His TIE fighter stormed into the fray from out of nowhere, firing on one of the Corellian gunships, leaving black scorch marks as he strafed along its side. Other TIE fighters joined him, flying in a barely recognizable attack pattern. These fleet members were obviously untrained, having spent very little time even in simulators. But the chaos served the new pilots well as the ships flew around each other, blasting and pummeling with no set goal but to cause damage.
The Rebel fleet responded with heavy turbolaser fire, lancing out in all directions.
With a blinding glare, one of the Star Destroyers blew up, its command turret in flames.
Another Star Destroyer went reeling, its defenses down; it turned in an attempt to limp away. The Rebel fleet pursued, all weapons blazing.
The Second Imperium was losing. Losing!
Qorl shot after the fleeing ships. Some of the TIE fighters sped off into s.p.a.ce... though Qorl had no idea where they intended to go. Their flagships were destroyed and the Shadow Academy was under fire. Did they intend to give up?
"Surrender is betrayal," he muttered to himself-and flew directly into the Rebel fla ship"s line of fire.
I 9 Turbolaser bolts shot past, but Qorl dove forward, firing his insignificant laser cannons and diving down the gullet of the beast. He would never give up. This would be his final flash of glory.
The Rebels improved their aim-and the cross fire struck him. Qorl closed his eyes behind his TIE helmet, expecting to vanish in a bright puff of flame, a candle burning for his Emperor.
But the energy weapons had only managed to clip one of his engines and damage part of his power array.
Qorl"s TIE fighter spun out of control, away from the battle fleet. Even in his crash restraints, he was thrown from side to side inside his tiny c.o.c.kpit. Qorl held on, expecting his ship to explode at any moment... all the while careening farther and farther away from the continuing s.p.a.ce battle.
Still spinning, he saw that gravity had caught him. He was crashing again, plummeting toward the jungle moon ofyavin....
BRAKISS RACED HIS high-speed, one person shuttle away from Yavin 4 and streaked back toward his precious Shadow Academy. He punched the coded controls that would automatically open the launch-bay doors and provide him clear pa.s.sage back into the safety of the Imperial training station.
The s.p.a.ce battle did not concern him. It was just one other event that had gone wrong today.
His heart still pounded from his lightsaber battle with Skywalker down at the temple ruins. His thoughts spun, filled with the resonating words of his former Master.
Anger and despair swirled like an uncontrollable storm through his mind, through his emotions.
Every method he knew failed to bring his thoughts back to the cold, quiet levels he required to draw on his fullest powers.
Brakiss even attempted to use some of the hated calming techniques Skywalker had shown him back in his incognito student days-but nothing worked.
Everything was crumbling. His grandiose plans, his carefully trained Dark Jedi, the troops of the Second Imperium-it all faltered here on the verge of what should have been his greatest triumph, the hammer blow that would shake the galaxy. The destruction of the Jedi academy should have been a simple victory.
The Emperor would destroy Brakiss for this failure, but for now he could think only that the Emperor himself remained their last hope. Their only hope. Brakiss would accept his punishment later; for now he needed to do everything in his power to bring about a victory.
He brought his shuttle to dock in the nearly empty bay of the Shadow Academy, where not long ago rows of TIE fighters and TIE bombers had prepared for battle.
Tamith Kai had launched her armored battle platform, riding down from orbit with her stormtroopers and Zekles squad of dark warriors. They had been proud, confident, sure of crushing the hght-side Jedi....
Brakiss climbed stiffly out of his shuttle, ^ straightening his silvery robes, trying unsuccessfully to regain his dignity. Not wanting to be without a Jedi blade, he armed himself from a weapons alcove in the wall with another of the ma.s.s-produced lightsahers.
But how could he defend himself? He had seen Tamith Kai"s battle platform plunge into the river, a flaming hulk of molten slag.
Zekles Dark Jedi had been routed, the TIE fighter squadrons mostly destroyed-and now Brakiss watched the Second Imperium"s powerful new fleet being trounced by Rebel battleships that had appeared out of nowhere and had somehow deactivated the Imperial shields!
Brakiss strode out of the docking bay into the near-deserted Shadow Academy. All capable troops had been sent to the surface.
Only a few command teams remained here to keep the Imperial station secure.
