Exile's Revenge: Chapter 3 "Betrayer betrayed"

Captain Reiman had been with Revan since the Mandalorain Wars. When Revan ordered seeming suicide assaults on Mandalorian shipyards or fleets, Reiman had followed. When Revan left to go to the Unknown Regions, Reiman had followed. When Revan found the Star Forge and came back to the Republic as Dark Lord of the Sith, Reiman had followed. When Revan ordered Reiman to conquer his own Planet, Reiman still followed. When Reiman had learned that Malak had betrayed Revan, he and the units in his command mutinied and went in search of Revan. When Revan killed Malak and regained his position as Lord of the Sith, Reiman immediately went to the Star Forge to see the Dark Lord again. And now, nearly six years since that day on top of that Rakatan Temple, Reiman was again preparing to follow Revan. This time his leader was moving against the so called 'True' Sith.

"Captain, prepare to move the fleet out of hyperspace." Revan said, breaking Reiman out of his thoughts.

"Yes, Lord Revan." Reiman replied. "All ships, prepare to exit hyperspace on my mark."

Revan then stood up and walked over to the comm officer. Reiman knew what was coming next, it was something Revan had done ever since he took over the Republic Fleet during the Mandalorian Wars. Before leaving the Jedi and joining the Republic, Revan had done extensive research on the Mandalorians, learning their culture, traditions and their language. Whenever Revan lead a Fleet or an Army into battle he would always yell;

"Par tor, par kote, par parjai, cuyir mar!" Which in Mandalorian meant 'for justice, for glory, for victory, to be free!'. He said it in perfect Mando'a, and, if he was in space, would always transmit it to the Mandalorians as a mockery of their war cry. This usually caused the Mandalorians to become infuriated at the disrespect they felt was shown to them and their traditions by their opponent. This generally caused battle plans to go wrong as commanders and their troops tried to kill Revan at all costs, regardless of their orders. Over the three years Revan commanded it became the Republic's motto, though it was usually shortened to 'Freedom' and said in Basic. Even now Revan still had some of those Republic soldiers in his command and they were all comforted knowing that their leader hadn't been destroyed by the Jedi Council's mind wipe.

Revan sent the transmission to all this ships in his fleet as Bastila went off to the tactical display unit in the next room. Reiman knew she had some sort of Jedi power that allowed her to influence battles just by the force of will, but he didn't try to understand it. It worked, and that was all he cared about.

"All ships, exit hyperspace on my mark." He said through the comm. "Three...two...one...MARK!"

All the ships that made up the first and second attack groups dropped out of hyperspace in unison. Alpha group, comprised mostly of frigates and destroyers, broke off and began the circle around the opposite side of the planet. Beta group, which was mainly Leviathans headed straight for Velnor III. Relentless stayed out of the main fighting and Bastila began using her battle meditation to co-ordinate Revan's forces.

"Lord Revan?" Came the voice of the Commander of Beta group. "There are no enemy contacts. Repeat, no enemy contacts on the TDU."

"Launch fighters," Revan said, getting a very bad feeling. "Have them form a defensive search pattern. Arrange the capital ships according to postition gamma three." Revan watched on his TDU as Beta group formed into a postition that allowed for the greatest possible field of fire, perfect for thwarting ambushes.

"Lord Revan, this is Captain Delles of group Alpha. My scout ships detect ships closing from two directions, should we raise shields?"

"Affirmative Captain, I sense a disturbance." Revan said feeling like things were getting even worse as the seconds passed.

"My Lord!" Came the freightened voice of Captain Delles. "We just got a fix on those signals, Darth Farsath's entire fleet is heading towards us from sector 243, and Darth Sakora's fleet is closing from sector 471. My lord, there's nearly a thousand ships heading this way. We're hopelessly outnumbered."

"Captain, you forget that Darth Sakora is our ally," Revan began.

"No Sir, you don't understand. Both fleets are heading directly for us. If they wanted to fight each other they would not be coming here. There is less distance between their two fleets than there is between us and either of them, they are attacking us."

"All units fall back. I repeat, all units fall back!" Revan practically screamed over the comm. "Rendezvous in the Forgath system. Captain Delles send your fastest scouts to summon the rest of the fleet."

"Yes Sir." Delles replied. "Oh my Gods, Sir...we have Sith forces closing in along our escape corridor, we're trapped!"

"How many Ships?" Revan asked, trying to stay calm.

"Two attack groups." Came the instant reply.

"All units attack the third fleet!" Revan ordered, knowing that by the time they dealt with those ships the others would be upon them.

"Par parjai!...Par kyr'am." For Victory!...For death. Revan knew this was not a battle his forces could survive. His forces were ournumbered nearly fifteen to one. The most he could hope to do was take out as many enemies as possible and hope that some of his units would escape.

"Sir?" The commander from Beta group was back on the comm.

"Yes Commander Hyte?" Revan spoke.

"Darth Farsath's fleet is holding position just outside of the system." Hyte said, the disbelief coming through in his voice.

