Shatterpoint on Yag'Dhul

By Mike Rayburn

Star Wars: Old Republic Era

Rated: T

Dramatis Personae

Kai-kwon Deo- Human male Jedi Knight

Kira Carson- Human female Jedi Knight

Satele Shan- Human female Jedi Grand Master

Taneer T'laht- Dornean male Republic commando

Azi Caruna-Riggs- Twi'lek female smuggler

Corso Riggs- Human male smuggler

Note: this story is a sequel to An Oppressive Peace In An Oppressive Peace Kai-kwon and Kira are newly promoted Knights on Tython who are no longer speaking due to being caught in a relationship as Padawans. Kai-kwon foils a conspiracy on Tython orchestrated by fallen Jedi Bengel Morr. They trace his communications back to Corsucant where the son of Dark Lord Tarnis, Lord Angral, had infiltrated the Republic's military science division to steal a new weapon. Azi Caruna is stuck on Ord Mantell after a criminal named Skavak stoler her ship. She begins working with the Republic to free Ord Mantell so she can leave. She does so with Corso Riggs' help and they leave for Coruscant. By chance they link up with the two young Jedi and with the help of Satele Shan and some other Jedi stop the plot to steal the secret weapon. Darth Angral's death ends the Treaty of Coruscant and war resumes

Chapter 1

Kai-kwon awoke to the sounds of shouts and running from the hallway. He cleared the sleep from his eyes and rolled over to see Kira had not made her way back to her room in the middle of the night. He took a moment to admire the firm curves of her bare shoulder for a moment. Her body had hardened so much in the year since the Treaty of Coruscant was deemed void by the Sith Empire.

He traced the line of the scar across her shoulder blade and got a flash of the rainy, muddy quagmire on Serenno where she had earned it in a duel with a powerful Sith Saber. She had survived that duel through sheer will but she had survived…that time.

Another clatter of footsteps outside snapped him out of that nerve-wracking memory and he placed a hand on her shoulder to wake her.

"Kira."

She opened her eyes and rolled over to look at him. Like all Jedi she was a light sleeper. "Hey…it's morning" he said, anticipating her reaction.

He watched as she noticed the rays of light peeking in through the one small window in his room. She sat up and looked around the room as if to verify her suspicions, panic overpowering her normal modesty about nudity.

"Why didn't you wake me?!" she asked urgently but quietly, turning back to him as he laid down on his back again with his hands clasped behind his head.

"I did wake you…just now", he said with a slight smirk.

"Then why are you so calm right now? Something is going on outside and I have absolutely no reason to be in here this early and if th-"

"shh-shh-shh" he said reaching up to pull her down into the crook of his chest and armpit.

"Let's just lay like this for another moment, and then we'll get dressed and meditate. Eventually someone will come to get me and find us meditating…fully clothed in front of a made up bed."

He looked down at her with a smile which she finally reciprocated. She looked away and snuggled into him. "You may have just woke me but you were up for a while thinking about this".

"Aren't you glad I was?"

"Yes".

"Do you want to pay me back?" he asked, the smile evident in his voice.

She shot up from her resting place on his chest in false indignation.

"I think this little bout of insomnia has loosened your grip on reality" she said playfully.

"Because I want you to make the bed? That seems a little harsh" he said, mocking her indignation.

She laughed lightly, slapping him on the chest before lying back down in his arms. They laid there for a full minute, just breathing in unison before she broke the perfect silence. "Kai, we really have to get up…"

"I know".

"Kai?"

"Hmm?" she sat up again and turned to look directly into his eyes. Her deep blue eyes reminding him of the waters of Lake Ryo.

"I love you" she said softly.

"And I you" he answered in return before she sank into him, kissing him deeply.

His plan had worked to perfection. Ten minutes after getting dressed his old master, Orgus Din, announced himself by comm before opening the door. It was clear he had just been expecting Kai-Kwon, but if he suspected they had been doing anything other than meditation he didn't let on.

It had been both their masters who had discovered their affair as Padawans and punished them accordingly, but now the most Orgus would do is try and have a heart to heart with him one day about the consequences of attachment. Kai-Kwon would nod and say "I understand" in all the right places but in the end his mind could not be changed. He loved Kira Carson with every midichlorian that made him a living being in the Force, and had loved her since they were younglings…nothing could change that. They had both made commitments; their duty to the Order and service to the Force would always come first, and he truly believed he could make that decision if it came to it…if not solely because Kira would never forgive him if chose her over his duty.

Kai-Kwon saw his old master catch himself before re-composing quickly. "Kai-Kwon, Kira, good morning."

"Good morning Master Din" Kira answered as Kai-Kwon just smiled a greeting in return.

"I'm glad you're here Kira, it saves me a trip. The Council will need to see you both in an hour. So, finish…your meditation and meet me upstairs."