The sterile corridors should have been hosting a victory celebration, but instead the place seemed like a tomb, an abandoned derelict. The Emperor must find some way to save them, Brakiss told himself, to turn the tide of battle so that the Second Imperium could rule the galaxy after all.
Palpatine had cheated death not once, but twice. After he had perished the first time aboard the second Death Star during the battle of Endor, he had managed to resurrect himself, using hidden clones to prolong his life. And though all those clones had presumably been destroyed, thirteen years later the Emperor was once again back from the dead-without an explanation this time.
Any man who accomplished such feats could surely manage to wrest victory away from a hodgepodge gang of Rebels and criminals, couldn"t he?
Holding his head up, trying to summon Imperial pride and hope, Brakiss marched down the steel-plated corridors toward the isolated section of the station. He had to see the Emperor, and he would not be turned away.
The fate of the entire war hung on the next few moments!
Outside the sealed doorways stood two of the four scarlet-clad Imperial guards. They wore sinister, projectile-shaped helmets with only a narrow black slit through which they could see. The two guards stiffened, crossing their force pikes to deny him entry. Brakiss strode forward without hesitating. "Move aside," he said. "I must speak with the Emperor."
"He has requested not to be disturbed," said one of the guards.
"Disturbed?" Brakiss said, appalled to hear the words. "Our fleet is going down in defeat; our Dark Jedi are being captured. Our TIE fighters are being shot down. Tamith Kai is dead. The Emperor should already be disturbed. Move aside. I must speak with him."
"The Emperor speaks with no one." They moved one step forward, holding out their weapons.
Brakiss felt fresh anger boiling within. It gave him strength. The power flowing in his veins tapped directly into the dark side of the Force. He could see why the Nightsister Tamith Kai had found the experience so exhilarating that she kept herself in a constant state of pent-up fury.
Brakiss had no patience for these meddling scarlet-clad obstacles. They were traitors to the Second Imperium-and he responded, letting the Force flow from deep within him.
His lightsaber dropped out of his billowing sleeve and fell firmly into his hand. His finger depressed the power b.u.t.ton. A long rippling blade extended out, but Brakiss did not use it as a threat. He had grown tired of threats, of word games and diversions that prevented progress. He unleashed his anger.
"I have had enough of this!" He struck wildly from side to side. His anger narrowed his vision to a tunnel of black static that surrounded his two targets as they scrambled to use their force pikes against him. But Brakiss was a powerful Jedi. He knew the ways of the dark side, and the red Imperial guards had no chance against him.
In less than a second, Brakiss had struck both of them down.
He activated the sealed door mechanism.
The security pa.s.s codes argued with him, so he used the Force to blow out the circuits. With his bare hands he wrenched the stubborn door aside, then strode into the Emperor"s private chambers.
"My Emperor, you must help us," he called.
The light around him was red and dim, hot.
He blinked, finding it difficult to see-but found no one else around.
"Emperor Palpatine!" he shouted. "The battle turns against us. The Rebels are defeating our troops. You must do something His words echoed back at him, but he heard nothing else: no response, no movement. He pushed on into another room, only to find it filled with a black-walled isolation chamber, its armored door sealed shut, its side panels held in place with heavy burnished rivets. This was the enclosed compartment the red guards had removed from the special Imperial shuttle. Bulky worker droids had lifted the heavy container out of the shuttle"s hold and carried it here.
Brakiss knew the Emperor had secluded himself inside the chamber, protected from outside influences. Brakiss had feared that the Emperor"s health was failing, that Palpatine needed this special life-support environment just to survive.
But at the moment, Brakiss didn"t care. He was tired of having doors shut in front of him.
He, the Master of the Shadow Academy, one of the most important members of the Second Imperium, should not be brushed aside like some civil servant.
He pounded on the armored door. "My Emperor, I demand that you see me!
You cannot let this defeat continue. You must use your powers to wrest a victory from the hands of our enemies."
He received no answer. His battering noises quickly faded into the thick, blood-colored light that filled the chamber. Brakiss"s heart froze into a chunk of ice, like a lost comet from the fhnges of a solar system.
If the Emperor had forsaken them, they were lost already. The battle had turned against the Second Imperium-and Brakiss had nothing more to lose.
He switched on his lightsaber again, held the thrumming weapon-and struck. The energy blade sparked and flared as it cut through the thick armor plating-nothing, not even Mandalorian iron or durasteel blast shielding, could resist the onslaught of a Jedi hghtsaber.
