Star Wars - [The Jedi Academy 03] - Champions of the Force (by Kevin J Anderson)

CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE

The Jedi Academy Trilogy

Volume 3

by Kevin J. Anderson

The Sun Crusher plunged into the Caridan system like an assassin's knife into an unsuspecting heart. Old

beyond his years, Kyp Durron sat hunched over the controls with dark eyes blazing, intent on his new

target. With the might of the superweapon — as well as powerful techniques his spectral mentor Exar

Kun had taught him — Kyp would extinguish all threats against the New Republic.

Only days before, he had annihilated Admiral Daala and her two Star Destroyers in the Cauldron

Nebula. On the fringes of the explosion, he had dropped off one of the Sun Crusher's coffin — sized

message pods so that the galaxy would know who was responsible for the victory.

As his next target, Kyp would challenge the Imperial military training center on Carida.

The military planet was a largish world with high gravity to toughen the muscles of potential

stormtroopers. Its untamed land masses provided an appropriate range of training environments: arctic

wastelands, trackless rain forests, splintered mountain crags, and searing desert hardpan crawling with

venomous multilegged reptiles.

Carida seemed the opposite of Kyp's peaceful homeworld of Deyer, where he and his family had lived

in raft colonies on the calm terraformed lakes — but that peace had been shattered years ago when

Kyp's parents had chosen to protest the destruction of Alderaan. Stormtroopers had crushed the colony,

whisking Kyp and his parents to the spice mines of Kessel while conscripting his brother Zeth for the

stormtrooper training center.

Now, as he orbited the military planet, Kyp's face bore the tight, hardened look of a person who has

been through the raging fire of his own conscience. Shadows rimmed his eyes. He did not expect to find

his brother still alive after so many years — but he intended to learn the truth.

And if Zeth was not there, Kyp had enough power to destroy the whole Caridan solar system.

A week ago he had left Luke Skywalker for dead atop the Great Temple on Yavin 4. He had stolen

design parameters of the Sun Crusher from the mind of its naive creator, Qwi Xux. And he had blown up

five stars to incinerate Admiral Daala and her two Star Destroyers. At the last moment Daala had tried to

flee the exploding stars, but to no avail. The shock waves had been intense enough to blank the Sun

Crusher's viewscreens even as fire overtook Daala's flagship, the Gorgon.

Since that awesome victory Kyp's obsession had gained momentum, and he had set out on a

hyperspeed course toward annihilating the Empire...

The Caridan defense network spotted the Sun Crusher as Kyp entered orbit. He decided to transmit his

ultimatum before the Imperial forces tried anything stupid. He broadcast on a wide range of frequencies.

"Caridan military academy," he said, trying to deepen his voice. "This is the pilot of the Sun Crusher." His

mind searched for the name of the ambassadorial buffoon who had caused a diplomatic incident on

Coruscant by tossing his drink in Mon Mothma's face. "I wish to speak to ... Ambassador Furgan to

discuss the terms of your surrender."

The planet below made no response. Kyp stared at the comm system, waiting for noise to burst from the

speaker. His alarm consoles flashed as the Caridans attempted to lock on to the Sun Crusher with a

tractor beam, but Kyp worked the controls with Jedi — enhanced speed, oscillating his orbit at random

so they could never get a positive lock.

"I am not here to play games." Kyp's hand bunched into a fist and slammed down on the comm unit.

"Carida, if you do not answer within the next fifteen seconds, I'll fire a torpedo into the heart of your sun.

I think you're familiar with the capabilities of this weapon. Do you understand?"

He began counting out loud. "One ... two ... three ... four ..." He got up to eleven before a brusque voice

came through the comm system.

"Intruder, we are transmitting a set of landing coordinates. Follow them precisely or you will be

destroyed. Relinquish control of your ship to the stormtroopers immediately upon landing."

"You don't seem to understand what's going on here," Kyp said before he bothered to stop laughing.

"Let me talk to Ambassador Furgan now or your planetary system is going to be the galaxy's newest

bright spot. I've already blown up a nebula to wipe out a pair of Imperial battle cruisers — don't you

think I'd destroy one minor star to get rid of a planet full of stormtroopers? Get Furgan, and give me a

visual."

