aya.
"What do you want from Ryloth?"
Aya looked around.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
"Information."
"About us?"
"Everyone."
"The Republic."
"Yes."
"The Separatists."
"Yes."
"The Jedi."
Her eyes returned to his lightsaber.
"Especially that."
Di heard the distant engines before anyone else.
Republic engines.
He turned toward the sky.
Three blockade runners entered view at high altitude.
Keeli stood despite the medic objecting.
"Those ours?"
"Yes."
A clone communications specialist ran toward them.
"General! Relief convoy! They're broadcasting Republic codes."
Di exhaled.
The Toydarian mission had worked.
The refugees noticed too.
Word spread.
Food.
Medicine.
Water.
Nobody cheered at first.
They were too tired.
Then someone did.
Others followed.
Cham Syndulla came down from the ridge with his fighters.
He saw Di.
Saw Keeli.
Stopped.
He had expected bodies.
Di understood from his face alone.
Cham walked over.
"You lived."
Keeli raised one hand.
"Disappointing, I know."
Cham ignored the joke.
His attention shifted to Suika.
Then Aya.
Then the winged and horned soldiers moving through the ravine.
"What happened?"
Di looked at Aya.
Aya looked at Suika.
Suika drank.
Di decided this would take a while.
The Republic relief crews expected to have to run a blockade.
Instead they found a battlefield.
Dead Vulture droids floated past their transports.
A broken Munificent rotated slowly in the distance.
Several other Confederate vessels were withdrawing under fire.
The Lucrehulk command ship was no longer present in any meaningful sense.
The convoy commander transmitted three times asking Republic High Command what had happened.
Republic High Command did not know.
Bail Organa, still on Toydaria, did not know.
King Katuunko definitely did not know.
Lott Dod received an incomplete report and immediately accused Bail of deceiving him.
For once, Bail could truthfully tell him he had no idea what he was talking about.
That did not improve Dod's temper.
By the time Republic reinforcements finally reached Ryloth, the twelve ships were gone.
Almost.
Admiral Wullf Yularen stood on the bridge of the Resolute and stared through the forward viewport.
Debris surrounded the planet.
Not Republic debris.
Not entirely.
Ahsoka Tano was pressed closer to the viewport than regulations strictly required.
"So that's the blockade."
"What's left of it," Anakin said.
Ahsoka looked at him.
"You sure we have the right planet?"
Anakin pointed at Ryloth.
"Pretty distinctive."
"I know that."
"You asked."
"I was being sarcastic."
"Needs work."
Yularen walked past them.
"General."
"Right."
Anakin followed him toward the tactical display.
The 501st was aboard.
Rex and his men had prepared for combat.
Blue Squadron had prepared for combat.
Yularen's task force had prepared for a very unpleasant confrontation with Mar Tuuk's blockade.
Instead they'd found the aftermath of somebody else's battle.
A sensor officer turned.
"Admiral, we've confirmed several Confederate hulks."
"Command vessel?"
"Destroyed."
"Tuuk?"
"Unknown."
Anakin leaned over the display.
"Any Republic ships involved?"
"Nothing matching the damage pattern."
Ahsoka joined them.
"Could Dao's fleet have done it before they went down?"
"No," Yularen said.
"Maybe another Republic fleet got here first."
"We would know."
Ahsoka looked back through the viewport.
"Could've left before we arrived."
Yularen tapped the display.
"That's precisely the problem."
Twelve unknown vectors had been reconstructed from battle telemetry.
Twelve arrivals.
Twelve departures.
No registered Navy identities.
No recognized civilian transponders.
No Separatist codes.
Anakin folded his arms.
"Huh."
Ahsoka looked disappointed.
"I wanted to fight in space."
Yularen gave her a flat look.
She straightened.
"Not that I'm unhappy somebody destroyed the blockade, Admiral."
"Of course."
"I just meant—"
"I know what you meant, Commander."
Anakin rescued her.
"Contact the surface."
The communications officer worked.
Static filled the bridge.
Then a transmission resolved.
A battered holographic figure appeared.
Anakin leaned toward it.
"Master Ima-Gun Di?"
The figure turned.
"Skywalker."
Anakin hadn't realized how much he expected not to get an answer.
"You're alive."
Di looked mildly tired of hearing that.
"Yes."
Ahsoka stepped into the projector range.
"Master Di, what happened?"
"That is a complicated question."
Yularen moved beside Anakin.
"We found the blockade destroyed."
"Then you've found part of the answer."
Anakin frowned.
"Who did it?"
"I don't know."
"How do you not know?"
"They declined to tell me."
Ahsoka leaned farther forward.
"Who?"
"An unidentified military force entered the system during our final engagement. Twelve warships. Ground troops. Aircraft."
Yularen's expression remained controlled.
"Affiliation?"
"Unknown."
"Species?"
"Several."
Anakin spoke.
"Republic Intelligence doesn't have anything?"
"I haven't had a functioning intelligence officer for several days, Skywalker."
"Right."
Di continued.
"Some appear human or near-human. Others don't correspond to species I recognize."
Ahsoka asked, "Like what?"
"Winged humanoids."
Her montrals shifted slightly.
"Wings?"
"Yes."
"What else?"
Di hesitated.
"One identified herself as an oni."
Anakin and Ahsoka both looked toward Yularen.
Yularen looked toward the database officer.
The officer searched.
Shook her head.
"Nothing."
Anakin turned back.
"What does an oni look like?"
"The individual I encountered was a relatively small humanoid woman with two horns."
Ahsoka frowned.
"That's it?"
"She also threw a tank."
Ahsoka's face changed.
Anakin's did too.
"She did what?"
"An AAT."
"With the Force?"
"No."
Anakin leaned closer.
