Chapter 73: Cue the Orchestra

Summary: When the Mandalorians have good ideas, why not steal one or two?

Warning! Chapters 71-74 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 73: Cue the Orchestra

- Tisht System -

The nature of the information they had on Tisht had led to Izuku and Celeste suggesting an approach that was far more battering ram than vibroblade. The Hutts might have managed to blockade the planet, but Beldorion was in firm control of the planet itself. The presence of the Force Amplifying crystals meant he could swat ships from the sky, and the planet possessed enough traditional defenses to magnify that danger several fold. The Hutts hadn't only relied on a blockade, after all. They'd also traded what amounted to bribes for his occasional expertise as a Force user. This planet was, in its own way, a Throneworld all of its own. Something that aided in containing Beldorion as it fed his ego. Though thankfully it was one that lacked a large enough population to demand a massive invasion force.

Beldorion's ability to use the Force against ships attempting to enter the atmosphere meant they were never going to be able to properly land. Izuku, however, had possessed a solution for that. He'd formed up a core of Volition-class ships around his own Knight Errant, leaving their support and screening ships behind as they drove for the planet. The ships jockeyed in a careful maneuver, presenting only two of their shield screens to the defenses at any one time, before falling back when the defensive fire from ground-to-orbit guns stripped those shields away. They were then replaced by the next pair, cycling ships whose shields had recovered forward. Then, in the critical moment as they reached orbit, the formation abruptly shifted to present the Knight Errant herself.

(You can literally cue up Star Wars: Duel of The Fates x Battle of The Heroes Theme | EPIC VERSION if you want for this)

The ships soaking fire as they approached the planet didn't slow as the Knight Errant took center stage, not even the flagship. That was never part of the plan. Instead the Knight Errant angled to protect its hangars until the last possible second…then fired a special series of Pods from all around the inner sweep of the flagships's wings. Never before used, these were one final surprises of Mei's, a system unique to the handful of modified Volitions that were serving as Fleet Flagships. They were also very much a melodramatic masterpiece in keeping with her and Izuku's original occupations.

Drop Pods.

They were not ships. These were brutal cylindrical near-missiles that actively propelled out of their recesses with great violence via inbuilt mag-rail launch systems, then kicked in active thrusters fit to be mistaken for the fist of an angry god as they accelerated face first into a pure, brute-force orbital insertion. It was a tactic Izuku and Mei had taken one look at from the Mandalorian Wars and immediately declared the most badass Heroic Dynamic Entry maneuver of all time…and suitably equipped a few special command ships with a system to support their version of it.

No one used anything like them these days, and the defenders choked for long seconds in disbelief, before the Dark Jedi bellow forcefully dominated their minds and they began to fire again. Yet, these were Mei designed Drop Pods. Worse, they were Mei designed Drop Pods specifically intended for use by Jedi. The very Fabric of the Force howled as the heavily shielded and phrik reinforced pods breached the atmosphere, each of the highly maneuverable pods piloted by a Jedi fully immersed in a Battle Meditation gestalt maintained by Izuku.

Fire lashed out from the planet, now interspersed with impossibly huge bursts of Dark Side lightning as Beldorion abruptly felt numerous Jedi reveal themselves from behind the tight Force Cloaks they'd maintained since entering the system. Under the command of the Fallen Jedi, boosted by a planet of crystals that amplified the use of the force, unnatural lightning and plasma fire alike swept across the sky like a horrifying curtain of death…and every pod danced with impossible precision as the Jedi inside rebuffed Beldorion's reality and replaced it with their own.

The Force was with them, and they were one with the Force. The Dark Side dominance of the planet screamed and writhed in torment as the network of artificial comets, filled with interlinked bonfires of Light, ripped and tore with white claws and fangs of ephemeral fire. The Force itself poured into the breach in the local veil, one far older and more concentrated than the thin oily film across the galaxy as a whole.

The Dark Side was not a natural part of the Force.

Only fools believed that.

It was a perversion, a wrongness, created by mortal minds that warped and twisted the life-giving, life-driven Force into a pattern of foulness and obsessive greed. It was not a natural part of the cycle. It was not death, as some mistakenly thought. Death, too, was part of the cycle of the Living Force, not the Dark Side. Only in unnatural quantities did death negatively impact the Force, and even then it was usually the suffering caused that did so. No, the Dark Side was created by the twisted, foolish attempts of mortals to flee from and command the cycle of life and death, to bend the Force to their own personal service. The Force did not approve, it was not amused, and right now it had the pleasure of expressing its own form of rage at those who thought to be its Master.