The holo panel flickered, and the wide, flat face of Furgan appeared, shoving aside the comm officer.

Kyp recognized the ambassador by his heavy eyebrows and fat purplish lips.

"Why have you come here, Rebel?" Furgan said. "You are in no position to make demands."

Kyp rolled his eyes, losing patience already. "Listen to me, Furgan. I want to find out what happened to

my brother, Zeth. He was conscripted on the planet Deyer about ten years ago, and he was brought

here. Once you have that information, we'll discuss terms."

Furgan stared at him, knitting his heavy spiked brows. "The Empire does not negotiate with terrorists."

"You don't have any choice in the matter."

Furgan fidgeted and finally backed down. "It will take some time to access information that old. Maintain

your position in orbit, and we'll check."

"You have one hour," Kyp said, then signed off.

On Carida, in the main citadel of the Imperial military training center, Ambassador Furgan looked down

at his comm officer, frowning with lips the color of fresh bruises. "Check that boy's words, Lieutenant

Dauren. I want to know the capabilities of that weapon."

A stormtrooper lieutenant marched in with a precise military stride that sent shivers of admiration down

Furgan's spine. "Report," he said to the captain.

The helmet speaker amplified the stormtrooper's voice. "Colonel Ardax announces that his assault team

is ready to depart for the planet Anoth," he said. "We have eight MT — AT vehicles loaded into the

Dreadnaught Vendetta, along with a full compliment of troops and weaponry."

Furgan tapped his fingers on the polished console in front of him. "It seems an extravagant effort to

kidnap a baby and overcome a single woman who's watching him — but this is a Jedi baby, and I will

not underestimate the defenses the Rebels may have emplaced. Tell Colonel Ardax to prepare his team

for immediate departure. I have a minor irritation that needs to be dealt with here — and then we can go

fetch a young, malleable replacement for the Emperor."

The stormtrooper saluted, whirled on one polished boot, and exited through the chamber doors.

"Ambassador," the comm officer said, scanning readouts, "we know from our spy network that the

Rebels had a stolen Imperial weapon called the Sun Crusher, which can supposedly trigger the explosion

of a star. And there was a mysterious multiple supernova in the Cauldron Nebula less than a week ago

— just as the intruder claims."

Furgan felt a thrill of anticipation as his suspicions were confirmed. If he could get his hands on the Sun

Crusher and the Jedi baby, he would have more power at his disposal than any of the squabbling

warlords in the Core Systems! Carida could perhaps become the center of a blossoming new Empire —

with Furgan at its helm as regent.

"While the Sun Crusher pilot is distracted and awaiting news of his brother," Furgan said, "we shall

mount a full — fledged assault to cripple his craft. We can't let such an opportunity escape us."

Kyp stared at the Sun Crusher's chronometer, growing angrier with each ticking interval. If it weren't for

the hope of learning news about Zeth, Kyp would have launched one of his four remaining resonance

torpedoes into Carida's sun and backed off to watch the system explode in a white — hot supernova.

With a surge of static, the Caridan comm officer's image appeared before him, contrite and businesslike.

"To the pilot of the Sun Crusher — you are Kyp Durron, brother of Zeth, whom we recruited on the

colony world Deyer?" The officer spoke with a plodding voice, enunciating each word with unnec

precision.

"I gave you that information already. What have you learned?"

The comm officer seemed to fade out of focus. "We regret that your brother did not survive initial

military training. Our exercises are very strenuous, designed to discourage all but the best candidates."

Kyp's ears filled with a roar like rushing water. He had expected the news, but confirmation sent despair

through him. "What ... what were the circumstances of his death?"

"Checking," the comm officer said. Kyp waited and waited. "During a mountain survival tour he and his

team were snowed in by a sudden blizzard. He appears to have frozen to death. There is some indication

he made a heroic sacrifice so other members of his team could survive. I have the full details in a file. I

can upload it if you like."

"Yes," Kyp said, his mouth dry. "Give me everything." He recalled an image of his brother: two boys

throwing small reed boats into the water and watching them drift toward the marshes — then the look on

Zeth's face after stormtroopers had crashed into theirthe home and dragged him away.

