The base's central computer was in a state that could be characterized, from a biological perspective, as panic.
Computing power was running at maximum, utilizing every single terminal on the base without exception.
But even that wasn't enough to assess the scale of the tragedy.
The computer switched from one droid to another, but everywhere it saw only the enemy pushing toward the center of the base.
The forward units were practically destroyed, there was a danger of a breakthrough on the left flank, forcing the protocol to demand a shift to drastic measures.
Emergency directives had to be executed immediately, based on the priorities set when the base was created.
Preservation of property.
Ensuring the secrecy of the base and its contents.
The impossibility of repelling the attack and completing key objectives, as well as the lack of a response to requests for guidance through long-range communication channels, left no other choice.
The enemy had deployed elite units that had not been accounted for as potential attacking forces.
Jedi, yes, but not possessing such power.
The central computer was thawing and sending more and more Terror Trooper units into battle.
But all of this required as much time as possible.
Not only were the reserves of droids, bio-droids, and Terror Walkers running low, but the remaining Terror Troopers were either already engaged in the conflict or executing directives to destroy data and physical media.
A separate, small group had been dispatched to carry out a special mission to exterminate the frozen test subjects.
The protocols required the computer to thaw the defense levels gradually, and this was a gap.
The base was not designed for such a large-scale attack, since according to general plans, in the event of an assault, the perimeter was only meant to be a means of slowing the enemy until a rapid response force arrived upon receiving the alert signal.
That was how the base's creator had defined it, and the same criterion had been confirmed by whoever later assumed command of it.
The central computer had, of course, executed the first-level commands it was supposed to, which came from the second commander, but due to the lack of personal authorization from the first commander, most of the base had always remained in storage.
It was precisely the removal of most of the rocket droids, two hyperspeed cannons, and ninety percent of the combat droids from the fourth defense level that had led to such a dire outcome.
The central computer had to make do with the remaining forces, resorting to thawing the prisoners as a last line of defense.
There was no hope for them, but the Terror Troopers couldn't repel the attack—there were too few of them, and the enemy had committed their reserves—combat droids—which had further shifted the balance of power against the base.
The priority was to hold out to the last, but the central computer had already sent troopers to prepare the reactors for base demolition.
This was the final line of defense.
The directive to inflict maximum damage on the enemy had not been revoked, and therefore had to be carried out.
And, since even the prisoners were not yet effective due to prolonged freezing, the base with all its contents had to be destroyed.
But first, all physical data storage media in the data banks and laboratories had to be erased and destroyed.
The layout and reinforcement of the base's structure were created not only to repel an attack, but also with the goal of most effectively channeling the reactor detonation into the interior spaces, melting and utterly destroying everything with the heat of artificial suns.
For this reason...
The central computer, tracking data logs, noted anomalies.
First: a group of Terror Troopers sent to the central tunnel had captured a prisoner among the enemy elite warriors.
Direct communication with the cyborgs was impossible—they were in the shielded zone of the prisoner freeze.
The second anomaly: Object MK.
It was demonstrating remarkably high rates of bodily recovery after freezing.
Atypical for the majority of prisoners.
Data processing required.
Task assignment via audio briefing method...
Error.
Object MK listened to the briefing, after which it destroyed the communication devices, armed itself, and headed for the front line.
Its orders were different—to cover the reactor demolition teams, which commando soldiers and the Jedi from the first invasion group were fighting their way toward.
Error.
Danger.
Running probability calculations.
Attention!
Danger of a breakthrough in the second side tunnel.
Redirecting the free Terror Walker and additional reserves to counter this.
Attention!
Object MK is inflicting damage on the base's defensive capabilities, destroying Terror Trooper reserves in its path.
Error...
Error...
Uncontrollable prisoner.
Order: accelerate reactor demolition preparations.
Error—an assault on the power plant has been detected, noting the presence of five hostiles in the reactor hall.
Redirecting all reserves, except for the units clearing physical storage media, to the reactor zone.
* * *
You could say it was like the old days...
