As they rejoined the main group, everyone minus the youngest of the Padawans and Acolytes (Manso, Janika and Takree, essentially) was gathered around the holoprojector which was displaying their latest findings on their excursion. As Voldon invited him to speak again, Roan eagerly stepped forward, a grin plastered over his face as he began:
“I daresay it’s all terribly clever. I’ve immensely enjoyed combing through this Renso fellow’s handiwork, he’s an absolute GENIUS.”
Aria snickered quietly at her father’s gushing over the information before them as she tried to examine it. Endless pillars of information, tangled lines pointing this way and that from one bloodline to the next...it was all WAY over her head, and the look on her face said it all. She opened her mouth to try and prompt a proper explanation out of Roan though the Sith Lord quickly waved her off with an exhortation of. “Shush, shush, so impatient! Just like your mother!” he was so animated about presenting his findings that he apparently hadn’t considered the insensitivity in the comment, quickly moving on before anything else could be said. With a flick of his wrist, Roan scrolled the left hand screen back up to the top of the chart and explained:
“What we’ve managed to uncover is in fact the ENTIRE genealogy of these Sith, RIGHT back to Renso himself. Now this is where it gets VERY interesting, my friends.” a pause for dramatic effect as he allowed that fact to sink in, “Not all of the starting lines come from Renso himself. There are other names, who I assume must be trusted disciples of his that followed his ideologies more like a religion than a guideline….these bloodlines trace all the way through the generations,” the screen was scrolled through again, Roan’s grin broadening as several familiar names became clearly visible, “where both Bracknell and Soto’s name comes up down here and traces all the way back down to him, as expected, but look at this! ” he cackled gleefully as he zoomed in on another portion of the tree near the bottom. “Right here, it gets a bit messy around here because this is when the Jedi and Sith Orders as we know it began to intermingle and ‘cross-contaminate’ as they’ve called it. Cheriss’ ancestors are here, as are Jungze’s, and my great-grandmother’s maiden name here, (so we can all in some way be traced back to either Renso himself or to these followers of his, Aria, stop frowning like that it’s all VERY exciting!). Soto’s and Voldon’s names appear, too, among the lines that branch off towards the Jedi’s bloodlines. Even possible connections to the boy’s name down here.” Roan turned away from the screen to grin broadly at the assembly before him, clapping his hands together for effect. “THIS my friends, explains exactly why the other Council members on both sides were hunted down before we were. Their names DON’T come up. Ours do. They left us until last because we carry enough of the original bloodline between us, however diluted, that they feel it would be detrimental to just wipe us off the face of the galaxy like the other Force users!”

Aria groaned softly, cradling her head in her hands. “My head hurts already...so what, we’re all related?”
“No no, silly girl!” Roan chided, waving her off with another laugh. “Not to one another, but all of our bloodlines can be traced back to one of these original founders whom Renso entrusted to continue his teachings. This also explains why Bracknell wants you two,” he gestured to Aria and Yerbol, “dead so badly. I can assume they are arranged so that those who were more cooperative and closely linked to Renso were closer to his own line in the middle, the places where our names come up are nearer to his than the place where Bracknell’s comes up. So Bracknell feels threatened that there’s a chance this person could seek you out as an alternative to himself and Soto because you’d be more likely to follow along with their agenda and then HE wouldn’t get what he wanted out of the deal.”
“Well isn’t this fantastic.” Cheriss snorted. “All very insightful Roan, but what exactly do you propose we DO with this newfound information?”
The Sith Lord gestured enthusiastically towards the Dathomirian, finishing up with: “If we can leak this information slowly back onto channels in the known galaxy, combine the stuff about the governmental structure and keeping the galaxy and the Force pure and ‘in harmony’ with the genealogies to show that Bracknell isn’t quite following the plan exactly as he SHOULD be, we could shut the whole thing down. Possibly disperse any remaining supporters the movement may have within the Senate when they discover that Bracknell’s actually trying to kill people Renso would have wanted to keep alive because their bloodline is better than his and he can’t deal with the competition.”

Roan's decisive analysis of the True Sith's information stunned Yerbol into silence. He could SEE his name there along with parents, grandparents, Lysa...how had Renso kept track of all the changes? Why would this probably hundreds of year old(that was another matter entirely) Master leave such information laying around in a terminal room? Where WAS Renso and if he is as powerful and omniscient as he seems to be, why hadn't he just crushed them into powder? Questions kept springing into existence as Roan proposed his plan, which garnered incredulous looks from both Neta and Elara, the latter speaking up:
"What you're proposing is daunting to say the least. That would require infiltration into two of the most highly guarded facilities in known space, both of which are located on capital worlds."
"What about comm substations? Couldn't we just hack into a remote outpost and feed information that way?" Neta proposed, her spec ops companion shook her head.
"I suppose if it had to be a short burst of information passed along a short distance, but for the kind of reach Lord Noctis desires, information would have to be uploaded to central communication hubs, which are located on Dromund Kaas..."
"And Coruscant." Neta groaned, shaking her head before looking to Roan:
"You know that's suicide, right? We'd get caught and or killed once we got within a mile of either location, not to mention that network and communication hubs are normally synced across multiple locations to prevent something like we're proposing from happening." She sighed, glancing at the screen.
"But I've had worse odds." Elara chuckled, giving Neta a mischievous smirk, a moment of recognition passing between the two women before Voldon contributed:
"How else will we get others joined to our cause? If we could get this information disseminated and shown to the public, we might convince many to our cause."
"Might being the key word there, big guy." Kira sardonically commented, following up with:
"You know that even if we do pull this off, the info can get rejected, laughed off even. No one's going to believe something that just flashes onto their screen for a few minutes."
"She's right, you know." Matt had his arms folded across his chest, sitting in a chair to the left of the screen.
"It would be a massive waste of our respective talents if we put our faith in the ability of the general public to try and digest this...however, if we get this information in the right hands...say Chancellor Saresh? Other leaders from both parties?" Jungze quickly shot that down:
"And how would we know which person would be under Bracknell's thumb or not, hmm? The man has shown that with Kator's power, he can manipulate governments, control weather patterns...putting information out there for the public eye would be the better option because we would have a much wider net to cast. We would, of course, have to simplify our message, remind the galaxy of the genocide Bracknell and Saresh have authorized under the guise of 'galactic security'."
"But we DO have an inkling of who's working for Bracknell. That list of names...there must be a paper trail of some kind that exposes at least a handful of them." Neta suggested, which prompted a nod from Voldon.
"Good point. If we could not only get the public aware of the True Sith's motives, but also show them that they're real, tangible threats, then we might have a chance at swaying not only popular opinion, but help migrate resources our way."
"We'd be stretched thin, but with pulling a few strings, I think we can get this done." The entire group was then silent for what felt like an eternity, the weight of events sinking into the room. What broke the silence was a quietly placed question from Yerbol:
"So where do we start?"

____________________

It took several hours of strategy sessions, contacting every possible asset Neta and Elara could think of and many a glazed peanut, but their attack plan was decided upon. Two teams would be deployed, one to Dromund Kaas and another to Coruscant where not only SIS and Imperial Intelligence had their command centers, but several key members of Bracknell's consortium would be(according to the list and some well dropped information from Bek, who had taken the opportunity to join them on world. His reasoning was quite simple: "They almost found me out. Might as well prolong the inevitable.") Each team deployed would then break into sub groups, one group heading towards the offices of Bracknell's group to dig up information while the others attempted to find their way into the server rooms. Once the server rooms were secure, information not only about the True Sith would be uploaded, but also anything found by the other group. With this accomplished, the sub groups would then find their own way off world and meet back up at their new base. After all this, Yerbol's head was practically about to spin off. So much tactical information was thrown at them by Neta and the members of Havoc Squad(along with Bek and Voldon, the latter serving many years in the Republic military) that Yerbol felt like he was back at the training academy on Coruscant. Finally able to tear himself away, he found himself sitting on the exterior steps leading up to the entrance of their base, looking up at the clear night sky. Footsteps could be heard approaching...

Everything had escalated very very quickly after her father’s analysis had been concluded, rapidly evolving into yet another convoluted scheme that involved them making open targets of themselves on the two planets most likely to be watched by their enemies. Well hey, they were all turning into adrenaline junkies now, might as well embrace it right? Neta and Elara seemed to be the most involved now, which was a nice change. Aria could sympathise with the two women who must feel pretty out of place in a group full of people who could (essentially) throw starships around with a flick of a wrist when they had to rely on their own smarts and physical abilities alone. It was kind of nice to let them do their thing and have them giving the Force users all the instructions for once. And oddly enough, nobody seemed to protest to any request given to them this time, even Roan and Cheriss were cooperating quite well, with only the occasional snarky comment or jab at someone else’s approach to a problem.
She had had her own doubts about whether or not this haphazard amalgamation of people could ACTUALLY band together and become a team, but their common enemy seemed to be ensuring that and Aria couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride.
Everything was up in the air right now, plans were strewn all over the place in the main meeting room, channel frequencies scribbled untidily in corners and blank spaces as they poured over possible contacts or target areas for the next several hours. Dromund Kaas and Coruscant, understandably, came up. It was going to be a pretty big operation, requiring nearly every person in their little self-formed resistance to pitch in to ensure their intelligence could get dropped in the right places so that Bek, Ed and Kandar’s contacts in the SIS and Imp Intel could begin leaking it out to the members of the public. The task would be a mammoth undertaking and as it was everyone would need their own time to prepare themselves and come to terms with what they had to do. Aria took comfort in the knowledge that the three Sith Lords had volunteered to brave Dromund Kaas over expecting one of the Jedi (or indeed either of the duo) to find their way through the place. Aria had been there once, as a part of her trials, and she had no wish to go there again. Feeling brave, Vano volunteered to go with them as well which left Abbeth and Kandar drawing the short straw as the other operatives to accompany them. The others could hit Coruscant with Bek where they would meet up with Ed and infiltrate the SIS. They would have to try and get back into the Senate to get to Saresh too, hence why the bigger group focused on the Republic capital.

_______________

Some hours later, the gathering had dispersed and Aria found herself wandering aimlessly while trying to preoccupy herself so she wouldn’t go looking for Yerbol, who had vanished. She had tried not to go looking for him straight away, to give him a chance to get some much needed privacy (it was very hard to stay out of each other’s minds now after recent events), but she found it hadn’t lasted long and soon she was wondering where he had gotten to (it must have been another by-product of their link. Yes, that’s what she kept telling herself). There was so much to think about that Aria found the interior of the base became quite stifling and when she slipped outside to try and get some fresh air, she’d kill two birds with one stone by happening to stumble upon her friend seated on the front steps.
“Hey.” she mumbled, settling herself down beside him and letting out a deep breath as she stretched her arms out behind her and leaned back against them. “Mind if I join you? My head still hurts from all that political crap.” she chuckled softly, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye before quickly returning her gaze upwards. “It’s all so complicated….” she drifted off into silent thought for a moment before speaking out loud. “I’ve been thinking about what Jungze said, about this bond, and it being three-way. I mean, if he tried to contact us again don’t you think we could follow the thread back and pin him down, figure out where he is? We already have to do that to talk to each other.”

