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Providence<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
Leia knelt down and started to speak in a low voice...
"I..."
Tyscio's eyes watched her and a curiouis expression crossed his face.
It was one of vague remembrance....one of surprise....
one of...
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desire?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
She reached out and touched his arm and nothing was the same...
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<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> The Union is peace.. The Union is forever... The Union is eternal..<!--EZCODE BOLD END--><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
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Flash...<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
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..unfamiliar voices.. ...unfamiliar images ... and yet.. Tyscio felt a kinship here..
"..the Union has stood for over 5,000 years, Sire!" a shout came forth.
"We are crumbling, Hespante! The spread of the Nephys cannot be halted."
"There are many who claim the Nephys as benign, my Lord."
"Indeed, and there are reports of those using the gifts of the Nephys against their own.. against US! ..a dark age is coming... I fear.."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
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<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> The Union is peace.. The Union survives.. The Union.. rebuilds..<!--EZCODE BOLD END--><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
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"How many still stand in the Union, Hespante?" came a tired voice.
"Four worlds, Sire."
"Four worlds..." the man whispers, almost mournfully. "From the galaxy to four worlds.."
"But the most powerful of worlds, my Lord! Coruscantes, Capricia, Elrodia, and Brayden!"
"How long, Hespante? How long till they fall to the darkness growing out of Ziostesia? How long till Coruscantes discovers other concerns than that of the Union?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
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<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> The Union is dying..... <!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
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"Coruscantes?" came a bitter voice.
"Fallen.... to.. the religionists."
"Elrodia?"
"Infected by Terreyis.."
"Brayden?"
"Destroyed.."
"That leaves Capricia.."
"You are Clannus Prime still, Sire."
"But for how long?" a heavy sigh. "No. The Dark Age has come... "<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
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Flash..<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
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Tyscio opened his eyes and all around him were fires...
"You think you know war, Caprician?" a voice came forth from the darkness. Tyscio recognized it as the 'Clannus Prime' of earlier.
"You think you know loss?"
And a figure walked amid the snow flurries and dead bodies making up the torn battlefield of Providence. The snow had turned gray... and Tyscio followed the man to a clearing, and there was Leia standing, her blade lit but noone to fight.
She had a look of intense horror but at his vantage point he could not see what she was staring down at.
"The bitter irony of it all, Caprician. A truth that cuts through all our self made codes of honor." The man turned his sad eyes to Tyscio, "That dispite our codes, our piety... with all the battles we fight, with all the wars we see, constantly surrounded by death..."
the man's voice grew earnest.. "No matter how pure the blade... Nothing, can cleanse the soul."
"Endor.." Tyscio whispered and braced himself, seeing the tears streaming off the Jedi Master's cheeks...
Leia screamed an inhuman scream...
"She hurts..."
"As will you, my Caprician friend. For what she sees is horror unmasked. What you will see is horror triumphant."
Tears streamed down the man's face to match those of Leia's...
"All is lost." he whispered and then laughed bitterly. "..and the sad thing, Caprician, is that you don't even know it. You don't know who you are.. You don't know <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> what<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> you are."
The man turned his back on Leia's figure. "Open your eyes Caprician." he ordered.
"Perhaps you can salvage your situation. You and your religionists."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
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<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Flash...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
And Tyscio was staring into the shocked eyes of Leia.
Clearly they both had some type of "vision" (if one could call such an event a vision).
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I'm.. sorry..<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, his mind whispered and a thud bug slammed into a nearby wall.
People grabbed for their weapons at the masses of invaders coming out of the first trench..
Mathias came running up as Tyscio helped Leia to her feet. The Militia soldier raised a discreet eyebrow but said nothing, "Damn bugs! That's what's throwing the damn plasma!"
"Look!" handing Leia and Korban magnification lenses.
Leia had already gotten off a couple of shots taking the charging creatures down. Mathias grinned in response.
Sure enough, not only could they see several lines of Chazrach soldiers but several hundred feet behind them large blob-like creatures simply waiting, their front ends held up, their mouthlike orifices aimed at the sky.
"What are they waiting for?" Tyscio asked.
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Snow turning gray?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> His eyes seeing only the dull white blanket reflecting Kendra's light.
And suddenly, the invading warriors stopped and there their numbers stood, facing the Capricians.
The chanting started once more, yet, this time, the sounds were different.
And as he asked the question, a strange wail carried along the wind and Tsycio adjusted his lenses to a movement much closer to the trench leading to the power center.
"What in Clan's good name is that?" Mathias mouthed and Tyscio had to agree with the sentiment.
A small figure of about four feet lumbered over a small mound. Even from the shadows, it looked vaguely humaniod but large spike-like protrusions stretched out from the creature's shoulder blades, forearms, back and head. The protrusions seemed thin and blew with the bitter wind and the creature wailed again.
"Damn thing is giving away it's position." Mathias grunted.
"Harris, you have a shot?" he asked through his suit's communication's system.
"Yes Sir! Damn this is small but not that small.."
"My Lady?" Mathias asked and Leia nodded.
"Fire, Harris."
And a shot rang out from the far right.
The figure in the shadows screamed on impact and went down.
"That was too..." Tyscio was starting to say when the creature raised it's head and screamed again, looking in the direction the shot was fired from.
"What the...?" Mathias started, startled by a slow rumbling sound and the snow carpet was flung aside by some invisible force striking the sniper Harris. The man didn't even have time to cry out, the invisible wall hit him so fast, killing him instantly.
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The force? The Yuuzhan Vong have the force?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> Tyscio's mind pounded incessantly.
But try as he might, he could feel no force presence in the creature.
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Have to do this the hard way...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
His fingers went to his side, pulling out his lightsaber.