Chapter 46 Head of the Snake Part 2

Coruscant Orbit...

The planet of Coruscant was always busy, a planet wide city was literally never ever quiet.

Despite being night in some areas it was always day elsewhere so the city was busy at all times of its rotation.

The Imperial Defence Network comprised a large number of automated satellites and stations along with a few manned space stations and a few planetary based heavy weapon emplacements. Combined with the defence fleet equal to that of an entire sector, two thousand four hundred ships, twenty four of which were Imperial Star Destroyers with the other vessels being smaller warships and now led by Super Star Destroyer Terror.

Even if an enemy had brought a larger fleet with them it would have been impossible to break through the Imperial defences without suffering for every single inch of progress.

But just a few minutes before the arrival of the Allied Fleet, the Underworld Alliance did its part for the operation, a series of bombings and sabotage knocked out the planetary weapon emplacements and the automated facilities in orbit where turned on each other by slicers altering the target protocols to make them think that each other was the enemy. The satellites and automated stations firing on each other and tearing themselves apart or just outright exploding as the self-destruct was activated.

The shock of the controllers and the scrambling to find out just what was happening lasted for a few minutes before the arrival of not one but two fleets.

One of them was the impressive and feared Death Squadron, easily one of the most powerful and dangerous units in the entire Imperial Military and the sight of them after such a strange and devastating event reassured some people but that was short lived as without warning, Death Squadron began firing on the Imperial Defenders which were only just getting themselves into a state of readiness. Some of those defence ships joined Death Squadron in firing on the other defenders, destroying a number of ships before they could even have the faintest idea just what was happening. The Executor deployed a number of landing craft towards the surface and more critically the Imperial Palace.

- x -

Palpatine felt the disturbance in the force before anyone informed him of the events going on in orbit. He sneered as he could feel Vader's hand in this, it was as clear that the clone had become too bold and he would destroy him with great ease and take a lot of pleasure in it, he thought deciding there and then to not bother with clones of Anakin Skywalker any more, they were more trouble than they were worth.

He saw ships coming down towards the palace and the gathered senior officers both political and military were barking out orders to the officers outside, often contradicting each other until he with a great sense of annoyance at their inability to work together during a crisis intervened.

"General Brashin. Take command of all Imperial defence units on the ground, Admiral Motti, you command in space." Palpatine said with a disgusted sneer at their weakness. Brashin was at least quick to move and did as he was told while Motti looked scared but with the crackling of lightning at Palpatine's fingers as a warning he all but ran for the shuttle pad to go get on a shuttle and head up to the Terror to take command of the battle.

Palpatine had already seen the approaching landing forces and saw to his anger that a portion of the Home Guard had joined them to create a landing zone. The betrayal enraged him and he felt the satisfaction growing in Sly Moore, identifying her as the traitor.

Without wasting another second Palpatine let loose his fury and channelled all of his rage and anger at her, she screamed as the blue lightning ripped into her, burning her flesh slowly before she was literally torn apart by the sheer power of his rage, bursting into ash.

Palpatine had done that in the full view of the terrified staff and it got them organised in fear of the same thing happening to them, he would stay for the moment at least as long as it took to eliminate Vader and regain control of his own military much as that annoyed him. He always had an escape route buried not too far away he thought with determination but he would not surrender Coruscant easily.

But as he thought that things couldn't get any worse...it did. A large if motley collection of ships arrived from a completely unexpected direction...Rebel ships he thought with disgust along with all of the other factions that dared to threaten his supremacy, worse he could even sense the presence of Anakin among them and he snarled with anger. They dared come to his planet and think they could take his life?! He would make them regret even thinking that they could challenge him.

Infinity, Allied Fleet...Coruscant Orbit...

The flagship of the allied fleet dropped out of hyperspace with the rest of their forces only to be confronted with a scene they had never imagined.

"Death Squadron." Anakin said with anger as they had no idea that they would be here but the sight of Death Squadron and roughly half of the Coruscant Defence Force fighting against the other half of the Coruscant Defence Force was shocking.

"This is an Imperial Civil War." Haron said with a hard grim look on his face. While this was good for them in some ways as the Imperials were busy fighting each other which meant that they were weaker since they weren't aiming all of their firepower at them, it would make the entire situation much more chaotic. "Arm the Silencer, lock in on the densest formations and fire."

"Yes Mandalore!" The Fire Control Officer and Anakin looked puzzled before Haron said.

"The Imperials aren't the only ones with tricks up their sleeve. Just get your ground team ready, we'll get you a hole in the battle." Haron reassuring Anakin who nodded, he watched as the massive megalaser fired.

- x -

The enormous orange white beam fired out of the bow of the Infinity, hitting the dense cluster of Imperial ships, taking only a second to reach critical mass and exploding with great force. Many Imperial ships being caught in the blast and creating a temporary gap in the enemy lines. The Imperial ships on both sides were shocked at the sudden appearance of the enemy fleet and then the megalaser but it didn't change anything as they kept fighting.

- x -

Infinity's Hanger Bay...

Anakin was absolutely shocked at the secret weapon of the Mandalorians and seeing that the Imperial ships were now too close to risk using the Silencer again Haron reassessed his tactics.

"All ships, accelerate to attack speed." Haron commanded and Anakin with a nod, still not sure what to think about the Silencer ran down to the landing bay to join the ground units before the Empire closed the brief gap Haron had created.

The ships carrying the ground forces began to leave the hangers, Anakin catching one as it was about to leave the hanger. The drop ships heading straight towards the surface joined by a pair of A-Wing Squadrons for protection and a squadron of T-70 X-Wings. Luke was on the drop ship with him, he looked at him with Mara, slight fear on their faces as they dived towards the surface and all of the enemy fire came around. Tie Fighters were all around them and they saw Red Leader, Garvin Dries be blown away as the chaotic battle spread.

Being in a drop ship and not a fighter was not a pleasant experience for them as they were buffeted by enemy fire but at least they knew were they were going would be clear.

