Jedi Insurgency 199

Corvus stared out the Falcon’s viewport, and watched his bruised, and battered students triumphantly emerge through the broken blast doors that led into the Star Destroyer’s interior. 

Marching at the front, Yon had his hands thrust into his pockets, and repeatedly glanced at Jax, as if his fellow disciple had stolen his last credit. 

Jax, meanwhile-missing one of his mechanical arms-and wearing frayed robes, was caught between a wry smile, grim silence, and reluctant acceptance. Between the bond they shared, Corvus felt that the teen was a stunning concoction of contradictions. 

Lastly, behind them, the men of the Bad Batch had their armor covered in soot, and several scorch marks where their beskar armor had blocked many, many blaster bolts. Each and every one of them without fail had a grim countenance, and walked heavily with sorrow in their hearts. Of course, a deep seated murderous rage clouded their minds as well. Corvus could tell-based on the fact that Omega was absent-that these men were ready to go on the warpath. 

Rubbing his eyes, Corvus sighed, hoping the young girl hadn't lost her life. 

“Tann, Ventress, you two go wait in the hold, I need to speak with my team.” Corvus said in a tone that brokered no argument. 

“Just make sure to drop me off before you break the atmosphere, I have my own arrangements.” Ventress scoffed, then turned around without a second thought. 

Tann gave him a look, as if to say ‘I can support you too’ but her pride was too strong for such words, and she slowly nodded at him before leaving to a different part of the ship. 

No sooner had the two Sith departed, than Team Revan had walked up the ramp. 

Yon glanced towards the shut door where the ladies had gone, then inclined his head towards him. “Master, I have eliminated the traitor, she is a recent turncoat, and hasn't revealed our most important secret. I've also planted explosives in the Star Destroyer’s engineering room. I suggest we depart as soon as possible.” The short teen smirked, proud of his work, and then showed off a detonator. 

Corvus reached out a hand, and ruffled his hair. 

“Our secrets are safe, thanks to you. You are a true Jedi Shadow.” Corvus sincerely praised. 

A small smile alighted across Yon's face. “So, about that Knighting ceremony…” 

“Once we are on Tython-” Corvus began, only to see the kid's smile swiftly transform into pursed lips. “Haha, you rascal. You are so eager? Your Master wants to show off in front of the other Jedi. To show what a Jedi Knight of the Old Republic is capable of.” Corvus placed a hand on his student's arm, squeezed it, and then swatted the cheeky brat on the back of the head. 

Although Yon was sort of scowling at having his head hit, he couldn't help himself, but widely grin. “Master…you're pure evil! I can't wait!” 

Corvus lightly chuckled, and saw both Jax, and CF-99 board. 

“Master.” Jax inclined his head, and then he too also glanced at the other section of the Falcon in curiosity, but refrained from speaking. 

“General.” Hunter said as he approached, his words were laced with the gruff desperation of a man who had had his baby sister kidnapped. 

“Everyone is here. Good, we can talk during our escape.” Corvus eyed the others, and said with a certain air of urgency, and then walked back to the cockpit. 

Afterall, an intense spacebattle was ongoing, Vader was at the zenith of his power, and with nothing but the Falcon, he didn't want to stick around any longer. 

Taking the Falcon out of the hangar, he engaged stealth mode, and flew away from the barrage of turbolaser fire. 

“Do it.” Corvus said, pointing at Yon. 

Depressing the button, Yon pulled up a live feed through the ship's rearview cameras. Everyone watched as the Executrix suffered a catastrophic failure. All of its repulsor lifts exploded all at once, and a good portion of the SD fell apart like a smashed Lego set. The bright grey vehicle then did a nose dive, and began to crash towards Nar Shaddaa. 

Corvus privately wondered if Thrawn was on board, or if he was on a different ship, and used the flagship as bait all along. Regardless of these personal thoughts, he felt his heart go cold as the Darkside pulsed throughout the sky. That massive dagger-like vessel slowed its descent, and was gently lowered on top of some collapsed buildings. 

“Master…what manner of power is that!” Yon exclaimed in shock. 

“That, my apprentice, is Darth Vader. You two are forbidden from confronting him. Not even your Master is confident in fighting him as he is now.” Corvus cautioned whilst he flew the Falcon towards the landing pad that Ventress & Tann had used.

“So our plans for Nar Shaddaa were a failure then.” Yon scowled, crossing his arms. “All we did was eliminate some stinking Hutts, and cut out a traitor.” 

Corvus held his tongue. Privately, he thought the overall, strategic outcome was a success. He had arrived on this criminal moon with the intent of purging the high level Hutt's, Black Sun Syndicate leaders, and eliminating Beldorion. From that point of view, Corvus had quite literally achieved every single goal he had set out to accomplish. As a bonus, he had acquired a million+ hyper killer droids, and millions of loyal cultists. With the Hutts now infighting & fighting the Empire, Xizor taking over one third of the blackmarket, Maul as a reluctant ‘ally’ and the destruction of the Infinite Engine, it was ‘possibly’ a better outcome than he ever could have possibly imagined. 

Yes, he was forced to retreat. Yes, many Ongree sacrificed their lives to secure this mission. Yes, he was crippled in the Force. And yes, that bastard wrapped in burnt leathery bacon had attained a new, unprecedented strength, but if every ‘loss’ looked like this, then he'd take it with a smile! 