Now that she had ACTUALLY sat and thought about it, there WAS something that almost felt like an extra presence, much weaker but still there, attached to the same thread that joined them together. If she concentrated on it hard enough, Aria was sure she could sense other unfamiliar thoughts there, but had made a habit of trying to block it out due to fear of the unknown. Feeling a bit braver with Yerbol potentially as backup, Aria had begun to poke and prod at it though, only to jerk back sharply with an audible squeak of surprise as the connection shifted in response and the man’s voice spoke out to them.

I had wondered when you would get brave enough. I must congratulate you, younglings. Your group is unravelling everything far quicker than I had anticipated.
Exchanging a glance with Yerbol for confirmation, Aria then boldly responded.
We know who you are and what you want. Stop hiding!

Oh, do you? he sounded impressed. Now I doubt that you know who I REALLY am, my dear, but you know enough and that is why we must talk further. You and Yerbol have a very strong command of the Force, Aria and I need your help.

...You tried to kill us. Why would we help you? Aria answered dryly, still not impressed.

BRACKNELL tried to kill you. the man abruptly corrected. I never wanted you harmed. You’re clever younglings, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that he isn’t following my instructions as he should be.

Alright, new question: why SHOULD we help you? You’ve practically destroyed the known galaxy.

An amused chuckle, the question partially dodged with an evasive answer of:
You already ARE, without even knowing it. Your bond, this connection, is proof of that.

He was going to caution Aria about going down that particular avenue of thought, but his partner had already made the connection and much faster than he had imagined. It was startling to feel Renso's presence in his mind, the incorporeal "Master" seeming to fill every inch of free space in his skull as he and Aria traded barbs, although the Master didn't seem very interested in verbally sparring. No, instead, it felt as if he were...happy? Benevolent? Conniving? Cutthroat? It was hard to gauge his feelings towards them, but from their intertwined bond, he COULD feel a sincerity to his words that Yerbol hadn't heard before in his dreams when the Master had boldly proclaimed the death of the Force. Speaking of that particular concept, it would be good to clear that up before they proceeded any further. Following up on the cryptic clue the Master provided, Yerbol spoke for the first time since Aria had tugged on Renso's presence:

Wait, wait. You claim this bond is helping you already and that you'll need our continual help. Weren't you the same voice that proclaimed the death of the Force just a few days ago? The same person that assured "Balance" across the galaxy by way of destruction?

A light sigh followed Yerbol's line of questioning before a reply laced with regret came:

Indeed, I do believe that harmonization of the Force, of balancing the galaxy around us can lead to the kind of peace I once knew, but Bracknell twisted my words. Death is necessary, a component of ensuring the Force does not become a twisted shell of itself like it has become, but Bracknell twisted my words, as did you. I do not have the ability to explore questions of philosophy now, but understand it was never my intent for Force sensitives and users to die meaninglessly.

Then what on EARTH were you trying to accomplish with him? And how did I twist your words? Death is pretty straightforward.

As I've said, harmonization. Balancing. The Force as you both know it has been corrupted and must be set back in order. I cannot answer all your questions now, but as you progress down your destined path, you will both see what I see.

And with that riddle inspired statement, his presence was gone. Yerbol strained to grab at the thread that Aria had, but it had vanished completely, leaving the duo with more questions, which was quickly growing to be an aggravating pattern.
"Destined path..." He trailed off, looking up at the black and blue night sky lit up with twinkling stars in the distance.
"What does he know about our fates?" He mumbled, looking to Aria with a defeated shrug.
"Suppose we'll have to find out ourselves." From inside the complex, he heard Neta call out:
"C'MON YOU TWO, LOAD UP, WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY! HAVOC, AT ATTENTION, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!" Her normally boisterous voice had been ratcheted up a few levels, severity of tone increasing, showing off her regression to Specs op leader very quickly. As he helped Aria to his feet, he couldn't help but quip:
"I have a feeling she's going to be doing that a lot."

____________________

-Six Months later-

"WHAT ON TATTOINE'S SANDY SURFACE ARE YOU DOING, JENKINS?!"
"Ma'am, I..."
"DON'T YOU EVER FIRE A RIFLE WITHOUT SCOPING THE ENEMY FIRST! HIP FIRING IS FOR THE MOVIES, NOT FOR REAL COMBAT!"
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"
"BACK ON THE RANGE, ALL OF YOU! YOUR AIM IS WORSE THAN A BANTHA CRAPPING OFF A CLIFF!" Their gleaming green and white armor clanked through back of the main hall, past the pop-up tents and communication posts towards the clearing that Bek had managed to make their second week there for Havoc Squad and, as he had called it, "the future armed forces of our insurrection". Yerbol had chuckled at the thought of having armed forces to command, but it was Bek who would be chortling at Yerbol's doubt. In six months, things had drastically changed, so much so that the young Knight felt like he had to take a step back and actually take it all in instead of moving from mission to mission without so much as a drink of water or a stick of jerkey(which was quickly becoming a base favorite).

Sneaking past Neta and the hubbub of portable terminals, haphazardly placed datapads and hunched over technicians and strategists(Manso among them), he quietly made it back to their quarters and shed his tattered, sweat stained clothing in favor of some cotton shorts and a t-shirt, both of which had been included in the latest supply drop courtesy of their smuggling team(or as they liked to be called "Captains of Enterprise") that had grown exponentially after their second month in. The Alliance was cracking down hard on enterprise across the galaxy, which meant more and more smugglers were getting put out of work. Even the Hutts were getting strong armed by the Alliance, Chancellor Saresh smugly proclaiming that the "Hutt Reign of Terror would not be tolerated" under the new regime. True, the Hutts were involved in some shady practices, but Saresh had flexed her muscles by cutting off Nar Shaddaa and the rest of the Outer Rim with a trade blockade until they gave into the Alliance's demands of total control. In a sense, Saresh out-Hutted the Hutts, a feat that reflected not only the growing solidarity and power of the new government, but also the terrifying potential it held. Many saw the latter and from that group of many, some joined on with their rebellion. They trickled in slowly that first month after the two strike teams managed to leak information about the True Sith on the holonet, but most of it was dismissed as fabrications of the enemy or, as Bracknell has labeled them many times over the past half year: "terrorists of the highest caliber of evil". Many in the galaxy believed the propaganda, seeing as the Alliance combined so many resources that people were actually getting access to more of the galaxy than they ever had before. With no war, Republic and Imperial worlds became open ground for settlers and job seekers, scout teams were joining together to scope out new worlds and the governments that were once separated by ideologies seemed to be coming together.

It looked so smooth and effortless on the vids, sounded so utopian during interviews that dismissed the "True Sith" and warned the public to not give into "informational terrorism"(a phrase coined by Bracknell). Soon after this "honeymoon period" of about a month, their rebellion had gathered enough forces from both former Republic and Imperial militaries that Neta, who had been put in charge of all things military, decided it would be best to start exposing True Sith leaders for who they really were.

"They can deny one or two, but five? Ten? Twenty?! We can win this war of attrition in the shadows!" Neta exclaimed in their first strategy session. Yerbol had been wary of playing up to the reputation that Bracknell and Saresh were pumping into the public eye(as were others), but they had no choice but to go on the offensive, which was exactly what they did with surprisingly good results. They broke up supply chains to Galactic Alliance outposts, killed True Sith leaders in the Alliance Cabinet that had been identified in the list gleaned on the True Sith homeworld(now known as Quensu...Roan found that bit out from a scroll) and exposed their dealings with Bracknell as best they could through whatever channels.

Leaking information to the public began to divide some populations, a few small colonial settlements on outlying planets outright rejecting the Alliance and moving to the planet their main base was on(Zinuthra...again, deduced from a scroll by Roan). Over the past two months, however, Zinuthra was being populated seemingly every day by more and more dejected Alliance forces that wanted nothing to do with the "despotic" and "iron-handed" government that smoothly hid their mass killings, imprisonment of dissenters and overall totalitarian tactics by pointing to the massive successes("No more rogue Force users to plague the galaxy!" "Wealth and prosperity for the galaxy and beyond!") the Alliance had managed to achieve.

Things were reaching a breaking point, however, and all who were a part of their contingent against the Alliance knew it. Their strike teams were getting intercepted more frequently, smugglers getting thrown off their routes by Alliance cruisers and blown to spacedust and more soundbites were circulating on the HoloNet about "crushing the threat to our wonderful peace" from both Bracknell and Saresh. Their time in the shadows was going to be up very soon. He hoped they were ready for their grand reveal.

Yerbol sank to his cot, running a hand over his face as a smile crept to his lips when he saw the package of jerky laying in the middle of their quarters, a sticky note on it. He took the package, reading the note aloud:

"Heard it was rough out there. Know this'll make you happy. See you soon!" -Ari

"You know me so well, my dear." He said with a chuckle, ripping the package open. Indeed, they both had gotten to know each other extremely well over this stressful(to say the least) course of time. Going through training sessions with the makeshift council of Masters to sharpen their bond, walking together through the woods to talk about anything OTHER than war, throwing snowballs at each other on those walks...Yerbol wasn't afraid to say that Aria had become his best friend as well as the best partner he had ever fought with. Missions they went on helped sharpen the clarity of their bond, fighting almost seamlessly now as a pair. They were unstoppable most days, although some of the True Sith leaders had given them quite the headache. Yerbol had underestimated a couple, seeing as their guise as harmless politicians gave way to powerful Force users when fighting. He remembered one particular instance three months ago when Senator Yan Iwoi, an Ithorian of slight build, sent him flying out a window with a flick of his wrist. Thankfully Roan had come with them on that particular operation and saved him. Aria had made a lot of "the bigger they are, the longer they fly through the air!" jokes after that.

They got old. Fast.

Speaking of Aria, he knew that she was scheduled to come back from protective detail any minute now. They hadn't seen each other in a couple of days due to her being throttled across the galaxy to protect some important contingent of defecting diplomats. She was due for a hug...

They didn’t have very much time to ponder the strange man’s cryptic riddles for the next several months, as they successfully planted the beginnings of their information warfare on both Coruscant and Dromund Kaas and the intel began to feed onto less well-known channels on the HoloNet, people would begin to take notice of their little rebellious movement and they would be scrambling to try and cater to their new network of supporters-supporters which flooded in FAR quicker than any of them could have anticipated. Neta had dropped back into her Spec ops leader role almost flawlessly and had taken up a second-in-command position to Dorne, providing a voice of tactical guidance for the duo as they tried to wrap their heads around the concept of having to step into pseudo-leadership positions. Naturally, as the two who had discovered the True Sith’s resurgence in the first place, they had become quite the figureheads and while they left the bulk of the tactical decisions to the older, more experienced members of the group, they still had to hit the ground running and learn fast.