"What do you mean no?"
"I mean precisely that."
"You couldn't sense her?"
"I could sense a living presence. I could sense the violence around her. I could not detect her using the Force to lift the vehicle."
"Maybe she masked it."
"While throwing a tank at thirty battle droids?"
Ahsoka smiled.
"He has a point."
Anakin ignored her.
"Maybe some kind of technology."
"She used her hands."
"Powered armor?"
"Possibly."
Di sounded unconvinced.
Ahsoka asked, "What was her name?"
"Suika Ibuki."
Yularen repeated it quietly while an officer entered it into the database.
No result.
Anakin continued.
"And the winged one?"
"Aya Shameimaru."
"Soldier?"
"Reporter."
There was a pause on the bridge.
Ahsoka said, "Reporter?"
"That is what she claimed."
Yularen's eyes narrowed.
"What did she report?"
"Apparently the battle."
Anakin couldn't help himself.
"She came here to write about it?"
"She boarded Tuuk's command ship, destroyed a large number of battle droids, placed explosives in the reactor complex, escaped into space and then introduced herself to me as a journalist."
Ahsoka grinned.
"I like her."
"You have never met her."
"Still."
Yularen pinched the bridge of his nose.
Anakin's attention had gone elsewhere.
"Master Di."
"Yes."
"How did she know you were a Jedi?"
Di didn't answer right away.
The bridge became quieter.
"She recognized my lightsaber."
"Anyone could."
"She used the word Jedi before I identified myself."
Anakin's posture changed.
Ahsoka's smile disappeared.
Yularen looked up.
"What else?"
"She asked several questions about the Republic. Very few about the Jedi directly. She refused to identify her civilization."
"Where did she say she was from?"
"Far away."
Anakin frowned.
"That's it?"
"She was quite consistent."
Yularen asked, "Did they express political allegiance?"
"No."
"Intent?"
"Observation."
"Hostility toward the Confederacy?"
"They were certainly hostile toward the forces occupying Ryloth."
"Toward the Confederacy itself?"
"I don't know."
Anakin looked through the bridge viewport again.
The broken Confederate ships drifted across the stars.
"Did they ask to join us?"
"No."
"Did they want anything?"
"No."
"Then why attack?"
Di looked offscreen.
When he spoke again, his voice was quieter.
"Because the Separatists were killing people."
That answer did not resolve anything.
It somehow made the situation stranger.
Ahsoka folded her arms.
"So they arrived from nowhere, destroyed the blockade, saved you and Captain Keeli, helped the civilians and left."
"Broadly."
"And one of them was drunk."
Di looked at her.
"Who told you that?"
"Nobody. You hesitated."
Anakin looked impressed.
Di looked tired.
"Yes."
Ahsoka nodded.
"Thought so."
Yularen stepped closer to the projector.
"Master Di, until we understand what happened here, please instruct Captain Keeli to preserve every recording, sensor log, weapons signature, communications fragment and image your forces obtained."
"I already have."
"Good."
"We also have a prisoner."
Anakin straightened.
"One of them?"
"No. Battle droid."
"Oh."
The disappointment was obvious.
Di noticed.
"We are not taking our rescuers prisoner simply because you are curious."
"I didn't say we should."
"You were thinking loudly."
Ahsoka snorted.
Anakin ignored her.
"Do we have photographs?"
Di looked away again.
"Yes."
"Of them?"
"One of Shameimaru, several of Ibuki."
"Good."
Di's mouth moved very slightly.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Master."
"Shameimaru took substantially more photographs of us than we took of her."
Ahsoka laughed.
Anakin rubbed his face.
"Of course she did."
The connection crackled.
Di looked toward something outside the hologram.
"We'll speak when you land."
The transmission ended.
For several seconds nobody on the bridge said anything.
Anakin went back to the sensor display.
Twelve unknown ships.
Unknown species.
Unknown weapons.
Unknown origin.
A woman who could toss armored vehicles around without touching the Force.
Another who could fly through vacuum and destroy capital ships while apparently treating the whole thing as field reporting.
And they knew what Jedi were.
The Republic did not know what they were.
That part bothered him most.
Ahsoka came to stand beside him.
"So."
"So."
"You still think this is going to be a boring deployment?"
Anakin looked at the shattered blockade.
"No."
Behind them, Yularen was already issuing orders.
Recover the wreckage.
Analyze the weapons signatures.
Trace the jump vectors.
Contact Republic Intelligence.
Inform the Jedi Council.
Find Captain Mar Tuuk.
Nothing unusual.
Nothing dramatic.
The kind of work that followed any unexpected military encounter.
Except this time, every question began with the same problem.
There were no records.
No government.
No known homeworld.
No reliable hyperspace route.
Nothing in the Republic databases that could explain what had just happened over Ryloth.
[MUSIC CUE 37 — BUNBUNMARU CODA: shift to a light chamber / newsroom-style arrangement of "Wind God Girl" as Aya develops the photographs.]
Somewhere very far from the bridge of the Resolute, Aya Shameimaru was already developing photographs.
One of them showed Ima-Gun Di standing beside a ruined barricade, lightsaber still in hand.
Another had caught Captain Keeli in the background arguing with Suika over whether drinking immediately after combat counted as "medical hydration."
Aya liked that one.
The headline was still giving her trouble.
She crossed out the first attempt.
Then the second.
The third was better.
THE JEDI STILL EXIST!
DISTANT GALACTIC WAR DISCOVERED — LOCALS REMAIN CONFUSED
Aya read it.
Considered.
Added another line underneath.
ONI SOLVES ARMORED WARFARE WITH HER HANDS
Much better.
And on Ryloth, for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy had seen people it had forgotten existed.
It simply did not know that yet.