"This will take a moment," the comm officer said. Kyp watched the data scroll across his screens. He

thought of Exar Kun, the ancient Lord of the Sith who had shown him many things that Master

Skywalker refused to teach. The news of Zeth's inevitable death was like severing the remaining threads

of Kyp's fragile restraint. Nothing could stop him now.

He would show murderous Carida no mercy. Kyp would remove this Imperial thorn from the New

Republic's side and then move on to topple the big Imperial warlords gathering their forces near the

galactic core.

He waited for Zeth's files to finish uploading into the Sun Crusher's memory. It would take a long time

for him to absorb all those words, to imagine every detail of his brother's life, the life they should have

had together.

Emerging from the thin veil of atmosphere at the limb of the planet, a battle group of forty TIE fighters

roared toward him. Another cluster of twenty came from the opposite horizon in a pincer formation. The

ploy of Zeth's files had merely been a delaying tactic to keep him preoccupied as the Caridans launched

an attack! Kyp didn't know whether to be amused or outraged. A grim smile flickered across his face,

then vanished.

The TIE fighters came in, firing what must have been intended as crippling laser blasts. Kyp felt the

thumps of their impacts against the Sun Crusher, but his special quantum — layered armor could

withstand even a turbolaser blast from a Star Destroyer.

One of the TIE pilots contacted Kyp. "We have you surrounded. You cannot escape."

"Sorry," Kyp said. "I'm fresh out of white flags." He used his sensors to track the lead TIE fighter from

which the message had come. He targeted with his defensive lasers and let loose a volley that strafed

across the ship's flat solar panel. The TIE ship broke apart in a flower of white — and — orange flame.

The other fighters retaliated from all sides. Kyp targeted with his own defensive lasers, selecting five

victims. He managed to strike three.

Using the extreme mobility of the Sun Crusher, he accelerated upward just as the surviving TIE fighters

sent return fire through the expanding explosions of his first round of victims. Kyp laughed out loud as

two of the fighters hit each other in the cross fire.

The wall of anger rose and strengthened in him, increasing his reservoir of power. He had already given

more warning than the Caridans deserved. Kyp had stated his ultimatum, and Furgan had sent out attack

ships.

"That's the last mistake you'll ever make," he said.

The TIE fighters continued to fire, missing more often than not. Laser bolts spanged off his armor,

causing no damage. The pilots did not seem to know how to target and shoot properly. They had

probably spent all their time practicing in simulation chambers, without ever fighting an actual space

battle. Kyp relied instead on the Force.

He shot back, obliterating another ship, but decided that further fighting was not worth his time. He had

a bigger target. Two fast TIE interceptors streaked after him as he pulled out of planetary orbit and set a

course for the star at the heart of the system.

The only damage they could possibly do to the Sun Crusher would be to take out its tiny laser turrets.

Daala's forces had once succeeded in disabling the Sun Crusher's external weaponry, but New Republic

engineers had repaired it.

Another breached TIE fighter spurted flash — frozen atmosphere as it exploded. Kyp darted through

the debris, straight toward the sun. The surviving Imperials charged after him, still firing. He paid them no

heed.

Over and over in his mind he rolled images of Zeth, imagining his brother frozen and hopeless in a

training exercise for an army he had never wanted to join. The only way for Kyp to cauterize that

memory was to purge the entire planet with fire, a fire only the Sun Crusher could unleash.

He activated the firing systems for his resonance torpedoes. The high — energy projectile would be

pumped out in an oval — shaped plasma discharge from the toroidal generator at the bottom of the Sun

Crusher.

Last time Kyp had fired the torpedoes into supergiant stars in a nebula. Carida's sun was an

unremarkable yellow sun, but even so, the Sun Crusher could ignite a chain reaction within the core...

As Kyp swooped in toward the blazing ball of yellow fire, flickering prominences reached out of the

star's chromosphere. Boiling convection cells lifted hot knots of gas to the surface, where they cooled

and sank back into the churning depths. Dark sunspots stood out like blemishes. He sighted on one of

the black spots as if it were a bull's — eye.

Kyp primed the resonance torpedo and spared a moment to glance back. His TIE pursuers had split off,

unwilling to come so close to the glaring sun.

