Gib Slater stepped over broken rubble to find his way through the wrecked NJX Temple. He tracked the voice to his chambers. He stepped over collapsed wall sections and came upon the door to his chambers. The activation switch wasn’t working and the door was off its track, hanging down at a grotesque angle. Gib called upon the Force and ripped the door away from the frame sending hurtling into the room with a crash. Gib walked through and entered his chambers. He went down a short stairway and rounded a corner into his main living space. The windows were all blown in. Glass was littered across the floor like a million sparkling diamonds. In the center of the room sat a dark, raven-like figure cloaked all in black. His head was bent slightly down and he wore a deep hood that obscured his face. “I have been waiting for you Gib Slater.” The dark form said. “I look forward to showing you the true power of the Force.” The confused and conflicted feelings returned to Gib. Why had he allowed himself to come here? He asked himself. “I was promised that my pain would be freed and that I would right the wrongs.” Darth Evill lifted his head and showed Gib his face, or what could be seen of it set within the deep hood. “Do not be confused Slater. I will expose the lies told to you by Eth Das Main, and help you unlock the power that you hold within that is fueled by your pain and anger.” “I seek absolution.” “I am your absolution. When you learn to use your anger and hatred to stop those who would defy you; your pain will be lifted and turned into a tool to be used to stop injustice from ever happening again.” Gib wanted to believe his words, so desperately wanted to believe him, but everything he said defied what Master Main had taught him. But so what? Eth Das Main was once Dark himself and converted, he knew the power of the Dark side. He must have wanted to keep Gib from experiencing its power only because he could not handle it himself. But…no, that wasn’t the truth again. Gib couldn’t keep the truth apart from the lies.

Darth Evill stood and approached Gib. “Slater, you are confused, frightened, unsure of yourself. Allow me to prove my words are true.” Evill then gestured with his hand in Gib’s direction. And Gib was falling again. The voices of the past returned. He was once again reliving the horrific battle of Freeport that ultimately reunited him with his brother Yan and saw the end of his parents. He saw the battle from high above, he saw himself piloting his Crimson Mercenary X-Wing. He was like a disembodied spirit sent to watch over the damned. The battle progressed as it always had in his haunted dreams, but when it came time for the shattered Strike Cruiser to slam into the colony, things went differently. “Guardian 2 to Guardian 1! That thing is on a collision course for the colony!” Gib’s X-Wing dove and rolled and headed toward the careening remains of the cruiser. Gib slammed all power to the snub fighter’s engines and barreled toward the catastrophe in the making. Gib’s face contorted into a strained grimace. He concentrated his entire being on the remains of the ship ahead. He closed his eyes as he neared it. His head reeled back, and then he let out a ear shattering scream, “NOOO!” Then with a brilliance that seemed fueled by the depths of hell itself a great flash of energy leapt from Gib’s body, out of his X-Wing and into the broken hull of the Strike Cruiser. The destructive force slammed into the remains of the ship and blew it into a million super heated shards just before it had struck the colony. The colony shook violently from the explosion and for a moment was obscured from the blinding blast. When the flash cleared…the Freeport colony still remained. It was safe. Gib had saved his parents. The pirates were defeated and the colony remained this time! Gib watched all of this from afar in his disembodied form. He was speechless, his heart pounded against the inside of his chest so hard he thought it might burst through. He kept waiting for the colony to explode and evaporate before his eyes, but it never happened. Then he heard Evill’s voice again as he slowly began to return to the here and now. “With the Dark side as your ally, nothing will cause you pain again, and your parents deaths are absolved.” Gib’s vision of the scene before him faded out as the reality around him faded back in. Gib Slater’s face was ashen. He looked up and into Darth Evill’s eyes, which beamed back at him with a fiery glow. Gib’s mouth slowly opened as he said “I understand. Take me with you.”

Crazed Canuck, Dar Kre Twel and Olen Garn wasted no time putting on their flight suits and climbing into their fighter craft. Dar took the A-Wing he had had so many problems with before, Crazed Canuck took his second T-Wing and Olen Garn strapped himself into the pilot chair of his YT-2400 Correlian freighter. They skipped the pre-flight check and punched the throttles out of the hangar bay. Crazed Canuck keyed his comm and said to the trio of Jedi, “Here we go again.”

Klin Ven Twel stepped off the lift and onto the bridge. It was nearly a ghost town. It was filled with droids running the controls save only one NJX member doing repairs, NJX NX01, a new member. Klin looked from side to side and scratched his head with his new prosthetic arm. “Guys?”

In the medical center the surgeon droids released Jedi Master Eth Das Main from the healing bacta fluid. His wounds were mended, but he would be weak. He was also awake, but not coherent. He rambled on mumbling. “Gib! No! Don’t do this. Yan. Help! Gib…nooooo.” The surgeon droids continued to work on the near slain Jedi Master, paying no attention to his ramblings. They simply worked fervently to fully restore him to health.