Although he had run away from Coruscant, he had left Palpatine fuming. Although he was running away now, even if Vader was pleased with his newfound powers, the Dark Lord must be malding knowing that the Infinite Engine would forever be out of his reach! 

Of course, sensing the complex emotions from his crew, Corvus wasn't going to come out celebrating!...buuut, the best part about wearing a mask, is that no one can see your shit eating grin! 

“Ahem. I would say you have all performed admirably. From eliminating Black Son gang bosses, to fighting our way up to now.” Corvus said in an encouraging tone, but was quick to hold a hand up when he saw Wrecker about to explode in rage. “However, today's events are a sober reminder what one traitor can undo. Hunter, have you, or any of you boys got a clue as to what happened to Omega.” 

“Tech & Echo eventually hacked their systems, and decrypted the code. She's been shipped off to Coruscant.” Hunter grimly intoned. 

Corvus sucked in a sharp breath. That was bad. Very, very bad. Should Palpatine unlock the secrets to cloning a Force Sensitive without any defects…then they would be monstrously fucked. Imagining himself getting strong enough to finally kill the old prune, only for the damned Sith spit to go ‘hee hee, now I'm over here’ and respawn in another body!!! 

Such thoughts were enough to cause an aneurism. 

“That. Is perhaps the worst news I have received since Order 66.” Corvus slowly intoned, letting everyone know how serious this matter was. 

“You're telling me…” Hunter painfully closed his eyes, then ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “So General, when do we mount the rescue operation?” He then snapped his eyes open, and was all business. 

The rest of CF-99 were like a coiled spring, ready to jump at Corvus's command, and bring some hurt to the enemy. 

Corvus glanced at the glaring [-25% Force Abilities] section in his System, and cringed. 

“Gentlemen, I have some bad news.” Corvus sighed, and said in a regretful tone. 

“We've died for you, General.” Hunter stared him square in the eye, and said each word in a low, deep voice. 

For the first time, Corvus felt like looking away from someone else in shame. Hunter was right, but reality proved that he was in no position to mount a daring raid on the most well defended planet in the galaxy. 

Corvus silently stared at Hunter, then took off a glove, revealing somewhat warped, and obviously damaged flesh. 

“Master.” Jax sadly intoned. 

“My powers have dwindled since last we spoke. Your sacrifices, I am unworthy of them.” Corvus whispered, mimicking Yoda's style of speech in his shame. 

“Bantha shit! Yer the reincarnation of whats his name! Or some old ghost! We've seen you charge into a thousand men like nothing! You can do this. We can do this!” Wrecker slapped his own breastplate, and declared. 

“Perhaps if the timing was right, it wouldn't be impossible. However, I am unwilling to act until I have recovered.” Corvus spoke with great reluctance, but his words were final.

“So that's it then.” Hunter's face was grim, his words were spoken with finality. 

“Six months. I'll be recovered by then.” Corvus replied. 

“Sir, look at what they did to me in only one.” Echo spoke in a pleading tone, took off his helmet, and revealed a gaunt face with a red bionic eye. 

“Given past records, the odds of dissection are 10% in the first month, but increase by an order of 20% each following month.” Tech shakily listed off the stats. 

“We did this before the Jedi, we'll do it after the Jedi.” Crosshair-who was cleaning his sniper at the very back of the cockpit-chimed in. “You lot want to assign blame to the Jedi, but why didn't your famous nose, Hunter, smell her out? Why didn't you, Echo or Tech, monitor her comms or search history? And Wrecker, don't tell me you're that stupid. We're the most elite black ops unit in the galaxy, and we were plotted against by a weak little girl. How pathetic can we be, heaping all our woes on someone else for our own failures?” 

Crosshair's acidic words seemed to be a trigger of sorts, as Hunter began to trade punches with the bald sniper, whilst Wrecker & Echo held their heads in shame. 

Corvus watched the brothers duke it out, feeling no pleasure in Crosshair's ‘defense.’ It was as he said, their failure in rooting out the traitor had been pathetic. 

Deciding not to intervene, he turned to Jax. “I hope you don't blame me for prioritizing my health, and the return of the Jedi to Tython.” 

Jax-who had been staring at his broken robotic arm deep in concentration-slowly rose his head to look at him. “The right thing to do, is to rescue Omega. We promised them that. You swore that to them as their oath of allegiance.” 

Each word dealt critical damage to Corvus, and he almost felt like he was going to change his mind right then and there. However…across all of history, hundreds of thousands of Jedi had died doing ‘the right thing’ due to weakness. As a Shadow, he refused to throw himself at Palpatine without a plan. But he had escaped Coruscant once before, he could do so once again! 

Closing his eyes, he wished he could go back in time, and stop himself from resurrecting that traitorous bitch…but wishes couldn't fix reality. 

Snapping his eyes open, Corvus projected his will across the Force, stopping the brawl. With a heavy heart, he looked each and every man in the eye. 

“I have given my oath. Do you still hold true to yours?” He spoke in a quiet voice. 

Hunter & Crosshair stopped trading punches, then helped each other to their feet. 

“Aye, General.” Hunter slammed his fist into his chestplate. 

Going down the line, each man replied with the same phrase. 

Corvus felt that deep down, he was going to die for his pride, but an oath was an oath. 

“So be it.” 

~~~~~~

AN: I legit planned on going to Tython after Nar Shaddaa…but an oath is an oath. Even if it's a little stupid, a man has to do what a man has to do sometimes. Well, this works too, lol. I planned on a return trip to Coruscant after Tython, so this just flips the order ig :p