Her senses churned, her soul was as dark as night.
The Force revived long-forgotten sensations, the heat of passion, the descent into the abyss of battle euphoria that she channeled through herself, striking blow after blow, destroying enemy after enemy.
The Jedi Shadows had a hard time during the Clone Wars.
Almost all of them were scattered across the galaxy, each on their own mission, and the Order wasn't eager to recall them.
They thought they could handle the Sith themselves.
Track them down themselves.
Bring them to justice themselves.
When Meilis returned from her mission in the Unknown Regions, traveling along the Outbound Flight route, searching for traces of the lost expedition, she learned much that was new about what was happening in the galaxy.
And the Clone Wars were just a small part of what shocked her.
Not only had she failed to advance her investigation further than approaching the borders of the region that supposedly belonged to the Chiss Ascendancy, but both Councils—of First Knowledge and the High Council—had deemed further investigation pointless.
They had spat on the lives of those who had vanished without a trace in the Unknown Regions, possibly exterminated by the Chiss.
This was a danger that couldn't be faced with eyes closed, head buried in the sand like an eopie.
Not when the enemy was on the doorstep of Coruscant.
Not when even long-time allies were betraying.
But the investigation had to stop.
The Order considered the Clone Wars a higher priority, a task where her skill on the battlefield would be more useful than among the stars, where a danger far greater than it might have seemed could be lurking.
Back then, she thought it right to join the Grand Army of the Republic to end the war as quickly as possible.
Back then, she thought that tracking down the Sith would be very simple for a Jedi Shadow.
After all, they had been preparing for this their whole lives...
But for some reason, the searches were being conducted by completely different Jedi, not Jedi Shadows, not her, even though she was one of the strongest.
Some other Jedi, who were the least suited for it.
Voices were increasingly heard about the need to leave the Jedi Order, to stop the war through negotiations, to do this, that, the fifth, the tenth...
Such behavior was irritating.
She had spent most of her life in investigations, and had hammered a simple truth into her head: kill, or be killed.
Wars cannot be ended through negotiations.
Only by the capitulation of one side.
And this thought never left her until the very end.
Along with the feeling that the Order was simply drifting with the current out of desperation.
Winning battles, but losing the war.
Because they didn't know how to win it.
They didn't know how to find the Sith.
They didn't know... or didn't want to know.
Duraplast claws flashed before her face, nearly disfiguring her, but the Shadow didn't even react to this desperate attempt to strike her.
Instead, she took a step back, luring the enemy toward her.
And he fell for the feint easily, using his camouflage, thinking she couldn't sense him.
Funny...
Most Jedi of the old Order would clearly have failed against such a problem—they preferred to use the Force sporadically, relying on its mercy and hints.
In this matter, Jedi Shadows, who used the Force constantly, were closer to the Sith.
She didn't even need her sight to see the enemy.
And when he rushed at her, intending to tear open her chest with his blade-claws, the half-blood with a light stroke of her blade cut off his hands at the elbows.
Her left hand touched the breastplate of the stealthed soldier, and the Force coursed through her veins, pouring outward.
As intended, the wounded soldier, stunned by pain shock, ignited like a torch.
His clothes, armor, flesh, blood, mechanisms—all burst into bright red-orange flame.
A wheeze and a squeal of pain came from under his mask, as he first started beating the flames on his body with his stumps, hoping to extinguish them, and then fell to the floor, rolling with the same purpose.
Meilis threw him aside with a wave of her hand, breaking his bones against the wall like a child discarding a boring toy.
A spider droid rushed at her, dangerous for its ramming strike to the torso and its ability to self-destruct.
Aurelia broke it with the Force and blew it up ten meters from herself, crippling a couple more similar enemy soldiers in the process.
A loud cry, like a roar, full of hatred and fury, made her step back, dodging a claw strike from a new soldier.
When there are so many clones around, waiting their turn to drop into the corridor, it's hard to correctly assess the location of friends and foes.