The good news was that more exposure meant more help, smugglers and former mercenaries crawling out of the woodwork to offer their services in order to aid the resistance. Whether it would last through time, Cheriss had commented in a clipped manner, they would only have to wait and see. But with Neta spearheading their efforts to expose any and all the True Sith leaders as the frauds they truly were, it was no surprise that they eventually had to concede they could no longer hide in the shadows and that’s when the sting operations had begun. Through some careful snooping from specialised members of Havok (and also Bek, Kandar and their colleagues) they managed to discover that the initial purge of Force users that Bracknell had declared had not been so straightforward; many were still being held prisoner temporarily until the Alliance could get the manpower together to “ensure they were properly disposed of”, as Saresh put it in one news broadcast they had caught the tail end of.
It was a crazy idea, but they had collaboratively concluded during their next strategy session that boycotting those transports and liberating the captive Force users would be an excellent way to not only bolster their numbers but also to boost the morale of their current troops. It would take some time to organise, but many of their haphazardly-formed Council (even Ailel, Matthew and Voldon were forced to admit that while an aggressive solution, it was the best they had) agreed they should take steps towards arranging it.

In the meantime, Aria had been kept busy leaping from training or messing around with Yerbol (something they learned not to take for granted as they never knew when they would have to work apart again, although their bond had grown in strength and they found that even while apart they could still, however faintly, feel the other’s presence in some way) straight onto a shuttle to go darting out to act as a convoy for approaching defectors. The hyperspace route between known space and Zinuthra was quickly becoming not-so-hidden, and any craft which Soto, Bracknell or Saresh suspected to be heading towards Wild Space co-ordinates was often intercepted and shot out of the sky before they could even get there. Aria was still the more adventurous of the pair and had jumped at the opportunity to volunteer to lead “Operation Guard Dog” as Neta had affectionately dubbed it, closely accompanied by Kira. They had worked together on more than one such operation and while it was nowhere near as fluid or effortless as her teamwork with Yerbol, she liked the redheaded Knight; Kira seemed to appreciate Aria’s sarcastic sense of wit where many others either chided her for being overly-abrupt or simply got offended. It was nice to have somebody other than Yerbol that understood her snarky disposition and wasn’t bothered by it. It was the first time Aria could ever really say she had considered people as her ‘friends’, properly. Or even best friends, in Yerbol’s case, much to her father’s distaste. Though Roan didn’t approve of their developing relationship, the constant grumbling and threats directed towards Yerbol had stopped and the former Sith Lord had developed a kind of ‘quiet tolerance’ to his presence in Aria’s life. He made no further protests to their spending time together despite keeping watch over them out of the corner of his eye whenever he could.
While it usually annoyed Aria that Roan would still accompany them on missions, she had never been more glad to have him and the tomb beasts around than the incident with Senator Iwoi, during which she could have sworn Yerbol had very nearly met his end due to flying out of the nearby window, had Roan not appeared in that precise moment to halt the Knight’s momentum mid-air and set him back on the ground. After the initial shock of the incident had worn off, it had become somewhat of an inside joke between the pair, though Yerbol always seemed less fond of it being brought up in conversation than she was.

Presently, Aria was rising from her seat as their shuttle touched down in the hangar bay they had managed to improvise ever since their rebellion had gotten more substantial, looking forward to meeting up with Yerbol again after several days stuck in close proximity with a plethora of diplomats, the typical ‘look-down-their-nose-at-you’ (though they spent half their time stressing how grateful they were that the Force users had taken the time to escort them since they were ‘feeling rather threatened by the Alliance’s increased military presence along the route’) political type that Aria had spent most of her early years around. They were just as boring as she remembered and she was desperate for a chance to get away from all of it even for a little while, before they attempted to put their “prison break” operation into proper action. Bidding Kira a quick farewell (and ignoring the redhead’s furious jibes of how ‘she would pay for leaving her to deal with these snobs if it was the last thing she did’), Aria danced around their latest charge of grateful rescuee’s and quickly flitted through the compound to their assigned quarters before anybody else could ask her for “just one more favour!”, thankfully she managed to look tired enough that nobody would begrudge her a few hours of rest after such a long flight.

She would find Yerbol seated on his cot, looking up almost immediately as he no doubt felt her approach before she actually stepped through the doorway. Nonetheless, the Knight would scarcely have the time to get to his feet once again before she threw her arms around him and graciously took advantage of the hug he had been pre-empting. Over the past few months, the gestures had become a lot less awkward for them and what had started out as another quip shared between them had become almost second-nature now, especially after they had been apart for such a length of time.
“Boy, am I glad to see you!” she laughed softly after he had set her down and they had stepped apart slightly to talk again. “I thought that route was never going to end. They spent the whole trip ‘catching us up’ on the current legislation hullabaloo that Bracknell’s been trying to pass in the Senate, if you could even call it that now.” her nose wrinkled in distaste at the memory. “Do you know he’s trying to make it illegal to possess any kind of holocron or teaching archive without authorisation papers? Probably a pathetic attempt to try and track down the stuff we leaked back and destroy it for good.”
She flopped herself down onto her own makeshift bed, folding her arms behind her head as she looked up towards the ceiling. “How have things been over here? Any movement on that shipment of Force users yet?” though of course, she wasn’t REALLY interested in talking business, or anything about the war. At least not for a few hours. It was about time they took some ‘time off’, if for nothing else but to save their sanity.

Aria quickly realised this, holding her hand up to halt anything he had been about to say in response to her original question. “Actually, you know, let’s go goof off for a while, I’m sure Neta will be the first one to tell us when it’s “go time”.” a teasing grin graced her features as she noted the discarded packaging and proclaimed. “I thought that’d cheer you up. We should petition for Neta and Elara to request a bigger shipment next time, that stuff’s about the only edible thing we’ve got and it’s always the first to go.” her eyes twinkled, and it was impossible to tell whether she was being serious in her next statement or not. “I had to start a fight with the little old lady in the shipping depot to get that sent back ahead of us, you know.”

Her cozy embrace was one that he had gotten familiar with over their course of time together, said gesture sometimes including picking her up off the ground when they were particularly happy, this qualifying as one of those times. Coupling his recent return from a failed rescue attempt on stranded diplomats on Hoth(he wouldn't talk about that one just yet) with not seeing Aria for a week because of a dangerous mission across the galaxy made him overjoyed to see his diminutive friend. After collapsing onto her cot and Yerbol placing himself on the floor next to Aria's bed, she asked about the Force Users that they had been monitoring for a few days. There was some information he was going to share when she silenced him, then proceeding to share her harrowing experience with an older woman. He chuckled, extending the open package to her as an invitation before telling her:
"Ari, how many times have I told you to NOT go after old women? I mean honestly, it's becoming such a trend these days. First it's old ladies, then it'll be one legged nursing home retirees and the cycle of preying on the helpless will never end." Taking some jerky for himself, he chewed on the stuff for a few seconds before speaking, words interspersed with meat:
"You know...this...stuff is...worth fighting...an old lady for...keep doing what...you're doing..." He swallowed, placing the package aside before looking her over, shaking his head.
"I don't understand it. How on EARTH do you look that good after dealing with diplomats for a week? The hot air alone should've displaced some of your hair, made your eyes bleed, but no, you somehow manage to look unscathed. I, on the other hand, go to a planet where there's quite literally NOTHING but snow and look!" He pointed at a newly minted cut on his forehead, then to his clothes.
"Bloody Wampa came at us when we weren't looking...and don't you laugh! They're good at hiding with all their white fur and their white...everything else." He sighed.
"Of course, I'd much prefer to deal with Wampas than politicians." A smile creased his features.
"I'm glad you're home safe, though. Can't exactly be the dynamic duo when there's just one of us." His comm unit buzzed on his cot, having taken it out of his ear when he undressed. Rolling his eyes, he crawled to the other side of the room and planted it back inside his left ear.
"Yerbol here."
"I saw you both come in." This wasn't spec ops Neta, this was teasing "I'm going look out for you kids" Neta. He didn't know which one was worse at this point.
"Do you need us to do anything? Please say no."
"Don't worry, sweetcheeks, you're off the hook for a while. The prisoners are still off our radar, which means that if their flight plan is as valid as Tooks says it is, then they'll be coming across our screen in about half a day."
"So we can rest? Actually rest?" Neta chuckled as she whispered:
"Or do other things. I'm not gonna judge." Yerbol's face flushed a deep pink as the line went dead, choosing not to turn around but instead deliver the good news while pretending to look for something underneath his cot:
"We've got twelve hours! That's something." After a few moments of searching and trying to suppress the color in his cheeks, he felt bold enough to return to his original position.
"Couldn't find my gum." He lied, badly, but at least he didn't have to tell Aria about what Neta so inappropriately suggested.
"So...I'm thinking we don't leave the room for a while or if we DO, we'll need to know where we're going to take shortcuts. Suggestions? Well, wait, suggestions that include us hanging out and not being saviors of the galaxy for half a day. Options that I suggest include walking AWAY from base and trying to spot that weird bird that kept following us the last time, trying our hand at pazaak or that strategy board game Manso brought for us or...well, anything that doesn't involve a lot of work."

Aria plucked a piece of the jerky out of the packaging as he offered it to her, biting a piece off the end and chewing and swallowing before she retorted. "And didn't your mother ever teach you not to talk with your mouth full?" She giggled at his somewhat unexpected compliment, shaking her head abruptly and following up with:
"We just got lucky, I guess. It was a bit of a close shave at one point, and I DID have to re-do my hair twice." couple that with another quip about her ears suffering some unseen internal damage from the politician's incessant babbling and the pair were in hysterics for another few minutes before they could contain themselves again.
She squinted at the cut on his forehead and pulled a face, prodding it gently with the end of her thumb until she ascertained that it was healing well enough and slumped back again.
“You couldn’t see a Wampa coming, really, Bol?” then again, there had been an awful lot of snow lately and she supposed white fur blended in rather well with that kind of landscape so she’d let him have that one. “Okay, fine.” she smirked, holding her hands out defensively, though anything else she was about to say was cut off by the incessant chirping of the comlink on the other bed. With an over-exaggerated groan, Aria fell back against the creaky mattress and proclaimed: “Can they not leave us alone for five minutes?!” their constant need to be a presence in everything was becoming rather tiresome and she was desperate to just forget about the whole war and have some time to themselves.

Thankfully, however, the person on the comlink seemed in the mood to grant that request as Yerbol signed off a few moments later to declare that they would have not one, or even two, but TWELVE hours of uninterrupted rest time. That sounded fabulous. Unable to keep the smile from her face, she rolled over again to look at him, noting he seemed a bit disgruntled by something that had been said though she decided not to pry. He’d tell her if it was anything really important, after all.
“I’d be up for looking for that bird. Or maybe we could track down something that looks like a Wampa and we could practise how to spot them trying to sneak up on you, maybe teach them a lesson about what happens when they bully people who can use the Force." she didn’t expect him to take up the suggestion at all, but it made her chuckle nonetheless. “I’m kidding, we should probably give anything like that a wide berth. They were here first after all.” She stretched out her legs with another groan. “Some fresh air and a walk to stretch my legs would do me some good though, that shuttle was oh so very stuffy.” rolling off the cot, she got to her feet again and glanced back at him. “Then maybe when we get back we can try and figure out how that game of Manso’s is supposed to work, how’s that sound?”