The trio of Jedi pilots kept a steady course as they maneuvered through hyperspace. They hoped they wouldn’t be too late. They had also cut short the nav-computers calculation time in order to try to arrive at the SkyWard Star convoy’s location sooner. They risked travelling into a world, a star or even a black hole by not allowing for full calculations. They reached the point in real space where the Promota freighters were under attack. They throttled back the hyper drives and dropped into real space…only a few dozen meters from the hull of the SkyWard Star. “Pull up!” Shouted Dar. The three ships twisted and turned to avoid slamming head long into the hull of the large freighter. Olen’s light Correlian freighter was less nimble than the smaller fighters were and it’s under belly actually scraped the hull of the SkyWard Star, sending a wake of sparks behind it. The trio didn’t have any time to regain their composure either, the Imperial fighters were already all over the convoy, sending deadly lasers into the ships. One smaller freighter in the convoy was already succumbing to the attack. It’s hull collapsed in on itself and then it exploded in a brilliant flash. Dar Kre Twel keyed his comm mic, “CC, Olen keep the Ties busy, it looks like the Assault Gunboats are targeting the convoy, I’ll intercept them!” “Affirmative.” “Gotcha Dar.”

Olen Garn powered up his two dorsal gun emplacements and began targeting the Ties while Crazed Canuck moved his shields forward and barreled down on a wing of Tie Interceptors. “Ok, lets see how much I can make these guys pay for wrecking my first T-Wing! Ya-hoo!” Dar maneuvered his nimble A-Wing interceptor towards an element of incoming Assault Gunboats. He switched over to advanced missiles and started to acquire a lock. As soon as his HUD went solid and he got a solid lock tone, he depressed the trigger. Twin missiles sprang out of the A-Wing at blinding speeds and tracked the lead Gunboat. The missiles trailed and locked on to it. They caught up to the Gunboat and exploded against it’s rear shields. The shields dropped a bit on the Imperial assault craft, but it did no damage. Dar made a face. “Dang! Those are some tough little suckers!”

On board the Modified Frigate Arachnid Captain Gerard watched the tactical monitors. The Tactical Lieutenant approached him. “Sir, the tactics employed by the newly arrived fighters matches that of the Jedi we encountered before. I believe they too are Jedi, probably of the same cell we seek.” “Excellent, have communications notify Moff Crafft at once. Our bait tactics have paid off.” “Yes sir.”

Olen Garn and CC twisted and dived to avoid the heavy assault by the Ties. Olen’s YT-2400 was taking a few hits, but his gunnery skills were more than making up for it. Another Tie Fighter mushroomed under the onslaught of his dual hull mounted guns. Crazed Canuck was also holding his own. He managed to out maneuver the Ties pursuing him all the while pulling the plug on the one in front of him. Dar managed to knock out a number of the Assault Gunboats attacking the freighter convoy then he picked up a couple Tie Fighters on his tail. They let loose a volley of green fire on him. A couple blasts raked his rear shields. Dar spun his head around to look over his shoulder. “Oh! I know you didn’t just fire that green crap at me!” Dar twisted his A-Wing into a spiraling loop and headed towards one of the trench shaped bulk freighters in the convoy. He angled his approach so he was heading towards the massive ship at a 45-degree angle on its bow. The Ties continued their pursuit. The Jedi A-Wing almost came nose to nose with the freighter, then at the last micro second he yanked hard on the flight stick and twisted around the leading corner of the freighter to barrel down the “trench” of the freighter. The Ties, although highly maneuverable themselves, the pilots were not prepared for such a move and could not match Dar’s action. They slammed into the side of the freighter, barely scratching its shields but devastating the two Ties, and their pilots. Dar Kre Twel twisted in a spiraling loop along the freighter’s length. “Yaaaa-hooo!”