However, she wasn't particularly trying, knowing the stormtroopers had switched to defense as soon as the droidekas and buzz droids appeared, taking on the duties of the front line.
This interested her the least.
That's why they took her legion away at the beginning of the Clone Wars, assigning her to sabotage behind enemy lines.
She wasn't used to commanding anyone but herself, orienting on the strengths and weaknesses of allies, considering anything other than her own power and capabilities.
That's why she worked well with the Deltas—they were exactly the same.
While many commandos stuck together like they were leashed, the Deltas could split up without a word and complete tasks individually without losing a single squad member.
But that was a long time ago.
Now she was supposedly supposed to be commanding this direction, but from the very first minutes of the battle, she realized that ordinary soldiers had no business here.
And so they were busy shooting spider droids, while she, an inexorable punishing blade, advanced forward.
A blade...
Oh, how many suspicious and condemning looks she had caught in the Order for the red color of her focusing crystal.
Yes, there were other holders of similarly colored weapons in the Order, and ordinary Jedi treated them warily too.
Well, after all, a red lightsaber was an indispensable attribute of an adept of the Dark Side.
Meilis enjoyed annoying the surrounding Jedi.
You could say she even relished their confusion when they saw the shade of her weapon.
No, it wasn't a tribute to the Sith, whom she not unreasonably considered magnificent fighters.
The red color of her weapon was the color of fire, the gleam of the pyrokinesis she had been gifted with since childhood.
It was right after she burned down a wing of King Alaric's palace that her father hastened to get rid of her, concealing his daughter's awakening gift.
And fire was her element.
A stealthed soldier attacked her from below, aiming to pierce her stomach with his blades, but she intercepted his hand with her own and channeled the Force through their physical contact.
With a cry of pain, the stealthed soldier stared at his charred stump, shocked by what had happened.
He died still surprised, when a fiery lightsaber blade pierced his heart.
Meilis walked over corpses, pushing forward and killing everything in her path—with hands, feet, fire, the Force, a lightsaber.
Unlike the neighbors bogged down in battle, she clearly understood that hesitation was not an option.
Thrawn wanted this base.
Thrawn wanted to see her in action.
The more useful she was to him now, the more she could get from him in the future.
The Chiss were smarter and more cunning than humans.
Their brains thought several moves ahead—the same way her partner from the Jedi Shadow Corps thought.
A Chiss, who had helped her hide, shake off pursuers, take cover, change documents, and return to the galaxy under a new name.
As it turned out, this wasn't a big problem for her—the Chiss Shadow had foreseen the need to go underground and had prepared.
Where she was now, Aurelia didn't know, but she was aware that her friend, if you could call her that, would be tracked down if Thrawn gave such an order.
You can't perfectly cover your tracks when a Jedi Shadow is after you.
Meilis sensed a threat, assumed a combat stance, and parried a strike delivered by a bio-droid that stood in her way, using two enormous hands from above.
Its energy weapon held against her lightsaber blade, but the bio-droid couldn't contain the stream of fire that melted its face mask and head.
Aurelia caught the massive body, inside which what remained of the cyborg was dying, and threw it forward down the tunnel, spreading a thin layer of droids, cyborgs, and everything that hindered her progress across the permacrete.
That gave her about twenty meters of cleared space.
Ah, no, not quite.
A ventilation hatch silently opened above her head, and two stealthed soldiers prepared to jump down.
Without taking her eyes off the front, Aurelia raised her free hand—the one not holding the lightsaber—upward and released a stream of all-consuming flame directly into the cyborgs' faces.
She put considerable Force into this firestorm, and it spread into the ventilation system itself, rushing deeper into the base.
Using Force Speed, the former Jedi Shadow turned into a blurred shadow, moving forward and to the side from where she had just been standing.
The permacrete behind her exploded from a dozen rocket impacts, shattering stone and turning it into a hail of shrapnel.
Without moving from the spot, Aurelia pushed them away from her back with the Force, but didn't throw them back.
