//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 // Story: Star Wars EQG: Episode 1, Harmony of the Force // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// The planet of Gemmax was much like any other planet in the galaxy, a round world covered in greenery and blue oceans. But unlike other planets, this one had a few differences. The most interesting difference, was in the large mountains that cover the planet. Unlike most planets, which have simple rock mountains, the mountains on Gemmax were massive crystal spikes that stuck out of the ground. Gemmax was formed when a massive crystal entered a sun's gravitational pull. Nobody knows how a gem the size of a planet was formed, but it eventually fell into orbit and started rotating around a sun. And eventually, its own gravitation pull sucked in a bunch of rocks, water and gases. Eventually, the round planet was formed. But the many spikes of the gem weren't completely covered, turning them into the mountains that made up the planet. And from this planet, many species managed to evolve and make a life for themselves. This included the planet's primary species, known as the Gemman. The Gemman had spent millennia, transforming their world into a paradise to call home. Using their planet's natural resources to build, what they hoped, would be a utopia. And whilst they were a part of the galactic republic, they preferred to do things their own way. That was why, when news of a Sith army began to circulate, the Gemman instantly leapt into action and started making preparations to counter a possible attack. And no sooner were these preparations complete, that they were put to use. From out of warp, a fleet of ships appeared and began to descend upon the planet. The planetary defences quickly activated and began shooting at the ships, but the energy shields these ships had were rather powerful. One destroyer wasn't able to survive the brunt of the attack, exploding and falling into the planet's atmosphere. But the others managed to descend into the atmosphere. Once there, the destroyers began to expel the fighters that flew around and attacked the cities that made up the planet's population. On the ground, the soldiers of Gemmax were running out of the crystal buildings that made up the city. They were all dressed in purple body armor, with helmets lined with gemstones. In their hands were a bunch of blasters that looked like they were made entirely out of crystals. They fired these blasters, hitting several ships and managing to do damage to a few of them. But it took at least ten of these blasts to match the power of the fighter's weapons and a shot flew down from the ship, hitting the ground and exploding to send the planetary guard flying. And as the fighters cleared away the soldiers, pods were dropped from the destroyers. The Gemman had been told about the soldiers belonging to the Sith and knew they weren't anything special, those that saw the pods expecting to see a bunch of bug-like soldiers leaving it. But when the first pod landed, it opened to reveal a bunch of droids. These droids were humanoid in appearance, each of them looking like they were curled up in the fetal position. They were extended by robotic arms, the robots all appearing to hang from racks. And when the racks fully extended, the droids unclipped from them and began to unfold themselves. Once they stood to full attention, they all reached back and pulled a blaster off their backs. The droids began to march forward and started firing their blasters at any organic life they seemed to detect. The guards also fought back, but the droids and fighters together were just too much for them to handle. They quickly regrouped, heading towards the castle in the middle of the city. Castles like this were in every city on the planet, made of the same crystals that made up the rest of the houses. It was a giant pointed structure, which was large enough to house all the people who had managed to evacuate to it. And once the last person was inside, the tip of the castle glowed. A dome of energy suddenly appeared from out of the tip and formed a shield around it, the force field working to protect the castle and all its inhabitants. And as the guards fell back, they rushed towards the castle in order to protect it. The droids advanced on the castle, firing at the shield but doing no damage whatsoever. Even the fighter's blasts couldn't cause it to break. Inside the castle, the people were huddling together in order to stay safe. They were at the base of the tower, which had the thickest and strongest crystal and thus, was the safest place for them to be. And up in the higher sections of the castle, the Gemman in charge of the city were working on a battle plan. "Sir!" A Gemman rushed towards a table, surrounded by other Gemman. "The third and four defence divisions were forced to pull back as well. The droids and fighters are just too much for us to defend against." "Damn it!" The leader of the city punched the table. "There has to be something we can do!" Another Gemman spoke up. "The capital has already sent a distress signal, to Canterlot and all the surrounding republic planets. We just have to hold off until they arrive." "If they choose to send help," another Gemman growled. "They could see this as a reason to stay on their own planet, thinking it's a trap to weaken their own defences as they try and help us." "Maybe," the leader stated. "But the Jedi won't just sit back and let our world be conquered. They'll come. We just have to hold out until that happens." The other Gemman clearly didn't believe that, but what other choice did they have? "I don't know how many Jedi they'll send us, but we have to hope they'll get here before it's too late." "Isn't there a Gemman in the order?" "Yes. Ruby Scarlet. She's the daughter of another city controller. She'll most likely go there, but hopefully she'll send the rest of her Jedi to the other cities." A loud explosion shook the