The landing zone came into sight as they approached the surface was a blessed relief which thankfully the Underworld Alliance mercenaries had already cleared for them.

Landing they disembarked immediately and seeing the world that had been his home for many years filled Anakin with memories, many bad but also some good ones as well. He could see the Jedi Temple in the distance and that last night when it had been assaulted by the Clone Army still haunted his dreams sometimes. They had lost some good people that day and he was still as furious about now as he had been then.

He turned to see Rex was already helping get the troops organised and they could see the Imperial Palace in the distance. Gritting his teeth he ignited his lightsaber and called out.

"To the Palace."

The affirmative was largely missed by him as he led his party forward. It was already under attack by the forces of the Imperial Renegades, so they had best get moving Anakin thought as he led the charge against the enemy.

- x -

The landing force had brought vehicles alongside their warriors and battle droids, Canderous Assault Tanks were the heaviest unit and they were the best suited tanks to deal with the Imperial AT-AT and AT-ST walkers. The Mass Driver cannons tore them to pieces with only one or two shots and were helping the allied forces punch through the Imperial defences and catch up to the renegades.

Bo Katan was riding on the top of one of the tanks as it went into battle, being part of such an important battle was exhilarating for her but seeing the increasing heavy turret presence ahead she grimaced and took off from the tank she was riding on exploded as the turrets tore it to pieces. She flew forward and managed to get close enough to the turrets, her heart racing as she dodged the blaster shots which sailed just a finger's width away but she managed to drop a thermal detonator on each of the large turrets, blowing them up so their tanks could approach, she then felt the strong impact of a laser hit as one of the large walkers hit her with its blasters. Bo felt the pain as her beskar armour while strong was not pure not to mention she was one of the few warriors that had not used Luna Steel to reinforce it so it had warped slightly from the impact, she kept on going, running out of bombs she was hit again by the walker, she felt the blood running from her mouth and nose as her beskar armour buckled. Bo Katan snarled and had an idea, engaging her jetpack again and made a boosted jump onto one of the remaining large turrets.

The walker obligingly fired at her but she moved and the turret was ripped apart, jumping from one to the next as the careless walker pilot and crew did most of the work for her until finally she was clipped by a blast from a second walker and fell to her knees but as she looked down as saw blood leaking from her damaged suit she looked up and saw the two walkers being downed by the Canderous tanks take them down. She smirked as she bled out knowing she had managed to break through the Imperial defences and she saw medics coming to tend to her but she was too far gone and she knew it.

But she had fought and proven she was a warrior, laying down her life for a great cause...she had done her ancestors proud.

- x -

Infinity, Orbit...

In a chamber on the Infinity Satele Shan sat with a number of other Jedi, many of whom were her students and led them in her meditation. Kagame among them who smiled encouragingly at her.

"Let the force fill you, the entire battle field will be visible to you and connect us to all of those that fight on it." Satele explained as she slipped into her family's unique skill.

Battle Meditation, the skill her ancestor had used to change the course of entire battles in the time of the Old Republic. She was highly skilled in it too although her own humility would never let her declare herself a master or as good as Bastila Shan had been.

But today they would need all of the advantages that they could get she thought calmly as she and her students not to mention others like Kagame lent their strength to the allied forces, while sapping the will and determination from their enemies.

- x -

Marching Thunder, Hapan Flagship...

Isolder was standing on the bridge of his new flagship, the Marching Thunder which was a massively upgraded ship of the Battle Dragon class. The shield generators, turbolasers, Ion Cannons, targeting computers and engines had all been massively updated and improved, something he was about to prove to the galaxy.

"All ships, blanket fire on Imperial Formation dead ahead." Isolder ordered and the crew many of whom had served with him for years did not hesitate to obey his orders.

The Hapan Battle Dragons accompanied by their Nova-class cruisers while being defended by their fighters began to rotate, the turbolasers and ion cannons then roared to life. Blasters bolts coloured orange begun to spray out in almost a blanket of fire on them. The smaller vessels had virtually no chance of survival, the sheer power and rate of fire was too much for them and they shattered into pieces under such a strong attack.

The Star Destroyers being built to be more sturdy but the two of them were being hit hard, they were engaging each other and had compromised their shields with their own exchange of fire, allowing the Battle Dragons to hammer their way through and bombard them both from a different angle.

Isolder watched them being demolished just hoping that things went right with this attack as he saw on the display board ships on all three sides be destroyed.

- x -

Furious Rage, Mandalorian Battleship...

The Keldabe class warship was fighting a pair of Imperial Star Destroyers, drones along with Mass Driver cannons were firing furiously along with the turbolasers, tearing into the enemy ship but the shields were struggling as the heavy cannons of the Star Destroyer, the ship shook with all the impacts and Harlan Caduruso was holding himself upright as they hit.

"Order Aggressor class ships, take out that ship." Harlan said with anger at the damage that had been inflicted on his flagship.

The Aggressors did not waste time and then fired their massive ion cannons which hit the Star Destroyer twice, shutting down most of its systems before firing their enormous plasma cannons, the red blasts hit and shattered the already damaged ship into pieces.

But that was the only good thing to happen as the Furious Rage suffered a major power failure as its main energizer went out, and they lost main power. Harlan grimaced as the backup system came on but then was almost knocked off his feet by a sudden lunge to the side.

"Report!" Harlan asked and one officer told him.

"The station has a tractor beam on us. We can't break free on back up power."

Harlan was astonished that someone in the middle of a battle situation would try to capture one of their ships but who knows just what was going through the station commander's head he thought with disgust but that station was still putting out a lot of firepower which was hurting their forces so he made his decision on what to do and then gave his orders.

"All hands to escape pods. Make your way to whatever allied ship you can reach." Harlan said with a furious look on his face and saw that the helm control was still working. His crew did not question his orders and he waited till they were all off before turning the ship towards the station and rather than fight it's pull, he put the ship's sublight engines to full and pointed it straight at the station, firing the mass drive cannon at the same time and shutting down containment on the reactors.