Fail — safe warning systems flashed in front of Kyp, but he disregarded them. When the control system

winked green, he depressed the firing buttons and shot a sizzling green — blue ellipsoid deep into

Carida's sun. Its targeting mechanisms would find the core and set up an irrevocable instability.

Kyp leaned back in the comfortable pilot's seat with a sigh of relief and determination. He had passed

the point of no return.

He should have felt elated, knowing it was only a matter of time before the military academy was finally

extinguished. But that knowledge could not wash away the grief he felt for the loss of his brother.

Alarms screamed through the citadel of the military training center. Stormtroopers ran along flagstoned

halls, taking emergency positions at strategic points as they had been drilled; but they didn't quite know

what to do.

Ambassador Furgan's face held a comical expression of shock. His bulging eyes looked as if they might

pop out of their sockets. His lips scraped together as he fought for words. "But how could all of our TIE

fighters miss?"

"They didn't miss, sir," Comm Officer Dauren said. "The Sun Crusher seems to have impenetrable

armor, better than any shielding we've ever encountered."

"Kyp Durron has reached our sun. Although our readings are scrambled from coronal discharges, it

appears that he has launched some sort of high — energy projectile." The comm officer swallowed. "I

think we know what that means, sir."

"If the danger is real," Furgan said.

"Sir — " Dauren wrestled with rising agitation, "we have to assume it's real. The New Republic was

pointedly uneasy about being in possession of such a weapon. The stars in the Cauldron Nebula did

explode."

Kyp Durron's voice broke over the intercoms. "Carida, I warned you — but you chose to trick me

instead. Now accept what you've brought upon yourvs. According to my calculations, it'll take two hours

before the core of your sun reaches a critical configuration." He paused for a beat. "You have that

amount of time to evacuate your planet."

Furgan slammed his fist down on the table.

"Sir," Dauren said, "what are we going to do? Should I organize an evacuation?"

Furgan leaned over to flick a switch, toggling to the hangar bay in the lower staging area of the citadel.

"Colonel Ardax, muster your forces immediately. Get them aboard the Dreadnaught Vendetta. We will

launch our Anoth assault team within the hour, and I will accompany them."

"Yes, sir," the reply came.

Furgan turned to his comm officer. "Are you certain that boy's brother is dead? Nothing we can use for

leverage?"

Dauren blinked. "I don't know, sir. You told me to delay him, so I made up a story and sent a fake file.

Do you want me to check?"

"Of course I want you to check!" Furgan bellowed. "If we can use the brother as a hostage, perhaps we

can force that boy to neutralize the effects of this Sun Crusher weapon."

"I'll get on it immediately, sir," Dauren said, and hammered his fingertips on the datapads.

Six of Furgan's training commanders, summoned by the wailing alarms, marched into the control center

and saluted briskly. Standing shorter than his commanders, Furgan clasped his hands behind his back,

pushing his chest out as he addressed them.

"Take an inventory of all functional ships on Carida. Everything. We need to download the data cores

from our computers and take as many personnel as possible. I doubt we'll be able to evacuate them all;

therefore, choices will be made on the basis of rank."

"Are we just going to abandon Carida without a fight?" one of the generals said.

Furgan screamed at him, "The sun is going to blow up, General! How do you propose to fight that?"

"Evacuation on the basis of rank?" Dauren said in a small voice, looking up from his panel. "But I'm only

a lieutenant, sir."

Furgan scowled down at the man hunched over his control panels. "Then that gives you all the more

incentive to find that kid's brother and force him to rescind that torpedo!"

Through half — polarized viewports Kyp watched the surviving TIE fighters pull away and swoop back

toward Carida. He smiled with satisfaction. It would be good to watch the Caridans' panicked scramble

as they tried to grab everything of value on an entire planet.

Over the next twenty minutes he watched streams of ships launch away from the main training citadel:

small fighters, large personnel transports, StarWorker space barges, and one deadly looking

Dreadnaught battleship.

Kyp was annoyed at himself for allowing the Imperials to haul so much weaponry away. He was sure it

would eventually be used against the New Republic; but at the moment Kyp took his pleasure from

eradicating the solar system.

"You can't escape," he whispered. "A few might get away, but you can't all escape." He glanced at his

chronometer. Now that instabilities had begun pulsing out of the star, he could get a more accurate

determination of how long it would take for the sun to explode. The Caridans had twenty — seven

minutes before the first shockwave struck.