He sliced through the hinges. Molten metal steamed and ran in silvery rivulets down the side of the door. He chopped again, hacking out an entrance, tearing open the wall like a labor droid dismantling a cargo container. He stepped aside as the thick chunk of armor plate fell to the deck with a deafening clang.
Brakiss stood waiting, frozen with indecision, as the smoke cleared. He held his lightsaber up... and finally stepped inside.
He stared in disbelief. He saw no Emperor, no plush living quarters, not even any complicated medical apparatus to keep the old ruler ahve.
Instead, he found a sham.
A third red guard sat in a complex control chair surrounded on three sides by computer monitors and controls. Brakiss saw a library display of holographic videoclips taken over the course of the Emperor"s career: the rise of Senator Palpatine, the New Order, early attempts to crush the Rebellion... recorded speeches, memos, practically every word Palpatine had spoken in public, plus many private messages.
Powerful holographic generators a.s.sembled the clips, manufacturing lifelike threedimensional images.
Brakiss stared in horror as it began to make sense to him.
The red guard lurched to his feet, scarlet robes flowing around him. "You may not enter here."
"Where is the Emperor?" Brakiss said, but as he looked around he already knew the answer. "There is no Emperor, is there?
This has all been a hoax, a pitiful bid for power."
"Yes," the red guard said, "and you have played your part well. The Emperor did indeed die many years ago when his last clone was destroyed, but the Second Imperium needed a leader-and we, four of Palpatine"s most loyal Imperial guards, decided to create that leader.
"We had all of the brilliant speeches and recordings the Emperor had made. We had his thoughts, his policies, his records. We knew we could make the Second Imperium work, but no one would have followed us. We had to give the people what they wanted, and they wanted their Emperor backas you did. You were easy to fool, because you wanted to be fooled," the red guard said, nodding toward Brakiss.
The Master of the Shadow Academy stepped deeper into the chamber, his hghtsaher glowing with deadly, cold fire. - You tricked us," he said, still in the grip of incredulous horror. "You tricked me-me! I was one of the Emperor"s most dedicated servants, but I served a he. There was never any chance for the Second Imperium, and now we are being destroyed here because of you! Because of poor planning. Because there is no dark heart to the Second Imperium."
Blinded by rage again, Brakiss flowed forward like an avenging angel, his lightsaber held high. The red guard staggered away from his controls, reaching into his scarlet robes to withdraw a weapon-but Brakiss didn"t give him the chance.
He cut down the third Imperial guard, who fell smoking and lifeless onto the array of controls that had created the fake Emperor.
The illusion had cheated Brakiss, and the Shadow Academy, and all his Dark Jedi... everyone who had devoted their lives to recreating the Empire.
"Now the Empire has truly fallen," he said, his voice hoa.r.s.e and husky, his face haggard. He was no longer calm, like a statue, no longer a well-polished representative of perfection.
Hearing a noise outside the chopped-o pen door to the isolation chamber, Brakiss turned to see a flash of red-the fourth and final member of the group of charlatans. Brakiss moved slowly, feeling stiffless and pain, utterly discouraged-but he could not let this last one get away. Ms honor demanded that the deceivers pay. Brakiss rushed after him.
But the red guard had encountered his slaughtered companions outside and knew that Brakiss had seen all the video controls and holographic apparatus in the isolation chamber. The fourth guard, without hesitation, ran back the way he had come.
Brakiss realized with utter certainty that the glorious dream of a reborn Empire had already failed. His Dark Jedi had lost their battle down on Yavin 4. The Imperial fighters were being trounced-but he would not let this impostor, this traitor, escape alive. It would be Brakiss"s final moment of vengeance.
With purposeful steps, Brakiss charged after the man. The red guard moved with astonishing speed, fleeing the restricted area and dashing down the empty corridors of the Shadow Academy. Brakiss ran, but the red guard knew exactly where he wanted to go. Exactly.
The last surviving Imperial guard reached the docking bay and dashed toward Brakiss"s still-waiting high-speed shuttle.
Arriving at the docking bay door, Brakiss shouted, "Stop!" He held his lightsaber high, wishing he could use the Force to make the guard freeze in his tracks, to follow the command-but the charlatan did not hesitate.