Effectively, setting the ship to explode the moment the moment it collided with the station. He smirked as he saw the station coming closer and closer, he had always felt inferior given he had fewer battle credits to his name than his ancestors and his extended family but now he thought with a bloody satisfaction, he would kill tens of thousands of Imperials and cripple the defenders.

Drastic he thought as the station came closer and closer but effective as the ship collided, the reactor tearing open so a massive explosion.

- x -

Infinity, Allied Flagship...

"Harlan." Haron said quietly with his grief at his distant relative and long term supporter dying but he had certainly gone out with a bang as he would have wanted too, Haron thought sadly.

But he had certainly helped their cause as the station had been inflicting heavy damage on both them and the Imperial Renegades and he would make sure his family knew that Haron swore to himself but then he had to turn his attention back to the battle.

It wasn't going well he thought with a grimace, the Imperials were refusing to give any ground and the only saving grace was that they were fighting each other which gave them a chance to do some damage and buy the ground team more time he thought as another of their ships was destroyed.

Then to make matters worse, he saw what was coming straight at them.

"Super Star Destroyer Executor, on a parallel course." His sensor officer reported and Haron calmly told them as they were about to see just which ship was better.

"All weapons, lock on target. Divert auxiliary power to shields."

The Executor and the Infinity both flew towards each other, so close they were only a few hundred metres apart, on the bridges of their ships Haron and Admiral Piett both stared at the enemy, knowing it was about to get brutal.

The Executor managed to get a shot off first, the green turbolasers hitting Infinity's shields but the Mandalorian flagship was not going to take that lightly. Their own white/yellow turbolasers started firing back along with its ion cannons, flak guns, laser cannons, missiles, torpedoes and drones. The Executor replied in kind as the two ships engaged in an old fashioned slugging match, no fighters or other ships involved they were testing their own firepower and shields at close range against each other.

The shields were not that useful against flak guns, torpedoes, missiles and drones so the Infinity had the advantage and stronger shields with heavier armour. But despite this they were still taking damage but with less strong shields and armour the Executor was coming off worse the engagement.

"Target the shield generators on the top of the Command Tower, then use drones on the bridge." Haron ordered as he was keen to end this fight. The weapon control officers acted on his orders without question.

The heavy turbolasers tore into the two spherical shield domes on the top of the command tower, blowing them up and then yellow bolts of light, the drones that were now charged with energy went screaming to the bridge where Piett was only able to instinctively raise his arms before the bridge exploded, navigational control was lost and the ship like a beheaded beast fell downwards towards the surface.

Haron watched and looked to see just where it would crash, thankfully it was a disused and sparsely population area known as The Works so at least there would be minimal casualties he thought with some relief not counting the ship's crew of course.

He just hoped Anakin hurried up Haron thought as another of their own capital ships, one of the Mon Calamari cruisers blew up under fire from the Terror.

- x -

Than Swarm Ships...

General Spring in the Dawn was a dedicated military officer that had spent most of their career fighting the Empire for the Then Hegemony and was honoured for the trust that his people had placed in him to command this mission.

But the intensity of battle was making even him balk as he saw the way things had devolved into complete chaos. The presence of a second Imperial Fleet was not something they had counted on, they thought and the presence of two Super Star Destroyers had made things worse although thankfully he saw one of them was now diving towards the surface, doomed to crash.

Seeing the second, the Terror ahead of his swarm ships he grimaced as he wasn't sure given that they had already lost a few ships that they had the necessary fire power to take it down. So he contacted the nearest source of support.

"Stakar, together on the Terror." Spring in Dawn said over the communication system to the leader of the Ravagers. The tall humanoid smirked as he heard it.

"Thought you'd never ask." He said and the roughly one hundred and fifty heavy gunship type ships of both Than and Ravager design screamed towards the Terror. Motti on the bridge of the ship was shocked at the sheer scale of the attack coming at him and quickly barked out some orders.

"Shoot them down!" He demanded and the crew did try to destroy the approaching ships but there were far too many for them to take down before they closed the range and began to bombard the massive ship from seemingly every angle, heavy lasers, ion cannons, torpedoes and missiles started slamming into the ship everywhere and already somewhat stressed from earlier exchanges of fire with other warships. The shields were unable to sustain this for very long and soon the Ravager/Than group were tearing into the hull, blasting the ship apart piece by piece until finally one of them managed to damage the reactors, pulling away as the ship exploded.

- x -

Imperial Palace, Coruscant...

The battle had now spread to interior of the palace itself and the fighting was fierce.

The 'Red Strips' who were Vader's forces fought with both Imperial Loyalists and the invading Allied troops throughout the palace as they pushed forward. In one particular corner, Royal Guards in their red cloaks and masks were fighting with a squad of Corellian Commandos and Wookiee Warriors. The Allied Units were doing their best but the Royal Guards were fighting on another level. They switched between weapons seamlessly and were killing their people every time they tried to force their way through.

Qi'ra, leader of the assault team grimaced as she saw their Green Jedi Knight be cut down by the elite Royal Guard. They were getting nowhere and everyone else was busy and there were no basilisks to call on or Destroyer Droids.

She was angry as she saw their people dying and getting nowhere, she had worked so hard to make a great team for the mission and many of them had been serving with her for years, the sight of them dying was enough to make her almost explode with anger and determination to get past these assholes.

With that decision made, she took the belt of grenades that she had and activated the short timer and with a steadying breath, realising what was about to happen but knowing she would be remembered, she leapt out of cover and threw the belt of grenades at the Royal Guards, they cut her down almost immediately but it was not fast enough to stop her throwing the belt which landed next to the guards, they had only a second to realise just what she had done before they exploded, cutting all of the red robed guards down in a massive explosion.

Her remaining team and the Wookiees had only moments to mourn her before they rallied, promising to avenge her sacrifice and one of them took the body to the extraction point...she would be honoured and laid to rest properly they sworn to themselves...as a hero should be.