Although the Jedi were turning the tide of the battle, it was near impossible to shake off all of the Imperial fighters that swarmed them. Olen and CC did their best to fight off all of the fighters, but the odds were against them. A wing of new Tie Interceptors dropped in behind Crazed Canuck and opened fire. They lit up his rear shields until they dropped completely. There were just too many fighters to avoid the fire. Alarms wailed in CC’s cockpit and panels began to burst. Crazed Canuck yanked on the controls to get out of the way and redirect shields. “Oh no, not again.” He muttered. The Interceptors kept on CC’s tail. He was only moments from becoming space dust when an unfamiliar X-Wing dropped from high above. It was backlit by the sun and it gave off a dazzling sparkle, as it’s quad lasers lit up on the Ties pursuing CC. They were completely caught unawares by this new entrant into the fray. One by one each Tie took a hit and burst apart under the crimson fire of the X-Wing. Crazed Canuck managed to avoid the last of the fire of the Ties and redirect power to his shields before any critical damage was done. Then a woman’s voice came over the Jedi’s comms. “This is Jade Star of the Jedi clan JAS, I’m responding to the distress call of the Promota convoy…you guys need some help?” Crazed Canuck smiled into his mic. “Lady, we need all the help we can get. Thanks back there. You saved my tail.” “No problem fly boy, we’ll never take out all of the fighters that Frigate can offer up, let’s just hope we can buy the convoy enough time to jump into hyper space.” Olen Garn took his turn to jump in. “Where did you come from lady? You get an invite to this party too?” Jade allowed herself a smile. “You could say that. I was assignment on Promota and heading home when I picked up the SkyWard Star’s distress call. But enough of this, we got work to do.” Dar, Olen, CC and the rather intriguing Jade worked together to clear a path for the freighter convoy to make it to hyperspace. “NJX Dar Kre Twel to Captain Jon Band of the SkyWard Star, please respond.” Moments later the Captain that prayed for a miracle and received four responded. “Band here. Thank you for helping us!” “No time for that now Captain. Let’s get you saved before you thank us. How much longer before you can engage hyperdrive?” Band checked a few instruments and then responded. “Only a couple more minutes is all we need.” “Good, hold your course and jump as soon as you can. We’ll keep the remaining Imperial fighters busy till then. Let’s just hope no more show up!”

Suddenly, as if cued by some Imperial march, the entire whole of Moff Crafft’s fleet dropped out of Hyperspace practically on top of the band of outnumbered Jedi. Crazed Canuck was the first to react. “Uh-oh, I think I’ve been here before.” Dar then spoke up. “Keep it together! Hold off those fighters for another minute!” The trio and Jade Star broke into evasive action and tried to put some distance between them selves and the massive Star Destroyers of Crafft’s fleet. Turbo laser fire rained down on them. It was nearly unavoidable, only Jedi instincts and reflexes allowed them to dodge most of the fire. Captain Jon Band then came across the Comm. “This is Band were almost ready, just a few more seconds!” Jade Star picked up several Ties on her six. She twisted and pulled hard on the flight stick. She was forced back towards the Star Destroyers. “Watch it Jade! You’re getting to close to those Star Destroyers!” Shouted Olen. “It’s the devil or the river guys, I’m working on it.” she responded back.

Jon Band of the Promota freighter SkyWard Star shouted out, “That’s it we’ve got our Hyper space coordinates! We’re jumping now. Thank you NJX and JAS!” And with that, the remaining ships of the convoy shot into hyperspace. Dar keyed his comm, “That’s it, they’re away! Let’s go!” “Affirmative” “You can bet on it!” Came Olen and CC’s replies. “I’d love to join you guys, but I’m a bit preoccupied here!” Said Jade Star. She looped her X-Wing in between two Star Destroyers that were firing turbo lasers at her, all the while being chased by several Ties. Crazed Canuck turned his T-Wing back towards the capital ships. “We can’t leave her, let’s get her clear!” Before anyone else could do anything, a tractor beam shot out of the Devastator and grabbed hold of Jade’s X-Wing. “I’m caught in a tractor beam!” She shouted. “Get out of here before they get one on you!” “We can’t leave you to those animals!” Cried Crazed Canuck. “I’ve been there, believe me.” “Just go! I can take care of myself!” “But we could…” Started Dar Kre Twel. “Go! I’ll take care of these Imperial scums. I’m ready for anything. Now get out of here already!” The three NJX couldn’t seem to argue with her. She seemed determined that she could handle the situation. Dar shook his head and opened the comm link. “You heard the lady boys! Let’s go!” Dar, Olen Garn and Crazed Canuck opened the throttles up on their ships and screamed away from the Imperial fleet. As soon as the nav-comps got a lock back on the Enduring Freedom’s position relative to theirs, they hit the hyperdrive engines and blasted away.

The tractor beam operator onboard the ISD Devastator called out from the work pit on the bridge. “Sir! I have the X-Wing with the female pilot trapped. Shall we open fire and destroy it now?” Moff Crafft stepped closer to the point above the tractor beam operator. “Of course! What are you waiting for?” The tractor beam operator relayed the co-ordinates of the suspended ship over to the gunners. “Co-ordinates sent. Open fire!” Then someone strode up behind Crafft. “Wait! Do not destroy that ship! Bring it aboard. I want to meet this…. Jedi.” Crafft turned to face the person who would belay one of his orders aboard his own ship. He began to shout at him, but suddenly his throat began to constrict. He couldn’t breathe. It was as if a powerful hand were wrapped around his windpipe, choking off the lifeblood of air from his lungs. Gib Slater held his hand towards Crafft, miming a crushing movement. “We will bring that ship aboard and surround it with force fields. I want to see…Jade Star.”