The Fall of Kelthooine

Posted on Tue Oct 27th, 2026 @ 12:48pm by Darth Blight & General Tarn Veloque & Commander Florb & Commander Mo-Nya & Junior Lieutenant Fulbaar & Darth Woe & Captain Kellyn Chance & Captain Veetz & Senior Service Chief Lenkir
Edited on on Tue Oct 27th, 2026 @ 12:54pm

966 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Guardians of Peace [5]
Location: Republic Vessel Revan's Redemption
Timeline: 3635 BBY

"Report!" Captain Veetz boomed from the entryway to the bridge as the doors parted for him. The gash to his head he'd taken as they left Kelthooine's orbit had been bandaged, but he could see he was hardly the worst up, the ship itself was still on fire in places, with crews working desperately to put it out.

He was tall for a Duros, bald and blue and noseless in their uniform fashion, with large red eyes that had a rare sharpness to them, when he looked he saw with focus.

"Perennial and Arkania's Light never made the jump to hyperspace, Captain. It's just us and the transports." Commander Florb reported inbetween sprays of the fire containment device. "Ship status, Chief?"

"Weapons are down. Shields are down. Hyperdrive is holding, even though navicomputer is down." Service Chief Lenkir reported from one of the terminals that still looked to be working.

The Wookiee Padawan Fulbaar roared loudly from under a terminal as an open circuit shocked him, but quickly got back to his repair work after shaking his hand for a moment.

"Master Jedi, where is the General taking us?" The Duros Captain asked the Twi'lek Jedi at one of the consoles.

"Wherever the force is guiding her, Captain. I'm sorry I can't be clearer than that. But it's best we don't interrupt her." Mo-Nya told the Captain between desperate attempts to reroute power to keep it from failing completely in other areas of the ship.

At the navigation console, General and Jedi Master Tarn Veloque sat. Or rather, her legs crossed, floated a few inches above the seat, her eyes closed, the force alone guiding the ship's movements, it worked through her, urging them ever onwards. Her face was serene, but her focus was complete. The Force told her they would soon be safe, but she was not sure where safety was exactly.

---

The same time
Sith Warship Inquisitrix
Kelthooine System

The Imperial fleet over Kelthooine orbited silently. Fires on the surface as big as cities still raged, vast swathes of the desert surface had been melted into glass. No life remained.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" The human Captain Aedro Vonsk asked of his handiwork, having commanded the force that laid waste to the former colony world.

"Sir, the Reservoir Host just arrived in the system. There's an incoming transmission." Commander Chance reported, pleased that she didn't have to pretend to enjoy the wanton carnage her commanding officer had wrought. She believed in the cause, but the slaughter of fleeing civilians did nothing to further it. Why kill when you can convert? was perhaps the greatest lesson she'd taken away from Admiral Daala at the academy.

"Put them through." Vonsk ordered, increasingly pleased with himself.

"My Lord Blight. Come to congratulate us on a fantastic victory, no doubt?" Vonsk asked the face that appeared. It was a pallid, deathly visage, a man of apparent middle-age with sallow skin and black veins spidering underneath. His eyes were sunken and dark, with milky white irises like those of a fish left in the sun.

"Victory, Captain? Your orders were to capture the Jedi establishing an enclave here. Did you capture the Jedi?" Darth Blight asked, in his rasping, gravelly voice.

"There was no need. The colony is destroyed. The Republic ships Perennial and Arkania's Light still burn in orbit of the system's fifth planet. If our Mistress wishes, she may extract any survivors from them at her whim." Vonsk said as though he was doing the man on the screen a favour.

"Need, Captain. Need is an interesting choice of words. Need is not yours to determine. It is ours." Blight cautioned calmly.

"We won the day, my Lord. See the positive here. I am certain Lady Woe knows that a few Jedi are better off dead in any event.

"Perhaps you are right, Captain. My Lady, do you have something for Captain Vonsk?" Blight stood aside, and a hooded woman in a strange, long-beaked ivory mask stood behind him. A deep, low-pitched bass hum seemed to fill the bridge. Vonsk's hand went to his throat.

"From here we can tell the Jedi were not aboard the ships you destroyed. You need to follow orders, Captain. You need oxygen. If you tell the Sith what they need, you will find that your needs may cease to be met." Blight said it in a casual way, even as Vonsk went purple and fell to his knees, still grasping at his throat like he might somehow pry the vice-like grip of the force around it off.

"Commander Chance." Blight now addressed the first officer at the communications station, moving in front of the masked woman once more.

"My Lord." She responded, standing quickly.

"You are in Command now. Learn from Captain Vonsk's mistakes. I will be sending a party aboard. We will find these Jedi. It is in all of our best interests that we do so before Lord Avarice arrives." Blight explained.

"Lord Avarice is coming here?" Chance said, choking slightly with fearful surprise and swallowing hard to stifle it.

"It is his orders our mistress is following. The Emperor himself wants these Jedi. One of them in particular." Blight said as a crackling noise suggested that Vonsk had finally expired, folded upon himself as anoxia finally claimed him.

"We will not fail, my Lord." Chance said with a nod.

"I sincerely hope not, Captain Chance. Lord Avarice is not as forgiving as our mistress." Blight said, and his image disappeared.

"Somebody clean that up." Chance said, gesturing to the late Captain Vonsk. The first "Yes Captain" filled her with a pride she was not expecting. The Inquisitrix was hers, now.

 

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