tower, as the city was bombarded once again. If reinforcements didn't come soon, Gemmax would be raised to the ground. Up in space, The Shooting Star was flying through hyperspace. Aboard the ship, Ruby Scarlet was in her quarters. She was trying to meditate and centre herself, whilst the others on the ship prepared for battle. Aside from her, Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, First, Luna and Trixie were also there. Luna was currently flying, whilst the others made sure they had everything they needed. None of them wanted to disturb Ruby, knowing that the crystal infused Jedi needed to make sure she wouldn't lose control of her emotions due to her home world's attack. "Do you have the medical triage kit?" First asked, Fluttershy nodding as she finished zipping up the bag with everything she would need to treat the wounded. "Good. I know you may feel in over your head when we get there. There will likely be many injured that we need to treat. Just remember the main rule of battlefield medicine." "Make sure they're will, then move on to the next patient." First nodded. "I know that may go against your caring nature, but making sure nobody dies is more important than a bedside manner in this situation." "I understand," Fluttershy nodded as Trixie came in. "Won't be long until we come out of Hyperspace," she told them. "You guys ready to head into the heat of battle?" They nodded, as Trixie turned to Twilight. The girl was staring at a tablet, her eyes going back and forth like she was watching a tennis match. "Yow, brain-box. What are you doing?" "Leave her alone," First told her. "She has been going over all the information, we have been receiving from the planet. She is trying to formulate a battle plan and figure out why the Sith, would choose to attack this planet." "Isn't it obvious?" Trixie asked. "This place is supposed to be resource central. If the Sith wanna take over the galaxy, they'd want to start with places we would need to get our resources from." "It might not be that simple," Twilight told her. "Yes, Gemmax has a lot of resources. But there are other resource rich planets that don't have as many defences. It would have been smarter to attack those planets instead of this one. Which must mean they have another reason to attack it." "Which is?" Trixie asked. "I don't know yet." Twilight didn't take her eyes off of the tablet, "that's what I'm trying to figure out." "You stay focused on it," First told her. "We will focus on keeping the planet safe until you can find the answer." Fluttershy nodded, Twilight smiling as she read another line. "What are you up to?" She asked the Sith. Celestia had said she believed in Twilight, to come up with a strategy that could help stop the Sith. And to do that, she would need to have every piece of info she had on the Sith. Anything that might help her stop them from doing whatever they were doing. They were on Gemmax for a reason and she needed to find it. Back on the planet, the battles continued to rage and many cities were starting to crumble under the weight. "Sir!" One of the leaders turned to a messenger, that had just arrived in the control room. "The cities of Jadex, Opaline and Garnite are in serious trouble. They're overrun and outnumbered." "What news from our scouts? Have there been any sign of the invaders near our borders?" "None," the messenger announced. "As far as we can tell, the invaders are focusing all their attention on one sector of the planet." The leader heard this and stared at a map of the planet, circling the areas that were being attacked. "Yes. Yes, I see." The others listening looked down curiously. "They're trying to get a foothold." "Sir?" "According to the reports, their attack on Castalore failed before their forces were stretched too thin. They attempted to attack every major city at once and claim the whole planet for themselves. But that's not what they're trying to do this time. They intend to take over one area of the planet and once that's under their command, they'll begin to spread their forces outwards." "So what do we do?" "We make sure they can't get that foothold," the leader announced. "Send sixty-five percent of our troops to support the counter attack efforts. Once they've got most of their troops on the ground, we'll attack and take them out before they can conquer these areas. And hopefully, the reinforcements from Canterlot and the nearby planets will arrive before they can call for backup." "Yes sir," the messenger nodded before heading out to give that order. The leader stared down at the map, a smile on his face. "Not a bad plan, focusing your attention on one area. But you made it too obvious. You should have attacked a few more areas, further away from that sector. Then we wouldn't have known what you were after." Up on the lead Destroyer, Solara was watching as the fights began. Footage from the droid deployment pods were coming in, showing how easily the machines were taking over the city. "Armalum's outdone himself." She smiled, as a bug trooper ran over to her. "Lady Solara. We've just received word that the defence forces from other cities around the planet, have begun sending troops from their own defences to help the area being attacked." "Just as I thought they would," Solara smiled. "They think we're trying to form a foothold. Worried we'll conquer part of the planet and begin to spread our influence to the rest of the planet. That's caused them to weaken their own defences to stop us." "What do we do now?" The bug trooper asked, "send troops to the areas that have weakened their defences?" "No," Solara told her. "We're not here to conquer the planet. This place has something we need and now that the area it's in is defenceless, nothing will stop me from taking it." She turned to walk away, "continue to attack that area of the planet. If you can actually capture it, great. If not, do what you can to keep the fight going until I've completed my mission." The