It would be a simple enough matter to slip out the back of the complex and head for the other crystal building, the birds seemed to like it up in the rafters over there. Aria had to admit they hadn’t had much chance to observe the local wildlife and while it usually wasn’t her thing, it would give them an excuse to go AWOL from the base for a few hours.
“So, we follow birds around till we get lost or tired and then see about ambling our way back?” she proposed.

It was a gorgeous early afternoon, the sun rotating around Zinuthra fixed near it's highest position, casting glorious beams of yellow-white that cascaded across the treetops, bouncing off the foliage up towards the crystalline mountain peaks. Birds cawed overhead at each other, flitting in and out of coordinated flight patterns that were in the shape of a triangle. Taking a look back at the busy encampment was a stark contrast to what lay just west of their base. It was strangely comforting to know that they had a place to shed their responsibilities, to just exist. That in and of itself was even more beautiful than the landscape that stretched out in front of them.
"Yeah, let's just meander about. That sounds fun, doesn't it? Meandering?" He traipsed past a bundle of branches that had collapsed onto the ground, more than likely from a recent storm that had nearly blown over the natural cover of the forest that surrounded their encampment, looking up at the multi-colored winged creatures above as they narrowed their wingspan, allowing a breeze to carry them aloft towards the mountains.
"Flying. That's something I wish we could actually do with the Force, you know? We can leap high enough, but that kind of sustained flight would make us pretty stinking awesome, wouldn't you say?" He strolled forward, hands jammed into the pockets of his shorts, shuddering a bit at the realization that it was a brisk afternoon. Of course, he was normally coated in sweat from working or training, so he never noticed the cold that many of the others had complained about in recent weeks.
"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come out in shorts." He mumbled with a chuckle, walking around the thick base of a tree before rejoining Aria at her side, their shoulders grazing every few strides. It was a peaceful exercise and Yerbol honestly didn't have any words to add to the serene moment...well, he did after a few minutes of contented strolling:
"Been thinking about my parents a lot lately...what they would think of what we're doing. I mean, our faces are getting plastered all over law enforcement agencies holo comms, our names are being thrown into the dust along with the others...I hope they haven't lost faith in me." He kicked a pebble with a sneaker as he continued:
"At least your Dad is on our side and we know it. My parents might think that I've turned my back on everything I knew...which, we kinda did, didn't we? Fat load of good our old Orders did for us." An edge of bitterness accompanied the last phrase, but it faded into wistfulness when he added:
"But this might be the degree of the Force...or destiny...or chance. In any case, I feel like this pain is necessary for something great to form, which of course includes our friendship." He gently nudged her shoulder.
"After all this is over...I want us to stay together, you know. Through whatever happens. Maybe be Force wielding nomads that jump from planet to planet to save the helpless or maybe we hire ourselves out as a crack team of mercenaries, make a fortune and retire somewhere nice. That's gotta sound somewhat appealing, right?"

Aria kept in stride with Yerbol as they made their way through the forest towards the plains where they had first landed, her attention devoted to the birds as they flitted across their path overhead, until she strafed too far to the side and bumped her shoulder into a tree trunk, or Yerbol’s own shoulder, and had to focus on the path once more to reorient herself. Her lips pursed together in thought as he mentioned the idea of being able to use the Force to ACTUALLY fly.
“It must be nice.” she agreed, almost wistfully as a somewhat adorable grin creased her features. “I mean, nothing could stop us then, could it? We could just swoop in and rescue everyone from injustice and then fly away again before the crooks could blink twice!” she snorted with laughter, turning her head to look sideways at him. She hadn’t noticed before, but he was shivering slightly. Having ventured out with a cloak wrapped around her shoulders (space got pretty cold, too) and not removing it before they left the complex, she hadn’t noticed how biting the wind had gotten. “Aw, we can turn around if you’re having second thoughts Bol.” she quipped back at him. “Seriously, you’ve just been to HOTH and you’re complaining about the COLD?”
They fell into a mutual state of quiet appreciation of their surroundings for several moments before Yerbol broke the silence between them and spoke of his parents again. Aria hummed softly to convey her sympathy, slowing her step as she suggested:
“Have you thought about, well...trying to get a letter or a holomessage out to them? We get other stuff through, we could manage it. You said they’re probably still on Taris, right?” of course without any way to be SURE his parents still lived where he remembered, it would be risky to try, especially if they had relocated….but she hated knowing he missed them that much and being helpless to do anything to make it better. One of the downsides to them getting so close, she supposed. He didn’t answer straight away, which prompted her to shrug and mumble. “Just think about it.”

The atmosphere between them seemed to shift suddenly as he changed the subject to what they would do once this whole war was over and done with. Once, the degree of sincerity in his voice would have terrified her; but now it left an odd feeling of glowing warmth in her chest that Aria couldn’t quite explain.
“Y’know, I like the sound of that.” she admitted, another genuine smile forming. “We could be vigilantes, rescuing people from slavery or…’steal from the rich to give to the poor’, that sort of thing. It’d be a great gig. Then when we’re old and grey we can go somewhere nice and just sit on a porch all day talking about...whatever it is old people talk about. If we’re feeling particularly nostalgic we could even go to Manaan.” she giggled at her suggestion, recalling their last trip to the Selkath homeworld and how they had both been surprised by its relaxing, lavender-smelling (where there weren’t enough Selkath nearby to overpower it with their fishy stench, of course) atmosphere.

Aria bumped his shoulder in return, glancing up as they paused their walk to skirt around the same wide-trunked tree from before. The former acolyte was quiet, perhaps TOO quiet, for another few heartbeats as she seemed to think the action through before she threw all of her weight into the next nudge (though she would have to use some basic Force manipulation to bolster her strength enough to have a chance at actually knocking him off balance due to their size difference), leaping up into the low-hanging branches above their heads with a jubilant cry of:
“LAST ONE TO THE TOP’S BANTHA FODDER!” she had already grasped hold of the next branch and was hauling herself up another level when she heard Yerbol shouting something that sounded like “Hey! That wasn’t fair!” from down below. Not only had she given herself a few seconds’ head start by catching him unawares, but Aria’s lither build granted her the ability to flit from one branch to the next with an almost frightening level of agility. She may not have been as physically strong as the other acolytes in the Academy, but she had clearly learned to make up for it by being light on her feet. It was no surprise, therefore, that she managed to remain a few inches in front of the young Knight, only pausing to ‘take pity on him’ and call back another playful taunt.
“What’s the matter, Bol? Didn’t you ever climb trees on Tython; or did you spend too much time reading?”
Puffing slightly for breath, Yerbol scowled up at her though instead of preparing a witty comeback of his own he called out.
“Ari, be careful! They’re a lot thinner up-”
He would be cut off by her startled shriek as the next branch she grabbed snapped clean off the trunk under the strain of her body weight and sent her crashing through the previous levels of branches, knocking Yerbol off balance as he tried to grab her hand to stop her from falling any further which simply resulted in both of them tumbling down to ground level.
“...There.” Yerbol finished as the duo landed in an awkward heap at the foot of the trunk.
“Totally did NOT see that coming.” she gasped, clearing her throat as she tried to scramble away from him and allow him enough space to right himself too. “Force, I’m sorry, Bol. Are you okay?” with another squeak of alarm, her foot caught on an exposed root and she fell back down onto his torso again, heat engulfing her entire face as they both fumbled to try and disentangle themselves without making the situation any worse.

If they hadn’t looked dishevelled enough from the bits of twigs and leaves sticking to their hair and clothes after their fall from the tree canopy, the multiple attempts it took them to both get their feet firmly planted underneath them again did not improve the situation. Aria cleared her throat again, plucking one such leaf from behind her ear and letting it float away on the breeze.
She had a feeling her face was about as red as Yerbol’s was, shifting her weight from one foot to the other she put forward another suggestion while raising her right hand at the same time:
“Those in favour of sneaking into the compound so Neta DOESN’T see us coming back looking like this?”

Whether or not they would accomplish that feat, remained to be seen….

Yerbol had been taken by surprise at Aria's sudden desire to clamber up the massive tree in front of them, but he wasn't about to back down from her brazen challenge nor from her well placed taunts that spurred him on even further to focus on his ascent. His concentration was broken when he looked up to try and gain a better view on his next handhold, seeing as his eyes quickly found Aria's hand moving towards a cluster of branches that, if she were paying more attention, weren't attached to the tree but instead laying on a larger branch that was nearly off the trunk. He shouted a warning, but instead of hearing it in time and heeding the instruction, both he and Aria found themselves planted on the ground after a long fall. Yerbol's eyes had closed tightly during their untimely descent, but snapped open when he felt weight being pressed on him, his face deeply reddening when he spotted Aria trying to lift herself off of him.
"Right, here, let me-" He didn't realize that their legs had become intertwined, so when she tried to rise, she lifted his legs up at an angle where they naturally kicked her back down. Cursing out of embarrassment, the Knight lifted his legs up, but then accidentally caused Aria to slide further down his torso onto his stomach. It took several more attempts and more cursing before the duo were finally separated from each other, Yerbol brushing his legs and arms off, wincing at a few cuts that had been caused by the fall.

Snorting a chuckle, he nodded, finishing off his self grooming as he added:
"Yeah, we'll need to have a cover story too just in case we get grilled by her or others that might be curious as to why we sneaked off into the wilderness." When he looked up, he saw Aria's dark eyes dancing with mischief, her slightly round-ish face flushed with a hint of pink, hair mussed up in several different direction and in that singular moment, one overriding thought dominated his brain.

She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

He wanted to shove it away, desperately clawing at the thought's outer edges in feeble attempts to cram it into his mental waste basket, but couldn't. It was immovable, fixed in it's position. Before he could try to discipline his body from acting on the thought, he moved forward, their bodies about a foot apart.
"There's something on your cheek." He muttered softly, brushing away streaks of dirt and flecks of green that came from the forest floor. The hand that had reached up to clear it away hovering for a couple of seconds, knuckle of his index finger brushing her jaw as it dropped to his side.
"Ari..." You've become the most important person in my life. Whenever you enter the room, my heart skips like a child on the playground, it jumps at knowing you'll be next to me. Through everything we've gone through, I've realized that I can't live without you, that I won't live without your warmth, your humor, your passion, your dedication. I want you by my side for as long as we exist.

Instead of those particular words, all he could muster was:
"You still look good." He managed to choke out, turning his body back towards the base.
"So...so let's head back, right? We can play that game Manso made for us..." His hands clenched into fists, fingernails whitening before he spun around to face her again.
"You're really important to me." He proclaimed, hand rubbing his neck.
"I mean, really, really important to me." He added, drawing a few inches closer.
"And I...I just wanted you to know that." Swallowing hard, he cursed inwardly at his probably terribly awkwardness.
"Sorry, I just...I just wanted you to know. You're really, really important to me."

THERE ARE OTHER WORDS THAN IMPORTANT!!!