Not the twisted, corruptive rage of hate and dominance was this, but the burning, purging rage of a cleansing forest fire wiping away a choking, smothering deadwood of decay that didn't belong. Decayed, festering wounds on the world that had long lingered with no one to bring the cleansing flame burned as firmly expressed corrective action poured in from the Greater Ocean of the Force. The Force was not entirely without life or sentience of its own. Alien, vast, barely knowable by mortal men…but sentience all the same. Now, the Battle Meditation of the Jedi thrummed with something greater than themselves as the Light Side of the Force expressed its long-avoided displeasure.

Lightning wiped away one Drop Pod, two, three. The others stopped dodging and maneuvered in perfect synchronization, their thick, downward-facing shields overlapping and eating the merely mortal defensive fire like so much ablative coating. In the Force, the strength of the gestalt and outpouring of Force reached a crescendo as a shield of Light faded into the visible spectrum for all in the Fleet and the Pods alike that were watching in disbelief. There were no droids in these Pods. Only volunteer commandos that suddenly found themselves swept up in something out of an ancient legend.

No sensor showed the shield as it ate impossible lighting and only gained in strength for doing so. Yet every living being in the star system, Dark or Light, felt the Force. Many for the very first time. Some in a way that would leave lasting effects as they couldn't forget the life-altering sensation once they were immersed in it so deeply. Many would be the consequences of this day, of this moment. But that didn't matter now. Now was the time for an overdue reckoning for one that had thought himself beyond the Force's reach.

The Drop Pods fell below the anti-air envelop and descent thrusters SCREAMED, nearly ripping the incredibly tough Pods apart as the inertial compensation failed to completely erase the dozens of gravities that hammered every living thing except the Jedi back into their restraints. The Jedi, to a last one, didn't even twitch, not a single hair shifting out of place as nearly 10gs got through the best efforts of the Pods' compensation, hammering all aboard. The Pods scattered at the last second, splitting up to land in a dozen places throughout the small city, surrounding the Dark Palace from which the Hutt they were here for ruled.

For a brief, incredulous second, the universe was still as those Pods crashed into place, a last second deployment of bright pink foam absorbing the remaining kinetic shock. Then the explosive bolts on the Drop Pods blew, clearing the hatch forcefully. In near perfect synchronization the twenty Jedi, one Izuku, and one witch who had survived the descent cleared their Pods, lightsabers igniting in their signature hum. The Force had come to Tisht, and it wanted to have a few words with Beldorion the Hutt.

It wasn't planning to take 'no' for an answer…

... ...

A distant part of Shaak Ti was…having trouble coming up with words that described its own state of being. Numb awe, spiritual transcendence, impressed nonchalance? None of them did a good job of describing the part of her that was still detached from what was going on, let alone trying to describe the rest of what was happening as she whirled and spun with impossible grace, cutting her way through droid and sentient alike with impossible ease. Many of the creatures and even some of the droids reeked of the Dark Side, yet that very fact seemed to weaken them before her, even as the amplifying crystal all around them simply dissolved as the Greater Force touched it and found it wanting. A mistake being corrected.

Shaak's connection with the Force ran deeper than most. It always had. That fact perhaps even being an explanation for why she was surprisingly individualistic for a Togruta. She was, after all, never truly alone. The Force was always with her, always a comforting presence wrapping her in its embrace. Yet, the Force had never been with her like this before. All Jedi had some level of experience with Force Gestalts. It was, in fact, one of the primary abilities that set them apart from other Force sects. The Sith couldn't trust sufficiently to manage it. No Dark Sider could that she knew of. It was occasionally possible among primitive Force using groups, but there it was mostly a way to overcome their individual lack of power.

Yet the fact that this was one of the largest single Force gestalts she'd been involved with wasn't the difference here. This gestalt…she wasn't even sure it was a Force Gestalt any longer. Shortly after the battle had begun, starting from a point in the web that could only be Master Midoriya, the very Force itself seemed to have poured into the framework of their working like molten aurodium being poured into a mold made just for it. She was virtually certain that two of the Pods that had been wiped away had only fallen because the Jedi aboard had flinched away from the sensation, dropping them out of the Battle Meditation network that was guiding the gestalt.

