All That Remains: The Shroud of the Dark Side

[General Dan]

The journey from Hoth to the Atravis Sector was short, but it gave Dan enough time to return to prepare. He had changed - again wearing the uniform of an Alliance General. It also gave him time to consider his next move. Loklorien was dead, buried with finality in the ruins of Echo Base. With her death, plans that were in motion would have to be accelerated. The Jedi were on the move, but their days of moving were coming to an end. For his plans to succeed, they would need to be taken unaware.

As Dan's shuttle broke into realspace, he could see his assembled fleet. Task Force 42 lay in wait beyond a nebula's wispy trail. The starships appeared as dark silhouettes against the purple and red gas clouds, as his comm system fired up with an incoming message.

"General, we have you on our scopes, sir. Welcome back."

Lieutenant Bren's voice was recognizable on the audio link, and Dan nodded.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. What is the status of the fleet?"

"We're holding position and awaiting orders, sir."

Good. A thin smile grew on Dan's face.

"Prepare the fleet to jump to hyperspace. I will be boarding shortly."

A pause on the line, and the Lieutenant's voice returned, a bit hesitant.

"Sir, we have taken on some passengers since you left. Alliance Intelligence, and some others. I believe they are Jedi Knights."

A complication. The General arched a brow.

"Is that so?"

"Yessir. They insist on speaking with you personally. Shall I inform them of your arrival?"

Dan considered the options that lay ahead. This changed nothing.

"No. I will deal with them later. Prepare for my arrival."

"Understood, Dauntless out."

The shuttlecraft continued its approach, slowing at the last instant to draw in its retractable wings as the cavernous hangar of the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Dauntless drew it the rest of the way inside.

[Marlon Kori]

He was waiting in the hangar, standing on the periphery as Dan's shuttle entered. He watched with impatience, willing the craft to hurry its' landing procedures. And even as the landing struts touched the decking, he was moving, falling into a long gait that wasn't frantic, but it certainly wasn't lazy and ambling either. A frown held his features in a downward spell, and his eyes were hard. There was a distinct look of uncomfortable frustration that seemed to literally drape off of him.

When Dage had accepted promotion and inevitably stayed on Bothawui, he - Marlon Kori - had volunteered to fill the void that had been left until Dan would be able to find a suitable replacement. It was almost like being back home to a degree. Only, well, on a bigger ship. There was also a lot more red tape and bureaucratic nonsense to wade through, but that was what happened when you transitioned from a cobbled-together fighting force into something more legitimate. Of course, it didn't mean he was unable to pine for the old days.

The look on his face now was an aggravated one. Alliance Intel? What in the world would cause them to find it necessary to be here? On Bothawui he could understand. But here? It rankled him.

As the boarding ramp to Dan's shuttle began to fall, Kori was still walking, his stride bringing him ever closer as the storm on his features did not let up.

[General Dan]

"Where are they?"

Dan was down the gangplank as soon as it lowered, meeting the stormy expression of his executive officer. They both walked in lockstep across the expansive hangar bay to the door that would take them to the nearest lift.

[Marlon Kori]

"They are in your office."

It was spoken with a clipped cadence. Kori pulled his hands back, clasping them at the small of his back as he walked.

"You mind telling me... "

A realization hit him then; a glaring absence that caused him to draw up into a standstill and his original question to die on his lips. They were at the threshold of the arching doorway that led deeper into the ship, and he turned half on his heel to look at the shuttle they'd left behind. Confusion swept over frustrated features as no other passengers debarked. His brow knit.

"Where is Lok... ?"

[General Dan]

Dan's stride faltered, and a troubled look filled his features.

"Dead."

He averted his eyes from Kori.

"She uncovered a Jedi plot on Hoth, and in their betrayal they killed her. I only barely escaped with my own life."

When he looked back at his second, the General's eyes were filled with grim resolve.

"Alert all commands. Our destination is Ossus."

[Marlon Kori]

Strange, how one word could take the wind out of your sails in the span of a millisecond. Kori blinked, then met the General's eyes with a gaze that seemed to've been thrown out of a speeder and was now playing a desperate catch-up.

"... dead?!"

Gods and all nine Corellian hells, this was some sort of sick joke, yes? A last look back to the shuttle before he turned his attentions fully on his superior. One hand went out to clamp down on the older man's shoulder, and Kori pulled him to a stop.

"Hold on, now," This revelation of the death of one of his oldest friends was a hard pill to swallow, but even in the face of it he knew that they had protocols and procedure to follow.

"You can't just rush into some mission of revenge, Dan... "

His grip seemed to tighten.

"As your XO, I have to insist we take official channels on this matter."