He dove into the lone shuttle, raised it on its repulsorlifts, and punched the code to release the magnetic atmosphere containment field.
Brakiss simmered with rage. He wondered if he could get to the Shadow Academy"s weapons systems and blow the guard to frozen shards in the vacuum of s.p.a.ce. But it would be too late for him.
He felt completely alone on the Shadow Academy. An utter failure.
Everything he had tried had backfired on him. And this was the final insult: tricked by a... guard.
Unbidden, a memory came to Brakiss.
When the Shadow Academy had been constructed-ostensibly under the guidance of Emperor Palpatine-as a fail-safe mechanism, enormous quant.i.ties of linked explosives had been implanted through the station"s structure. That way, if Palpatine ever felt threatened by these new and powerful Dark Jedi Knights, he could trigger the detonation and destroy the Shadow Academy, no matter where it was.
Brakiss stood alone in the hangar bay, watching the tiny shuttle streak farther and farther away. It occurred to him that since there was no reborn Emperor, then the four red guards themselves must have kept the secret destruct codes.
As the escape ship fled from the Shadow Academy and the Yavin system, the last surviving guard acknowledged to himself that the military forces he left behind would be defeated utterly. With the success of the Rebel counterattack, there would likely be no Imperial survivors of this day"s battles.
The guard had to preserve his secret and maintain the illusion that he and his partners had so carefully constructed as a way to restore themselves to power. He could not afford to leave the Shadow Academy intact if he hoped to cover his tracks. With luck, he might find a position among the many criminal elements insidiously working at the fringes of the New Republic.
The red guard sent a brief signal, carefully coded. He transmitted a dreaded phrase, a string of impulses, that he had hoped never to use., Destruct.
As his tiny shuttle careened into hypers.p.a.ce, the spiked ring of the Shadow Academy flowered into a fireball, an exploding blossom of flaming gases and debris.
AS HE PLODDED ahead, Zekk could barely see two meters in front of himself in the murk of Yavin 4"s unfamiliar jungle. Dense underbrush tore at his hair and cape, and his breath came in ragged gasps. His ponytail had come entirely undone. Still Zekk pushed on. Occasionally he glanced back over his shoulder to see if any of Skywalker"s Jedi trainees were pursuing him. He sensed no one following, but he couldn"t be sure. Who knows? he thought. They might have light-side tricks he had never heard of, ways to keep him from sensing their presence.
He had seen many unexpected things today. Strange things. Horrible things. It hardly mattered that the winding path ahead was uncertain and difficult to see: he would have been blind to it anyway. His mind was partially numbed by the sights his eyes had witnessed today. Destruction, terror, failure... death.
Zekk"s foot slipped on a patch of moldy, damp leaves, and he went down on one knee. Grabbing a low branch, he pulled himself back to his feet, then stood disoriented for a moment.
Which direction had he been heading? He knew he was going toward something... but he couldn"t quite remember what. Finally some unconscious part of him remembered, and he set off again.
Suddenly, just ahead of him, a knee-high rodent sprang from the underbrush, its claws extended. Zekk"s Jedi instincts automatically took over.
In one smooth movement Zekk withdrew his lightsaber and threw himself sideways out of the creature"s path. His cheek split open as it smashed against the purplish brown trunk of a Ma.s.sa.s.si tree; his thumb pressed the lightsaber"s ignition stud at the same moment. Before Zekk could even blink or breathe,.the blood-red blade sprang forth and sliced through the rodent in mid-leap" With a shriek that broke off abruptly, the two smoking halves of the creature fell to the forest floor.
It reminded him of how he had killed Tamith Kai"s student Vilas in the zerogravity arena aboard the Shadow Academy station-not a memory that comforted him.
Blood trickled from the cut on Zekk"s cheek, but the pain was too distant, too far away for him to feel. His ability with the Force had protected him just now-after all, he was a Dark Jedi. But what about his companions from the Second Imperium? What of their powers? Why had it all gone wrong? For today he had seen his Dark Jedi, one after another, lose their battles or be captured by Skywalker"s trainees.
He had a terrible suspicion that only he remained.
Oh, the dark side had had its victories.
The commando Orvak had obviously succeeded in destroying the shield generators and had no doubt moved on to the next step in his mission. And there had been other times during the day when Zekk had felt the Shadow Academy trainees achieve surges of victory. But each victory had been shortlived.