bug troopers all nodded, as Solara made her way through the Destroyer. Eventually, she arrived at the area where the fighters were being held. "Is it ready?" She asked a bug trooper, who was working with several droids on something. A black version of their standard fighters, with yellow streaks running along it on either side of the cockpit. "It's ready," the bug trooper nodded. "We've made all the modifications you asked for, but the cloaking device has proven tricky." "I would have thought a ship this small would be easy to cloak." "From sensors, yes. But visual cloaking takes a lot of power." She climbed up into the ship. "The power we've set aside for the cloaking device will only last about fifteen minutes. Then it'll take an hour to recharge for another fifteen minutes. You'll need to pick when to use it at just the right time." "Very well," Solara nodded as the cockpit began to close. The ship powered up and was lifted by a mechanical arm, over the force field that kept the Destroy's fighter bay from being depressurised. And once the ship was over it and those that needed to breathe were out of the room, the force field was deactivated and the ship was dropped through the hole. As soon as the fighter was out of the destroyer, she activated the thrusters and propelled herself forward. The ship shot down towards the planet and flew past the planetary defences, the cannons unable to detect her due to her cloaking. She looked over at another part of the planet, as explosions and destruction could be seen from space. She then turned the fighter away from that area and flew off, being careful to stay out of view until she needed to go closer to the ground. She typed the coordinates into the navigation computer and flew off, a smile hidden beneath her mask as she was close to gaining the second piece of her master's plan. "Once we have all three, the Jedi won't be able to stop us." "Gemmax is only a few minutes away," Luna told the others as they prepared for what was clearly going to be a heck of a fight. "Find anything yet?" Trixie asked, as she and Twilight headed for the cockpit. "Nothing out of the ordinary," Twilight explained. "According to the data, the Sith are focusing all their attention on a single area of the planet. It looks like they're attempting to get a foothold on the planet." "That doesn't sound good." Ruby took the tablet and stared at the info she had been given, then raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't make any sense." "What do you mean?" Rarity asked, as Ruby handed the tablet back to Twilight. "If they wanted to get a foothold, they should have picked someplace with low defences and would be easy to keep their hold on. But they chose an area that has strong defences and would be difficult to keep under their control. That area might be rich in materials, but the surrounding landscape would make attacks from enemies easy." "You're right." Twilight couldn't believe she hadn't noticed that. "I guess it pays to have someone from this planet, look at the data." She hummed, as she tried to figure out why they had chosen that area to attack. The ship finally came out of Hyperspace and when they arrived, they found themselves coming face to face with a destroyer class vessel. "Everybody hold on!" Luna quickly flew the ship away from the destroyer, as it began to open fire on them. They took several hits, as everyone rushed to buckle themselves up. They flew down into the planet's atmosphere, Luna telling Ruby to enter the clearance code to keep the planetary defences from targeting them. Ruby barely typed it in before the laser cannons fired, allowing them to fly down and enter the battle. As soon as the fighters spotted them, they started firing at the Shooting Star. The ship barely managed to avoid getting blasted, as Trixie and First rushed towards the turrets and climbed into them. As Luna kept them from in the air, the two started firing at any Fighter that came into their line of fire. They managed to blast several out of the sky, but others were able to avoid the shots and almost hit the ship back. "We need to get away from here!" Twilight cried, as a laser hit the side of the ship. "There's no way we can land here. We need to get to one of the areas not being attacked. Then we can join up with the defence forces." Ruby quickly stepped up to the navi-com and started typing away at it. "Head to these coordinates." Luna didn't argue and quickly began to follow the instructions, as they pulled away from the battle and began to fly away from the area under attack. Most of the fighters chose to give up on following them, but a few decided to chase them down and try to blow them up. Trixie and First fired back at them, First managing to blow one of them up, but that still left two and they flew below the ship in order to stay out of First's range of fire. Trixie did her best, but the pilots were too good and managed to avoid getting hit. One of their shots then hit near her, the explosion that followed rocking the turret and causing Trixie to hit her head. She fell forward and caused the gun to spin wildly and fire, one actually managing to hit the fighter. "Excellent work, Trixie!" Luna cheered, only for her student not to answer. "Trixie?" The others looked worried and Fluttershy rushed over to the turret, climbing down whilst the ship shook from the final fighter's gunfire. She then reached the turret and gasped, "she's hurt!" That didn't make their situation much better, especially since the fighter was still firing at them and Trixie's gun was now out of action. "We have to land, so I can treat her." "Easier said than done," Ruby stated as the ship shook again. "We can't take many more hits like that!" But as she said that, the scanner locked onto an energy source coming up. Blaster fire, heading straight for them. "Hold on!" They braced themselves, but the blast didn't hit them. Instead, the fighter was struck and exploded. They gasped at this, as