Chapter 136
Captain D’nar:
“FALL BACK! FALL BACK TO THE PALACE!”
The call was ripped out of his throat, hoarse from days of constant screaming. The shields came up, swallowing the palace grounds above and around him.
The Captain was not a man easily intimidated, but he could feel his blood run cold as the flames rose higher and higher, swallowing the city whole, and the screams and cries rose like a deathly, tolling wail from the damned.
And above, devouring it all, swarming over dead men, cobblestone and people fleeing for their lives, were the bugs.
Insects skittered and crawled across the sands. Men fired frantically into the mass with blasters, desperate panic tearing down discipline and courage as the last Zygerrian defenders turned and fled in maddened desperation, rushing to get to the safety of the palace and its shields before the doors slammed shut.
Men and women in armor rushed past him, too few of their people in tow. Had the swarm swallowed them whole? Were the screams he was hearing even now be those of women and children being devoured alive?
So much for the mercy of the Jedi…
D’nar snarled, turning and rushing inside. “Seal the blast doors!” He shouted, feeling the pain in his throat still before he grabbed one of the lower caste soldiers by the arm, shaking the man out of his horrified stupor as he stood, staring at the monoliths of flame and chitin closing in around them. “Where is the Queen!?!”
The fool gaped, blinking like he didn’t quite understand. D’nar grabbed him by the front of his armor, shaking him once, solidly, as if to shove the stupidity out of him. “THE QUEEN!” He snarled.
“Y-ye-yes! The Queen and Prime Minister Molec are in the bunker below!”
Good. The Bunker. It was the most secure place in all of Zygerria. If anywhere was safe enough to hold out until the Separatist support arrived, it would be there.
D’nar let the man go, shoving past the crowds of men, shambling women and crying slaves now littering the palace halls, intent on making his way down below.
He hadn’t even reached the throne room before a wall along the eastern living quarters of the palace wing was suddenly blasted down. Soldiers took firing positions as white armored bodies stormed in, firing away with discipline and precision, rushing through the breach, Jedi lightsabers at the head of them.
Captain D’nar grit his teeth, turning away from the battle and fleeing.
His radio crackled in his ear.
“Captain! Captain! The palace grounds are under attack! We have breaches in sectors four, seven and eight! We need orders, Captain! Captain, answer me!”
D’nar threw the earpiece away, the sounds of renewed battle beginning to echo through the gilded halls of the palace as the crackle of flames drew closer and buzzing of insect wings grew louder and louder.
By the time he made it to the throne room itself, the sounds were inescapable, even as he fled through the narrow passages and down into the lower halls, where gilded archways and muraled walls gave way to duracrete and -steel.
The entry to the lower bunker was lined with scanners, defensive emplacements and turrets, and he could already hear the warning klaxons blaring as the doors prepared to seal themselves completely shut.
Once those blast doors closed, not even a direct proton torpedo hit could open them.
The buzzing grew louder and louder, almost groaning in his ear, but here, at the very least, the air smelled cleaner than smoke from the fires.
The last of the royal guards were arrayed in a defensive line, all forty men in the most gilded and protective armor Zygerria could muster, gleaming and polished. They’d seen no fighting over the last hours.
One straightened, surprise evident in his body language if not his voice. “Captain D’nar, you were meant to fight in the palace until the chamber could be sealed.”
“The palace is about to fall.” He muttered. “There’s no point in fighting and dying up there. I’ll lead the fight once the Separatist reinforcements come. Step aside and allow me passage.”
He moved to step forward and as one, every single rifle was suddenly aiming straight at him.
“You dare!” He roared at the assembled royals. “I am your Guard Captain!”
“We have been given no orders to allow you passage.” The Royal Guard sneered from beneath his helmet. ”And you have not been given leave to abandon your post from the Queen.”
D’nar opened his mouth, ready to argue, to scream and rage and claw out the sniveling ignorant whelps eyes, and let him get eaten by a swarm of insects.
But then, the floor under his feet and the walls at his sides let out a moaning groan of straining steel.
—
Queen Miraj:
This was not how it should have played out.
Queen Miraj Scintel of Zygerria had known that her actions would carry risks. Joining a war was bound to carry risks.
But her studies on Jedi, and her experience with Jedi, was extensive. Even at the height of their militarism back during the years of Jedi Lords and the New Sith Wars, the Jedi did not act like… like this.
They negotiated, they pleaded, civilian centers were treated with extreme caution, extending engagements for months if not years.
They weren’t this. They weren’t supposed to be this.
She’d received a single message from the clone legions when they arrived, Skywalker’s 501st.
Throw down your weapons. Surrender.
And that was it.
That was the only communique they’d received.
She’d declined, of course, and just like that, the 501st legion struck like a hammer blow.
Less than twelve hours.
That’s all it had taken.
Less than twelve hours for all of it to collapse.
The outer defenses were under attack within two hours.