The flow of ships had petered out, and only a few scrap — heap vessels struggled out of the gravity

well. Carida did not appear to be well supplied with vessels; most of their prime equipment must already

have been commandeered by Grand Admiral Thrawn or some other Imperial warlord.

The holopanel flickered, and the image of the comm officer appeared. "Pilot of the Sun Crusher! This is

Lieutenant Dauren calling Kyp Durron — this is an emergency, an urgent message!"

Kyp could well imagine that anyone still on Carida might have an urgent message! He took his time

answering just to make the comm officer squirm. "Yes, what is it?"

"Kyp Durron, we have located your brother Zeth."

Kyp felt as if someone had thrust a lightsaber through his heart. "What? You said he was dead."

"We checked thoroughly and found him in our files after all. He is stationed here in the citadel, and he

has not managed to find transport off Carida! I've summoned him to my comm station. He'll be here in a

moment."

"How can that be!" Kyp demanded. "You said he died in training! I have the files you sent me."

"Falsified information," Lieutenant Dauren said bluntly.

Kyp squeezed his eyes shut as hot tears sprang to fill his vision: sudden overwhelming joy at knowing

Zeth was still alive, anger at having committed the most fundamental mistake of all — believing what the

Imperials told him.

He snapped a glance at the chronometer. Twenty — one minutes until the explosion. Kyp wrenched at

the Sun Crusher's controls and shot back toward the planet like a laser blast. He doubted he had enough

time to rescue his brother, but he had to try.

He stared at the time display ticking away. His vision burned, and he felt a jolt go through him every time

a number ticked down.

It took five minutes to get back to Carida. He orbited around the massive planet in a tight arc, crossing

over the line from night into day. He set course for the small cluster of fortresses and buildings that made

up the Imperial training center.

Lieutenant Dauren appeared again in the small holographic field, dragging a white — armored

stormtrooper into view. "Kyp Durron! Please respond."

"I'm here," Kyp said. "I'm coming to get you."

The comm officer turned to the stormtrooper. "Twenty — one twelve, remove your helmet."

Hesitantly, as if he had not done so in a long time, the stormtrooper tugged off his helmet. He stood

blinking in the unfiltered light as if he rarely looked at the world through his own eyes. Kyp saw a

heartrending image that reminded him of the face he saw when he looked in a reflection plate.

"State your name," Dauren said.

The stormtrooper blinked in confusion. Kyp wondered if he was drugged. "Twenty — one twelve," he

said.

"Not your service number, your name!"

The young man paused for a long time, as if pawing through rusty, unused memories until he came out

with a word that sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Zeth? Zeth Dur ... Durron."

Kyp didn't need to hear him speak his name, though. He remembered the tanned, wiry boy who swam

in the lakes of Deyer, who could catch fish with a small hand net.

"Zeth," he whispered. "I'm coming."

The comm officer waved his hands. "You can't make it in time," he said. "You must stop the Sun

Crusher torpedo. Reverse the chain reaction. That's our only hope."

"I can't stop it!" Kyp answered. "Nothing can stop it."

Dauren screamed, "If you don't, we're all going to die!"

"Then you're going to die," Kyp said. "You all deserve it. Except for Zeth. I'm going to come for him."

He plowed like thunder through the high atmosphere of Carida. Heated air pearled off the sides of the

superweapon as a shock front pushed a shield in front of him. Sonic booms rippled behind him.

The planet surface approached with gut — wrenching speed. Kyp soared over a cracked, blasted

wasteland with craggy red rocks and fractured canyons. Out in the flat desert he saw geometric shapes,

tracks of precise roads laid down by the Imperial corps of engineers.

The Sun Crusher shot like a meteor over a cluster of bunkers and metallic huts. Isolated stormtroopers

marched about in drills, unaware that their sun was about to explode.

On the chronometer seven minutes remained.

Kyp called up a targeting screen and found the primary citadel. The air tugged at his ship, buffeting him

with heavy winds, but Kyp did not care. Flames from the ignited atmosphere flickered off the quantum

armor.

"Give me your specific location," Kyp said.

The comm officer had begun sobbing.

"I know you're in the main citadel building!" Kyp cried. "Where exactly?"

