The Death Star has been destroyed. While the Coalition celebrates, Ezra and Jaral return to Lothal, to spend some time with their family and introduce Luke to the ways of the Jedi. But the Empire is far from broken, as Grand Admiral Tanis and his fl...
"General, you're doing the grave mistake of underestimating the Grand Admiral. You need to pull back to Boonta and wait for reinforcements to face him." Jaral said with a bit of impatience toward the man she was speaking with.
Iblis simply crossed his arms on his chest and replied with contempt. "I see why Mothma put you in charge, little girl. You and her know nothing about a real war. Do you think the Empire can be talked down?"
"I never said that." the woman replied, trying to keep her composure. "But rushing in blindly is the perfect recipe for a disaster, General. I'm just asking you to wait until we send reinforcements."
"How long will they take?!" Iblis exploded. "Right now we have an opportunity to liberate Kashyyyk, and the rest of the Mid Rim with it."
"Don't you understand? You're being led into a trap. For the sake of your men, you need to stop for a second and look around you."
Iblis just scoffed. "I've had enough of your half-measures, Jaral Bridger. If you want to wait until the Empire walks all over you, be my guest. But me and my men are going to actually do something. That will be all." and he closed the transmission.
Jaral wanted to punch something, but that wouldn't have been very Jedi-like and she didn't want to damage her father's ship, so she bit her lip and took a deep breath before heading out of the comm room, where Darvos was waiting for her.
"Having a bad time?" he asked with a bit of a joking tone to cheer her up.
Jaral, though, sighed and she was going to need something else entirely to get her mood up.
"The last thing I needed was a stubborn old Dewback who is likely leading a third of our fleet to the slaughter."
"Not a third, anymore." Darvos reminded. "Many of the captains who followed him got back in line after the conference, remember?"
"Iblis still has some capital ships with him. Just the kind we are short on."
Darvos didn't know how to reply to that, so he didn't.
Jaral sighed again. "How long until Ackbar arrives with his battle force?" she asked then.
Darvos checked his datapad, read the reports and inadvertently shook his head. "Three rotations, at best."
Jaral leaned on the table as the discomfort took her over. "I hope Iblis knows what he's doing."
"He does, I think..." Darvos replied. "problem is, Iulius knows what he's doing quite well." he added with a bit of resignation in his tone.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Jaral took a glimpse at him. Darvos was staring downward, toward the micro-cells of the holotable, as if they had the answer to his internal conflict.
She knew very well how badly Darvos wanted a chance to meet his brother peacefully. He had told her that, some nights, he dreamed about Atollon, and how close the Tanis had been to kill each other. That single thought was slowly eating Darvos on the inside.