Instead, she caught them, hurled them over her head, and began sending them one by one at the massive spider droid that had attacked her with rockets.
Its shield and armor absorbed the improvised projectiles, but at one moment, just as the frontal shield was breached, she stopped sending projectiles at the droid's body.
No, she simply brought them down on the joint of one of its limbs, forcing the droid to maneuver.
Then, releasing a jet of fire, she set up a curtain of flames before it, disorienting it.
The moment it burst through the ceiling-high fire, she attacked from the side, plunging her lightsaber into its main optical sensor, and then added a Force Push.
The insides of the droid's brain center turned into electro-mechanical mincemeat, and the giant crashed down, never to rise again.
With a wave of her hand, Aurelia ripped the fire curtain from its spot, forming it into a dozen fireballs, which she threw at the spider droids preparing to attack.
Now they became fire spiders, which crumpled splendidly like empty tin cans, or shattered against the sturdy walls.
At one wonderful moment, she realized she had reached the end of the corridor and entered a spacious man-made cavern with a lot of technical equipment hanging both on the walls and on the columns supporting the ceiling.
A stealthed soldier who lunged at her from the shadows she didn't even perceive as a threat—she caught him mid-flight with the Force and broke his neck with a twitch of her fingers.
Scanning the space with the Force, she noted that the advance in the other two passages was clearly stalling, despite the seething rage of the Dark Side of the Force there.
Death was spreading like a river overflowing its banks, but it wasn't enough to break the enemy's defenses at this moment.
A little later—yes.
But not now.
Suddenly, she felt a flash of fury that momentarily eclipsed everything she sensed around her.
Something, more beast than sentient being, was charging straight ahead, having chosen her as its target.
Leaving behind only mountains of corpses, this something was rushing at a speed inaccessible to an ordinary sentient being.
Now this was getting very interesting.
Because from this creature emanated such a stream of hatred—pure, unclouded, white-hot...
Aurelia, with anticipation, turned her attention to the passage from which her opponent was supposed to appear, and readily activated her double-bladed lightsaber, bringing it back behind her back and filling her body with the Force.
As expected, the monster, which had nothing in common with a representative of sentient beings, appeared where she expected.
Except that first, several mangled stealthed soldiers—or Terror Troopers, as they were called in the broadcast from the Guardian—flew out ahead of it.
Like broken dolls, they scattered to the sides around her, and the woman looked at her opponent with curiosity.
Silver skin, dotted with geometrically regular patterns made with black paint.
Sith tattoos, how could it be otherwise?
There was also partial armor protecting his thighs, the patterns on which combined astonishingly with the designs on his skin.
The lower part of his body was hidden under loose clothing, but everything above was open for all to see.
She couldn't help but admire the muscular, fit body, covered with drops of sweat.
But what attracted her much more were the eyes, full of madness, burning with the color of molten gold.
Along with the ring of short horns on his completely bald head.
No, don't think I've gone crazy, this kind of crap actually existed in the Expanded Universe lore
Such an aura of rage and an undisguised desire to kill emanated from him that for a moment Aurelia even worried whether this opponent was within her power.
Pressing his hands to his chest crosswise, the opponent gripped the silver hilts of two lightsabers and activated them.
The white glow of the paired weapons reflected on the skin of his face, harmonizing with his eyes, consumed by the Dark Side of the Force.
Already figured out what's up?)
"And just who are you, you freak?" Meilis inquired, switching to the time-tested Dun Moch.
The freak didn't answer her, only demonstrated a stance classic for dual-wielding fencing—Jar'Kai.
And he poured out so much Dark Side Force around him that even the artificial lighting of the room seemed to dim.
"Oh, so you want to show how tough you are," Aurelia laughed contentedly, anticipating an extremely interesting fight, and gracefully bent down, touching the surface she stood on with her free hand. "I want to play a game with you, you bastard."
Her curses sharply contrasted with her pretty appearance, which left enemies stunned and gave her the necessary moments.
His golden eyes bored into her no worse than a pair of Death Star superlasers, and the Force inside him seethed like a mountain waterfall.