the coms system rang. "Canterlot Craft," a voice spoke through it. "Follow these coordinates to land near one of our troops heading into battle." They nodded and followed the coordinates. Arriving there, they found a large group of crystal tanks and transport vehicles. The ship flew down and landed in front of the group, allowing those inside the chance to rest and check on their injured. "How is she?" Luna asked, watching Fluttershy and First treat Trixie as she lay on the main floor of the ship. Fluttershy had her hands over Trixie's head, the gentle light of her Force Healing washing over her as First checked the rest of her. "She is going to be okay," First finally stated. "Looks like she just hit her head. Fluttershy should be able to help her recover without issue." "Good," Luna sighed in relief. As she said that, Ruby stepped into the room. "The troops are here. We should probably go see them." They nodded and headed out of the ship, Fluttershy and First continuing to care for Trixie. As soon as they were down the ship's loading ramp, they spotted the vehicles moving towards them and come to a stop. Someone then stepped out of a transport vehicle, removing their helmet and revealing himself to have the same skin and hair colour as Ruby. The Jedi gasped, as the man walked forward with a smile on his face. "Ruby," he opened his arms for a hug. "Father," Ruby looked shocked. "What are you doing here?" He sighed, "is that any way for a daughter to speak to her father after being away for so long? Why shouldn't I be here? Gemmax is under attack." "Exactly," Ruby told him. "So why aren't you making preparations to protect our city, instead of being here where you could get hurt." Her father sighed, shaking his head as he turned to the others. He and Luna locked eyes and as soon as he saw her, he frowned. Rarity and Twilight shared a look, wondering what that look was all about. "It's good to see you again, Jasper." She turned to the Padawans. "This is Ruby's father and the leader of Kyanite City. Jasper Scarlet." "It's nice to meet you," Twilight bowed with Rarity doing the same. "Yeah, sure." He turned to Ruby, "I knew you'd come to protect your home world. They came out of nowhere and our intel has stated, they're trying to make a foothold here on the planet. Every city has sent forces to combat the incursion. We'll stop them before they can cause too much damage to our world." He looked around, "are these all the Jedi that have come with you." "More are on the way," Ruby assured him. "They had to make preparations for the battle. We've come to try and keep the battle from escalating until they arrive." Jasper smirked. "By the time they get here, we'll have already wiped them out." He turned to the rest of his army and gave a hand signal, the tanks and vehicles beginning to move around them and head towards the battle. Only the transport he had been on remained. "Ruby, I want you to come with me. We'll protect our world together." We'll all come," Luna told him. "The more Jedi you have, the better. Besides, there may be more to this situation than we realise." "Really?" Jasper asked, "how so?" "We don't know. But according to your daughter, the location they've chosen to attack wouldn't be the best place to make their base of operation on the planet." Jasper was about to retort, but stopped as he let this info sink in. "You have a point. It would be easy for us to retake the areas they've taken. If anything, my part of the planet should have been their target. plenty of resources and it's much easier to defend." He thought for a moment. "However, that would also mean it'd be difficult for them to take control of. The factors that make it easy to defend, also make it difficult to invade." "That's true," Twilight nodded. "But maybe there's more to it than that." Fluttershy left the ship and headed over to them. "Trixie's awake, but I don't think she should go into battle for a while. We need to take her somewhere she can rest." "My city isn't too far from here," Jasper stated. "I'll send them a message to let your ship in. Your friend can rest there, whilst the rest of us go to liberate our planet." They nodded and Luna turned to Twilight. "I want you to fly the ship to the city. The rest of us will go ahead with Jasper." She placed a hand on Twilight's shoulder, "there's more to this than we know. Figure it out and we might be able to end this war before it's too late." Twilight nodded and they all rushed back into the ship, Trixie being moved to a bed whilst they grabbed their equipment. "Ruby," Rarity asked her teacher, "your father seems a little...how should I put it?" "Resentful towards Luna," Ruby finished. The others shrugged, as Luna stepped in. "He hates me for taking Ruby as my apprentice." That surprised them. They knew Ruby had trained under Luna, but never expected Ruby's father to hate her for that. "Jasper never wanted his daughter to become a Jedi. Her mother allowed her to join the Order, when it was clear she was strong with The Force." "Growing up, my father always called me and tried to convince me to return. He almost got his wish, since no master appeared to want to train me. Every year, during the Apprentice Tournament, the masters would pick their Padawans. But I was never one of them. Eventually, I reached my final year as a Padawan. If I wasn't chosen that year, I wouldn't have been able to become a Jedi." They nodded at this. They knew that younglings who didn't become Padawans by a certain age, were either made permanent members of their respective cores, or allowed to leave if they wished to. "Would you have left?" Twilight asked. "Possibly," Ruby nodded. "But I didn't need to. Master Luna chose to make me her apprentice." "I would have chosen her the first time," Luna explained. "But during all the other tournaments, I was away on a mission in the outer rim. It's a miracle I was able to complete it in time for that tournament. The Force works in mysterious