CHAPTER L:  STRATEGIES

In Takrat, the eternal Black Sun never rose nor set; therefore, time was of no concern to the Buras. But for the sake of the “holy war” about to be waged against the Sith, time was being crucially monitored aboard both visiting ships. Scaffaw had been re-fuelled from storage tanks that powered the city. Scaffaw’s engines could run off that intermix energy. As for weapons, only Scaffaw’s existing turbo pulsers could be charged. The Buras had no starships to carry weapons, only seismic tremblar bombs- the same type Bassam had used against Gog and similar topsider cities. However, one of the Mega-tremblars might come in handy, so it was hoist-lifted into Scaffaw’s cavernous internal bay. Various crates of Kasamir rifles, ammunition, detonators, and even some false imagers were loaded.

Katarsh Warriors had traveled to the topside rebel encampment at Bukal and requested the location of Bassam’s pulse thumper. It took a while to convince the rebels that Bassam was indeed alive and pardoned for his crimes, but their leader Kamal Jaruk ultimately relented and led them to a hidden underground location unlocking the shield doors for Bassam’s preserved pulse thumper. The machine was in near mint condition. The Katarsh Warriors summoned a Krava vibra-wing craneship and took the strange thumper back to Scaffaw for immediate loading and securing to the crane operating system, which was undergoing systematic testing of the rail system, loaders, lifters, guide ways, etc… The Katarsh Warriors thought more highly of Bassam now that he had named his weapon of destruction a holy name, the Fist of God.

Meanwhile, as Lord Kalore and Tirahn slept, their ship Defiance was being crane-hoisted out of the sand by four mega-hoisters and held in place by forty heavy repulsor lifts. It was a massive undertaking, but the Bura engineers had worked throughout the topside night.

Slayer at this point was well into the Inner Rim and on course for Elysia. The GCN probe com carrier followed behind at some distance, but already the Whill planetary sensor stations were tracking the objects as thousands of crew and mechanoids worked round the clock to complete the Hand of God. There was barely 12 hours left until Zero Hour. RSI Midlund at Vonderburg had set up all the launch facilities and was routinely running the lift thrusters in static test firings. Artoo monitored the readings and both checked and re-checked the main hyperdrive unit and Sith light jumper module which was audio programmed to detonate over TaBora in SS-4. Navi-coordinate verification was affirmative. All systems seemed ready to go, except the maglock netting mechanism was periodically misaligning. Workers were on the spot trying to make sure the separation points were accurate and the actuators were all functional. It was critical that the Hand of God actually functioned like a giant hand to grab the ball-shaped R-Bomb in time. Launch was set at T-minus 11 hours 50 minutes and counting. The BT-LR watched all this in amazement, not being able to fully comprehend how he had come to be selected to go on some foolish military mission just to translate for Artoo;  however, BT-LR had grown accustomed to his squat friend and the thought of losing him was too much. Humans never really favored a cyborg anyway. Artoo was the best friend BT-LR ever had. In fact, in all his years of devoted service to the Royals Artoo was his only friend. “Dear me, I just hope they don’t ask me to fire one of those dreadful weapons. I must remember to stay to the rear at all times.”

Back at the I.A.R. Imperator Bevins and Davon were going over the technical read-out of the Slayer again and again with Commander Braggs, Lady Kaliah, and Kailen Saro. It was imperative that once Scaffaw returned to pick them up, that they all knew what to expect. The primary mission was to infiltrate the ship, by-pass the DD-33s and gun systems, take-over the central control bridge, open the air duct system to create a pathway into the bomb bay, and then take-over the control center there where the R2 unit would reprogram the R-Bomb for a delay several minutes into its launch. Any second objective would be to somehow knock out the bomb bay T-Packs or ammunition loaders without being killed by the Skeltors or blowing up the bomb bay. This was NOT a suicide mission. Bassam was in charge and would take Laral Utan with him. The other four Buras would remain in Scaffaw to operate the ship and make ready the escape from Slayer. Ligris would be there for back-up and the BT-LR to translate for R2.

This was going to be an almost impossible mission, but it had to be done with precision. Any delay in timing would cost the Whills their future. In the event that the bomb bay could not be reached successfully, then the mission would be to attempt to destroy the Slayer’s four reactors and stop the ship dead in its tracks. This was a last resort measure and would have to be agreed upon by all aboard as the chances of surviving that blast were next to none.

Everyone in the I.A.R. agreed. The Queen was conferring with Lady Anwar now over the Holochron, but the Sith darkness was clouding all visions. Yet Lady Kaliah sensed that the Sith Kyrie Tirahn had an important role to play in all this. Boman was not so convinced and wondered if the Dark Lord and his mistress had ulterior motives; after all, they were about to murder Lord Rexor and dethrone him. How will he rule the Sith after another defeat by the Whills? The Sith had vowed to destroy the Whills and Kali’s prophecy, if true, ensured their eventual extinction. Already a battle of blades had been fought pitting Sith against Jedi.