- x -

Elsewhere in the palace the fight was going better, Meetra Surik with her cyan bladed lightsaber was proving that she had lost none of her fighting prowess or her leadership as they challenged the legion of Stormtroopers that tried to block their way.

"A Squad, flank and B-Squad, flush them into the open." She commanded, despite her dislike for leading people into battles she was actually good at it if she did think so herself Meetra thought with humility. Her soldiers did as she told them and flushed out the entrenched Stormtroopers and broke through their lines. She sensed the Sith Lord's presence but there was another here, there more than one, maybe four she realised with worry and reported to the others as she pressed forward.

- x -

The Grand Corridor, the Imperial Palace...

Anakin heard the message but found one of the dark side figures or rather he had found him first.

That familiar breathing sound filled the corridor Anakin was moving through, his soldiers all looked on in fear of the enormous figure looming ahead of them but Anakin resolutely told them.

"Go link up with the others, I will deal with him." Anakin said and the soldiers quickly did as he commanded but whether it was out of loyalty to him or fear of Vader they didn't know. But Anakin ignited his blue lightsaber and Vader in turn ignited his red one.

"I've been waiting for this since we last met." Anakin told him with a cold fury on his face. "You maimed my son and frankly, I've had enough of Vaders."

Vader made an angry breathing sound and visibly tightened his grip on the hilt of his lightsaber.

"There is only one true Darth Vader, your son was a weakling and deserves to die. Something I will rectify when I have killed you, him and the rest of your pathetic offspring." Vader said with a disgusted voice, rich with disdain. Anakin glared at him and the insult and threat towards his children was enough to make him forget his mission to kill the Emperor for the moment as he would not let Vader's words go unanswered.

Without wasting time with further words, Anakin charged and their lightsabers met in a blaze of sparks and light.

- x -

Emperor's Personal Library...

While Anakin was facing off against his evil clone, Luke and Mara were having an encounter of their own.

Luke and Mara were searching for the Emperor and his higher ups but so far they hadn't managed to find him which was hardly surprising as they had over twenty thousand rooms to search.

"It was a long shot but I thought he might be here." Mara said as she and Luke looked over the massive columns which contained the files and data cards, terminals with full desk interfaces were dotted around the room. Despite her fear of facing Palpatine again she was determined to make sure he was dead as at last she wouldn't always have to worry about him coming after her, always looking over her shoulder.

To be truly free of him, she thought with determination, he had to die.

"Little Jedi Couple. How cute." A sarcastic voice said and both Luke and Mara felt the dark side presence straight away, igniting their lightsabers which only elicited a laugh from someone else.

"They even have matching lightsabers." It was as nasty as the first voice but clearly different.

"At least we're no cowards, hiding. Show yourselves." Mara said with a sneer on her face and they both felt their enemies annoyance at the insult.

"Hypocritical to call us cowards when you are the one that ran away." One of the voices said and Mara just smirked.

"You mean had the courage to actually stop kissing the feet of that old bastard and his mechanical pet, guess you never will." Mara told them and there was a scream of rage from both of the mystery people, two women both with red hair leapt out of hiding spots around the room. One was a bit younger than Luke with ginger hair while the other was older by a few years with darker red hair, almost crimson.

Both however were infuriated and ignited their weapons, the older woman who had last spoken launched herself at Mara. She brandished red bladed lightsaber which Mara parried and sidestepped as the older woman attacked her with a frenzy of blows.

The younger though was using a weapon that neither Luke nor Mara had ever seen before, its hilt resembled a lightsaber but its blade was anything but.

Luke watched with astonished eyes as mass of tendrils made of yellow energy emerged from it and lashed out at him. He was so caught off guard that he was almost caught by them as they lunged at him and when he dodged most of them and tried to block the one that would have hit him the tendril wrapped around his lightsaber blade and it was pulled away from Luke's surprised hand.

Luke had never heard of such a weapon, he had learnt of other variants of the lightsaber before but not one like this! He thought with astonishment and the wielder was keen to kill him he thought as he had to leap around as she lunged out at him, the tendrils missing him by an finger's width. Luminya as she was known although Luke was unaware of this did not give up though and kept swinging her lightwhip at him, Luke had to employ all of his physical speed and agility to avoid it, leaping around, ducking and diving as the enraged woman tried to cut him in half with barely time to think at all because wasting even a second would have been fatal. Data terminals and tables were sliced in half or more by her frenzied efforts.

Luke was sweating, knowing he was in deep trouble. He had lost his weapon and had no back up, he used the force to throw some objects at his attack but while a chair did throw her back a step it did not deter her. He couldn't see his lightsaber and then felt the burning edge of a tendril as it passed just by his face. He knew it wouldn't be deep but it would scar so he kept on moving.

Then as he saw a transparent case with a large lightsaber in it. A much larger hilt than his own probably designed for someone with larger hands but it was a weapon and seeing the tendrils it gave him an idea.

So with renewed determination he leapt away and led her towards the case, allowing the tendrils to nearly hit him but instead moving at the last moment so they sails passed him and hit the case, shattering it and allowing him to grab the lightsaber inside. Fortunately it still worked and ignited, revealing a red blade which did unnerve Luke a bit but it was a weapon when he desperately needed one.

Luminya snarled and lashed out at Luke again but now he was ready for her, he had been caught off guard once but now he had seen her weapon he was prepared.

The tendrils came towards him but this time Luke didn't move, drawing on the force and as the tendrils came close he used his own skill at Tutaminis which he had spent many years perfecting under Master Kagame and then Master Shan. He grabbed the tendril with his own hands, the sparks flew from his hands but they did not burn, Luminya was shocked by this and that was what Luke had been hoping for. He pulled hard on the tendril with all his strength and wrenched Luminya off of her feet and straight towards him, swinging his borrowed lightsaber as she passed and taking her head clean off.

Mara was meanwhile engaged in a more conventional lightsaber duel with her own opponent, the other woman was more controlled than Luminya had been but still ferocious in her attack, battering away at Mara who parried and sidestepped the attack, Mara knew she had to end this fight so she used a technique taught to her ironically by Palpatine for her missions as an assassin.