"The game is called 'I'm all on fire, and the floor is lava,'" Meilis said ironically, wrapping herself in flames.
And then the permacrete they both stood on burst into a stream of fire, filling the air with the smell of burned fabric and flesh.
With a heart-rending cry, the silver-skinned opponent lunged at her, delivering the first strike.
The burning clothes and blisters of his burns didn't concern him in the slightest.
This would be interesting.
* * *
"Sir, the ground groups are advancing," Major General Cain reported. "There are high losses among the droids, but we've managed to clear the central tunnel and are nearly done clearing Lady Meilis's positions."
"Any word from Starkiller and Delta Squad?" I asked, studying the tactical map.
"No, sir," Cain shook his head. "The stormtroopers and droids have slowed their advance due to a new enemy counterattack. Possibly, when we break through their defenses, we'll be able to link up..."
Possibly.
Or possibly they'll be dead by then.
You can't predict or guess here.
"And one more thing, sir," Cain looked concerned. "Lady Meilis..."
Had the Jedi Shadow deviated from the attack plan?
Well, I wouldn't be surprised.
That lady knows how to act and what to do to earn influence points.
"Has she started operating separately from the main forces?" I asked, already knowing what I'd hear.
"Exactly, sir. Visual and frequency contact with her has been lost. No one knows what's happening with her, but the central group reports a large disturbance in the Dark Side further along the course."
And I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out that's exactly where the Sephi half-blood was.
"Continue the operation, General," I ordered.
Of all the gifted ones, the Sephi remained the dark horse.
Her intentions were known, the method of achieving them was being worked out by me, but it had to be understood that if she died, no one would particularly grieve.
At least, I certainly wouldn't.
"Responses have been received from the unit commanders of the regular fleet's forward groups," Pellaeon reported. "The formations you selected are moving to the rendezvous points. Confirmations regarding received orders have come in from Horn and Karthakk. They are forming the infantry and other units we need."
"Excellent," I summarized. "Now all that's left is to finish with the base on Egon-IX and put the final point on the matter of destroying the base and industry of the Silri Syndicate."
* * *
Spraying sparks and hitting their ears with a hum, the blades of their lightsabers clashed, their gazes met.
The golden eyes of the unknown silvery-skinned fighter burned with a fury that pierced her.
The anger emanating from him was physically tangible, making the air slick and dirty.
But she also felt in him the absence of any conscious thoughts, any battle tactics.
This was simply an animal.
Incredibly powerful, with a strong connection to the Force, but brainless, and therefore doubly dangerous.
You never know what to expect from such a creature.
He leaned into his silver clicks, forcing her to take a step back, and, augmenting the strike with the Force, kicked her in the stomach.
The Dark Side emanating from him practically extinguished the fire he encountered the moment they clashed, and the pain of the burns only fueled his aggression.
But she was faster; a jump carried her over his head, landing five meters closer to the spot he had come from.
The Force told her there was no danger there.
All the better.
"Killing me is far harder than you think," she shouted, answering his anger with a wave of her own fury. "I assure you of that."
And once again, this fighter blazed with such an aura of the Force that she nearly choked on the waves of the Dark Side.
The fire around him trembered and began to die out.
An unpleasant phenomenon.
Meilis attacked with fire, forcing her opponent to stop dispersing her flames across the floor, and he easily took the bait.
He shielded himself from the fire with the Force, which was commendable in terms of skill and application.
Then he made a slashing motion with his free hand, and two fragments of some mechanism tore away from the nearest columns, rushing at her from opposite sides.
She soared into the air, and the fragments collided with each other right beneath her, spraying shards.
She landed on them, her sword at the ready.
The silver-skinned one roared and leaped straight at her.
Alright, another hint. Well, now everything should be perfectly clear, shouldn't it?
She slid sideways, dodging the descending strike; the blade of his sword sliced through the metal at her feet.
She responded with a side strike meant to take his head off, if he hadn't ducked under it.