The source may have started with Izuku Midoriya, but by now Shaak herself was feeling it pouring into her too. She was changed in some way that she didn't understand, but which sang in her blood. Her lightsaber's ever-faithful crystal had joined the hymn, a hymn of light, and now her blade glowed a golden hue. A hue that, along with an iridescent silver, was all she had seen from her fellow Knights and Masters as the battle brought them together and apart again with its ebb and flow. Yet, somehow, that distant and now slightly gibbering part of her mind insisted, that wasn't even the weirdest thing going on.

No, that was the fact that the lattice of their Force Gestalt had spread to her commandos.

They had brought no droids down with them, Master Midoriya claiming it just 'didn't feel right.' Something all of them had felt echoing in the Force as well, and thus hadn't said a word against. He'd brought only veteran, elite commandos. Each pod had contained two squads consisting of ten commandos each. Eight from each squad in the Power Suits that his forces used, two each in the Power Armor. Now, the normal blue and black of the League uniforms had somehow been replaced with gold and silver, and every single one of her own fourteen remaining commandos was somehow part of the same ephemeral more-than-a-gestalt that she was experiencing.

It was impossible, that distant and confused part of her mind noted. Doubly so since every single one of them read as being at least as strong in the Force as an average Initiate. A few of the stronger ones even felt like seasoned Padawans! There hadn't been a single Force Sensitive among them, so far as she'd known, and yet now they moved in perfect synchronization, working to what had become more of a Battle Hymn than Battle Meditation.

No wonder Beldorion the Hutt's forces were panicking as they were systematically cut to pieces, seemingly effortlessly, as the purging flames fought their way through his Dark Palace…

... ...

Despite whatever incredible change had come over them all through the Force, the battle was not all one-sided. As multiple teams broke through to the sanctum of Beldorion the Hutt's throne room, less than half of the Jedi and other Force Users that had started the assault were still present. Not all of the remainder were dead, thankfully. Some had simply taken critical injuries and been pulled out by their commandos, moving under the smooth orders of Izuku as this new level of…something…allowed his Battle Meditation to neglect even the most perfunctory need for words.

Shaak Ti had linked up with two of her original fellows. But she and they, along with Master Ven'nari, Ky Narec and his Padawan, were the only six of the sixteen 'Jedi Order Jedi' that had made it through this far. Not that Aayla and Izuku's allied groups had faired all that much better. Aayla, Izuku, and Celeste had all made it through. As had Allaya Djo, Calista Masana, and Firkraan. Meaning that of twenty-six initial Force Users, only twelve had made it to the Throne Room. Thankfully, only six of the remainer were dead. Four during the descent, two more during the assault on the palace.

The commandos had been harder hit, despite whatever was going on, but over half of them remained alive and actively fighting as well. Izuku had ordered all but the six remaining Power Armors in the best shape to stop short of the throne room. The six that had entered with them fanned out to two sides of the massive Hutt that stared at them all down with wrathful defiance.

Anyone who ever doubted the idea that the Hutts had once between a warrior species need only look at Beldorion to have those doubts washed away. Beldorion had muscles. Like went to the gym every day sort of muscles. His torso and arms, in particular, were a bit mindboggling on a Hutt. Each arm was easily as thick as Izuku's torso, and he had, like, a 20-pack of rippling abs. He also, of course, had burning red eyes and ash-pale skin shot through with creeping black veins.

Also, two dual bladed lightsabers glowing an ominous red.

Also, also, two fuck-off menacing creatures about a half the size of a bull Rancor, reeking of the Dark Side, that were standing to either side of him. The Rancor comparison came to mind easily, as they sort of resembled one, only with a larger and spikier headplate. Massive claws, tusks, and spines on their back completed the look of 'do not fuck with me, bitch' that they certainly had going for them.

"Those are Terentateks."

Information flooded across the gestalt from whoever had actually spoke. Master Ven'nari, Izuku thought. The information wasn't so much words as it was impressions. Dark Side beasts, Jedi Killers, venomous claws, supposed to be extinct. Beldorion let out a deep, vicious laugh at the words, breaking his glowering, hate-filled gaze.

"Recreated by my own hand, Jedi. For the day that you eventually came for me. Even a single Terentatek is worth an entire team of Jedi, and there are too few of you even to deal with me. Now, you have set back my work here much too far, so DIE."