Two hours, and eighty thousand clones, twelve tank divisions and seven artillery divisions landed.
In just two hours.
When she thought back to how extensive and time consuming her own preparations needed to be just to field an army within her own city… it was intimidating in and of itself.
Within three, many of her outer defensive lines were buckling.
And within four, the first of her anti-air and anti-orbital platforms within the city itself were destroyed.
That’s when they realized they’d been infiltrated.
Six troopers, and a Jedi.
Troopers wearing beskar plate.
That’s when the flames ignited.
They had systems to fight fires automatically, emergency services, droids, even buildings designed with shielding and vacuum functions to snuff out the flames, but those last ones were the only ones that seemed to work at all.
The flames just spread, and spread, and spread.
By hour five the outer defenses were broken, and the troops had retreated into the city where the shield should have deployed to defend them. She’d been assured that even under complete orbital and artillery bombardment it could have endured for three months. She believed it would have given them a much needed reprieve, the ability to take stock and stall out with negotiations once again.
But the shield never deployed.
The engineers had rushed to check the generators, finding the entire floor of the area surrounding the equipment blanketed with the corpses of insects and the generators themselves… devoured. Torn apart from the inside out. Wiring, coolant tubes, anything and everything just ripped apart by thousands of tiny jaws and chitinous claws.
That’s when the swarm emerged.
Black bodies clawed their way out of the desert sands. Millions, billions of beetles, wasps, flies, scorpions, spiders and everything else that crawled and skittered moved like a single conscious mind. They swallowed whole bodies, their screams lost amidst the mass, tore through emergency response droids and disabled electrical systems, letting the flames spread faster and faster.
Defensive positions were overrun from the inside out as clones waded through open ground amidst the cover of a billion obscuring bodies. Defense platforms were quite literally torn down from the sheer mass and weight of the bodies that crawled over them.
And through it all, the droning of wing beats grew louder and louder and louder.
By then, hour eight, the black swarm… blotted out the sun in the sky.
The slaves and civilians were crying for mercy only for the swarm to swallow them whole too, taking their final screams into the mass of chitin.
She was sure it was only the realization that surrender wasn’t being accepted that kept her soldiers from doing just that.
She tried to open communications once again then, as galling as it was. She tried to surrender.
She’d been met with silence.
And the assault had continued.
She, her royal guard, and some of the highest ranking earls were evacuated down below. Her private holdout chambers were an extensive bunker complex, its blast doors were thick, starship grade metal, surrounded on all sides of its construction by a three meter thick durasteel shell, self contained and sustainable. Within, she could endure for months, if not years. The Separatist fleet would arrive long before that to relieve them.
“Prime Minister.” She called, the muscles in her jaw working as she all but chewed the words. “Try again.”
Prime Minister Molec nodded, his features grim as he once more opened a hail to the 501sts communication line.
But again, he was met with silence.
With a shake of his head and a grave look in his eye, it was all she needed to see.
The Queen ground her teeth together.
Jedi weren’t supposed to act like this… It didn’t make sense!
She saw movement at the corner of her eye, turning sharply towards Lieutenant Mir’ji. “What!?” She snapped.
The Lieutenant turned to her. “Disturbance at the gate. Captain D’nar is requesting entry.”
She scoffed. “Just him?” No doubt he’d run. But could she afford to turn him away right now? Any remaining subordinates might be immeasurably valuable when they re-emerged from-
There was a long, groaning moan of metal around them, deafening in its sheer volume as it rolled over them like thunder.
Queen Miraj felt her anxiety spike, a sickening worry worming its way through her insides.
Before she knew it she was marching towards the entry doors, ignoring the surprised and alarmed shouts of her name.
Her heart pounded under her chest as cold chills seemed to seep through her flesh from her bones. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and her ears twitched like kitten’s, unable to control themselves.
When she reached the entryway, she arrived just in time to hear a voice echo down the length of the halls beyond.
“Zygerrians!”
The voice was male. Confident, and drawing closer.
She marched forward, ignoring Prime Minister Molec as he tried to pull her back, moving towards a slightly elevated walkway to look down the length of the hall.
There was a man there. A Jedi, clad in armor and robes, blue blade glowing at the other end of the hall.
“I’m General Skywalker of the 501st Clone Legion. I’ve come to pacify your world.”
She felt his eyes on her, almost a nudge in her thoughts as his gaze met hers through the distance and gloom.
She held her head high. She would not cower. “You seem to have succeeded, General. In name, at least.”
She looked to the engineers waiting by the door’s control panel to the right of the entrance.
“Seal the bunker.”
One man rushed to her side whispering in her ear. “My lady, the engineers haven’t fully checked the life support. With all the sabotage and malfunctions, we-”
“Do it!” She demanded. They could always open the gates if life support failed.
The engineers rushed to obey, planting their hands over the panel, its light glowing green as it accepted the command and the titanic doors began to seal shut. Captain D’nar rushed forward, looking to enter before they fully sealed.