She reached out with the force and wrapped it around the other woman's throat, it caught her completely off guard as she gasped for breath but the distraction allowed Mara to stab Sidirri in the heart and end her life.

The adrenaline was still high until they shut down their sabers, Luke now free to look properly saw his own lightsaber not far away and pulled it to his hand. He looked at the borrowed lightsaber he had used and saw it was a worn looking lightsaber with a jagged axe like blades next to the hilt.

"That lightsaber belonged to Darth Malgus." Mara told him as she recognised it now she could look. "Palpatine admitted that he was one of the few Sith that he admired and he prided himself on having his weapon."

Luke was surprised to hear that Palpatine actually admired other Sith and decided to read up on his Sith Lord when he had the time and just to spite Palpatine, Luke decided to take the lightsaber even though it was a Sith weapon.

The pair then resumed the search for Palpatine.

- x -

Coruscant Orbit...

The battle was still raging as despite having lost their leadership the Imperials were still fighting fiercely and the Allied Forces were having to fight hard to keep control.

The Luxans formed up their ships and charged forward, joined by Mandalorian Halberd-class missile cruisers, Gladius-class Heavy Corvettes and the Gondwana drone ship formed up on an Imperial squadron ahead. The Luxans led deploying their high yield particle beam weapons, extremely strong lasers that hit the shields of the Imperial ships and began to fall with the combined strength of several beams at once, but then the missile cruisers and corvettes then fired their missile launchers while the Gondwana deployed its drones.

With their shields falling the Imperial ships were hit by what seemed like a never ending barrage of missile and drone strikes, ripping them apart.

- x -

Home One...

The MC80 cruiser was leading a squadron of other MC80 Liberty type heavy cruisers, MC30c frigates, MC40a light cruisers and MC55 fighter carriers. Admiral Ackbar was commanding their portion of the attack force. He grimaced as he saw the chaotic battlefield, the Imperial forces were losing cohesion slowly he noted and the Imperial Renegades were falling apart but the Imperial Loyalists were beginning to rally under a new commander.

He made his decision as he wasn't intending to let them reorganise.

"Contact the Corellian Squadron commander." Ackbar ordered to his crew. "Tell them we need their assistance, target the Imperial Star Destroyer Flanchard." Ackbar commanded.

The Mon Calamari squadron with their B-Wing and X-Wing fighters around them, joined up with the Corellian Squadron made up of Thranta-class light cruisers, Foray and CR90 corvettes who themselves were using the X-Wings and Y-Wings.

The combined force attacked the Flanchard, a ship that was notorious for leading many slavery operations across the galaxy under the command of Imperial Captain, now Admiral Pter Nyklas, a firm believer in the human centric stance of the Empire and his love of putting alien species down often made people around him uncomfortable but he had always found slaves for the Empire's building projects so he rose through the ranks.

But he and his small group of ships found themselves facing a powerful force and as Pter tried to arrange his forces to cross the 'T' as it was so he could bring all of his heavy turbolasers to bare he found himself being surrounded and cut off by the Mon Calamari ships!

He stood on his bridge, completely in shock and shaking with rage at being outmanoeuvred by an lesser species he thought with rage as he had the view that aliens were all less valuable and more stupid than humans. But as the enemy ships tore his apart his belief was proven to be complete nonsense and with his death the organisation of the Imperial Fleet unravelled.

- x -

Imperial Palace...

Palpatine watched as the palace was falling around him, he felt nothing except frustration at the failures of his people and Vader's stupidity at trying to challenge him.

But it was clear that the palace was going to fall, he was disgusted at the failure to hold his own palace but they would not get to keep Coruscant he thought knowing he had the forces in the Deep Core to take back the planet.

So it would be the most intelligent move at this point to remove himself from Coruscant and go to Byss so he could rally his forces there and return to punish them for daring to attack the planet he owned.

Still he was not blind to the danger around him, so he knew he would need to keep the scum attacking them occupied while he made his way over to his personal escape vehicle.

He pressed a button that was installed on his throne, one that he had never thought he would ever need to use but it would be enough to keep them occupied until he was long gone.

In a storage bay elsewhere in the palace racks of tall black coloured droids came to life, their red mechanical glowing menacingly as they dropped to the floor and began marching menacingly forward. They were a thing that the Rebellion had thought they had destroyed years ago, but little had they known that the remaining versions had been stored away in the palace just in case of such an emergency.

Palpatine left his throne room accompanied by Royal Guards in their red robes, intent on getting away from this place until he was ready to return...stronger than ever.

The Dark Troops, Mark Two versions and the only model to be at least partly mass produced clanged their way up the stairwells to deal with the intruders.

Rebel Commandos were pressing their way steadily along the corridor, led by General Rex along with his two friends and fellow clones Gregor and Wolffe.

"Push up on the left side or they'll flank us!" Wolffe barked at them. "You lot call yourselves soldiers! In the Clone Wars you lot wouldn't have been fit to clean the refreshers!" He yelled fiercely and Gregor laughed madly.

"Calm down Wolffe. They're doing good soldiers. Not the best but good soldiers." He said with a teasing edge to his voice. Rex wanted to shake his head at their banter when suddenly a loud clanging sound began to echo. The Clones in the area knew not this specific sound but ones very like it from the Clone Wars where they had heard it almost every day, the marching of battle droids.

"Everyone take cover." Rex called out, wondering just what the Empire was unleashing on them now.

The enormous hulking droids appeared and began firing at them immediately, cutting down some soldiers who hadn't been able to get to cover quickly enough. Their assault cannons were lethal and as the rebels and clones returned fire they discovered that the body armour of the Dark Troopers had been reinforced, when Wolffe threw a droid popper/ion grenade they then also saw the new plating seemed to resist shut down.

Rex gritted his teeth as he and his people were completely pinned down by the Dark Troopers, he tried to call in additional support but their communications were being jammed. He knew that they were done if they didn't think of something quickly but it wasn't him or Wolffe who solved the problem...it was Gregor.