[General Dan]

"The Jedi control the official channels!"

Kori couldn't yet see, so Dan would make him see.

"They're involved in everything. The high command, in intelligence, all of it. It's been a conspiracy for years. Maybe even since the beginning. They have no interest in mutual cooperation. They've taken matters into their own hands, and intend on using all of their influence to create a New Republic in name only. Mark my words, they won't be content to sit on the sidelines as a council of advisors this time. They'll rule over us all just as surely as Palpatine wants to, as princes."

[Marlon Kori]

He scowled, thoughts racing through his mind. None of this made sense, and yet at the same time, it all made perfect sense. His expression became clouded as he let go of Dan's shoulder, one hand going up to rub at his temple.

"Dan," his old friend was mad with grief, that had to be the only explanation.

He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it once more as if to reconsider his words.

Finally, he continued.

"You're sure about this?"

[General Dan]

"We've been through it all since the beginning, Marlon."

The General gave a resolute nod.

"If I wasn't sure about this, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'm asking you to make a difficult decision. There's the procedural choice, and there's the right choice. We don't get a second chance at this."

[Marlon Kori]

It felt like eons that they stood there. The choice that Dan now set at his feet was a difficult one, and yet at the same time it was the easiest choice that he would possibly ever have to make. His jaw clenched, and he pulled in a long breath.

Fine time for Dage to go skipping off to his own boat, leaving Kori to saddle something of this magnitude. There was no malice in the observation, but more of a fatalistic sense of humor. He and Dage had grown up together on Myomar. They had history. And, they had history with Dan and Loklorien. Now, one of their number was dead. Dead at the hands of the very group that she had once been a part of. The Jedi...

Kori gave a slow nod while stepping back slightly, his back straightening as he drew himself up to stand at attention.

"I'll give the word."

[General Dan]

Dan drew up a reciprocating salute.

"The next twenty four hours are going to decide whether our Alliance survives, Marlon. Let's make the best use of them."

And with that, the General dismissed Kori to carry out his orders, while he headed to his office to deal with his unwanted visitors.

[Jane Starborn]

The Sith is moving. Trust no one under his command.
File s'Ilancy-271 in Alliance High Command database. Execute access code 573-HND-9.
All information regarding Dan Thrule's movements and activities will be found in that file.

Jane Starborn's fingers tapped nervously on the desk as her eyes scanned the file she had been directed toward, her stomach sinking with every new paragraph. Byl Laprovik had not answered her return call to his commlink, though it was his that had been used to send the message. Was he compromised again? Did it even matter, in light of this file? General Thrule was a Sith. The Sith. She was still certain that Loklorien was also, which made the origin of this information suspect to say the least, but the dates and locations matched up with what she knew of his activities. Which was everything in the official record, as she'd read over it months ago and kept up to date. His task force, Task Force 42, was in the Atravis sector, and he was not with them as far as she was aware, the Dauntless having been diverted off on some random trip a few days previous.

He was outed, or near enough to it, so he would be enacting his endgame. She packaged the message and a copy of the file together in an encrypted datacard, and paused, eyeing her holocam. After a moment she switched it on.

"Hey Mom, it's me." Jane smiled tightly in the recording, stress visible on her face. "You know what I've been working on? It's come to a head. Everything in this datacard will justify my actions, and I'm entrusting it to you...that you'll know what to do with it. He's going to take out the Jedi, so I'm going to Ossus. You can't trust anyone in Task Force 42, the entire chain of command there is suspect and probably tainted. I'll... I'll call you when I get back."

She ended the recording, copied it to the card and deleted the original from her computer. Thirty minutes later it was in a secure envelope, being couriered to the Senate and the hands of Celeste Starborn, and she was sitting in her ship waiting for clearance to take off. Ossus was vulnerable, the Jedi barely on the ground and certainly not capable of defending against an interplanetary attack. The Alliance ships and troops there were not adequate to take on an entire Task Force, and would be called off by the General as soon as he arrived anyway.

Jane bit her lip as she plugged the coordinates into her navicomp, and found it hard to relax even for the journey through hyperspace, her mind racing with near infinite possibilities.

[Serena Laran]

"We have an ship incoming." The hologram of Ensign Traener from the Alliance HQ on Ossus (a glorified prefab that housed all the electronic communications and sensor equipment) stood three inches tall on Serena Laran's desk. A wind gust buffeted the tent, and the hologram flickered. "We aren't expecting anyone."

Serena frowned. "Is there -"

"Wait, we're receiving a fleet code." The Ensign's visage looked to the side and down as someone off camera spoke to her. "All clear, sorry Ma'am. I didn't mean to alarm you, but they were a little late transmitting..."