ways." "So Jasper realised that if you hadn't chosen his daughter, she would have likely come back home." "With all the training needed to control The Force and help Gemmax," Ruby agreed. "You can probably tell, he wasn't too happy about me becoming a Padawan." They all frowned, feeling sorry for Ruby. Being a Jedi was a great honour, but her father couldn't see that. "But it doesn't matter right now. I am a Jedi and now, I'm going to use everything I learned from the Jedi to protect my planet." She headed out of the ship, "let's go." The others nodded and all but Twilight headed out, the Padawan activating the ship as soon as they disembarked. She raised the ship up and loaded the city's location into the navi-com. Once she was high enough, she hit the thrusters and the ship flew off. It shot towards Ruby's home city and flew around a mountain. The ship's systems were telling her she needed to repair something, but she had to get to the city before she could fix anything. And just as she got out of eyesight from the other, something suddenly exploded. "WHAT!?" She tried to figure out what was happening, but another explosion followed at the rear of the ship. The console was going haywire and told her that the ship had lost power. The whole thing was starting to fall out of the sky. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" She tried to get the ship's power back, but it refused. She looked ahead and saw the open stretch of rocky terrain. If the ship crashed into that, the whole thing would be ripped apart. Just as she was about to consider abandoning ship, something appeared in her view and she gasped. A lake. Whilst the ship's vertical thrusters were offline, its horizontal thrusters still worked. As such, she pushed them into overdrive and the ship shot forward at high speed. The Shooting Star fell as fast as it flew and Twilight wasn't sure she would make it in time. But just as she was about to tell Trixie to hang on, they reached the lake and the ship crashed into the water. It skimmed along the surface and sent a massive wave washing over the banks. As the ship slowed down and eventually came to a stop. But Twilight didn't have time to relax. The moment it lost enough momentum, the ship began to sink beneath the water. The ramp was already under the water and if she tried to use the upper hatch, the water might flood the entire ship. Panicking, Twilight tried to think of a way to save the ship from a watery grave. And she did have an idea. "It's too big," she told herself. But then she remembered one of her earliest lessons. "If you don't believe you can do something, you can't do it." She could lift it. She might not have lifted something this heavy before, but she had lifted multiple objects whose weight should be about the same. She took a deep breath and placed a hand on the ship's floor, as she focused all her attention on surrounding the ship in a bubble of The Force. She groaned and grunted, using all her strength to stop the ship from sinking. "Come on." As she was doing this, the ship suddenly stopped falling below the water. It stayed there for a moment or two, then started floating upwards out of the lake. "Yes!" Twilight felt like she was being crushed under a massive weight, but she didn't stop and kept forcing the ship upwards. The ship kept floating out of the water and despite a few moments where it stopped, it eventually managed to completely escape the lake's grasp. The Shooting Star was soon floating above the lake, as the water that had seeped into it began to pour out. The loss of this water barely made a change to the ship's weight. It still felt incredibly heavy. But Twilight refused to let herself drop it now and the ship began to move across the water, towards the bank of the lake. "Almost...there." She screamed, using all of her effort to practically throw the ship over the water. The cockpit finally flew over the ground and the rest of the ship soon followed, as Twilight felt her control slipping. Any minute, she wouldn't be able to hold the ship up much longer. The problem was, she couldn't move to turn on the landing gear. If she tried, the ship would drop. Suddenly, the door opened and Trixie staggered out. "What's going on?" "Landing gear!" Twilight cried, "hurry!" Trixie didn't need telling twice and staggered over to the cockpit, eventually finding the landing gear after turning the lights off and causing the waste water to be expelled. The ship's legs extended downwards and eventually, Twilight felt the pressure being lifted off of her. As soon as she didn't need to hold it up, she released the ship and fell forward. Trixie rushed to her side and called her name, but she blacked out from sheer exhaustion. On another part of the planet, Solara continued to fly her fighter around in search of something. She kept scanning the area and eventually, she found what she was searching for. "Perfect." She activated her cloak and the ship went completely invisible. At least from the outside, it looked invisible. She flew down towards the ground and sent out a scanning wave, searching for her target. After a few minutes, she locked onto something and pulled her ship around to that area. Straight ahead of her was a large mound of earth, covered in grass and having several gem rocks sticking out of it. She scanned it directly and smiled when she got a response. "Perfect." She began to land her ship and once it touched down, she leapt out and headed for the hill. As she got closer to it, her helmet was also scanning it and the beam went deep into the soil. And when it did, it discovered something that wasn't soil or crystal beneath it. As such, she stepped up to one of the gems sticking out of the soil and placed her hand on it. After a few moments, the crystal started shaking from side to side. As it did, Solara stepped backwards and the gem followed her. The shaking caused it to come loose from the soil and as she backed up, the crystal pulled itself