Both of the beasts lunged forward as the final word echoed with the Dark Side, Beldorion himself pushing off an instant later with a burst of pure speed even Force-enhanced reflexes could barely handle. Somehow, he'd identified Izuku, Aayla and Celeste as his greatest threat, and his first blows were turned only with great efforts by Celeste and Aayla. Izuku didn't even try, trusting them to get the job done as he thrust his hand forward and a beam of Force Light struck the Fallen Jedi. He howled in pain and might have died right then and there…if the usage of Force Light hadn't caused both Terentatek to break off from the Jedi they'd crashed into. One of those Jedi was seriously injured, missing a limb and clearly poisoned, the Terentatek abruptly diverting from him only barely saving his life.

The beasts charging their formation gave Belerion a second to retreat, Izuku faltering in surprise as his attempts at both Force Light and Telekinesis just slipped off of them. Thankfully, Celeste seemed to have a better grasp on what these things were, and hadn't tried direct Force usage. Instead, she'd ripped a gaudy statue free from its pedestal and bludgeoned one of the two in the side with it, staggering it out of position before she darted in and attempted to find weak point with her saber.

Aayla fared worse, having been immediately forced to go mobile and dodge wildly with Ataru. Izuku himself might have been in trouble in that moment, if one of the Power Armored commandos hadn't bodily rammed into the beast, the weight and power of his own armor allowing him to pick it up and carry it to slam into a wall. Having quickly realized his own folly at trying to engage anti-Jedi monster with the Force, Izuku quickly repeated Celeste's trick, though on a broader scale. There were an overabundance of ceremonial weapons and gaudy artifacts displayed proudly around the gigantic throne room, and he reached out to pull dozens of them into a whirling cloud above him.

When the Terentatek hit by the commando roared and pushed back, unnatural strength throwing even the heavy armor off of it, Izuku hit it hard with viciously accelerated objects from the building cloud. At the same time, he sent two phrik-plated hex shields, all that remained of his usual six, spinning toward the fight between the Hutt and the other Jedi…which was not going well. The Battle Meditation had finally broken down under the weight of Beldorion's own dark power and the Terentatek's influence, though the overall gestalt at least partially remained. His shields deflected a pair of lightsaber thrusts against a wounded Ky Narec, but his split attention meant he couldn't retain control of them when the Hutt bellowed and ripped them away to throw them at Shaak Ti. Who, thankfully, danced away from the spinning shields with no hint of strain.

Without the extra boost from Battle Mediation, only Shaak Ti and Master Ven'nari seemed able to keep up with the Hutt, and it was all they could do to keep their fellows alive as the monster used every chance to threaten the others as a way to force the confrontation to an equal footing. Worst, without the Battle Meditation guiding them, the Power Armored troopers couldn't attempt to intervene. Thankfully, they'd realized that almost immediately. One had gone down to a brutal Force Crush attack from the Hutt, pilot alive but trapped. The other four, ignoring the equally damaged armor that was sparked from where a Terentatek had gored it, had fanned out to get a bead on the monster Celeste was fighting.

Celeste was…Celeste. Somehow, despite fighting a foe that was specifically engineered to kill Jedi, she was holding her own and even slowly winning. That 'slow' turned into 'fast' when the remaining power armors managed to catch the beast in a well-coordinated crossfire. It's hide might be resistant even to lightsabers, but the power armors had MUCH bigger and nastier guns than anything a normal trooper could carry. Fusion gatlings ripped gory chunks out of that Terentatek's flank, one of it's legs folding as it roared and spun away from Celeste.

That was its last mistake.

Despite its spiney back, Celeste took its moment of faltered concentration as an opening, managed to dart in to completely bury her blade to the hilt in its throat, before pulling back before it could backhand her. Incredibly, even that didn't actually kill it, but the wounded beast thrashed and staggered, clearly dying and easy prey for the Power Armor troops to finish it.

Aayla hadn't been idle either.

His love had moved in against the second Terentatek after her initial dodge, providing space for Izuku to work. Linked more deeply with Izuku than anyone else, she'd danced through deliberately opened gaps in his barrage, cutting an angle across the Terentatek as she closed the distance. It turned to try swiping at her with both claws, only to end up with those claws off target as the beast was knocked flying by a brutal slam from a now much-deformed statue of some sort. In this one area of Force skill, mass telekinetic control, Izuku could have perhaps only been outdone by Master Fay. His debris field now had hundreds of items in it and he quickly had the beast well and truly pinned as he hyper-accelerated dozens of pieces at a time into its body.