Kai-Kwon ignored the implication in his pause. "What's going on Master?"

"I can't say yet but I'm afraid your leave is over." And with that he was gone and Kai-Kwon flashed Kira a reassuring smile before they re-settled into their dual meditation.

Kai-Kwon glanced at himself in the mirror of his refresher. He too had hardened over the last year. He had always been taller than average but he had added about ten pounds of muscle over the last year, moving from one battlefront to the next. He also had enough scars now to rival Master Din.

There had been a handful of pacifist senators who had fought the impending resumption of hostilities. Using a senate filibuster to stall for time while their attempts at calling a peace summit with the Empire went unanswered. While part of him was moved by their dedication to peace, another part was frustrated by the compromises they were willing to make to keep such an oppressive peace. He finished shaving and dried his face. This leave had been far too short but the memories of it would see him through the next year, if the Force wills it.

Walking up the wide ramp to the fourth, and top floor of the new Jedi Temple on Tython, he glanced over at Kira. Her short dark red hair was tied back in a tight bun, and she wore a small braid that she tucked behind her ear. She was wearing her dark brown robes with her off white tunic and a teal undershirt that just poked through, adding some individuality to the collective uniform of the Jedi. His dirty blonde hair had grown out a bit down to the bottom of his neck. He wore his dark brown robes with his light brown tunic and dark leather vestment. Before long their comfortable choices would be supplanted by their uncomfortable armor.

They approached the giant bronze double door that led into the Council, where they announced themselves into the wall-comm and we're let in. They were surprised to see Grand Master Satele Shan there, as she was believed to still be in the Mid-Rim fortifying Republic worlds against the Sith onslaught. Only she, and the older Arca Jeth, were present in the flesh. Four other members were present by hologram.

"Jedi Deo, Jedi Carson" she said with a slight bow.

They returned a deeper bow. "Master Shan" they said in unison.

"I know you are both upset at having your leave cut short so I'll do you the courtesy of getting right to the point."

She waited for them to nod their understanding before continuing. "We finally have some news from our asset. Denerus is joining with Zule on a flanking charge into the core at Yag'Dhul. From there they would control half of the major hyperspace routes and forty-five percent of the goods into the Core. But if we can stop them there" she said pressing a fist down into her palm. "…no not stop them, that's what we've been doing for the past year. If we can beat them convincingly, we can turn the tide of this war."

She returned her hands to the insides of her sleeves and approached. "General Var-Suthra and Admiral Quell will have more for us when we board the Excelsior in the First Fleet. Any questions for now?"

Kai-Kwon and Kira were too stunned at the prospect of finally getting the jump on the Sith for once, and doing it with the greatest Jedi either of them have known, that they couldn't think of anything to say let alone ask. "Very good. Meet me in the hangar in twenty minutes."

Exactly twenty minutes later they met Grand Master Satele Shan in the Temple's hangar bay. She had tied her jet black into split braids and was wearing the same dark brown cloak but with a unique sleeveless teal tunic and matching dark blue gauntlets, pants, and leather boots. Her olive skin was still unblemished after forty years of life and twenty years of war. She looked exactly as she did just over a year ago when she decapitated the son of Darth Tarnis, who had infiltrated the Republic's secret weapons project to steal the technology behind the now defunct Desolator Project.

The Desolator had been designed to seal a planet's atmosphere from entry or exit, allowing them to imprison enemies on any planet they land on. While that may seem beneficial in war, it was its possible peace-time uses that worried the Order, forcing Grand Master Shan to illegally destroy the data stolen by Saber Kan.

She greeted them as they approached and the three, including Kai-Kwon's adopted astromech droid T7, walked up the ramp of the Jedi Defender Ryo. As he stepped into the cockpit, he saw two non-Jedi he knew from the Temple at the pilot and co-pilot chairs. Antarian Rangers were an Order based on Toprawa, and dedicated to the light side of the Force. They held either no Force sensitivity, or too little to be noticed by the Jedi. Originally they had only recruited their members from the Toprawa system, one of the more faithful in the galaxy spanning Temple of the Force, but now counted members from thousands of systems across the Republic. These particular two were Adamese Gallo from Coruscant and Niki Tienjay from Onderon.

Niki flashed a smile as she looked over her shoulder at Kai-Kwon which he returned. "The coordinates to Yag'Dhul are logged in Grand Master" Adamese said, his dark hair falling to his eyebrows.

"Then let us not waste time. Getting there will only be the first step in our journey."

She strapped herself into the larger commander's chair, slightly above and behind the pilot's station. Kai-Kwon and Kira grabbed the two jump chairs behind Master Shan and strapped themselves in just as the Defender began rising out of the Temple hangar. Kai-Kwon looked across at Kira who felt his eyes on her and met them as they shot out of the Tythonian atmosphere.