He still had his DC-17m Interchangeable Weapon System, the same one he had used in the war as a clone commando, switching it over to the Anti-Armour Grenade Launcher mode. He moved like lightning before Rex and Wolffe could stop him, proving his age did not slow him down much if at all, shooting with pinpoint accuracy, taking out a bunch of the droids with a single shoot before diving into the next cover to reload. Rex and Wolffe called out to him but he could not hear them as he was so focused on what he was doing. He reloaded and then fired again, levelling another bunch of the Dark Troopers, and one of the soldiers managed to fire off a shot with his rocket launcher before being cut down by the surviving droids, he took out a few before Gregor got up one last time and fired his reloaded weapon.

But time seemed to slow as Rex and Wolffe looked on, he fired at the remaining Dark Troopers but as he did so he was hit but one of the assault rifles square in the chest.

The Dark Troopers were destroyed but Rex and Wolffe both only thought of Gregor, rushing over to him and each of them grabbing a hand. Gregor though pained smiled at them.

"It was an honour to fight with you both, for something we chose to believe in. It was an honour." Gregor told them.

"The honour was ours." Rex said with a mounting sense of grief, he knew that Gregor did not have long to live and nothing could save him now. Wolffe and Rex held his hands as he died and both men closed their eyes with grief before telling their men.

"You two, take him back to the extraction point. We will not be leaving him here." Wolffe demanded and the men were quick to obey, they would lay him to rest with as many of their brothers as they could, properly like so many of them had never been given.

Rex as grief stricken as his friend put a hand on his shoulder and they shared a moment, knowing it would only be that for now as they still had a job to do and soon had to rally their determination to see to it that Gregor had not died in vain and to finish the task they had set out to do.

- x -

Imperial Palace Vaults...

The Separatist Jedi were fighting with their battle droids in the vaults of the palace, trying to cover as much ground as possible as they looked for the Emperor. Shin Hati was leading her people, her orange coloured blade singing through the air as she cut her way ruthlessly through the enemy soldiers but regretfully there was no sign of their target.

She was about to order them to move to the upper levels when one of her people caught her attention.

"Shin, you need to see this!" Yol Ka, a Bith member of their small order said and Shin turned to him, walking over to see just what was so interesting when finally she saw just what had attracted his attention.

One of the vaults had been cut open and inside was a treasure trove of Jedi and Sith artefacts, texts and relics from both orders that Palpatine had collected. Shin was rendered speechless by the amazing find and although they had a mission and job to do she couldn't pass up this opportunity.

"Take it all back to the ships, get it back to our ships and then back to our space. Quietly." She said with some insistence on the last part as she did not want the Jedi or anyone else to lay claim to it. One of the big problems their new order had was a lack of knowledge, beyond some texts Master Skoll had found and given to them they had only the basics of an order, the smallest amount of knowledge to work with.

This she thought with excitement would allow them to finally catch up with some of the other force cultures around the galaxy...to find their own unique identity she thought with determination to make the most of it. She was half tempted to pull open the other vaults to see if anything more in them but she knew they were short on time and needed to make the most of this when they could.

She supervised as the droids and her people quickly removed the valuable pieces from the vault and retreat to their drop-ships, making sure they were taken straight to their own ships for the journey home before continuing with the search for Palpatine, they still had to eliminate him for this mission to be even remotely worthwhile she thought with some desperation as they were taking heavy losses in this assault and they had to achieve something for all of these dead...they had too she thought with some worry that it all might be for nothing.

- x -

The Throne Room was easily the most secure room in the entire palace, many of the security systems were top notch and extremely difficult to crack. So the Mandalorians had brought their best people to decode and unlock the system.

Deera worked with Zara and Luna's husband to slice the system and open the remaining locked doors and security systems. They were under the protection of Luxan and Mandalorian warriors as they worked, a firefight was being waged nearby and they were under intense pressure to get that door open.

Luna's husband might be an archaeologist by trade but he was also one of their best mathematicians and could solve just about any problem put to him so he was here to help but there was one thing that annoyed and worried Deera especially about the way Zara and him worked.

"Keep your helmets on!" She told them as they again took them off, Zara shot back at her wife with annoyance.

"We need to see the readings!" Zara could barely see it with her helmet on not to mention she wasn't that used to wearing it, she wasn't a warrior and rarely ever had a reason to wear it so it was just getting in the way for her, he had never worn armour before today either and had the same issues.

While they were working though a scout trooper with a sniper rifle in hand, he took aim and fired at the two Mandalorians that were not wearing helmets, eager to stop them from unlocking the security system.

Zara cried out in victory as they did it but then was made silent forever as the green shot went straight through her head, a second one hitting Luna's husband a mere moment later.

Deera caught Zara's fallen body in her arms and held her, using the force and her magic to try and revive her but she had been dead the moment the shot had hit her. Deera was in a state of shock, not able to grasp what had just happened, unable to cope or function she held Zara's body close and refused to let go.

The warriors took out the enemy shortly after and had to move Deera to the drop ships as she was in no fit state to decide anything at the moment, she only resisted when they tried to take Zara's body so they let her keep holding it while keeping her out of harms way.

Haron was notified and ordered them to return to the Infinity with her immediately. They did as he told them and Haron had a squadron of vipers escort them back.

Knowing she needed him, Haron briefly left the bridge and allowed the ship's captain to take control of the battle so he could go to the person that needed him the most right now. He could feel her grief so strongly that he apparated straight to the hanger and when he saw Deera still holding Zara's body he took off his own helmet and walked over to her. He carefully pulled off her own helmet and made her look at him, the tears in her eyes were starting to gather as he took her in his arms and only then did she finally let go of Zara's body and sobbed in his arms, he just held her as she needed him right now and she mattered to him more than any battle.

