(Picture doesn’t have anything to do with the story, but I thought it was cool.)
The Dyarchy
Kerra finds herself on a mercenary ship that was under Sith employment. She spends her time looking after the students and trying to get Brigadier Rusher to take them somewhere safe; however, Rusher wants nothing to do with the Jedi and her students.
The Search for a Place to Call Home
Kerre spends her time trying to get Rusher to talk to her about where to take the students and he spends his time avoiding her.
He may seem like he cares about only his own but when the chips are down, he looks out for others. However, he is suffering the loss of most of his army. There are 2,000 students aboard his ship. Those seats are free to them, but at the loss of the artillerymen.
Before they left Gazzari, Daiman had ordered all mercenaries to attack Lord Bactra. Instead of following orders, Rusher fled with the Jedi and students, thus rendering any planet in Daiman’s sector unavailable.
After finally talking it out, Rusher decides to take the Kerre and the students to Byllura, a place that seems almost too good to be true. What led to this decision is that the planet is said to be ruled by two Sith children. Taking their chances, they head to the planet.
The Byllura Sith Lords
Saaj Calician, a Krevaaki, is the Sith and regent who answers to the two Sith Lords on Byllura. Originally, he was utilizing their power for his advantage, but he eventually became theirs to command.
Lord Dromika, the sister, is the one who does the talking, channels her power into Calician, and communicates with her brother threw the force. Although she is powerful, she is not in control as others would believe.
Lord Quillan, the brother, is very powerful with the force. He does not communicate with his mouth and does not even recognize others as individuals, but as things he can manipulate. He requires his sister to communicate with the outside world; however, this reliance has caused her to be susceptible to his power and under his complete control.
Byllura
Arriving on and exploring the planet, Kerra Holt finds the inhabitants to be in a hypnotic state. She can feel their fear and even a wanting to talk, but they are unable to.
Upon their arrival, Rusher was told were they could lead, and that help would be on the way. This help comes in the form of scarlet-clad enforcers.
As can be expected, another conflict breaks out. The scarlet riders and Rushers crew are fighting. Tan and Beadle, part of Rusher’s army, are taken to the main building in the city with Kerra in pursuit.
Hestobyll the Capital City
Kerra gets to the building, discovers the answer to her question of how the Sith could influence the entire population of the city. She finds a Celegian.
This Celegian is a big one that Calican uses to send out his orders to the other Celegians, who then send them to the populace.
She frees this Celegian from the control he is under, but that mental state he has been in for so long has left his mind a shell of its former self. She orders him to have a guard take Beadle and Tan to the hangar, sure that Rusher will come and get them.
Divide and Conquer
Before she confronts the twins, Kerra receives a transmission from Narsk telling her to “Divide and Conquer”.
She fights Saaj, and he leads her to the children, where she continues to fight him, and them fight Lord Dromika.
The fight with Saaj is a physical one, but the children try to overwhelm her with the force.
During this fight, she finally realizes that Dromika is Quillan’s puppet, like the others, and the words “Divide and conquer” become clear to her.
After rescuing Tan and Beadle, Rusher takes his ship to where Kerra has the opportunity to jump out the window and escape. She does this, but not before taking Quillan with her.
Leaving Byllura
While Kerra was searching for the Sith lords, their ships were leaving the surface and going into orbit, preparing to invade another Sith Lord’s territory.
When Rusher takes his ship into orbit, they see another Sith Lord’s fleet enter the system and start shooting at the Dyarchy’s ships, but not destroying them.
This Sith Lord is Narsk’s current employer, Lord Arkadia.
Lord Arkadia traps Rusher’s ship in a tractor beam, introduces herself to Kerra, and tells her she’s there to help.
Closing
I hope you have enjoyed this part of the story. You can definitely see, again, the emphasis on the “mental” use of the force.
Currently, I am big into dystopias right now and reading this book made the connection for me that these Sith territories are really just one dystopia after another.
What do you think of the story so far? Is Lord Arkadia really going to help, or is that also too good to be true?
Stay tuned for:
Halo Wars: The Unknown Conflict that Could’ve Meant the Premature End of the War (Sunday)
Window of Escape by Gregory A. Miller (Thursday)
Digital Archiver signing off.
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