The opponent roared when fire scorched his face, and he unleashed a series of the most powerful Force Pushes at her.
Meilis evaded with a graceful pirouette to the side, and from the column she had stood before a moment ago, chunks of metal, wiring, permacrete particles flew in all directions…
In just three Pushes, he nearly destroyed the column down to its foundation.
Strong.
But stupid.
She jumped, flipping in the air, and landed by another column fifteen meters away from him.
Grabbing a massive fragment near her enemy with the Force, she hurled it at the Sith.
Without moving, he simply cleaved the stone in two with his right lightsaber.
Sparks and stone dust rained down.
Alright then, let's assume that.
Aurelia used the Force for acceleration, darting to the right of her opponent to attack from the rear, but he anticipated her move.
A wave of the Force, though weakened by her Barrier, still sent her flying.
The former Jedi Shadow tucked herself in mid-air, pushed off a neighboring column with her feet, and charged her enemy.
The unknown being deflected the blow to the side and, continuing the motion, struck her in the stomach with all his might.
Evading the strike, she jumped, pulling her legs up, and upon landing delivered an overhead blow with both hands.
He parried with a cross-block and delivered a Force-augmented side kick aimed at her ribs.
She caught his leg with her free hand, spun, and threw the opponent several meters away, simultaneously dodging a kick to the face from his other leg.
He flipped in the air and landed in the middle of an ocean of fire, growled something in his beastly tongue, and immediately attacked her.
Anticipating this, she prepared several surprising and unforgettable moments for him.
The opponent in flight was caught by her with the Force and, with monstrous acceleration, slammed into the ceiling, then was crushed by the Force onto the floor, felt like a ball bouncing off opposite walls before he could break her telekinetic grip with a surge of the Force.
He was badly hurt, but seemed not to notice any of it, kept counterattacking as if he were a droid.
But no, she sensed a man in him.
Almost a man.
Two hearts confused her thoughts—maybe he was a Zabrak after all?
Or a hybrid?
But what difference did it make?
Here and now, he would die by her blades.
His might met her will.
The blades of his swords slashed, stabbed, spinning in his hands.
He tried to use his superior physical strength to knock her off her feet or make her lose balance, but against his strength she answered with speed, dodging, leaping over, parrying blows, and unleashing a flurry of counterattacks.
The hum of their swords, the hiss of clashing energies merged into a single song of speed and power.
At one point, they crossed blades again.
"You have strength, but your brains are lacking," she said through the crackle of the sparking lightsaber blades.
"I'll kill you!" he roared into her face with a coughing bark.
As if he had hardly ever used his vocal cords properly, but couldn't hold back now.
He struck her with the Force with such power that she flew backward and nearly got crushed against the wall, but reacted in time.
She used the Force to soften the impact, but still hit the wall with her back, and the blow knocked all the air from her lungs.
The opponent blurred into a silver-black streak, screaming with rage, and the blades of his silver swords were ready for a killing blow.
She rolled to the side, and his weapon only gouged the wall, sinking a dozen centimeters deep.
And, as it turned out, got stuck in it, biting into the beskar hidden beneath a layer of permacrete.
She sprang to her feet and attacked him with fire, turning him into a tortured semblance of herself.
With the only difference being that she wasn't shrieking in pain, surrounded by fire.
Meilis rushed at him, swung a blow from the left, aiming for the throat.
He managed to set his sword blade vertically to parry her strike.
But at the same time, she added a kick to his stomach, pushing him back several steps, then a second spinning strike, disorienting the opponent.
Leaping forward like a fish, she planted her palms on the scorching floor and, feeling no pain, with all her Jedi Shadow soul, delivered a powerful sliding upward kick from below into the bastard's face.
He collapsed onto the fiery floor as if cut down, emitting a wave of pure rage, causing the flames within a five-meter radius of him and on his body to finally die out, revealing to Aurelia a charred body and eyes burning with hatred, the color of molten gold.
