from General Hoth's successor than incessant, thoughtless questions.
'Take a closer look at who I am sending down,' Farfalla instructed. 'These are brave volunteers, valuable allies in our battle against the Sith. But none of them is attuned to the Force.'
Surprised, Johun took a second look at the shore party as they made their final preparations. The woman had dark skin and short black hair, and the Jedi realized he had met her once before.
She was a Republic soldier named Irtanna, and she had joined their cause a little over a standard year earlier. It took him a moment longer to place the others, until he noticed the resemblance between the bearded man and the two teenagers. They were natives of Ruusan. The man was a farmer named Bordon who had fled before the advancing armies of Lord Kaan during the latest Sith offensive. The two boys were his sons, though Johun couldn't recall their names.
'We do not know the full extent of the thought bomb's effects,' Farfalla continued. 'There may be aftershocks that could harm or even kill a Jedi or Padawan. That is why you cannot go.'
Johun nodded. It made sense; Valenthyne was just being cautious. But sometimes it was possible to be too cautious. 'There are other risks on the surface' he noted. 'We don't know that all the Sith are dead. Some of them may have survived.'
Farfalla shook his head. 'Kaan had some spell, some power, over his followers. They were enthralled to his will. When he led them down into the cave, they all followed him willingly. He had them convinced they could survive the thought bomb if they united their power… but he was wrong.'
'What about the Sith minions?' Johun pressed, unwilling to let the matter drop. Like the Jedi, the Sith had their share of followers who were not attuned to the Force: soldiers and mercenaries who had allied themselves with the Brotherhood of Darkness. 'We didn't capture them all' the young Padawan pointed out. 'Some of them fled the battle. They'll still be down there.'
'That's what this is for,' the woman soldier assured him, patting the blaster on her hip. She gave a fierce smile, her gleaming white teeth contrasting sharply with her dark complexion.
'Irtanna knows how to take care of herself,' Farfalla agreed. 'She's seen more combat than you and me put together.'
'Please, Lord Valenthyne,' Johun begged, dropping to one knee. A vain and foolish gesture, but he was desperate. He knew Farfalla was right, but he didn't care. He didn't care about logic or reason or even the dangers of the thought bomb. He just couldn't sit by doing nothing! 'Please! He was my Master.'
Farfalla reached out with his hand and placed it tenderly on Johun's forehead. 'Hoth warned me that his decision to send you away would not rest easily on your shoulders,' he said softly. 'But your Master was a wise man. He knew what was best for you, as do I. You must trust my judgment in this, even if you do not fully understand it.'
Removing his hand from the young man's brow, the new leader of the Army of Light took Johun by the arm and helped him to his feet.
'Your Master made a great sacrifice to save us all,' he said. 'If we give in to our emotions now, if we allow ourselves to come to needless harm, then we dishonor what he has done. Do you understand?'
Johun nodded, a Padawan acquiescing to the greater wisdom of a Jedi Master.
'Good,' Farfalla said, turning away to focus his attention on one of the other rescue teams. 'If you want to help, give Irtanna a hand loading up their supplies.'
Johun nodded again, though Farfalla didn't notice. He was already gone, whisked away by the responsibilities of his position.
Working in silence, Johun helped load the last few supplies into the shuttle: field kits filled with rations and water capsules; medpacs in case they came across any wounded; electrobinoculars and a sensor pack for scouting and recon; glow rods for when night fell. And, of course, spare power packs for the blasters Irtanna and the others carried in case they encountered any surviving minions from Kaan's army.
'Thank you,' Irtanna said once they were done.
Trying to appear casual, Johun took a quick look around. Farfalla was nowhere to be seen.
'Did you want to fly us down, or should I?' he asked her. The words were easy, but as he said them he reached out with the Force to touch her mind. He did it gently, being careful not to cause her any harm as he planted the seed of a suggestion.
Her eyes glazed over momentarily and a look of blank confusion crossed her face. 'Uh… I'll fly us down, I guess. You can take the copilot's chair.'
'You're coming with us?' Bordon, the middle-aged father, asked. From his tone, it was obvious he had doubts.
'Of course' Johun replied amicably. 'You all heard him say I should help you load up the supplies, right? Why else would he say that if I wasn't going with you?'
As he had done with Irtanna, he gave another slight push, adding the mind-altering power of the Force to the half-truth. Normally he would have abhorred the idea of manipulating friends or allies in this fashion, but in this case he knew the ragtag rescue team would fare better if he accompanied them.
'Yeah. Right,' Bordon agreed after a moment. 'Good to have you along.'
'Makes sense to have a Jedi with us' Irtanna added. 'Just in case.'
Persuading someone through the Force was always easier when it was something they wanted to be convinced of, Johun noted. Still, he felt a slight twinge of guilt as he climbed into the small ship-to-surface shuttle.
That's only because you re disobeying Farfalla, he reassured himself. You're doing the right thing.
'Everyone strap in,' Irtanna ordered, speaking over the pressurized hiss as the air locks sealed.
The shuttle's engines flared to life, lifting them off the docking platform.
'Back home to Ruusan. Or at least what's left of it,' Bordon muttered glumly as they drifted through the cargo hold doors and out into the upper reaches of the planet's atmosphere.
Chapter 3
Darth Bane felt them long before he saw them.
Those ignorant in the ways of the Force saw it as only a weapon or tool: It could strike out against a foe in battle; it could levitate nearby objects and draw them into a waiting palm or fling them across a room. But these were mere wizard's tricks to one who understood its true power and potential.
The Force was a part of all living things, and all living things were a part of the Force. It flowed through every being, every animal and creature, every tree and plant. The fundamental energies of life and death coursed through it, causing ripples in the very fabric of existence.
Even distracted by the agonizing flashes of the blades slicing apart the inside of his skull, Bane was sensitive to these ripples. They gave him an awareness that transcended space and even time, granting him brief glimpses into the always shifting possibilities of the future. That was how, still two kilometers and several minutes away from where Kaan and his army had made their camp, he knew others were already there.
There were eight in total, all human-six men and two women. Mercenaries who had signed on with the Brotherhood for credits and a chance to strike at the hated Republic, they had survived the final battle with Hoth's troops. They had most likely fled the confrontation the instant Kaan had descended into the bowels of the planet's surface to lay his trap for the Jedi, displaying the loyalty of all followers bought and paid for. And now, like blood beetles picking the rotting meat off a bantha's corpse, they had come to scavenge whatever remnants of value they could find from the deserted Sith camp.
'There's someone up ahead,' Zannah whispered a minute later. Less attuned to the subtle nuances of the Force than her Master, it had taken her longer to sense the danger. But given her lack of training, the fact that she had noticed anything at all was testament to her abilities.
'Wait here,' Bane ordered, holding out a hand to freeze Zannah in her place. Wisely, she obeyed.
He didn't look back as he broke into a full run. The ground rushed by beneath his feet, a blur of motion as he called on the Force to drive him forward. The pain in his head vanished, swept away by the anticipation of battle and the physical exhilaration of his charge.
Within sixty seconds the Sith camp came into view, the outlines of the doomed mercenaries clearly visible as
