The Fog of War/Part 10

The stadium looked like a graveyard, with huddled civilians in place of tombstones, all lit by moonlight and the occasional flashes of the space battle still raging above. A handful of observers prowled the top deck, watching the street outside, Narasi and Aldayr among them. The other four Jedi, Dorni Kossaboyt the policeman, and the handful of resistance leaders Mali had assembled met beneath the only glowpanel the Jedi had allowed to remain lit. Tirien nodded to the girl who sat in their midst and said, "Thanks for telling us, Kara. You've been very brave.  Go get some sleep now."

She nodded, relieved that the retelling was over. "Where's Narasi?"

Tirien gestured to the top deck. "She's on patrol."

"I'm gonna go say goodnight…if that's okay?" she tacked on.

Tirien hesitated, but nodded, and Kara headed off toward the stairs; Tirien followed her with his eyes, and Mali appreciated the moment to collect himself. When she was gone, though, Tirien turned and looked right at Mali, who grimaced back. "Vandak."

Master Kadych nodded. "She didn't have the memory of him herself for me to see, but he is the only Sith we know among the Anzati, and Anzat is still neutral. These Anzat killers would not come at just anyone's call."

"So another Sith Lord," reasoned Ternis Sepzee, a retired army NCO. "We'll add him to the list."

"It's more than that," Mali warned. "Vedya Gasald is a Sith Lord. Halicon Karzded and Darth Vaszas are Sith Lords.  Darth Vandak is a butcher, a demon in the skin of a man."

The resistance leaders shuffled uncomfortably, and Mali knew he was walking a dangerous tightrope. Appear too afraid and he would shake their already-fragile confidence in the Jedi, but appear too confident and they wouldn't appreciate the danger. Alone among the Jedi present, he had faced Vandak and survived; he still bore the scar that was mute witness to the Anzat's prowess. He knew full well how dangerous Vandak was, and not even Tirien or Aldayr knew how terrifyingly close it had been on Taanab, the psychopath's paired blades a wheel of red death, Alecto laughing from the side as she chipped at his concentration. Master Kadych might be a match for Vandak, and Mali and Tirien on a good day; maybe even Slejux, if Tirien's description of his prowess held up. But even en masse, if the resistors tried themselves against the Anzat they would be slaughtered, and they had to understand it.

After a moment Officer Kossaboyt offered, "Well, that's why you're here, right? The Sith?"

"We'll deal with Vandak," Mali assured him. "But if he and his Anzati are here, we need to be cautious. They won't come at us with lightsabers swinging like the others."

"We can double the guard for tonight," Jossi Feld said.

"Narasi and Aldayr have it for now," Tirien said, "and they won't miss anything. But we'll need to stay alert, day and night.  They aren't fairytale monsters; they're very real and very deadly, day or night."

Feld looked dissatisfied; many of the resistance leaders had been less than enthused to make common cause with a Zygerrian. Mali had bulled over their objections, and Tirien had done a good job distracting them with the Anzati, but the situation would bear watching.

"We should start talking about safehouses," said Nal Chun, a woman with the look of a pirate and the weapons to match; Mali wasn't sure whether she was a citizen or just stuck on Milagro and determined to make the Sith suffer for her inconvenience. Her sister Kadelle stood at her side, her younger features arranged in an identical expression of determination.

"We'll leave that to you to figure out," Tirien inserted smoothly. "We'll work on a plan to deal with the Anzati."

The Milagroans seemed to find this reasonable, but Mali suspected Tirien had another motive for them dividing up. As they moved away, the four Jedi closed ranks and sat on the scramball court.

It was Slejux who voiced what they were all thinking. "Gasald commands an assault, but Vandak is among the attackers."

"Could Saleej be here?" Tirien wondered, but Mali shook his head.

"Narasi said the Kiss of Death was the biggest thing in orbit," he pointed out. "No way Saleej would aid the attack without his own flagship, and the Unquenchable Fire is larger still."

"I remember," Tirien said grimly.

"Could Vandak be deserting Darth Saleej?" Slejux asked.

Master Kadych frowned. "That would be a very dangerous proposition; Darth Saleej is not a man to suffer betrayals lightly, and I doubt even Vandak is a match for Saleej in battle."

Tirien set his elbows on his knees and his chin on his laced fingers. "What if they're collaborating? Sharing resources, if not both in on the assault?"

"To what end?" Kadych asked.

"Moving against the Council?" the Pantoran suggested. "Two of the most powerful Sith Overlords joining forces?"

Kadych shook his head. "Darth Saleej isn't the type; ambitious and amoral, yes, but a man to exploit the system to his benefit, not one to break the system itself. Gasald might dare it, but only if she was certain of victory.  Two Sith Overlords against the others, plus the Council itself?  I would hardly call that certainty."

"Maybe Gasald is moving against Saleej?" Mali offered. "He got Gizer and Lantillies, but he made Taanab a killing field and still couldn't take it. The Council can't be happy with that."

"If the Council is dissatisfied," Kadych said, "then they may be the ones behind this. Stripping Darth Saleej of his strength, to Gasald's benefit.  She wouldn't take on Saleej without assurance of victory either."