"Oh, ouch, let's not do that again, huh?" Aria winced, placing a hand over her ribs which were throbbing far too much to NOT be pre-empting an impressive set of bruises that would no doubt show themselves the next morning. Cover story. Right, like Neta (ESPECIALLY Neta, in fact) or anybody else would believe any kind of cover up they came up with. Though anything would sound better than 'well, we fell out of a tree', she had to admit. Her thoughts on what they would say to disperse any doubts were interrupted as Yerbol pointed out that there was something on her cheek though before she could reach up to wipe it off herself, he had stepped closer and done it for her.
"Thanks." She mumbled, exhaling a shaky breath of her own as she seemed to contemplate their close proximity while he turned to look back towards the base and mumbled something about them going back. She couldn't help but feel a stab of disappointment that they would have to return to strategising and fighting a war again already. There was just something so perfect about the fuzzy bundle of nerves that sprang to life every time he smiled at her that she had been struggling to comprehend, to find words to express the feeling, for some time.
"Bol, wait I-" He turned back towards her at precisely that moment and began speaking again, stumbling over his words and repeating himself.
She knew she should have stepped backwards, distanced herself a bit, Roan's words drilled into her skull over repeated training sessions: attachments are a weakness. Attachments are a weakness. And yet her feet were rooted to the spot, and though the mantra pounded in her ears it was as if she and gone entirely deaf to its meaning.

Aria couldn't be sure what he was trying to say, and maybe she should have asked. But with the threat of another stressful and potentially dangerous sting operation looming over their heads she panicked and reacted on an impulse, stretching up on her toes to press a delicate kiss to his cheek. Just like that, the contact seemed to jolt some sense back into her and Aria jumped backwards. Should NOT have done that. Oops. Her voice cracked slightly as she responded.
"You're really important to me, too. I...I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to you."
Morbidly embarrassed by her lapse in judgement, she quickly ducked past him and began to step back towards the compound before she could do anything else even more reckless (she'd be lying if she said she hadn't considered it), trying to save what remained of the conversation by returning to the topic of their 'cover story.
"Anyone asks, we ran into a pack of those Riika cats and we had to duck through a thicket or something to lose them." She suggested, a reasonably plausible explanation. The golden spotted cats they had encountered in the foreat on their first trip into Zinuthra's wilderness were rather gutsy and they seemed to be drawn to the outskirts of the rwbellion's encampment. In fact, they had become such a nuisance for breaking into their food stores (it seemed the jerky was delicious not just to everybody on base but everything OUTSIDE of it as well!) that Neta and Elara had set up sentries to keep watch for any on the prowl while Roan was too preoccupied with training sessions or combing through history archives to chase them off. Flash grenades or warning shots worked well enough as a substitute in this case.

Alas, they would not escape notice as they skirted the outermost areas of the settlement, although they would escape too rigorous a questioning from most of the soldiers who simply mumbled a quick greeting before returning to their morning drills. They would not, however, escape Vano's eagle-eyed awareness as she ambushed them from her "cat spotting" perch as they passed beneath it.
"Do I even WANT to know what you two have been up to?" She queried with a raised brow. Aria retorted in her usual manner and provided the previously decided excuse, which Vano apparently didn't quite believe. "Riika cats, sure." She grinned, peering over the top of Aria's head at Yerbol before she dropped her voice to whisper to the younger girl: "When are you two going to stop being so evasive and just ADMIT it already?"
Aria spat another curse under her breath for the resurgence of reddish colour that overtook her face again, punching the Mirialan in the ribs.
"Shut.UP, Vano! I don't know WHAT you're talking about."
Vano's grin only broadened. "Aw, you think noone else has noticed? That's cute, Aria. Really cute. But this is getting painful to watch."

A scowl creasing her brow, Aria dodged past Vano with the intention of making a break for their quarters to avoid any further interrogation.
"C'mon, Bol. Just ignore her, she doesn't know what she's talking about."

If human beings could suddenly melt into puddles upon certain events, then Yerbol would've been a large one on the forest floor after Aria's kiss(on the cheek). She was quick to respond to his feelings, but even quicker did she resume in her efforts to come up with a valid enough cover story to fly past uncomfortable questions. He wanted to talk to her, slow her down and process what he believed was a momentous occasion in their relationship, but her insistence on returning as quickly as possible was the logical decision to make...yet logic wasn't exactly what he wanted to dwell on. Still, he complied with her cover story, affirming that it would be the best shot they had before making their way back to the base in relative silence, Yerbol's mind fixed on their exchange. Was it infatuation? Was it a lapse in judgment between two friends? His mind was attempting to reconcile sound reasoning for what had occurred, but it was of little consequence due to the sharp ache that sung through his heart every single passing glance he made of his companion, the yearning that surged through him to take her in his arms and run away somewhere quiet where they could lay on verdant, lush earth and look up at the stars, talking about their future in hushed tones. It was hard to believe that these feelings had just burst forth, but it still surprised him at how deeply rooted these feelings suddenly were. Before he could think any harder about emotions, Vano appeared, quizzing the duo. Aria thankfully took the brunt of the questioning, admonishing Yerbol to ignore the prodding, which he could only nod at as they found themselves at the rear of the complex. Yerbol stood still for a brief moment before he grabbed Aria's hand:
"Come on, let's sneak around all this." Without another word, they clung to the edges of the base, managing to find the windy staircase at the upper right hand corner of the base that stood between the main area and a hallway that housed Havoc Squad and other such military types. Fleeing up the staircase, he led them back to their room, shutting the door behind them before telling Aria:
"I'm not going to pretend that didn't happen, Ari." He shook his head.
"Sorry, sorry, that came out FAR too aggressively, I just..." Sighing, he tilted his head to the ceiling, words eventually coming as his head returned to parallel:
"What I meant to say was that I can't ignore what we...what I feel like we're...where I feel like we're..go..ing...bantha crap, I'm doing a bloody terrible job of this." He breathed out sharply, collecting himself once more for a bit more of a graceful flourish of words:
"Once this mission is over, I'd love it if we could take some time and figure this out. I mean, well, I assume you've got the same feelings I do, right? As in, I'm not the only one in this friendship that feels like 'friends' really isn't a label we can apply to what we are now? And it's not about what Vano or Neta or what anyone else has to say, it's about what I feel in here." He pointed to his chest.
"And I can't pretend that those feelings aren't there. I don't know how, all of a sudden, they got super amplified when we were out there together, but I know that they're there and I know that they've dramatically increased and I..." He stepped a bit closer.
"Feel free to tell me that you don't feel this way at all. You're not going to crush me, I mean, I'd get it. Kind of."

____________________

"How did they move that quickly?" The Wookie roared back at his Rodian pilot, who was currently resetting the stabilizers, something he should've done when they started this operation...then again, neither believed that the transport was going to leave for another several hours, let alone depart at a speed that defied logic. As the Rodian plopped back into his seat, he spoke:
"Get on the comm unit and forward the info to Orso. She'll need it."

_____________________

"That wasn't a part of the first info packet!" Elara calmly placed a hand on Neta's arm, telling her:
"We just got the tracking coordinates back from Yipsie. They're a lot closer than we anticipated, but we can handle that." Neta looked down at Elara's hand and brushed it off gently.
"Right."
"It's ok to be stressed about an operation gone wrong, Neta."
"But this was supposed to be something we got right the first time, Lara. Those prisoners have ONE chance for us to get to them."
"And we will. We'll just push our timetable forward and get our teams ready for deployment in twenty minutes. Send out an all-call then?"
"Yeah."

Thankfully, they managed to escape any further interrogation before they made it back to their room, Aria spinning around to face Yerbol as he shut the door and inquired something about her feelings on their friendship and where she felt it was going. "I'm really sorry, Bol. I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, scratch that, I WASN'T thinking and I shouldn't have done that. This is the last thing we need right now." she huffed in frustration, pulling her fingers through her already tangled hair as she tried to process a response to convey her confused feelings on the matter. "I don't mean that I don't feel what you're feeling too, I just mean that I've never...FELT like this before and I don't know what it...means." she finished, concluding with a sigh, her tone somewhat quieter as she nodded in agreement. "I'm not going to ask you to pretend it didn't happen, because I don't want that either; but I think we need to be thinking of other things first and sort...whatever this is, out later once we're not trying to stop a Galactic war. And till then you are still my best friend."

They couldn't have arrived back at a better time, for at that moment their comm units chirped again and Neta's slightly strained voice explained the situation to them as it had come through in the latest info update. Once again, they were working on a tight schedule.

____________________

The holo projector in the middle of the room flickered with a large image of a transporter ship, the appointed members of the 'prison break' task force gathered around it as Neta and Elara filled them in on their latest up to date information from their lookouts.
"So, Transport left the space station several hours before we thought. Not only that, but it's moving quicker too." Havok's commander sounded just as perplexed as they would feel to hear the news. "They'll be within range in the next ten minutes or so, we haven't got much time to brief you but we'll give you the important details so you're not going in blind."
Neta took over momentarily, hitting a button on the remote clasped in her hand. A red beacon flashed up on the far left hand side of the lower deck. "Far as we can tell its a converted slave transport. Prisoners are kept in Force-suppressant restraints in this brig area here. Our Intel reckons there's about five of them, extraction could be tricky but if we catch them by surprise we could still pull it off."
"And if they already know?" Aria frowned warily. "Why else would they be moving faster?"
"They could be using illegal hyperdrive modifications." Cheriss pointed out. "A precautionary measure in case Bracknell IS getting paranoid about our activities. We have been making ourselves a thorn in his side lately."

"We've got some pretty decent cloaking devices on the shuttles set aside for you, should get you in close enough to let you board the transport. Then all you have to do is slip through the emergency airlock. Security fields are controlled by a terminal in the opposite room, as long as you can get those down you should have an easy job of getting the Force users out. Then you just have to get back to the shuttles and get out of there before they can send any fighters in as backup." Elara continued. "I'd say it's tricky but you guys have pulled off far riskier stunts in the past so all I'm saying is...go do your thing, and good luck."

Yerbol smiled at the affirmation.
"And you're still mine as long as you'll have me."

______

The shuttle rocked gently as it dropped out of hyperspace, Yerbol's brow furrowing as he spoke to Kilik, one of the newer pilots that had joined up from Imperial command("And good riddance to them!" He had announced upon meeting the main contingent):
"That's a small convoy." True to the Knight's words, there were three smaller shuttles that surrounded a trapezoid shaped transport vessel that was maybe bigger than Neta's ship by a foot or two length wise.
"Neta did say there were only five prisoners, yeah? Might as well not waste resources when you can do it for cheap."
"But they're Force users. Even with the restraints, I would think they would want to beef up security around the ship at least."
"And you're complaining about this because...?" Yerbol chuckled lightly.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, yeah, I get it, but it just..." He sighed.
"Just doesn't feel right. Something's off."
"Well, it's just the two of you on this one, so if things get hot, shouldn't be too hard to get back to the ship in one piece."
"Easy for you to say."
"And even easier to do!" Chuckling, Yerbol rose from the co-pilot's chair to the rear of the shuttle, planting himself across from Aria.
"Am I crazy? You feel it, don't you? That weird sense of...well, I don't know, dread? Fear?" He leaned against the cold metal, the ebony colored durasteel mesh overlay clinking softly as he settled into the seat.
"Maybe it's nerves, but I'm not so willing to discount the idea that we're going to find something onboard that we aren't going to like."
"Five minutes! No tracking beam, no pings on their end. Brace for potential impact if those shuttles have hidden guns."