He needn’t have bothered.
The doors ground and moved until around halfway along their massive tracks before an impossibly loud BOOM smashed into her body and ears like a physical blow. It was so loud she all but fell to her knees, hands rising to her ears to try and shut out the genuinely painful noise.
When she opened her eyes she felt her heart sink, both eyes widening as far as they would go.
The doors.
The doors were warped.
Like a titanic fist had punched each of the massive slabs of steel, leaving a visible dent along the edge of the doorframes, grinding the mechanisms to a halt.
“What- How d-did-?”
“Apologies.” The general called as he kept marching, each step bringing the light of that saber closer and closer. “But I’m afraid I don’t have the time to indulge in stall tactics.”
“OPEN FIRE!”
She wasn’t sure who screamed out the order, but it was all her men needed to let loose, the last line of defense firing a hail of blaster bolts down the length of the hall.
With a sound of rending metal, a slab of steel was torn out of the floors, acting like a shield.
There were more sharp clacks, clangs and bangs and suddenly a hail of slabs, cables, nuts, bolts, nails and jagged, torn metal was shot down the length of the hall like from an archaic canon, shotgunning into her defenders as men screamed and bled, thrown from their firing lines with blood staining the cold metal floors.
Queen Miraj ground her teeth. “ENOUGH!”
She snarled, grinding her teeth as she stood with all the height and tattered remains of dignity left to her as she glared down at the Jedi General. “You’ve made your point. Once again… I offer you Zygerria’s formal and unconditional surrender.”
The Jedi’s saber was switched off, the blade sucked back into the hilt with a fizzling sound.
“As I said,” The General answered with utmost calm. “I came to pacify this world.”
Suddenly, The Queen noted a pair of yellow compound eyes staring at her from the blackness behind the Jedi.
“But I came…” The darkness hissed through a million mouths and writhing, skittering chitin. “For You!”
The black swarm surged.
And that… that was where the Queen of Zygerria truly screamed.
—
“Once again, I would like to have it on record that I have and continue to object to these tactics!” Master Kai Hudorra’s voice was sharp, unyielding steel in the face of the Coruscanti Council as he stared at them at my side. He wouldn’t even look in my direction, the disgust in his voice was echoed in his thoughts as well. “Expedience is no excuse for the terror you’ve sown on this world.”
“I’m inclined to agree.” Windu answered, glaring daggers at me. “Do you have any explanation, Master Hebert?”
“Zygerria has been content to remain passive for years.” I said. “Suddenly, when we need every available Master and clone on Coruscant they just happen to rebel?” I shook my head. “It was too convenient. Too perfectly timed.”
“You believe the… Sith-” Master Poof said carefully. “-influenced this decision? To weaken our place here?”
“You sent me and Anakin to bring the rebellion down quickly, but if we show that sending two of the strongest Masters worked, he was gonna do it again and again and again until we spread ourselves thin or ran ourselves ragged.” I held up a finger. “One world. Zygerria serves to make others hesitate, to think that they can rebel and the Jedi won’t act quickly. Or that they can just do a ‘faux pas’ and make any number of excuses at the negotiating table. I’ve made a deterrent.”
“The vast majority of people believe you had your swarm eat the Queen.” Kai shot back through grit teeth.
“It’ll be an effective deterrent.” I didn’t mean to sound dismissive or cavalier, but he was missing the blasted point if that was his complaint.
“Was anyone actually eaten!?” Windu snapped, looking like he was about ready to start punching people like they were training droids. “So help m-”
“No.” Anakin quickly reassured “All civilians, surrendering soldiers, public figures, slaves and so on were all transported safely to the prisoner vessels. The Queen included.”
“The galaxy just thinks otherwise. En masse.” Kai sneered. “The Zygerrian Eradication. That’s what they’re calling it already!”
Yoda, Windu, Yaddle, Obi-Wan, Billaba, none of them looked pleased. I didn’t blame them. Pretty sure if Vicky were here, she wouldn’t be looking too happy either.
I knew what I was doing going in, and how it’d be received. I didn’t begrudge them their view.
“Masters.” Anakin stepped forward, bowing deeply at the waist. “I understand the severity of what occurred, but I understand Master Hebert’s logic as well. She acted under my full authority. If the Council wishes to decree judgement for our actions, the both of us agreed to submit to it fully before the operation even began. This was regrettable and I accept full responsibility, but I do not apologize for the decision that was made.”
Each of the Council members looked at one another, Windu leaning back in his seat.
“Return to Coruscant.” He commanded, his voice and expression brooking no argument. “We will deal with the crisis at hand, and afterwards the Council will decide what to do about this…”
He cut off the transmission.
I could deal with that.
After Palpatine was dead, Windu could declare what he wanted. Because then that meant we’d survived.
If not…
Then we were all likely dead anyway.