free. Solara held up her other hand, keeping the soil that was around the crystal from falling as the gem was pulled free. And once the gem was completely freed from the soil, she threw it away and focused her attention on the hole it had left. Hidden behind the gem, currently inside a small tunnel of soil, a stone doorway was sitting there. She thrust her hand up and the soil was thrown away from the doorway, most of the hill also being thrown into the air as the door was revealed. Said door was a large stone square, with a seam running around it a few inches away from the edge. Symbols were carved into the rock of the outer part of the doorway. Symbols that Solara had seen before. "I knew I'd find it here." She placed her hand on the stone and focused. "Now. Reveal your secrets to me." Ruby, Luna, First, Fluttershy and Rarity were all riding in the transport, heading towards the battleground. The transport was heavily armored and despite a few fighters attempting to blast them as they got closer, it protected them and the tanks were able to shoot the fighters down. "We're almost at the city," one of the drivers announced as everyone got their weapons ready. "This is it," Jasper announced. "Our first priority, is to get to the castle and make sure it's secure. We then spread out through the city in order to wipe out these bug troopers we were told about. According to the intel you gave us, these things aren't that difficult to beat. We just have to hit them hard enough and they explode." "Don't underestimate them," Luna told him. "They're dangerous. Take them lightly and you'll regret it." Jasper stared at her, as the transport rocked due to an explosion. Another explosion soon followed and something suddenly slammed into the side of the transport, causing it to be knocked around and almost toppled over. "What was that?" Rarity asked, as Ruby unbuckled herself and ran for the door. Her father called out for her to stop, but she leapt out and found one of the tanks had been blasted into them. She looked around and saw the cause of the damage. A strange looking droid that looked like a four-legged scorpion the size of a tank. The droid turned its attention towards them and turned its laser cannon tail in the direction of the transport. Ruby gasped at this and as the cannon charged up, she reached out with The Force and pushed the cannon upwards. The laser fired and the blast soared above her, barely missing the transport. It struck something behind her and as it exploded, she leapt off the transport and drew her Lightsaber. The scorpion droid slowly re-aimed its cannon at the vehicle, but Ruby was faster. She leapt up and spun around, slashing her Lightsaber through the droid's weapon and destroying it. She landed on the scorpion's head and stabbed the blade into it, as the others began to leave the transport. They saw the droid seconds before it collapsed, Ruby leaping off as part of it blew up. "What the heck is that?" Jasper cried, as more explosions made them look around. More scorpion droids were walking around, blasting their tanks and transports. In the air, along with the fighters, wasp-like droids were raining destruction down. And outnumbering all the other droids were a bunch of robotic droids, carrying laser blasters and fighting against the soldiers. "What are those things?" Rarity asked. "Looks like the Sith have levelled up," First stated. "Guess the bug troopers were not cutting it for them anymore." The others watched as the battle raged, with Jasper growling. "So what? They're a bunch of machines. That just makes them easier to defeat." He pulled out his blaster and charged, firing at the closest droid her could find. He blasted the wasps out of the sky and as the humanoid droids turned their attention to him, Ruby raised a piece of debris up in front of him to act as a shield. The others took out their own weapons and charged too, Luna taking to the air to slash at the wasps whilst First blasted several scorpion droids with one of his blast-sabers. Even Fluttershy was getting into the fight, having no issue destroying a mindless killing machine. Rarity rushed up to Ruby's side, the two fighting back to back as they protected each other from the droid's attacks. They spotted several scorpion droids, walking towards them with their blaster tails pointed at them. And as they began to charge them up, Rarity rushed forward with Ruby extinguishing her Lightsaber. She swung her arms around and raised several large rocks, which she threw towards the droids. And seeing them coming, the scorpions automatically aimed at the rocks and fired. The boulders disintegrated, the dust falling to the ground. But this distraction, allowed Rarity to get in close and leap into the air. She spun around and her Lightsaber formed a ring around her as she did, which struck the tip of the cannon tail and sliced through it like a buzzsaw. By the time she reached the end of the weapon, she stopped spinning and landed on the back of the scorpion. The cannon sparked, as it fell apart and the scorpions pointed their weapons at Rarity. She leapt straight up, the droids blasting the damaged scorpion and causing it to blow up. As it did, Ruby reached one of the scorpions and ignited her blade once again. She then dropped to the ground and slid along it, thrusting her sword up into the scorpion and cutting through its body. At the same time, Rarity ignited her blade and threw it. The Lightsaber stabbed through the other scorpion's tail and pierced through its head, whilst Ruby slid out from under the other one. Rarity landed next to Ruby and summoned her blade, making it slice through more of the droid as it returned to her. Once she had it back in her hand, the two looked back to the battlefield. The others were also fighting against the droids with everything they had, whilst the Gemman Soldiers joined the fight and the tanks focused their attention on knocking out the fighters. It was only a matter of time before