"Whatever's going on," Mali said, trying to get them back on track, "things have gotten more complicated, but only because there are more Sith involved."

"Our hit list is getting longer by the day," Tirien said sarcastically.

Mali rolled his eyes, exasperated. "Tirien—"

"Mali, what is the endgame here?" Tirien demanded. "Kill Gasald? Fine, say we do.  Say that by some miracle we get aboard the Kiss of Death, get through her guards, and kill her.  Then what?  If she's committed this much of her fleet to this assault, Karzded must be here too.  If Gasald dies, he takes over and we're back where we started, except now he knows we're here."

"If Vandak's here, maybe there will be a power struggle," Mali suggested. "Saleej's faction and Gasald's vying for control. We can exploit the conflict."

"With the people of Milagro caught between warring Sith factions," Tirien said, and Mali bristled at the acid in his tone. "As if they haven't had enough of that. Maybe, if we're very lucky, there will still be some Milagroans left when you've killed off all your marks."

Mali had a sharp retort on the tip of his tongue when Master Kadych raised a hand. "Enough of this. You're Jedi Knights, try to act like it.  Yes, we must be conscious of the fallout of our decisions and the very real sentient cost that comes with the wrong decisions.  But failing to act is a decision too.  We are here, and the Sith are turning Milagro into a charnel house already.  If we act more innocents may die, but if we do nothing, more innocents will die."

Tirien and Mali stared each other down until Slejux finally spoke again. "Strategizing is all well and good for pure tactical conflict, General Darakhan," he noted. "But this is more than ships and soldiers; it is light and dark. Perhaps we would be best served by meditating on the proper course.  We can never hope to prevail against Sith like Gasald or Vandak without the Force as our ally."

Tirien nodded in resignation. Though the passive wait-and-see approach rankled Mali, he remembered again his duel with Vandak and touched his chest where the Anzat had scarred him. Pure combat skill and valor wouldn't be enough to bring down Saleej's pet devil, Slejux was right about that much.

"Then we're of one mind; what a pleasant change," Kadych observed dryly. Getting to his feet, he said, "I'm going to rest; wake me if someone significant comes along. 'Lords' and 'Darths' only, please, Acolytes grow boring after you've killed enough of them."

He wandered away. Tirien rose and said, "I'm going to check on Narasi."

"Check on Aldayr as well, would you?" Mali asked.

Tirien looked as if he was biting back something sarcastic. "Sure."

He headed off on the same track the girl Kara had followed, and Mali was left alone with Slejux Nissatak. Sighing, he nodded to Slejux and made to go.

"Have you progressed to avoiding your Padawan now?" the mechanical voice asked.

"What? No!" Mali protested. He sat back down, almost knees-to-knees with the other Jedi to keep their conversation from carrying.

"And yet discord remains."

"Is it that obvious?" Mali asked with a grimace. When Slejux merely waited, the Corellian sighed. "Did Tirien tell you everything that's going on here?"

"The Corellians. You didn't tell Aldayr."

Mali wanted to resent Tirien for spreading the word, but he didn't have it in him. Tirien had dragged his apprentice and Slejux into this debacle, half-believing they were going to their deaths; had he done so without telling them the truth, he would have been a lesser Jedi for it. "Not yet. Well, I guess the skifflin's out of the sack now…"

"And it wounds him that he heard it from Master Kadych, not you."

"Probably." Mali looked up at the high deck of the stadium; the sentinels they had appointed were silhouetted by moonlight and the glow of fires still burning blocks away. He sensed Narasi and Aldayr differently than the others, and his eyes were drawn to Aldayr instinctively. "Maybe I should've told him sooner, but…"

He trailed off. Slejux sat patiently, listening without comment, and Mali stared at him. "Why are you here, Slejux? Tirien's…well, on the whole we're friends," he grumbled. "Narasi's his apprentice, Master Kadych is our resident Sith killer…why did you agree to come along?"

The insectoid Jedi took his time answering the question. "I share Tirien's disapproval of Master Dumiel's motives, and of him for forcing this quandary upon us, but the loss of the Corellian Jedi would be damaging to the Order, if not devastating. There are good and innocent people here, who deserve to live full lives free of war; not being Republic citizens does not mean they aren't people."

Slejux could not smile, but his sense in the Force suggested the expression. "And Tirien and Narasi are my friends too."

Mali gave him a grudging smile in return, but it faltered as he looked back up.

"Talk to him while we have the time," Slejux suggested.

"Yeah, maybe I will," Mali mused, but at that moment Jossi Feld and Nal Chun came up to them.

"We've worked out a plan to get the refugees to safehouses, General," Jossi said. "Care to look it over?"

Mali spared Slejux a rueful smile. "Another time. Yeah, Jossi, let's see what you've got…"

"Mali," Slejux said as the resistors started away.

"Yeah?"

"Darth Vandak is here," Slejux reminded him. "There may not always be another time."

Mali touched the scar on his chest before he turned to follow Jossi.