Nothing came.

___

After boarding the transport via a loading dock that Kilik found with onboard radar, the duo found themselves in a desolate hangar with only a couple of dull metallic crates shoved up against the lower left hand corner.
"Comm unit transmitting on frequency now."
"You're coming in. Any resistance?" Abbeth was normally in charge of communicating with field units along with a few others for support, his expertise with demolitions coming in second to his skill at deftly managing multiple squadrons with different objectives seamlessly.
"None." A muffled grunt.
"Odd."
"That's what I said."
"Keep your channel open and update us on progress when it happens." The line went dead, prompting Yerbol to move forward towards a set of bay doors that opened suddenly when the duo were within a few feet, revealing off-black colored walls and floors that were dotted with dull white lights every couple of feet. Three hallways branches from where they stood, one ahead, one left and one right.
"Ahead is a dead end from the looks of it." About thirty yards north of where they stood was a solid wall, a doorway entrenched to the left of the barricade.
"Or..." Both hallways that extended in either direction turned the corner north, presumably linking up again.
"I chose last time and we got shot at. How about you do the honors this time?" On their last operation together, they had stormed a supply ship and Yerbol was rather confident that a hallway was THE way to the bridge. It had been the right way, but they were greeted by three heavy blaster turrets, hence his deferring.

________

"They really are THAT stupid?" Soto rose from her chair, placing the holocron on her desk as the Major followed up her briefing on the situation:
"Lord Bracknell requests that we hold position until the Jedi are off the shuttle."
"Did he now?" Soto purred, running a hand through her curls.
"His patience is much more refined than mine...as well as his wisdom." She spoke to herself before directing an order at the Major:
"Get the rest of the fleet in attack formation, get Saresh on the comm system. We move when the Jedi hit hyperspace."
"Of course." The Major left, leaving Soto to run her tongue over her lips in anticipation.
"So close...so very close."

Aria was frowning deeply as Yerbol joined her in the back of the shuttle, having overheard the Knight’s talk with Kilik through their bond, she was currently perched on the very edge of her seat, one leg crossed over the other with her chin rested on her knee. She almost looked as if she had swallowed something terribly sour, her frown was so severe. It seemed to brighten slightly as Yerbol reappeared, though she seemed as wary as he was about their approaching the convoy.
“No, it’s not just you.” she confirmed quietly. “I’ve got a BAD feeling about this…” something didn’t feel right. Everything was too easy, the three shuttles surrounding them didn’t even have artillery railguns, or even standard laser canons (or if they did, they were not made show of and there was certainly no firing upon their little transport as they approached the triangular ship). Regardless, they were here now and they might as well keep going with the plan. It didn’t sit right, but there were five people being taken to their certain deaths on that ship just for being Force sensitive, and that couldn’t be allowed to happen.

_______________

They breezed effortlessly through the deserted hangar. No shuttles, no troopers, hell, not even a single astromech droid. This was really, really weird. It made the hairs on the back of Aria’s neck prickle uncomfortably, warning her over and over again alongside the hollow pit in her gut that this was a bad situation and they needed to get out of there, NOW, but she pushed it to the back of her mind so they could press forward.
“Not a single armed personnel anywhere…I don’t like this, at all.” she whistled softly as the hangar bay doors ‘whooshed’ open in front of them and presented them with three choices as to their next path, Yerbol turning towards her and making light mention of the result the last time he had made that choice. Smirking, Aria patted his forearm and stepped in front of him to stretch out her senses and try to scope out the hallways.
“Wuss. So what, if it goes wrong this time you can just blame it on me? Fine, I’ll pick.” blowing out another breath, she stepped towards the left-most corridor. “I think they circle around and join up on the other side of the wall. Elara said the prisoners were on the left-hand side, so let’s go left.” they trudged carefully down the hallway, but found it just as deserted as the hangar bay, and Aria’s predictions to be correct. They arrived on the other side of the previous wall without a hitch, sticking to their ‘keeping left’ approach and soon coming upon a doorway branching off the main hall. On the other side of the doorway faint Force presences could be felt. One, two, three...yes, five. Definitely five. Immediately beside that entryway was a smaller one, presumably the doorway leading to the terminal they would need to de-activate the fields with. Holding out a hand to place against Yerbol’s chest, Aria would halt his step and call his attention to the arrangement. Slipping into the smaller room, they would find the code on the security terminal was frightfully easy to crack (which should have been another red flag in and of itself, in hindsight…), the energy fields cutting out abruptly as Aria and Yerbol entered the room to rouse the half-dazed Force users from their deactivated restraint receptacles.
Sharp spikes of fear permeated through the room as it took the prisoners a moment to realise what was happening. At first, they assumed the worst. That they had arrived early and they were about to be executed.
Aria smiled gently as she hauled a frail-looking Twi’lek carefully onto his feet and murmured.
“Eti aan ily. dan ohk karkirjae guo. Gan cahsinark tlaran dan bo geo ar Koyis Kkita, ootay korjin cahsinark garei cloyan dan.”

It would take some more gentle coaxing for the five to stumble after them back towards the shuttle, but with some patient urging they made it, and managed to communicate their friendly intentions. By the time they rejoined Abbeth and Kilik on their escape shuttle, the five Force users were noticably calmer though still unsteady due to no doubt barbaric restraint techniques or drugs that had been used to incapacitate them. They would need considerable time to recover their strength in a medbay upon return to Zinuthra.

Aria leaned on the back of the co-pilot’s chair, having volunteered to stand around in the cockpit to allow the prisoners to have the rest of the shuttle’s seating area to themselves in order to help them remain settled and not stress them further.
“I don’t like this.” she whispered again.
“So you keep saying.” Kilik huffed, apparently annoyed (or perhaps so worried that he was snapping, as well?) by the duo’s constant fear-mongering. He sighed heavily again as he took the controls and they steered away from the transport, Yerbol inputting Zinuthra’s hyperspace co-ordinates to the navcomputer. “That was WAY too easy.” Kilik would nod, though their attention was focused ahead and they would not see the rest of the armada behind them uncloaking briefly as the crafts’ hyperdrives hummed to life in pursuit of the shuttle.

Soto’s features would spread into a broad grin as the comm system’s dialtone faded away and Saresh’s voice answered on the other end.
“Inform Lord Bracknell that we will be moving imminently. They took the bait.”
______________

A snout bumped at Roan’s hand, gently at first, and then harder. Again. An urgent, chuffing grunt followed as the Tuk’ata tried to rouse its pack leader from the strange Force-trance that seemed to have gripped him like icy cold fingers.
Nothing was vividly clear, the brief glimpses overlaying one another: the scream of multiple hyperdrives, blaster fire echoing off walls, walls not made of metal, lightsabers humming to life, Bracknell’s face twisted into a smug sneer as he proclaimed: “This ends NOW.”

Jolted from the vision as the Sith hound barked again and threw itself into his side, Roan got to his feet and bent to give it a reassuring scratch behind the ears. It was not a well-known fact, but apart from their intelligence, there were a few mutated Tuk’ata that were known to be mildly sensitive to the Force as well. The only two that remained since Korriban’s distraction, his ever-faithful companions could sense it too. The lingering sense of doom. He could not be certain, but if it was true...it would have to happen, or the duo would never have the strength to do what was needed to end this war.
“If this is what the Force wants for me, then it must be so my friend.” he murmured, striding out of the meditation room to locate Voldon, Jungze and Cheriss.
“Ah, Roan. Just in time, we got a call in, they did it.” Cheriss informed him as he slipped into the room.
“...Tell me that I’m not the only one who felt it.” was all Roan could say, his yellowed gaze moving between his comrades.

"You weren't." Voldon pursed his lips, Jungze taking a cross legged seated position up against a nearby wall and leaning her head against the chilly surface.
"It's Bracknell. It has to be."
"We can't jump to conclusions, Malu." Jungze scowled at the Battlemaster, her head nodding towards the galaxy map in the center of the room.
"That map is going to light up with his forces sooner rather than later and don't you tell me otherwise. Blaster fire? Hyperdrive engines roaring to life? Screams of the dying and the dead? Lightsabers hissing? We may have all heard it in differing amounts, but we can't ignore the fact that we shared the same vision. The Force is warning us to take action." Matt emerged, his face a ghastly pallor.
"I assume...I assume we're all gathered here because of what we just saw?" Nods from his colleagues all but confirmed his fears.
"Then Bracknell will be here soon..." Matt bit his upper lip before cursing.
"We're not ready for this. The younglings we have won't be able to handle the massive amount of resistance, we can only be stretched so thin and-"
"Matt." Voldon shot him a glare before adding:
"We've been working tirelessly for the past six months knowing this day would come. We set all of our plans, all our ideas into motion and hope that it'll be enough." Voldon then turned his attention to Roan.
"You told us that if we could strike at Bracknell, use the carnage of the battle down below to sneak our way up to his ship and kill him. If we do this, the amount of influence he's exerting should decline and we might have a chance at winning the fight against the Alliance...still believe that? If so, tell us your plan. We'll need it."

_______

Confusion entered the expressions of the prisoners who were escorted off the shuttle by fast moving hangar workers, telling them to follow them as quickly as they could. The hangar itself was crowded with a hodgepodge of mechanics and technicians doing their best to service the shuttles and two larger ships that their resistance had captured. Sirens blared from makeshift posts in the ground just outside the open hangar, troopers and agents alike scrambling in and out of the main base, weapons in hand, others shouting into their comm units.
"What..." Abbeth's voice commanded the duo to get to the briefing area, a small staging room off the right of the main hall. Complying with the directive, Yerbol and Aria found themselves in the heart of an even busier and stressed command center. Orders were being issued from various agents and persons that were appointed over different "departments" within the complex. The galaxy map in the center console revealed very quickly what the fuss was all about.
"Ari, that looks like a fleet." He pointed to the growing assembly of dots that were careening towards their location, flashes of red and blue text indicating that their incoming speed was well over two hundred miles an hour.

Bracknell.

Neta emerged from the staging room and motioned vehemently to follow her. As they entered, they found the council, Neta and Elara standing around a similar console to the one in the command center that projected a galaxy map, this one zoomed in on Zinuthra.
"He brought a fargin fleet." Neta whispered, arms folded across her chest.
"Thirty ships and counting." Elara added, her tone laced with morbid concern.
"How can they travel that fast?" Matt mused, the fleet's average speed displayed in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Silence sunk heavily into the room.