they had the Sith running for the hills. But how much damage could they do before that happened? Twilight let out a moan, as she felt herself beginning to come around. When she opened her eyes, sat up and looked around to see the Shooting Star wasn't underwater. She then remembered what had happened and called out, "Trixie?" A few moments later, Trixie staggered into the ship's central room. "Good, you're awake." Twilight pushed herself up, as Trixie watched her look just as dizzy as the Padawan probably was. "I wouldn't push yourself, if I were you. Your body probably needs time to recover after all the stress you put yourself under." "I'm fine," Twilight assured her. But as soon as she wasn't holding onto something, her legs gave out and she fell to the ground. "Told you. Now, how the heck did we get into this mess? I thought you were flying to Ruby's home?" "I was," Twilight pushed herself up. "But the damage we took in the battle took its toll. We lost our horizontal thrusters and couldn't stay in the air. If I hadn't found the lake, the ship would probably be in a million pieces right now." "Lucky us," Trixie sighed. "So what do we do now?" Twilight raised her gauntlet and tried to call the others, but it wasn't getting through. "Too much interference." She turned to Trixie. "What have you done since I've been asleep? How long have I been out of it?" "About forty minutes," Trixie replied. "And I spent that time trying to figure out where we are and if the ship can be fixed." "Can it?" "Not with my limited mechanical skills. Don't suppose those skills I've seen Shining use on occasion, run in the family?" "I'm probably better than most people when it comes to fixing mechanical faults. But if the damage is as bad as I think it is, I won't be able to fix it before something comes along to attack us." "So what do we do? We can't stay here. We've barely got any food and that lake doesn't look clean enough to drink from. Should we try and make it to Ruby's home?" "I guess that's our only option." Once Twilight had her balance back, she headed for the cockpit and connected her gauntlet to the navi-com. She downloaded the coordinates of the city into her gauntlet and once she had them, they both left the ship. "Shining's gonna kill me if we lose this thing permanently." "I didn't realise it was his ship?" "It does belong to the order, but Shining's the one who procured it. Apparently, he won it in a game of cards whilst on a mission. They needed a ship to escape a planet and Shining managed to outplay a famous gambler that's known for cheating." They began to make their way across the land, following the coordinates. But the city was a long way away and there was no chance they would make it there before nightfall. "Raaah!" Luna spun her double-ended Lightsaber around, cutting through several wasp drones before they could counter her attack. She flew down and landed, whilst splitting her weapon in half and swinging it around to cunt down several more droids. She then crossed her blade, as a scorpion droid fired a concentrated beam right at her. The beam struck her crossed blades and pushed her backwards, but she was able to regain her footing and stop herself from being knocked down. Using all her strength, she flew forward and deflected the beam as she did. It struck several spots around her, destroying a few more droids until she reached the scorpion. Once there, she swung her blades apart and cut straight through the droid. Once she was done, the machine fell into four pieces and Luna combined her weapon once again. And no sooner did she do this, that a fighter flew down and blasted the ground near here. "GYAH!" She was thrown through the air and crashed against a crystal, the fact she didn't break anything being a miracle. As she was picking herself up, a humanoid droid appeared and pointed its blaster at Luna. The Jedi's eyes went wide, as her Lightsaber had fallen from her grasp when she collided with the crystal. But before the droid could fire, it was shot by a laser and knocked down. "You okay?" Fluttershy jumped over to her, whilst First rushed over to check on the droid and cover them whilst she checked on Luna. "I don't think anything's broken," she assured them. At that moment, a bunch of fighters flew down and unleashed several blasts around them. They all ducked for cover, as crystals and dirt flew everywhere. "Those fighters are a serious pain!" "We can't fight against them," Fluttershy cried as a fighter blew up a nearby tank. They were running out of heavy artillery and once the last tank was destroyed, nothing would be able to stop those fighters. One fighter flew down and spotted the three, the pilot seeing their Lightsabers and realising who they were. The three quickly slotted the fighter and realised it was locking onto them, Luna preparing to throw the other two away with The Force. But before she or the fighter could act, the ship suddenly exploded. This surprised them, along with what flew out through the smoke. A Delta-X. Luna's gauntlet suddenly beeped and she answered the call, hearing Shining's voice as she did. "Wooow! Sorry to drop in on you like that, but I bet you'd rather it be me than that guy." More Delta-X fighters suddenly appeared from above, blasting the Sith fighters and a few areas of the ground with only droids on it. "Oh, yeah!" Flash cheered, as he did a barrel roll and destroyed a bunch of fighters. Spitfire and Rainbow also flew around, shooting more fighters down. This freed up the ground troops to fight the droids attacking the city, whilst allowing the Jedi the chance to catch their breath. "Good to see the Delta-Xs are working like they should," Luna smiled. "Come along. We need to meet with the others at the castle. There's probably a lot of wounded there, waiting for you to treat them." They nodded and all ran towards the castle, Lightsabers at the ready in case more droids got in their way. The Delta-Xs continued to cover them, as they made