"You remind me of someone," the former Jedi Shadow smirked, attacking him with pyrokinesis. "I told you—the floor is lava."
The opponent moved to the right, to which she, performing a circular motion, attacked with a thrust to his stomach.
The opponent blocked her blade with his own, applied immense strength to win the physical struggle for the weapon…
And the next moment received another kick to the head, crashing to the floor and smashing his face into a bloody pulp.
Meilis stabbed at him with her lightsaber blade, but the opponent rolled aside and was already on his feet, attacking her with a Force Push.
His telekinesis collided with her Force discharge.
For several seconds they tried to overpower each other, after which the former Jedi Shadow deftly moved aside, and his attack vanished into nothingness.
Instead, she attacked with her lightsaber.
The opponent switched to a rigid defense, unthinking and poor—he acted solely on the Force's prompts, which wasn't bad, not bad at all.
Many Jedi couldn't even do that.
From the start of their fight, he had never broken his connection with the Force, which was impressive.
It seemed as if his internal energy sources were endless—while Aurelia was beginning to tire.
That was bad.
Whatever this horned, many-eyed creature was, he was clearly created artificially, bred as a perfect instrument for destroying the Force-sensitive.
He suppressed his pain, dispersed advanced attacks with nothing but raw Dark Side power, and was absolutely fresh for continuing the sparring.
An explosion of pure hatred and insane rage radiating from him completely engulfed Aurelia.
She concentrated, not even trying to fight this Force storm—that would be like trying to ride out a natural disaster.
The half-blood answered with her own rage, and both opponents rushed toward each other.
Calm the heart, calm the mind.
She struck with one blade from below, twisted the hilt, and delivered a lunge with the second from above.
The opponent leaned back, neutralizing both, jumped, flipped in the air, landing behind her back, and slashed, aiming for the neck.
She crouched, simultaneously sweeping his legs in a spin, knocking him to the ground.
When he touched the ground, she straightened up, turned, and delivered a downward strike.
The burned one tumbled backward, and Aurelia's blades scorched smoking furrows in the hangar floor.
Only showers of sparks flew in all directions.
Exiting the roll into a high jump, the opponent sent a powerful telekinetic Force strike at Meilis.
She easily dodged the attack and hurled her lightsaber at the opponent, as he thought—too inaccurately to worry about.
But the stream of fire from both hands caught him off guard.
He jerked, roaring in pain.
Accelerating with the Force, he jumped high into the air, leaving the trajectory of the blade she controlled.
She anticipated his movement, and, jumping high upward, knocked the opponent to the ground with a powerful kick.
He used the Force to soften the blow, but it was so strong that the burning opponent had to take a step back to keep his balance.
Through the sound of dying flames, she heard him trying to regain his breath.
But she didn't give him a chance to catch it.
The counterattack caught the opponent by surprise.
He stepped aside, letting the blow pass by; the flaming blade barely grazed his body and burned another wound into him, causing him to roar like a wounded rancor, throwing his head back.
This was her chance.
With the edge of her palm, closing in, she struck his Adam's apple, putting all her strength into the blow.
With his sword, he pushed her parallel lightsaber strike aside and, wheezing from a crushed larynx, tried to strike her in the face with his lightsaber.
Naturally, she easily parried it with her weapon, then, smiling at the bloodied opponent, activated the second blade, which she hadn't used for some time in the fight.
Flaming energy pierced his roasted torso in the stomach area, adding deadly heartburn to the burns.
Such a monstrous wound could stun anyone.
But this one recovered much faster.
However, it didn't save him now.
Meilis took advantage of the pause in the confrontation, twisted the hilt of her blade so that it was between the opponent's forearms, and severed his upper limbs.
Then, with a kick, she threw the opponent away from herself, spun in place, and pulled the opponent toward her, delivering a thrusting blow from below upward at a slight angle.
The flaming blade split the charred chest, pierced the mangled and broken trachea, sinking into the brain, instantly boiling it.
To the opponent's horns, a red flat bulge on the back of his head was added.
