RISE AGAIN ─ star wars

XIX. The Seeds Of Destiny

Chapter Nineteen
Jayce

The battle to win back Chandrilla for the New Republic goes better than I could have hoped for, and that's thanks to Raymen and his gift for strategy. He calculated exactly what the Empire would do down to the letter.

The Mon Cala, Alderaan, Hosnian Prime forces attacked the blockade and were able to bring down a stardestroyer, which crashed onto the planetary shield, allowing us access to the planet. As soon as the shield was down, the rest of our army headed down to the planet's surface, each individual planet's forces targeting a specific city. Mandalore was chosen to attack the captial, Taris and Denova were chosen to attack the next major city over. The Empire tried to use the Chandrillan people as bait, just as Raymen had predicted. Once we got onto the ground and followed the pathways Raymen laid out for safe evacuation, taking the cities became easy. Within a couple hours, Moff Azura surrendered to Leera, who found him in his office and defeated him in combat with the dark saber. She brought him out of his office building and sent a transmission through his holoprojector that announced to the Empire that Chandrilla belonged to the New Republic. The stormtroopers stood down.

Chandrilla has been freed.

But with the end of the battle comes new missions that have to be completed. Our army is split between helping Chandrillan citizens make their way back to their homes from the planet's moons and arresting/executing Imperial troops. Raymen, Aylin, and Iris are assisting with the former while Han, Chewie, and Leera are helping with the latter. Ragnar and Killian are taking stock of the planet's resources and seeing if anything has been damaged. Padmé, who joined us towards the end of the battle, has joined them.

And while all this is going on, Leia, Luke, me, and Holly, who insisted on coming along for backup, are searching for the Sith temple. Dad and Anakin said it was on this planet, but of course, they didn't give us any directions, which leaves us to rely on our senses to seek out the temple.

The task is proving to be hard. Chandrilla is a big planet.

After hours and hours of flying around, our bodies and minds utterly exhausted, I finally feel a rush of cold sweep over me, and it's coming from a tall mountain range just south of where we currently fly. Holly and Luke park our ship at the base of the mountain, and when we exit the ship, Leia, Luke, and I all shiver. The cold is almost unbearable, as if I've rushed headlong into a snow storm.

The entrance to the temple must be close by.

The four of us search around the base of the mountain for some time, but eventually Holly comes across an archway with symbols carved into the mountain side. I run my fingers over the symbols and recognize them as some sort of ancient language, but I can't decipher it.

"It is the language of the sith," a voice behind me answers. I turn to find Anakin standing behind me, his expression devoid of all it's usual charisma and playfulness. I no longer see a youthful young man as he stands before me, but a withered soul who was poisoned by darkness. "In order to get inside the temple, you must say what is written."

"But none of us speak the Sith language." I point out.

Anakin smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "I know, that is why I am here."

The translucent blue form of Anakin approaches the archway and lays his hand in the center of it, his voice firm and unfeeling as he says: "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength, through strength I gain power, through power I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The force shall free me."