"We didn't lead them back here...did we?" Yerbol asked hesitantly, choosing to break the seemingly eternal quiet.
"Bracknell knew we were here six months ago. He could've attacked whenever he wished, but more than likely wanted to amass enough power before taking us head on."
"Just like him to hide behind the strength of others." Jungze added, upper lip curling in disgust.
"So...that's it, then? We're going to war?"
"And winning it." Neta confidently asserted.
"Not without a plan, of course. You all know we've been planning for a guerrilla war, one that would involve spreading the troops of the Alliance thin enough to where we can isolate pockets of resistance so we can have a fighting chance. We're already setting the stage for that, but will need some atmospheric help..." Jungze smiled.
"The young ones and I are ready."
"Right. So Jungze and the younger Force users are going to be hunkered in the main complex as they mess with the atmosphere above, giving us a chance at diverting some of the bigger ships away from dropping too many troopers down at one time. We have squadrons heading out now to make camp in the wilderness, try to hopefully intercept the wandering Alliance troopers before they can regroup. From there...well, we've got energy shields around this place and the hangar along with turrets and manned grenade launchers on both sides of the compound. That's going to have to do...Roan, could you please explain to me how that's all we'll need for this? Cause on paper, it looks like we're going to get slaughtered."

At least it wasn't just him, Matthew was slightly late to the assembly, with Ailel trailing in after him a few moments later. “Bracknell is the key to this.” Roan maintained his assertion despite Matt’s misgivings on the matter. “Him and Soto. I know it's difficult to believe Matt, but we're fighting this war with THEM, not any of the others.” He explained as Aria and Yerbol slipped into the command center to join them.
“...no army can function without leaders.” Cheriss caught on to Roan’s chain of thought.

______________

Aria's attention was immediately drawn to the galaxy map in the center of the room, a cluster of rapidly accelerating dots swarming towards the planet like angry hornets disturbed from their nest. That was a fleet and no mistaking it.
“Illegal hyperdrive modifications, they have to be.” Cheriss responded to Matt’s query regarding the fleet's movement speed. “No ship can travel that fast without them.”
Ailel sank her teeth into her lip as she studied the map, a group of the dots breaking away from the main fleet and approaching at a speed only fighter jets were capable of.
“We aren't equipped for this…” she piped up in agreement with Matthew, “Noctis we don't have aerial defense towers, we don't even have a damn fleet!”
Cold claws of dread gripped at Aria's heart.
“We didn't lead them back here...did we?” Yerbol's question broke the eerie quiet that had taken hold of the entire room.
“We must have.” she choked out in a whisper, the realisation hitting her right between the eyes. “Th-The transport ship was empty except for the prisoners...karkin hell, Bol, it was a trap...the whole thing was a trap! We GAVE them our coordinates!”
“I don't CARE how many ships he's brought with him!” Roan spat, cutting off Aria's tyrade. “It makes NO difference to any of this! They have the numbers and the ships but that doesn't mean they have the advantage. We know this planet better than they do. I can guarantee you Bracknell won't have that many Force users on his side, we've picked off most of them. They certainly won't be aboard every ship, the mountains will pick off half the bombers and fighters before they even get within thirty thousand feet of ground level, it's why we chose Zinuthra in the first place. The troops that do make it to the ground can be dealt with, we can lay traps in the forest and on the plains...we don't have to rely on just our manpower. The Riika cats and the other beasts here are territorial, have some of our squads lure theirs into their home grounds, let them do some of the work for us.”

He turned to Jungze. “Jungze, Ailel and the younglings can stay on base, do everything you can to throw off any bombers or fighters that do make it through the peaks, throw them towards the mountains if you have to.” He silenced Ailel’s protests with a vehement glare before they could begin. “Nobody said we had to fight fair, Ailel. Bracknell won't be, it's us or them. The rest of you need to space yourselves out with our forces between here and the forest camps, keep them as divided as possible and stall their advance on the base as much as you can. He might have Soto working their ground assault, if you see her and get the chance, KILL her as quickly as you can. We're going to need you to buy us time to get to Bracknell. If the worst happens and they DO break through into the compound, it'll be your job to hold the line until whatever’s left of the wilderness squadrons can fight their way back through to you. No matter what happens, you CAN’T give in to them, do you understand? Our plan hitches on you keeping their armada busy so it leaves Bracknell exposed. Aria, Cheriss, the boy and the Tuk’ata will come with me, while he's busy watching their progress Abbeth can shuttle us aboard Bracknell's flagship and then get back down planetside as quick as he can. Once we kill Bracknell whatever’s left of their forces will have to surrender, Saresh is a politician not a General, she won't have the skills to keep the attack going. We'll steal a couple of the backup fighters from the flagship and make our way back through while you negotiate surrender with Saresh. Job done.”

“Assuming it goes according to plan…” Ailel muttered.
“Then we make adjustments as it happens, Ailel.” Cheriss asserted. “All us older Masters have fought wars before, we don't have a choice.”
Aria nodded slowly, inching a little closer to Yerbol and touching his arm lightly as the tangle of nerves sprang to life in her gut. They were going to have to fight a war. They’d talked about it often enough, but now it was actually happening she wanted to bury her head in the ground till it was all over and the Council had dealt with it for them. It brought her some comfort that Roan was keeping the pair close to one another, and himself.
“So, this is it then.” she murmured. “We do this, or everyone up till now died for nothing.” Qanarr, Udike, Merak, Takree, who had gone down on an extraction of civilians and converted Alliance sympathisers two months before...this is what they had been fighting for. Their chance to kill Bracknell and Soto, and make it all worth their sacrifices.
“Battle stations, everyone.” Neta echoed, all the individuals in the room filtering out slowly to gear up and take up the positions Roan had suggested, or to make last minute adjustments to their strategies and discuss them with their squad mates.

They paused on their way to the shuttle to let a squad of armoured soldiers rush past them, out towards Zinuthra's wilderness to scout out the Riika cats’ dens, as her father had ordered. Vano among them, the Mirialan smiled bravely at the pair as she passed, muttering. “You give him hell, you two. Make Bracknell pay for what he's done.” Merak had been her brother, and more than anything she wished she could accompany them to give her fallen sibling justice, but she knew the wilderness and had a good level head on her shoulders. Roan's training had made her a vital troop leader for their ground squads, so she had to stay and do what she could, the ground squads were counting on her, on Kira and the other Masters who would be leading similar teams at regular intervals throughout the wilderness.
“Roll Soto's head off her shoulders for us if you see her.” Aria retorted, clapping a hand to the Mirialan’s shoulder briefly. “We'll see you soon.” she hoped.

The troops dismissed, the duo would continue to the hangar where they would wait for Abbeth, Cheriss and Roan to join them. Aria tried to fight down her own apprehension, clung to the reassurance that she and Yerbol would be together. That nothing bad would happen to him as long as she drew breath, or that if the worst happened they would go down together. Her hands balled into fists as she glanced sideways at her best friend, her heart aching at the mere thought that they may never get to talk out this confusing shift in relationship if one or both of them didn't make it to the end of this assault. She wished they had more time….there were things she had to tell him that she hadn't even found the words for, yet, damn it! You're the best friend I've ever had. We've not been together long, but I care about you more than I've ever cared about anyone. I'm so glad I got trapped in that tomb with you, that I didn't kill you that day. You are more special to me than you might ever know, and a life without you isn't one worth living.
“Yerbol….” the words stuck in her throat as she tried to speak, to voice SOME of them, but they wouldn't come out. Instead, she simply threw her arms around him again, holding him tightly for the last few moments before the others arrived and they would have to be ready to board the shuttle and put her father's plan into motion, mumbling:
“One last hug. For luck. And just in case there won't be any more.” it pained her terribly to think of the last statement, let alone say it aloud, but she knew it was a very real possibility. This was war, and the Alliance wanted to wipe them from existence. "Promise me you'll stay close to me, please."

“Let's go.” Roan’s gruff voice broke them apart, Aria releasing her friend from her tight grasp and stepping back to nod her head firmly, her jaw clenching.
"Time to finish this."

Roan's plan was precise, logical and obviously had some influence from the tactical side of their operation(Neta and Elara's knowing smiles were evidence enough). Blending Roan's superb strategical mind and Force ability with the experience and combat knowledge of the two leading military women made for an inspiring enough plan that Yerbol believed would work, despite the fear that was crawling around the back of his mind that wanted to overtake him. He had been on contested worlds, gone into heavy fighting, yes, but this...this was a battle on a whole other plane of existence. Aria's reminder about how many they had lost, how much they had fought for and worked towards, brought him back from his thoughts and into reality. He wouldn't allow the sacrifices of so many go wasted into oblivious. They would fight with every last ounce of their strength until Bracknell was dead. There was no other alternative. There couldn't be.

As the group dispersed out of the room, Neta called out:
"Hey, Yerbol, wait a minute." He told Aria he would catch up with her momentarily before moving closer to the spec ops officer.
"What is it?" The confident, borderline cocky demeanor fell for a moment, eyes betraying concern.
"I ah-I need you to do me a favor. In case this all hits the fan." She reached into the front pocket of her vest and withdrew a miniature holocron.
"This is a coded holocron that's tied directly to a terminal on Alderaan, just outside House Organa. I need you, once this is all over, to go there and place it in the terminal, then follow the directions."
"What is th-"
"I'm not finished." A hand shot out and grabbed his left upper arm, squeezing uncomfortably tight.
"You tell them that I did everything I could to get back to them, that I'm with their Daddy and..." Her eyes misted over, her free hand rubbing away a couple of tears that had already began to run down her face.
"And that I loved them. I loved them like no one else would or ever will. You understand that? You tell them that exactly." Yerbol swallowed hard, his voice cracking in reply:
"Why don't you tell them yourself, wimp?" She laughed sadly, squeezing even harder.
"You see what we're up against, sweetcheeks. I've gotta hedge the bet against myself, make sure that my affairs are in order and all that fun stuff before we start shooting the bad guys." She laughed slightly before adding:
"You know, I didn't think I would ever trust you with something like this. To be honest, I thought you were a little punk when we first met." They both shared a chuckle before Neta released her grip, looking up at Yerbol with a bright, sincere smile.
"I like to think the people that I fight with are family. We kind of adopted each other back in spec ops. I'd like to let you know that I formally made you my little brother six months ago."
"Why wasn't I informed?"
"Because I don't need you thinking that you're ALWAYS in my good graces." Another shared laugh before Yerbol leaned in and wrapped his arms around the former pilot with a smile, Neta returning the gesture.
"You be careful out there, baby boy. Come back to us in one piece." As they released, she left a hand on the back of his head, shaking it playfully before adding:
"And you make sure that cutie of yours doesn't get hurt."
"Neta..."
"I couldn't resist."

_______

Yerbol caught up to Aria, apologizing for his delay just as Vano and a squadron of scouts passed by. After a brief exchange, the duo found themselves waiting outside the only shuttle left in the hangar, the others dispersing to various parts of the Zinuthra wilderness to brace for the oncoming invasion. They were quiet, which was normal before a mission, but that silence was interrupted by Aria calling his name softly. He turned to face her, then quickly finding himself tightly squeezed in her arms. Yerbol gently wrapped his own arms around her waist, kissing her softly on the head as they stood in the desolate hangar, a moment of peaceful solemnity shared between them.
"There'll be far more hugs after this, Ari. When we get back. Alive." He nodded at her admonition about staying close, telling her:
"Always. I'm never leaving your side."