their way through the city. The number of fighters on the Jedi's side might not have been as large as the Sith's, but the pilots were clearly more skilled. And with their talent with The Force helping them navigate, they had the clear advantage. The Sith didn't stand a chance. Twilight and Trixie, continued to march through the open fields of Gemmax. The grassy meadow they were on, stretched for many miles and had many crystal spikes sticking out of the ground. They hadn't run into anyone else since leaving the ship, neither Gemman or Sith Troop. The two of them were probably the only two living things for a hundred miles. And one of them was driving the other nuts. "Are we there yet?" "No." "Are we there yet?" "No." "Are we there yet?" "Yes." "Really?" "NO!" Twilight turned to her, "do you see a crystal city anywhere in sight?" Trixie looked around, as Twilight groaned. "Why did I have to get stuck with you of all people?" "Hey, you should be thankful that the Great and Powerful Trixie, is by your side. Might I remind you, I'm the one who's currently got an injury?" She pointed at the bandage on her head. "A healed injury. You're probably fine now." Trixie frowned, as Twilight kept walking. "Now come on, I don't have time to waste. I have to get to the city and figure out how to beat the Sith." Trixie rolled her eyes. "Little miss golden girl. Thinks she can solve every problem. You know, being Celestia's student doesn't make you special. Luna's just as important as Celestia and she chose me as her student." "I'm not getting into this argument with you," Twilight called back. "At least I know how to fly a ship without crashing." "I didn't crash. The ship was damaged and I couldn't keep it in the air any longer. Maybe if you had destroyed that fighter before it damaged the ship, we wouldn't be in this mess." Trixie frowned and looked ready to argue back, but stopped when she saw something and gasped. "Get down!" She grabbed Twilight and pulled her behind a crystal, Twilight shocked by this as Trixie took out her Lightsaber. "What are you doing?" "Look over there," Trixie pointed in a direction behind the crystal. Twilight carefully glanced around the crystal and saw what had made Trixie so worried, and it worried her as well. "A Sith Fighter." It was the same make and model that the Bug Troopers use, but painted a different colour. Something told Twilight, that particular fighter didn't just happen to be painted differently. "We might be dealing with a high ranking member of the army." "But why are they here?" Trixie asked, as Twilight looked around and saw no sign of the pilot. "The battle's miles away from here, so why'd they come here?" "Good question." She thought for a moment, then carefully stepped out into the open. "Come on. But stay on guard." Trixie followed and they headed for the fighter, being sure to keep an eye out in case the pilot leapt out and attacked them. But nobody did and they soon arrived at the ship. Trixie climbed up to check out the cockpit, only to find the hatch wouldn't open. "Come on." "It's possible they locked it with a special access key." Twilight looked around, "but why did they leave it here?" Trixie turned to get off the ship and when she did, she noticed something behind Twilight. "What's that?" Twilight looked around and saw a large hill-like mound, with many crystals sticking out of it. But the most noticeable part of the hill, was the large opening in the side of it. One that looked like it had been blown open by something. And inside that opening, was a square hole that seemed to lead downwards. Twilight stepped over to it and as she got closer, she noticed a few more things. First, was the stone slab that was laying on the ground in front of the hole. The slab appeared to be the perfect size to fit in the hole, making Twilight wonder if it had been inside the hole. But the more noticeable thing about the hole, were the symbols carved into the stone around it. Symbols that Twilight had seen before. "It can't be." "What is it?" Trixie started at the symbols, then noticed something. "Wait a minute. Haven't we seen those symbols before?" "Yes," Twilight nodded. "They're the same symbols that were carved into the temple, on the forest planet where you first met the Sith and Bug Troopers." "No way," Trixie was shocked. "What are they doing here?" Twilight stared at the symbols, then over at the fighter and slowly started putting the pieces together. And finally, everything snapped into place. "YES!" She spun around, "that's it! That's why they're attacking that area." "What?" "Don't you see? They never intended to take over the planet. There's something hidden here, just like what was hidden on the forest planet. But unlike the forest planet, this place has inhabitants that would have noticed them approaching. That's why they caused this attack." "Right," Trixie nodded. "So they pulled our attention away with a large battle, so we wouldn't notice them sneaking in here to find...this." "Exactly." Twilight looked into the hole and stared at the tunnel leading underground. "Someone's down there. Someone trying to get something very dangerous. We have to stop them." "Then what are we waiting for?" Trixie began to head down the tunnel, Twilight following behind. They didn't know who was waiting for them down this tunnel, but they knew whoever it was had to be stopped. No matter what it took. Down below, Solara made her way down the tunnel. Her Lightsaber was ignited, illuminating the way. And as she walked, she noticed the unusual gems lining the wall. And eventually, she came to the end of the tunnel and found a strange seal waiting for her at the end of it. "There we are." She reached up to move the seal with The Force, but nothing happened? "What." She tried again, but it still didn't work. "What's going on?" She closed her eyes and focused, trying to do anything with The Force. But it didn't work. It was almost like...her connection to it had been severed.