"What??" Revan asked just as confused as Hyte. "They have the advantage of numbers, why aren't they attacking?"

"Scratch my last Sir," Hyte replied immediately. "They have continued their course."

"Why did they stop?" Reiman asked Revan.

"They must suspect a trap," Revan replied. "They must think the size of our forces is too small, they are expecting an ambush."

"Makes sense." Reiman reasoned. "You are well known for your tactical genius. And with a fleet as small as this they likely suspect that you have stationed hidden units. But where would they think you would hide such units?"

"Sir?" The navigations officer called. "There is a nebula nearby. It blocks all but the most powerful sensor scans, they might think we have additional units there."

"Order the fleet to move into the nebula!" Revan ordered, a plan coming into his mind.

"Sir?" Reiman asked incredulous.

"If they suspect we are running towards backup units they might stop to reconsider their plan of attack. This would give us enough time to plot a hyperspace jump out of here."

"Very good Sir"

"Ha, look they have stopped," Revan said looking at the TDU. He turned to the comm officer. "Begin transmitting into the nebula. Say we're being pursued by large numbers of enemy craft and we will need backup once we enter the nebula."

"Sir?" Reiman was totally lost, they had not units in the nebula, they hadn't even known of its existance until a few minutes ago.

"They must be monitoring our comms," Revan replied. "Why else did they immediately continue when I said we had no additional units?"

"Makes sense," Reiman began. "But that must mean we have a spy within the fleet, our communications are heavily encrypted."

"I know," Revan said, that bad feeling returning. "Once we get out of here we will conduct a full investigation."

"Gods damn it all, Sir?" Captain Delles was bakc on the line.

"What is it now Captain?" Revan asked, dreading the answer. This had to be one of the worst missions he had planned.

"Darth Sakora had reinforcements coming from the opposite side of the nebula, Sir." Delles responded.

"Time for some improvisation." Revan said. "They forget space is three dimentional, have the fleet dive. All units forty-five degree dive on my mark, three...two...one...MARK. All units dive."

With Bastila still co-ordinating the ships, the maneuver worked perfectly. Revan's fleet was now under the oncoming fleet. Though they were still outnumbered, they had clear shots at the underbellies of Sakora's reinforcements, which had few guns. The ship's shields were able to hold off some of the turbolaser fire for a few seconds, but the Leviathan's superior firepower ripped through the shields of the Sith Destructors with relative ease. Then came a volley of proton torpedoes that shreded the superstructures of the numerous ships and turned many of them into twisted wrecks.

"SIR!! A squadron of Sith bombers has just appeared on the TDU!" The tactical officer reported.

"How close?" Revan asked, knowing the answer but not wanting to hear it.

"Right on top of us! They must have used some sort od sensor jamming..." The officer's words were cut off as speaks erupted from the TDU and he was struck. The Relentless shook from the numerous proton bombs that impacted the shields and hull.

"SIR! Sensors are down, we're completely blind!"

"All guns, manual aiming. Fire at will!" Revan commanded. "Begin preping for hyperspace jump immediately."

"Sir, navcom is out of commission, we can't calculate a jump."

"Order all other units to retreat."

"But Sir? What about us?"

"Have two of the other ships grab us in a tractor beam and pull us to the rendezvous!" Revan yelled over the sounds of the fires on the bridge.

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"Call off the bombers, I can't get a clear shot at the traitor." Darth Farsath odered over the comm from the bridge of his ship, Immortal. "The traitor's ship is mine!" However just as he unleashed a volley of proton torpedoes and turbolaser fire, Revan's fleet jumped into hyperspace.

"You said the traitor's vessel was crippled!!!" Farsath roared. "How is it then, that he escaped!!"

"We don't know, my Lord." Answered Farsath's second in command, afraid that his superior would kill him for his failure. He held no illusions about how he got so far up on the command chain and he didn't plan on being his master's next victim. "I'll see to it myself."

"Admiral, do not fail me again."

"Of course, my Lord." He left the bridge before anything else could go wrong.

'The Master will not be pleased.' Farsath thought. 'I cannot believe he outwitted the reinforcements, and with such a simple maneuver! Darth Sakora will pay for his force's lack of planning.' While he was thinking over the battle Farsath headed to his quarters on board Immortal. When he got there he wasn't suprized to see his informant standing there already.

"My Lord," He said when Farsath entered the room, bowing.

"You have failed me, Miriluka." Farsath said, fuming still. "You've Bastila's apprentice! Why couldn't you give me the exact number of enemy units! Why didn't you tell us they had NO REINFORCEMENTS! The traitor should have DIED in that battle, now we have to spend time searching for him, his fleet and his new capital."

"But I know where..." The Miriluka began.

"Do you honestly expect him to stay there when he learns of your betrayal?" Farsath asked sarcastically.

"Yes." The Miriluka responded simply. "It's the most defensible area within his territory."

"Leave me, Hesus Marr," Farsath said, somewhat calmer than he was when he entered the room. "I will deal with your failure later."