Objective II: Tip of the Spear
In the jungle outside the Goshen War Camp...
Starlin crouched in the undergrowth. All around him were Shi’ido disguised as plants and animals, along with actual beasts that had been tamed and trained by the
Shamans. He couldn’t sense them in the Force even though they were right beside him—and that meant the Mawites couldn’t sense them either.
There were rumors spreading through the ranks of the Silver Jedi that the New Imperials didn't care about the planet. That they would let the Shi'ido die if it meant they won the day. Starlin was willing to bet the rumors were at least partially true. It certainly fit with the NIO's MO. Victory at all costs. The only lives that mattered to them were Imperial ones.
He was concerned that the New Jedi Order and GA, longstanding allies of the NIO, would conveniently forget that they were Jedi when it looked like actually fighting the Mawites rather than glassing the planet from orbit would prove more difficult than they expected. Well, Starlin had to ask—what the feth were they fighting for, if not for life and freedom for everyone?
His comm crackled to life. [
“Andesites have been deployed…”]
Dipping his head back, Starlin wondered if he would be able to see the bombers flying overhead. Their goal was to take out the mounted guns atop the walls at the southern entrance to the camp, allowing the rebels on that side to pierce the perimeter with their
tanks and warbeasts. For now, they watched and waited for the signal to proceed…
“You are Padawan Starlin Rand, yes?”
Blinking, Starlin turned toward the sound of the thickly accented voice. His gaze fell upon what looked like a large green fern. “
Uh, yeah,” he answered in a whisper. He didn’t know they were allowed to talk while they were supposed to be hiding.
“Finally we meet!” the fern said. “I am
Tammuz Hoole, Jedi Master.”
“
Oh—you’re the rebel general, right?” Starlin swatted an insect away from his face. “
And you’re like, Nimdok’s adopted dad or whatever.”
“I never invoked
ish’ken for him. I could not call such a man my son.”
“
Huh. Did Nimdok do something wrong?” Bit of a trick question, given who they were talking about, but Starlin was curious, and conversation would help to pass the time.
“He broke my daughter’s heart.”
Starlin suppressed a laugh. “
Damn that pointy-eared heartbreaking hobgoblin.” It was strange to find humor at a time like this, but he supposed he would need it if he was going to, heh,
Light the place up.
The fern, which had no visible mouth, changed the subject. “He has told me a great deal about you.”
“
Really? What did he say?”
“That you were a good boy, and a marvelous Jedi whose potential only needed to be placed in the right hands… but I see a man, not a boy. Have you been knighted yet?”
Starlin thought he detected something strange in Tammuz’s tone of voice, but it was so brief he couldn’t get a reading on it. Between the impending battle, possibility of painful death, imprisonment, or torture, and the fact that he was
chatting with a fern, he had bigger things to worry about. “
No. I, uh… have been out of touch with my master. They never knighted me.” He could be referring to either Syd Celsius or Cedric Grayson. Both had become distant, consumed with their own personal crusades and issues.
“If you survive this, I think you should be knighted, Starlin Rand,” Tammuz said. “You are ready. I can sense it in you.”
There was a rumbling in the distance, along with other new noises coming from the camp.
[“Bombs away!”] Starlin’s comm declared.
The fern began to grow larger and contort, morphing into a humanoid shape. A gray-skinned, wizened alien soon stood in its place. All around Starlin, other plants and animals began to change, becoming humanoid, or at least bipedal, as the rebel army came out of hiding.
Tammuz activated a white-bladed lightsaber and pointed it in the direction of the camp. He spoke briefly in Shi’idese, none of which Starlin understood, except one mention towards the end of
to’pol, which he knew was their word for the Force. So “may the Force be with you” was probably an apt summarization of the short pre-battle speech.
There arose a war cry that was more animalistic than anything a human throat could produce, and the Shi’ido rebels charged forward. A stealth field generator was deactivated, revealing a massive
galidran tank. The front blades started spinning, cutting through the undergrowth as it lumbered toward the camp’s southern entrance. Starlin gave it a wide berth, joining the other runners as he activated his
lightsaber and
shoto, blue and orange light casting strange shadows among the trees...