Deactivating her weapon, Meilis pulled the clone's weapons to herself, hung them on her belt, and with one crooked slash cleaved him from shoulders to torso, tearing the body into droplets of blood and chunks with the help of the Force.
Wiping her hand over her face, now covered in numerous bloody splatters and shreds, the Jedi Shadow allowed herself to take a deep breath of the overheated air and hunch over slightly.
This duel had thoroughly exhausted her.
Turns out, she's a bit out of shape.
She'll have to find herself a suitable sparring partner.
Well, for now—the path to the central computer…
* * *
Ahsoka regained consciousness in some dark, cold room.
Her face was barely felt, as were her shackled hands and feet.
The girl tried to reach for the Force but couldn't do anything—the shock cuffs dispersed her attempts to concentrate.
"Don't make any sudden movements, Commander," she heard a voice from the void. "For your own health."
Squinting, she noticed she was in a technical room where several "invisible" soldiers were planting explosive charges on a massive hemisphere that could easily be recognized as a solar ionization reactor.
So, this was what powered the base and all its defense systems—a well-known energy source.
And she even understood why they intended to blow it up.
"Don't do this," she said. "You'll kill us all here."
"Those are the orders," one of the "invisibles" cut her off, becoming visible.
A mask depicting General Grievous looked at her bloodthirstily, evoking old memories.
The kind one prefers to forget.
"Whose orders?" she asked. "Arrange a meeting."
"That's impossible. The Commander hasn't made contact."
"Due to your station's jamming," added the second, appearing nearby.
"There's always room for negotiation," the Togruta said. "We came here to free the clone commandos being held captive here against their will. We…"
"We're not interested in what category you belong to," the terror soldier who had spoken to her first cut her off. "You are on the base's list of persons to be detained. Mission accomplished. We are awaiting the arrival of the first commander and orders regarding your further fate, Commander."
"Wait a minute!" Ahsoka frowned. "I haven't been part of the Grand Army of the Republic for a long time. And I haven't been a commander for a long time either…"
"The Commanding Officer gave the task. It was carried out. The rest is irrelevant…"
"It is very relevant!" Ahsoka flared up. "Soon my friends from the 501st Legion will get here and…"
Both "invisibles" looked at each other, then turned their gaze to her.
"Repeat the unit designation, Commander Tano," demanded the one who had spoken to her first.
"The 501st Guards Assault Legion," she tried to put as much confidence and inner strength into those words as possible. "The best of the best. I've been with many of them from Christophsis to…"
"Incorrect," said the second "invisible."
"How would you know? For the first time in thirty years since the Clone Wars, I felt surrounded by reliable clones again, which means the 501st landed in full force, including veterans familiar to me and…"
"Thirty years," said the first to the second.
"Doesn't matter. Orders are orders."
"But thirty years!"
"Stand down, CT-7567!" the second cut him off, and Ahsoka thought her montrals were playing tricks on her, but a chill ran down her spine. "The central computer gave the order to detonate the reactor. Make sure…"
"CT-7567⁉" her voice trembled with tension when she saw the first "invisible," the very one who had immobilized her and been examining her, now drilling into her with his gaze from under the General Grievous mask. "No… no… it can't be… I thought you died…"
"That is correct, ma'am," declared the first "invisible," hissing as he removed the face mask, revealing a face disfigured by healed burns and surgical incisions. A face she could barely recognize visually through the flood of her own tears. Instead of a mouth, an implanted vocoder blinked faintly, its wires running through the missing lower jaw straight into the throat. "Captain Rex died the moment he refused to accept command of the 501st Legion under Darth Vader, Commander Tano. Now there is only terror soldier CT-7567… But you are right about one thing, ma'am. Veterans of the 501st Legion, whom you fought alongside during the Clone Wars, are indeed here. All who opposed the will of Darth Vader—we are all here. And you are killing us. And we—are killing you. Such is the will of Darth Vader, Commander Tano."
Ahsoka had nothing to say to that.
She could only sob uncontrollably.