"In the upper levels of the southernmost turret," Zeth answered precisely, responding in a military

manner, slipping back into stormtrooper training.

Kyp saw the jagged spires of the military academy rising from a cluttered plateau. Kyp's scanners

projected an enlarged image of the citadel, pinpointing the turret Zeth had mentioned.

Five minutes remained.

"Zeth, get ready, I'm coming in."

"To rescue us both!" Dauren said.

Kyp felt a twinge inside. He wanted to leave the comm officer who had lied to him, who had made him

despair and forced him into the decision to destroy Carida. He wanted to let the lieutenant die in a burst

of incinerating solar flame — but that man could help him, for now.

"Get yourselves into an open area. I'm going to be there in less than a minute. You can't get up to the

roof in time, so I'm going to blast it off."

Dauren nodded. Zeth finally overcame his own confusion and said, "Kyp? My brother? Kyp, is that

you?"

The Sun Crusher streaked over the jagged minarets and pinnacles of the Caridan citadel. A mammoth

wall surrounded the entire fortress. Out in the courtyard hundreds of low — ranking refugees scrambled

about in tiny fliers aiming up into the skies, though with no hyperdrive capability they could never outrun

the fury of the supernova.

Kyp decelerated abruptly until he hovered over the fortress. Suddenly the Sun Crusher lurched from

side to side as automatic perimeter lasers targeted him and fired.

"Shut down your defenses!" he screamed at the comm officer. He wasted time targeting and firing at the

perimeter lasers. Two of the weapon emplacements blew up in roiling smoke, but the third, a blaster

cannon, scored a direct hit against the Sun Crusher.

The superweapon spun end over end, out of control until it smashed into one of the tall turret walls. Kyp

managed to get control again and raised the vehicle up. No time to vent his anger. No time to do anything

but get to the tower.

Kyp watched the chronometer click down from four minutes to three.

"Take shelter!" he said. "I'm going to blast open the roof."

He targeted with one of his weapons and fired — but he received an ERROR message. The laser turret

had been damaged by his collision with the tower. Kyp swore and spun the ship around so he could

target with a different laser.

After a short controlled burst, the roof of the tower melted inward. Chunks of synrock and metal

reinforcement girders sprayed into the air. Kyp flicked on his tractor beam to yank the debris away

before it could collapse into the lower floors.

He brought the Sun Crusher over the smoking crater that had been the rooftop. He pointed his scanners

down and saw two people scramble out from under the desks where they had taken shelter.

Two minutes.

Kyp hovered over them. If he lowered his ship, they could reach the ladder to the hatch, where they

could climb into the shielded Sun Crusher. He already had an escape route programmed in.

As Kyp dropped toward them, Lieutenant Dauren stood up and battered Zeth on the back of the skull

with a broken plasteel shard. Zeth fell to his knees, shaking his head and pulling out his blaster in reflex.

The comm officer ran to the Sun Crusher's ladder, but Kyp — furious at seeing what Dauren had done

— raised the ship out of the man's reach.

Scrambling, waving his arms, the comm officer jumped up to reach the rungs of the ladder, but he

missed and slapped his hands across the hull instead. The quantum armor was still smoking hot from

Kyp's fiery plunge through the atmosphere. Dauren screamed as it burned his hands.

Falling back to the ground, Dauren turned just in time to see Zeth point the blaster at him. With precise

stormtrooper training Zeth targeted and fired. The comm officer flew backward, his chest a black hole.

He collapsed among the debris.

One minute.

Kyp maneuvered the Sun Crusher back into position, lowered the ladder; but Zeth collapsed to his

knees; blood streamed down the back of his head, streaking the white stormtrooper armor. Zeth could

not move. He had been too badly injured by the comm officer.

Thinking rapidly, Kyp locked on to his brother's limp form with the tractor beam, yanking him up off the

floor and drawing him toward the Sun Crusher. This would be it. Kyp left the controls and scrambled to

the hatch. He would have to open the hatch, climb down the ladder, and haul his brother up inside. He

reached for the locking mechanism that would open the Sun Crusher —

And then Carida's sun exploded.

Star Wars - [The Jedi Academy 03] - Champions of the Force (by Kevin J Anderson)

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