Yet such was their link, that Aayla could dance between those blows. The half-mad, half-cowering beast simply couldn't intercept her as she rolled around in, hamstringing one leg after the other. As it faltered, falling to the floor with an agonized howl, she found a weak point in something roughly equivalent to an ear and thrust her Heart of the Guardian Blade in deep. Even as it seared at the beast's brain, it didn't properly die…until Izuku fed her power and Aayla channeled a MASSIVE burst of Force Light through her blade and directly into its brain. It spasmed…and fell limp.

With both Terentateks down, the trio turned their attention to the fight with the Fallen Jedi to see it going…poorly. Three Jedi were down, one dead entirely, and only a last second pull by Izuku saved Allya Djo from being bisected. A moment later, however, the battle shifted slightly as Asajj Ventress dropped from the ceiling, blade down. Somehow, she'd cloaked herself well enough that Beldorion missed her until the last possible moment. He twitched, preventing the blade from going straight through his skull…but lost an arm to that blade a second later.

The Hutt HOWLED in rage and the battle shifted again. That howl had been laced with the Dark Side, the Force Scream within it sending shockwaves of power out that threw all the Jedi aside and finally broke the gestalt that had still been holding on. In the moments of disorientation that caused, two more Jedi died. It would have been more, save one person had been unaffected. Celeste Morne knew full well what Force Scream was and had faced it before. She'd battered the shockwaves aside with her own grim Force Presence and was on Beldorion before he could kill his third target.

Missing an arm, abruptly faced with possibly the single most deadly Jedi currently alive, Beldorion finally faltered. Yet, he wasn't quite without last resorts, and even as he retreated, streams of dark power reached for his throne.

A throne made entirely of the Force Amplifying Crystal.

A massive explosion of power began to spike upward.…only to be cut off as an already-injured Ky Narec appeared right next to the Throne and thrust straight down into the Throne with a scream of defiance. His blade tore the very air, glowing golden light piercing the miasma of Dark Side power that had been building as it plunged downward. Instinctively, Izuku pulled Aayla and two of the Power Armored commandos to him and threw up the most powerful shield he could muster. He felt the gestalt reconnect, this time guided by Master Ven'nari as she, Celeste, and Shaak Ti did the same.

Then everything went white…

... ...

Izuku was still nursing a bit of a post-concussion headache and quite a few lingering strains and bruises as he eased down into his favorite chair three days after the battle. Said chair had started life as some sort of ergonomic smart chair…before Mei had gotten to it and shoved so many features and additions into it that Izuku wasn't positive he'd discovered them all yet. Really, the fact that she'd somehow forged custom nanites that read a medical panel fed by sensors in the chair was ridiculous. That it then adjusted to exactly what would make you most comfortable at the moment, though? That was a relief that Izuku was after today. It was what he was after most days, honestly, since it was unbeatably comfortable. Normally, he only allowed himself to use it after finishing his work, since it encouraged one to just zone out and relax. But he was still battered enough from the final explosion of Force Power down on the planet that he allowed himself to sink into it now, despite having a fair bit of information to sort through.

He hadn't been the last to awaken, but he'd been pretty close to the last. He'd expended a lot of power, both throughout the battle and in that last desperate moment. The metaphysical strain had combined with the physical battering he'd taken when he instinctively diverted his shielding, trying to cover as many people as possible. It had worked, his instinct to protect others managing to save a third commando and Asajj Ventress both, the latter of whom had been thrown to their side of the throne room by Beldorion's Force Scream.

The Padawan was one of the three still taking a bacta dip. The other two being Knights that had both been poisoned by the Terentateks early in the battle. That particular venom was proving very hard to deal with, and the best they'd managed so far was to stabilize the pair. Master Eerin was in route from where she'd been overseeing the integration of Jedi Healers into the Medical Corps. Hopefully, she would be able to break the stalemate there and recover the two Jedi so afflicted.

"So, what's the tally in the end? I know the status of the Jedi and the commandos that were in the Throne Room, but not the rest."

Izuku tried to keep his voice level at that, even if he wanted to scream. Ky Narec hadn't lived through his heroic sacrifice. One of Shaak Ti's Jedi had died outright, and the other was currently poisoned and floating in a bacta tank. Alongside him was Calista Masana, who'd been poisoned by the Terentatek as well. The final fighter that had 'fallen' in that battle was thankfully Firkraan. The Iron Knight's droid shell had been utterly ruined, but the shard inside had been undamaged and recovered. A new body was being built for him already. Meaning, assuming that the two poisoned Jedi lived, they'd technically made it out of that fight with only two dead from the Force users, and two Power Armored pilots that hadn't made it. Given the others in critical condition or having lost limbs as well, 'only' didn't exactly feel great, in this case. Something Aayla clearly felt as well as she sighed and closed her eyes, speaking with forced calm.