____

"The final strike is now coordinated. Shuttles two, five and seven will deploy at specified distances from the rebel base. Cannon support will be provided by aerial strikes that will commence before, during and after landing. Troop transports will follow after initial scouting parties clear some of the areas away. Stay in communication at all times, kill every last one of them. They have stood in the way of progress long enough. We wipe them out. Now." Soto waved her hand to dismiss the commanding officers, waiting for their exit from the room before withdrawing her personal holo-comm and contacting Bracknell, who appeared a moment later.
"Master, everything is in preparation. I assume your battle meditation has already been put into motion? The troops seemed more motivated than normal." A smirk crossed her features as she continued:
"Just like you requested, I'll be on the ground leading our forces towards the base. I head out now. Your will shall be done, Master. And the galaxy will tremble."

___

Winds whipped across the atmosphere of the planet, clouds blooming from soft white to ebony black, thunder rolling across the sky.
"Stay in harmony with each other at all times." Jungze calmly told the twenty or so younglings seated in a circle, each of them cross-legged, hands clasped together, eyes closed in focus. The Sith Lord sat in the center in a similar manner, her energies melding with those in the room before being projecting upwards.
"We will be at one with the Force, at one with the planetary energies that swirl around you. Ride the currents, give into every undulation you feel." She felt the foundations of the base rumble, heard the hissing of energy shields being activated outside. They were already on the planet.

Force help them all.

___

"Units three, four and one, report in!"
"Caught ten of them sneaking down through the forest west of the base. Took them down with a few casualties. Didn't see what was coming!"
"Make sure it stays that way!" Elara hissed before addressing the members of her own squadron:
"Havoc, report!"
"Demolition charges set, energy shields online and Zora even picked off a few through the treeline. More incoming, even through the storm that's gotten kicked up." Neta grimaced as she patched into Abbeth's com:
"Abbeth, get your people on the shuttle and wait for the all clear."
"Copy." Neta looked up to the galaxy map to see even more transports deploying towards them, chewing her lower lip as she felt for the blaster pistol secured snugly against her hip, cradling the grip with her right hand.
"T-Minus two till lift off. More transports incoming, use them as cover to break through to the bigger ships."
"Roger. Good luck down here."
"We'll need it."

____

"Get strapped in, people! Lift off is now!"

Bracknell nodded his head at the holographic projection of Jean that hovered above the projector built into the flight command console.
“Excellent work, my apprentice. Everything will work according to plan.” the statement was firm and assured, rather than hopeful. He would ensure it himself personally, and the reason why he would not be joining Soto on the ground assault. He would need a wider reach to put his battle meditation, learned from the Master himself, into action across their whole fighting force. “We will celebrate later.” He asserted. “But now I must go, I need to concentrate.” with one final affirmation, Jean’s holographic image flickered away, Bracknell settling into the seat behind him and focusing on the ebb and flow of energies around and below him. A smirk would colour his face as he sensed the four break the planet’s atmosphere.
So, they thought they could bring the fight to him, did they? Oh, he was looking forward to this. Noctis and Lash, two of the last who had evaded him so long, would be dead before the battle was over. Jungze would perish on the planet with the rest of their pathetic resistance and then he and Soto could sit back and reap the rewards of their success. If they could achieve it promptly enough, he might even consider leaving her alive…
___________________

The very ground seemed to rumble with the next impact, Vano hunkering down beside the remaining members of her squad as they took cover in the tree line. Peering ahead, the energy shields that protected the compound rippled as they absorbed the railgun fire. Inside, Jungze and Ailel had managed to hold off the majority of the approaching fleet though a handful of fighters and trooper carriers had slipped through, dropping their forces in the forest while the fighters circled back on the compound with a vengeance. She had tried to manipulate the fighter’s engines, bring them down in the brief respite they had been given from fighting Alliance soldiers as Voldon’s unit dropped back to join them, but something seized hold of her as soon as she tried to reach for the jet mechanics and she found she had to withdraw again.
“How are they still coming at us?!” gasped a wide-eyed recruit behind her. “We've killed SO many of them and it just doesn't seem to matter at all, ma'am!”
The Mirialan realised with an uncomfortable jolt that he was right. What the hell was going on with these people, it was like they weren't even people at all, but almost robotic. Seeing their comrades fall before them had nigh on no effect. She could think of only one solution.
“Soto. We have to find Soto.” turning to look for the Battlemaster, she called. “Master Naylon!”
________________

“How are we going to know which ship is Bracknell's?” Cheriss questioned as Abbeth steered them around the last mountain peak and out into the vast openness of space.
“Easy.” Roan answered after a long enough pause that betrayed the effort it took him to determine it. “The comm channels, they've got outgoing transmissions to instruct their guys planetside, we find the one ship all the transmissions pass through before they go out and we find the flagship. He’ll be there, where he can keep an eye on everything from above.”
“Right.” their pilot grunted, it took one circle of the opposing fleet for them to locate the flagship in question. Then it was a simple matter of them slipping past outgoing fighter squadrons to dock in the hangar long enough for their strike team to jump ship.

“Bracknell will be on the bridge.” Cheriss whispered as they crept through the hangar bay’s main doors and into the adjoining corridor, only to be greeted by a warning siren that blared throughout the ship as an elevator ‘swooshed’ to a halt on their floor, opening to allow a mixture of Imperial shock troopers and Republic commandos to filter in, rifles and vibroswords raised to attack positions.
Raising both hands into the air, Roan bellowed out:
“We are here for Bracknell, and Bracknell alone! NONE of you have to die for him, drop your weapons NOW and surrender, and you may leave in peace when he is dead and this is all over.”
Most of them faltered and stopped in their tracks, hushed murmurs flitting from one individual to the next as they seemed to doubt the Sith Lord's words.
“How many more of you are willing to die for that tyrant? There are comrades of yours below with our friends who can attest that we brought them no harm.” Cheriss promised them. “We are imploring you, drop your weapons. Or we WILL have to kill you to get to him.”
Drop them. Please. Aria begged the soldiers silently. Think of your families. An audible breath out left her lungs as safety switches clicked on once again and rifles and blades were set to the floor.

The rest of the ship was once again eerily empty, the only other encounter they made was when a heavy blast door opened from the right-hand side as they navigated a long, winding corridor that snaked around towards the front of the vessel, the black-suited Ubese making a reappearance. Only this time it was not just one or two, but a contingent. Cheriss stepped forward, the energy fixture in her weapon crackling as she activated the lightwhip in her hand, the bright red column snapped above her head as she swung it in a wide arc to gain momentum, sparks cascading down onto their heads as it glanced off the ceiling.
“Keep going!” she called over her shoulder to the other three in their group. “Find Bracknell, I'll deal with them!”
For a fraction of a second, Cheriss met her father's gaze and something unspoken seemed to pass between them, like they were aware of something the duo were not, before the doors slammed abruptly shut behind the Dathomirian again.

“Find Bracknell.” Roan commanded, the two Tuk'ata at his heels letting out spine-chilling howls as they took off around the corner ahead of the remaining trio to find them the quickest route to their quarry.
“VARIAN, YOU DAMNED COWARD!” Roan hollered out loud as they continued to follow the path of the corridor along, knowing he would be listening. “IT'S OVER! STOP BARRICADING YOURSELF BEHIND THOSE WEAKER THAN YOU AND COME OUT AND FACE US LIKE A REAL SITH!”

“Yark! Yark!” The tomb beast’s signature ‘warning’ call sounded as they reappeared, another door sliding open out of sight around the bend, followed by footsteps, slow and purposeful, echoing towards them.....

Naylon ducked underneath butt of an Alliance soldier's rifle before jamming his elbow in the attacker's belly, following the strike with an open faced palm blow to the chest, causing the now regretful soldier to collapse instantly to the ground in a heap. Looking around the immediate carnage, he took solace in the notion that at least they had some breathing room thanks to the work of the various squadrons that had made their way to the wilderness before Voldon had dropped in. One member of the aforementioned squadrons called out to him, Voldon approaching as fast as he could.
"What's the situation?" He could see more dropships dropping down behind the treeline about two hundred yards off, a grimace framing his features. When Vano mentioned finding Soto in attempts to stop the endless tide of enemy forces, he nodded.
"Something I've been trying to do for the past few minutes to no avail. Jean enjoyed being in the heat of things, so I'm going to assume she's closer to the base than we are." Shouts of alarm came from the distance as blaster fire once more pierced the battlefield, the sonic boom of concussion grenades adding more emphasis to their plight.
"Hold your positions here and provide supporting fire for the squadrons up ahead, then drop back once the Alliance forces get close. Head towards the rally point near the hangar. That's where we'll hold them off for as long as we can." He removed himself from cover, but not before warning Vano:
"Don't engage Soto if you see her, do you understand? You save your squad, move back and let me handle her. Her power is going to be even more amplified by the planet's Force energies." He shuddered inwardly at the thought of Jean having even MORE power than before. She needed to be stopped before she ripped them apart.

"Isn't this SO fun?! A reunion of sorts!" Kira shrieked in pain as Jean held her suspended in mid-air, the latter's hand bunched into a fist. Around the duo were the last survivors of both sides taking pot shots at one another, wisdom taking hold of the non-Force users as they stayed behind cover and allowed the Force users to battle it out in front of the main entrance to the compound. It had been maybe an hour of heavy fighting, Kira positioning herself at the front of the base and slicing through the Alliance's forces, when Jean arrived, cackling a bit when she saw who the resistance had thrown in her path. Voldon unfortunately arrived right when Jean decided to end Kira's torment, slamming the Knight into the ground, sickening cracks bouncing off the bodies littered across the damp earth.
"KIRA!"
"I was wondering when you would show up. You two are never apart...well, I can think of a few times..." Voldon got down on a knee, looking over Kira's faintly breathing body before narrowing his eyes at Soto, saber igniting.
"Come now, you have to say more than that. It's been two, three years, hasn't it?" Voldon growled under his breath, moving forward.
"Well fine, we won't get a chance to air out grievances. Before you die, however, I'll let you know that I'll never forget that one night we shared on Corellia. It was practically..." She inhaled deeply, eyes fluttering before a malicious smirk formed.
"Magical." Voldon let out an echoing shout as he charged ahead, saber gripped tightly in both hands as he slashed downward-

________

To find that a chill had swept through the corridor, a sinking cold that felt all too familiar.
"Just like the homeworld." Yerbol muttered, hand quickly going to his saber as his breath crystallized into vapor. At the end of the hallway now stood Bracknell, his form seeming to fill the expanse of the hall, power seeping from every slow, sure-footed step he took towards them.
"Moving that slow is just prolonging the inevitable you know!" Yerbol shouted in defiance, saber crackling to life. Abbeth moved alongside him, blaster rifle at shoulder height, aimed directly at the oncoming Sith Lord's head.
"What do we do?" Abbeth asked quietly, finger hovering over the trigger.