Confederacy Triumphant
Chapter 6 - Year 3 of the Yuuzhan Vong War
Leia stood on the surface of the living world Zonoma Sekot, still amazed at the differences between this world and her home of Dathomir. Beside her was the man who had brought she and her Singing Mountain sisters to this strange world. Her brother Luke Skywalker.
"What do you mean we're leaving?" Leia asked incredulously. "You tell me the galaxy is at war, and we're just going to run away?"
"Leia it's more complicated than that." Luke explained calmly. "I wanted to fight the Yuuzhan Vong myself when I first heard of them. But what we have here is too important to risk."
Leia was still trying to understand everything Luke had explained on the flight here. How their father had been a war hero. How their mother had attempted to bring them to this living world separately to insure their safety. How Luke's flight had made it. And how Leia's had not. Luke had explained how their mother had died trying to bring Leia here, only to be caught in a wartime crossfire leading to a crash landing on the blockaded world of Dathomir.
"And these Jedi, like you. That's what is too important to risk?"
"The Jedi were nearly wiped out during the last great war Leia. When my master found this world, he realized how special it was. It has the ability to travel at lightspeed throughout the galaxy."
Leia fell in step along side Luke, as they entered Windu City, the lone population center of Zenoma Sekot.
"He traveled across the galaxy, finding any surviving Jedi, finding any sensitive to the Force, bringing them here to build a new way of life for us all."
"So that we could all run away when the galaxy needed us most. How noble."
Luke frowned and led Leia towards a small, humble building.
"Perhaps my master can explain it better than I can."
Leia looked across the small city to the center. A large domed structure caught her interest.
"What is that place?"
Luke frowned again. "It's a ...a kind of meeting hall for all of us. But nothing to concern yourself with right now."
Leia sensed his evasiveness. Although she felt a connection to Luke, she did not yet trust the man.
"Jedi meetings?" Leia pressed
"It's not something I think we should discuss right now."
"And why not?"
As they entered the small building, Leia's interrogation of Luke stopped short as a small, ancient looking green being turned to greet her.
"Welcome you are here, Leia Skywalker."
"This is Master Yoda." Luke announced.
"Many questions you have." Yoda continued. "And many doubts."
Leia nodded.
"Address them I will."
"Why aren't you willing to help the galaxy?" Leia asked simply.
"Wish to fight you do." Yoda observed. "Much anger in you, like your father."
"Answer the question." Leia demanded.
"Invaded the galaxy has been, by beings empty of the Force. The power you bring forth with song."
Leia nodded.
"Dominated by machines, our galaxy has been." Yoda continued. "Now Zenoma Sekot tells us, achieved self-awareness, machines have."
Leia furrowed her brow, still trying to understand how a planet itself could communicate with the people upon it. How non-living machines could think.
"Matter it does not, if machines or the Yuuzhan Vong win this war." Yoda continued patiently, "For those strong in the Force, no place will there be."
"So where do we go?" Leia pressed.
"Know where, I did not know, when led I did, the Younglings from the Temple." Yoda mused. "Know where now, I do not. But agreed to take us, Zonoma Sekot has."
"Our galaxy has...boundaries?" Leia asked Luke, struggling to expand her understanding despite her isolated life on Dathomir.
"Yes. And there are other galaxies out there Leia." Luke explained. "Just as the Vong crossed the dark gulf, so can we."
"How long will it take?"
"Generations." Luke continued. "But as the Force leaves this galaxy with us, together we will bring it to a new galaxy that has never known it."
Leia held her hand to her head.
"It's a lot to take in."
"Give it some time. And get some rest, sister." Luke smiled warmly. "You've been through a war of your own. And haven't had time even to grieve."
Leia looked into Luke's gentle eyes. She smiled and nodded.
Excusing herself to Yoda and Luke, she exited the building. Walking across the beautiful city, she quickly returned the living area Luke had shown her Singing Mountain Clan.
"Well?" her sisters surrounded her. "Is it all true? Are we staying here?"
Leia shook her head.
"They are fleeing, just when the galaxy needs them most."
Looking back to the central dome in the middle of the city, Leia narrowed her eyes.
"And there are secrets here. Secrets Luke does not want us to know of. We are leaving."
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Confederacy continued its war of extermination against the Yuuzhan Vong. The invaders were being decimated on dozens of worlds simultaneously. Droids with radical new capabilities and designs never before fathomed were being created throughout the galaxy and thrown against the Vong the moment they exited the assembly line.
The droid intelligence saw all throughout the galaxy at once. It processed information at a speed that no organic brain could ever achieve. It existed in a billion droid minds at once and yet it existed in none of them. It floated in the depths of space, racing through com satellites and relays, residing in space itself.
And yet one thing gave it pause. It could no longer locate the battlestation Tyranus. Every droid on the station had now been destroyed. The former headquarters of the old Confederacy was now fully in the hands of the enemy.
And yet, it posed no threat to the droid consciousness. A planet destroying super-laser was no threat to a galaxy spanning super-mind.
No, the Confederacy did not fear for itself. It feared for its departing friend. For when the last droid on board the station had reported in, the Tyranus was approaching Zonoma Sekot.
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Leia had watched Luke pilot the ship the entire way from Dathomir, through the droid blockade and into the stars. She had memorized the sequences, enough to have a rough understanding of the operations. She could get her sisters out of here. She could take them to another world, to continue the fight against the Vong.
She would not run with these people. Whatever they were, they were not her kind. She would live and die by the code she had been raised by. The warrior code of the Singing Mountain Clan.
Looking back at her sisters in the cargo hold, she nodded to them with resolve.
"Hang on!"
Activating the lift-off cycle, Leia took the vessel unsteadily into the air. She wished she were at home on a Rancor. They were far better mounts than this unwieldy, metallic coffin.
Extending the wings, she took the craft skimming over the surface of Zenoma Sekot. Looking a last time at the city below, she mimicked Luke's sequence and nodded as the vessel accelerated into the air, and then at last, into the stars. A cheer range up from her sisters behind her. They were going to make it!
Looking out ahead at the stars, Leia maneuvered the vessel as best she could towards a small moon. It grew larger as she closed in.
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In control of the Tyranus, Nom Anor watched the small transport approach. The pathetic ship did not concern him. The planet it had just left however, interested him greatly.
The impressive sensor array of the Tyranus had detected the hyperspace engines built directly into the planet surface. Nom Anor had heard rumors of it before. Rumors of a rogue planet travelling the galaxy. A rogue planet that was fabled to be home to the last of the Jeedai.
"Have you figured out how to lock the targeting computer?" Nom asked his Dathomir Vong.
Two of the half-breeds turned from the computer with looks of utter confusion.
"Father...on Dathomir we...we never..."
"Silence, idiot." Nom scowled.
Walking to the targeting computer himself, he pushed aside the two warriors. He silently cursed himself for using Tsavong Lah's seed to produce these moronic aberrations. If he had used his own DNA, if he had truly been their father, he was reasonably sure that they could have at least understood a basic computer readout.