"It's all right, Ensign. We're all a little jumpy."

The officer smiled, and then her face changed. She looked sharply to the side and then back to Serena. "It's a priority visit from Intel. They're requesting an emergency meeting with the Council."

"I'll be right there. Solomon is still off planet and - I'll be there as soon as possible." Serena ended the transmission and pulled her cloak on over her cream colored robes, wrapping a scarf around her face to keep the dust out as she headed out into the wind.

[Jane Starborn]

Jane nearly sprinted out of her ship, but she managed to keep herself to a brisk walk. She'd arrived before the General and his fleet of misguided loyalists, but by how much she couldn't know. A cloaked and hooded figure at the edge of the temporary dirt landing pad lifted a hand in welcome, and she adjusted her vector to intersect, a hand in front of her face to keep the wind out of her eyes.

"Operative Jane Starborn!" she shouted, a particularly large gust nearly tossing her into the person. "Is it always like this?" Her hair whipped free of it's ponytail and wrapped itself around her face, and she pulled what she could away from her mouth.

"Not always! Master Laran of the Council," said the woman in the cloak. "Let's go inside to talk."

Jane nodded, following the Jedi Master toward a grouping of tents huddled around the hull of a grounded bulk transport. There were no signs of life, but with the wind storm driving dirt into the air from the land the settlers had recently cleared, she couldn't blame them for staying indoors. Thunder cracked and boomed as Serena pulled open one of the tents, and ushered her inside. The air felt electrified, her wind buffeted hair clinging to her with static. Jane was glad there weren't any mirrors in sight.

"I'm afraid I don't have time for pleasantries, Master Laran. Are there... more Council members around?"

"No, I'm it for now," the Jedi said apologetically. "What can I help Alliance Intel with, Operative Starborn?"

"It's what I can do for you - well, we can help each other, I hope. A general has gone rogue -"

"Dan Thrule."

"Y-yes. How did you..?" Jane shook herself, and took a deep breath. "Then I don't have to explain that he's a serious security problem for this settlement."

The Jedi shook her head, a strange look coming over her face. Determination? Jane smiled grimly, and turned away from her memory to the present. On board the Dauntless. In General Thrule's office, with Serena Laran and three other Jedi Knights. It was a laughably small force, but the Jedi were calmly confident, or at least had great poker faces. Their operating assumption was if they could cut the head off the snake the rest of the Fleet would fall in line. Her mother, Celeste Starborn, was mustering forces to converge on Ossus, or whatever it is the military would want to do, but Jane didn't have much hope that it would progress beyond yelling at each other on Bothawui before Dan had accomplished his mission.

[General Dan]

The doors to the General's ready room slid open, and Dan stepped inside with his hands clasped behind his back. His eyes immediately met the familiar face in the room.

"Operative Starborn."

His eyes then moved towards Serena and the other three Jedi Knights, a feigned look of confusion on his face.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

[Jane Starborn]

Jane straightened her spine, the damning holovids and other evidence that had been sent to her spinning up in her mind like a news reel. "You are under arrest under the authority of the Alliance of Free Planets." She held out her hand, presenting a pair of stun cuffs. "Submit without incident, General, and this will all be over soon." The ship silently rumbled deep beneath her boots, the subtle thrum of hyperspace. She felt like she might throw up.

[Serena Laran]

Serena watched impassively as the Operative went by the book. Perhaps she was hoping that the Sith would assume this was about an unrelated, military matter. It was not likely to succeed, and by the fear that Starborn was feeling she knew it as well. The General didn't move, his eyes tracking toward Serena.

"We know. And you will not be allowed to continue." The Jedi Master lashed out with the Force, intent on pinning the man to the bulkhead.

[General Dan]

He could feel her fear. Her exquisite fear, running swift and hot under the cool surface.

"Arrested?"

A look of confusion crossed his face, and Dan looked from Starborn to Laran and back.

"On what grounds? What is this abo-"

And suddenly, Dan was thrown back against the wall, his arms and legs pressed firmly immobile, fixing him to the spot.

"Master Jedi?!"

[Jane Starborn]

"You are accused of treason against the Alliance of Free Planets, and we know you're a Sith. The video evidence I was sent is quite damning." Jane blanched a bit, knowing that she would never be able to forget anything she'd read or seen in Loklorien s'Ilancy's files.

She pulled her blaster and leveled it at the man. "Consider yourself relieved of duty."

[General Dan]

The faux expression of surprise was calmly discarded. Dan ignored the weapon pointed at him, even as he was pinned to the wall by Serena's power. He coolly regarded Jane and her words.

"I'm curious, Operative Starborn. Under what authority are you acting?"