- x -

In the Glovoc's chamber, Darth Glovoc was finally free of his prison. He stretched his muscles out and sensed that the chaos of the battle was proceeding as he had foreseen and more so that the overriding of the security systems would allow him to escape the frame that had been his prison for some time now. He knew escape would be difficult but all of the fighting should make escaping into the under levels of Coruscant easy enough. He could hide there until he was ready to leave the planet and he sensed a potential apprentice could be found there maybe several he considered if what his senses told him was true.

Sidious was going to fall, of that he had no doubt. If his failing body did not betray him then the power of the one who would have rivalled Revan himself would destroy him, Glovoc thought and did not want to face such a powerful Jedi especially when he could feel both sides of the force within him just as they had been within Revan. If that Jedi and those with him had learned Revan's secret to channelling both sides of the force then nothing he could offer would tempt them and his own power was not strong enough to take them he thought with fear.

But he would never reach the outside as someone had found him first.

"Not an apprentice, no something else." A woman said, she was beautiful with white-blonde hair and a slim figure but in the force she was hard to read. Regardless Glovoc did not sense she was stronger than him so he pulled his lightsaber to his hand from the case where it had been placed to mock him ever since Sidious had captured him. She wore white and gold coloured armoured robes with a cyan lightsaber in her hand, she was serenely smiling at him.

"A Jedi from this era? You have no idea how much greater the Jedi were in my area and the Sith greater still." Glovoc taunted having heard about how weak the Jedi had become over the centuries. The woman however did not blink and merely kept smiling as she raised her lightsaber.

Glovoc ignited his own red one and charged, the Jedi however seemed to dance around him with all of the grace and poise you would expect of a legendary performer. Her form was faultless Glovoc realised to his fear and her power was far greater than he had imagined now revealed in the midst of the fight when she hit his lightsaber with a bolt of white force lightning, shorting it out and leaving him in shock and defenceless. Taking advantage of his unprepared state she caught him in a telekinetic hold and impaled him with her lightsaber, so easily...so simply it was astonishing.

Glovoc was shocked at how easily she had bested him, but she smirked as she looked at him while he was dying and told him.

"You don't remember me do you, Talvon Esan?" She said, making his already laboured breathing increase.

"How do you know that name?" He demanded, he had abandoned it a long time ago when he had been a Jedi and left to join the fight against the Mandalorians. Then suddenly...he remembered.

"No...no...it can't be you!" Glovoc stammered in fear, Meetra Surik! He thought with terror, a fellow member of the Revanchist although perhaps the only one to not join them on the dark side. "You died! Thousands of years ago!"

"The force has a great many mysteries as you are about to learn. Be at peace Talvon, this is the time to rest." She told him calmly before finishing him off with a flick of her lightsaber.

- x -

HK-47 was using his assassination protocols to finally corner the Imperial meat bags, having managed to enter main throne room.

The lethal droid was happier than he had been in a long time as at last his master would not be stopping him from eliminating meat bags this time. He had his customised blaster rifle in hand and if he had been an organic he would have been laughing maniacally as he started firing.

He was completely indiscriminate about his targets, if they were not part of the allied force then they were a legitimate target. He was in his element and moving at optimal efficiency, never missing a shot and firing at a speed that showed why machines were and always would be better than fleshy meat bags!

He shot a priority target, dressed in elaborate purple robes named Sate and then an alien meat bag Mas, HK-47 couldn't even be bothered to recall the files to get their full names all that mattered was they were dead.

Shooting down a woman in a red Imperial uniform with a streak of white in her hair he then detected two new people, moving to the side as a blast of force lightning came at him and missed by a narrow margin. Tracking the trajectory he saw one of the force wielding meat bags used by the Emperor, a Dark Disciple as he called them. HK-47 taunted the cloaked figure.

"Amused Statement: If that is all you can do meat bag then I am most disappointed, I had hoped to find a more challenging opponent." HK-47 said as he put his rifle away, it would be of little use if he drew his lightsaber and instead pulled a baton like device from his middle.

The Dark Disciple could not take being mocked by a droid and leapt forward with his lightsaber but HK-47 was ready and raised his baton, it was long and made of phrik, having belonged to a former Grand Moff that HK-47 had eliminated during the war so it was able to resist the lightsaber and using his mechanical strength he was able to match the Dark Disciple.

As they locked blades he deployed his wrist mounted flame thrower, a nice little upgrade he had made for himself and burnt the Dark Disciple in his unprotected face. He screamed out in agony before HK-47 used the distraction to pull out his heavy blaster pistol and shoot him straight in the face!

Then another blast of force lightning him for another direction, it was hard on his circuits but his master had installed special insulation to protect them from dangerous overloads and so he was able to turn and shoot at the source. He heard a yell of pain so he hit his target and another dark cloaked figure appeared limping with a burning mark on their leg with a lightsaber in hand.

Sluggish from the lightning he had to drop his pistol and use the baton to defend himself but it was much harder this time. The second Dark Disciple did not stay still long, moving around quickly and acrobatically so it was hard to pin them down. HK-47 was still slightly sluggish and found it hard to match their speed, he toppled over as the Disciple managed to get a good slash in on his left leg, sending him toppling over and then being hit again and again by the enemy lightsaber. Losing his other leg and right arm and taking multiple hits to the chest area.

He was suffering more and more damage each time and he was losing functionality, knowing he was about to shut down perhaps forever he used his only remaining weapon, his cable gun on his left arm and fired, wrapping the cable tightly around the Disciple's throat. They gasped for breath and clawed at their throat trying to prise it off but it held true, then HK-47 pulled on the cable and smacked his head into theirs while pulling on the cable in the other direction, resulting in a satisfying snap as their neck was broken.

As HK-47 was losing function, lying there he just managed to say.

"Satisfied Declaration: I win...meat...bag." HK-47 said proudly as his red eye lights went out.

- x -

The escape tunnels of the palace were a secret known only to the Emperor himself, any of the designers and builders involved were killed to prevent them ever revealing the secrets to anyone.

But by chance two of the force sensitives that were working with the taskforce discovered Palpatine and reported the entrance to the tunnel.