Kali could read Boman’s mind and urged him to not to think too hard on the matter. “Your mind can deceive you, listen to your heart for there the living life force dwells.” Boman knew she was right, she always had been. But could the Sith really be trusted? “It is a matter of faith, my love” Kali whispered in Boman’s ear. A Jedi needed faith and selfless love in order to be a Guardian of Light. Dwelling on the negative was giving in to the dark pathways the Sith followed. Boman was beginning to wonder if the Jedi and Sith were not so much different when it came to the living life force. Both were starting to manipulate this force. We will find out today.

As soon as the time had come, Ligris, Bassam, Laral, Lord Kalore, and Tirahn were awakened and shuttled to their ships for immediate take-off. The Buras poured out their blessings on them with even Dasam Umein coming topside to see them off. He hated the topside world, but the peoples of the distant worlds had their suns and religions too. Dasam wanted to show them respect just as they had respected his culture and people. Reading from the sacred Orban the Holy One announced, “Make war not in anger, but in righteousness.”
                        Orban- as it is written, so let it be

This was not a hard passage to comprehend. Fighting the evil Sith would ALWAYS be considered a righteous war- by anyone.

But “righteous” war was not exactly what Lord Kalore and Lord Rexor were planning. After departing from TaBora, Lord Kalore and Tirahn split ways with Scaffaw, quickly avoiding the slow-moving destroyer Dark Fury and  setting a course for the Outer Rim Markers to lie in wait for the right opportunity to strike Lord Rexor’s EVO-ONE when he was most vulnerable, during his speech to the Sith populace. All would be distracted watching the new Superweapon with awe and cheering on the Dark Lord while he gloated in anticipation of triumph. The GCN probe com carrier would keep everyone occupied until… something went wrong and Slayer malfunctioned, was destroyed, or Red Sunset suddenly disappeared from view. Panic would set in and that is when Lord Kalore would strike. Boarding EVO-ONE was still a problem yet unsolved but Tirahn promised that it would come to her when the time was right. She was already listening to her heart and not her mind. She was following the pathway to light.

Meanwhile, Lord Rexor already knew when Tirahn would strike. He just didn’t know how she would get onboard his ship. But it didn’t matter. His Black Ravens and his own automated ship would tear Defiance apart. Slayer would destroy the Whills for all to see and “when” Tirahn made it aboard she would have a nasty surprise waiting for her. Lord Rexor would cripple her first, reveal the truth about her life, and then kill her savagely for her betrayal. It was all planned well in advance. Sith Dark Seers were all pawns in Lord Rexor’s  strategy for galactic dominance. He had been planning this ultimate victory since he was a young man secretly taught by a Sith shaman who showed him the ancient dark ways of our people. The Sith had strayed far from their original path, but Lord Rexor would set them straight again.

However, far down below on Tirahnna, the Dark Seer Diprava wasn’t deceived at all by Lord Rexor. The rare crimson-haired beauty had a plan of her own and she would execute it shortly before the Kyries executed all the Sith Seers at the Black Temple. Diprava had foreseen this terrible future as dark shadows and it was up to her to preserve the Sith religion even if Lord Rexor had abandoned it. She was, after all, Tirahn’s best student.

Time was dangerously short now, so Diprava had to go into action. She advised all the other Dark Seer females to remain quiet until she gave the signal, then to cause a diversion that would attract the Kyrie at the Temple entrance. Patiently, Diprava waited until the guard was closest to the entrance and then signaled.

The girls started screaming, and this caught the attention of the male Kyrie which ran into the Temple with his Hailstorm raised. He told the Seers to calm down and inquired what was the matter. A very young girl named Brianka cried that one of her sisters was sick and not moving. The Kyrie came up to investigate, parting a circle of gatherers to gaze upon another young girl lying on her back. The Kyrie nudged her with the barrel of his Hailstorm when she suddenly opened her eyes wide. Behind him, Diprava had moved through the crowd and grabbing at the Kyrie's neck, pulled it back and drove a Sith Serpa knife through it with force. The guard tried to fire the Hailstorm, but Diprava grabbed it away from the dying Kyrie and then used the rifle’s butt to smash in his face. The Kyrie lie dead in a pool of his own blood as Diprava placed her boot on his chest and yanked out her Serpa twisted cellular steel knife and wiped the blood on her scarnett cloak, tucking it back into her boot.

After this, she led the Aurals to the entrance and told them to stay a ways behind her as she approached the main gate. Two more Kyries were there and armed. It was slightly raining and overcast, but the Kyries immediately noticed that Diprava was leading the girls out towards them. Opening the gate, the lead Kyrie raised his rifle and demanded to know where they thought they were going. Looking up from her wet scarnett hood Diprava said plainly, “Right through you” as she pulled the Hailstorm from her cloak and fired point blank into the lead guard and then the other one. Blood sprayed from their convulsing bodies, then they too died- this time in a puddle of rainwater, blood, and mud. Diprava quickly ordered two of the oldest girls, Maranth and Kalista, to grab the other two Hailstorms and make sure they were fully charged and ready to fire.

From there, they stole a Sith military loadmaster vehicle and proceeded to the nearest Sith military Fleet HQ at Torenth. There, Diprava stood the best chance of saving the Dark Seers.

As long as Warlord Max-Voyor was there, Diprava could work out a “compromise” with him that would save the girls’ lives and get them all off Tirahnna for good.