"Jedi." Palpatine said with disgust as he turned to face them, Shaak Ti was looking at Palpatine with disgust having never seen anyone as twisted by the dark side as Palpatine was, Kento Marek who was accompanying her on behalf of the Mandalorians saw the revolting form of Palpatine and ignited his lightsaber as they stood to challenge him. He snarled at them and then unleashed the most devastating blast of force lightning that they had ever seen! They were blown off their feet by the sheer power of it and then without so much as a word he hit Kento with a heat stun, stopping his heart with a stasis bubble and holding it so it couldn't pump blood around the body. His hand went to his chest and he tried to dispel it but Palpatine despite his weakened state was still more powerful than him, making Kento collapse to his knees and fall on his front.

Shaak Ti was no better, instead of a heat stun though Palpatine grabbed her with the force and contorted her body with force rend, she struggled against his hold but again he was too strong as he violently twisted her body and then to add insult to injury, he used her arm to impale her with her own lightsaber.

Letting go of both his enemies Palpatine felt sudden exhaustion but disgusted by this weakness made himself stand up straight, taking an injector from inside his robes and using it to give him another dose of the wonderful spice as he had managed to reacquire a supply of it recently, instantly he felt better and his strength returned, allowing him under escort of his guards to continue on.

- x -

Anakin and Vader were still exchanging blows, Vader's cybernetics made him physically stronger but Anakin was stronger in the force and much more skilled, he had upped his own training after the last time they had met and was not going to allow Vader to surprise him this time.

Both of them using the aggressive form Form 5 as their primary form, the heavy cleaves and counter attacks they used were cancelled out by each other with Vader using his augmented strength to try and gain the upper hand.

But Anakin then changed tactics mid fight, throwing Vader off guard.

He spun away and pulled a second lightsaber from his robes, igniting the purple blade and then then hitting Vader with a debris from the corridor before blasting him with a strong force push, sending him flying backwards and into the wall opposite. Anakin then leapt in with his two lightsabers, now moving as quickly as he possibly could with a series of rapid feints and attacks to keep Vader off balance, he was not an Ataru specialist nor one in Niman but his first apprentice had been skilled in them and he had studied them himself to expand his skill set.

So for the heavy handed style of Form 5 this was a good defence and offence at the same time, not challenging Vader for strength and using force based attacks against him. He had been waiting for a chance to avenge what Vader had done to Mace for a long time now and it was enabling him to draw on not only the love of his son, but the anger of the maiming he had received at Vader's hands and Anakin's own need to make him pay.

So he grew stronger and stronger, uniting both the light and dark sides together and unleashing the sheer power of that union on Vader who only drew upon the dark side, his own rage and pain were immense but they were a source that would eventually run dry.

But it was not this that finally ended the fight, but perhaps the most courageous droid in the galaxy.

Vader who was flailing around like a madman trying to pin Anakin down was rammed in the back and knocked over by R2 flying straight into him at full speed. The droid fell to the side dazed as he recovered, but this created the opening Anakin needed to stab Vader straight through the heart with his purple lightsaber.

Vader stilled, not able to believe that his cursed existence was at last coming to an end, but then he honestly felt something that at first he had no concept of what it was but eventually he realised it was...peace. Something he had never known before, the certainty of his death and the end of his suffering brought incredible release and he felt so at ease with it that the only thing that bothered him was that Palpatine might escape so he told Skywalker quickly before he ran out of breath.

"You must hurry...Palpatine...has a ship hidden nearby to escape Coruscant. The co-ordinates." He said, detaching a data-pad from his belt and tossing it to Anakin's feet. "If...you hurry...you can kill him." Vader said before falling down dead.

Anakin was shocked at the seeming relief that he had sensed in Vader at his own death given how many the cyborg clone had killed all across the years...he had never met someone so happy at the the idea of dying before but hearing the Emperor might be fleeing Anakin grabbed the data-pad and checked it, not sure if he could trust it but it would be just like Palpatine to have some way out if things were not going his way Anakin realised and seeing R2 was struggling to get up he helped the droid upright and asked him.

"Are you okay R2?" Anakin said concerned but the droid gave an affirmative sound which made Anakin smile before he told him.

"Send a message to all of our people that are still standing, we need to get to that ship before Palpatine escapes. Send them the co-ordinates and tell them to assemble there." Anakin ordered and R2 gave another affirmative while Anakin rushed to join up with their forces for one mad dash to get to this mystery ship was fast as possible.

- x -

The co-ordinates Vader had given them were at least accurate Anakin thought as he and the rest of their forces that were still able to fight rushed to board the apparently very large ship, at least a third of them had been destroyed, forced to withdraw due to injury or died much to his sorrow but they still had a job to do he thought with determination.

They were using a tunnel that workers apparently used to move on board the ship but how was the ship going to take off when there was a large number of buildings on top of it? Anakin wondered as the last of their people managed to get on board, then as they closed the air lock behind them they felt a loud and hard rumbling as the ship's massive engines came to life.

Above the people of Coruscant were confused by the sudden shaking, wondering if it was an earthquake of some kind which given their position so far from any actual earth sounded impossible. But nevertheless the ground was moving and all of them began to get incredibly alarmed as they worried that the towers they were all living and working in might collapse but that was the least of their worries.

Explosives left by the people that had buried the ship detonated, razing the entire area above the ship, devastating roughly 259 square kilometres of the top level above, killing millions in the process as the ship rose from its cradle, the mammoth ship's red sublight engines roaring to life as it applied full thrust to climb into space, its natural habitat.

Those that had survived the massive destruction on the surface looked up and saw the massive form of a Super Star Destroyer rising from the plume of smoke and heading up into orbit.

Palpatine on the command bridge smiled as his leviathan of a ship rose from the surface to carry him to safety, Anakin meanwhile as he and the rest of his people including Luke and Mara looked around in confusion saw a name on a display board.

Lusankya.

Gritting his teeth he told his people with determination.

"Let's go, we have work to do."