"Not as bad as it could have been, given just what monstrous odds we were facing. All eight of the Force users wounded in the ground assault and pulled out before the final fight will recover, though half of them will need prosthetics. Happily, we also discovered one of those we thought lost in the descent was another of the Iron Knights. His phrik-shielded inner protective layer around the shard, along with the kinetic absorption gel that Mei designed for them, was enough that Usai actually survived. Meaning we only lost three, not four, in the descent. That means we got off light here, overall, with only five deaths among the Force user contingent. Assuming Masana and Knight Coswell live, of course."

That wasn't bad, really, even if it still wasn't pleasant. Yet, Izuku knew there was worse coming.

"The commandos…didn't fare as well. Fifty-three percent fatalities, and another eleven percent injured badly. Though, Izuku, there's some kriffing odd stuff going on with the ones that survived the Ground Assault. A fair few people in the fleet, too. Though not as many. Well, not as a percentage, at least."

Izuku blinked. There was sorrow in his link with his love for those fallen, certainly. But there was even more confusion than there was sorrow.

"Odd…how?"

Aayla hesitated, seeming to flounder for a few moments, before charging ahead.

"Every single one of the Assault Team is now Force Sensitive. We've been trying to evaluate them, and maybe a third are legitimately strong enough to be trained as Jedi. Then there are another thirty-seven from the fleet that, for lack of a better way of saying it, 'woke up' to that same level of strength. Apparently, whatever it was that happened during our descent and battle on the ground, there were…unexpected repercussions."

Izuku stared, mind whirling.

"Are you telling me we now have a hundred potentially Jedi-strength Force Sensitives in the fleet with no training?"

Aayla nodded, their bond showing she was confused and uncertain.

"One hundred and three, actually. Plus another three hundred and seventy six reporting more minor but demonstrable access to the Force. Not a single one of them, the potential Jedi or the others, have a midi-chlorian count over 4,000."

Izuku stared, then snorted.

"Well, I suppose when this makes its way back to the Jedi Order eventually, it's going to put permeant death to the idea that you can measure someone's Force Potential via that particular test, now isn't it?"

Aayla's mouth twitched, unwillingly, into a wry grin.

"Some will keep arguing for it anyway, but I'd say they are idiots at this point, yes. I mean, at least some of the Order already understood that trying to pretend the Force was that scientific and easily measurable was stupid. As far as anyone knows, midi-chlorian numbers only determined how easy it is to initially 'hear' the Force. They don't do a karking thing to determine actual power with it, once you manage to forge a reliable connection. It's going to break the minds of all too many Jedi who try to treat the Force as logical and perfectly orderly, though."

Izuku was amused by the smug glee at the thoughts of their reaction that he could feel coming from Aayla. Still, as much as it might be a bit of a wakeup call that the Jedi needed, that didn't solve the immediate problem. Namely, what the heck they were going to do with nearly five hundred completely untrained adult Force Sensitives. Mulling the issue over, Izuku sighed and made the only half-way decent decision he could. Even if it was likely to speed up the escalation of certain issues.

"Aayla, get me a high priority conference call with Master Altis, Master Aqinos, and Master Thorla. We need to figure out a way to get our new Force Sensitives at least some basic instruction, enough to keep the newbies from turning into ticking timebombs, and those three are our best bets. Check among the Jedi and others still present, as well. See how many, if any, are willing to at least lead some basic initiate-level classes in meditation for the new Force users, too."

Aayla nodded to the first, then shook her head to the second.

"I'll get the link to the three Masters set up as soon as I can. You're right that those three are who we should talk to. As for the latter, though, it's already underway. None of the Jedi here are stupid enough to think it a good idea to leave so many Force Sensitives to flail about blindly. Fifteen of the Jedi still in system are running classes of fifteen to twenty students, three times a day. It's just basic meditation and instruction on how to center oneself in the Force. Everyone is taking to it surprisingly well, though. I'd guess it has to do with the…overwhelmingly positive…introduction they had. That and the fact we screen for problematic personalities in our military anyway."

That was, thankfully, true. Izuku was abruptly very relieved that he'd pushed hard for psych evaluations to be part of their candidate screening. Given their need for warm bodies, he'd gotten a lot of push back against the idea. He'd fought back by pointing out how painfully easy it would be for a single unstable solider to start a massacre with the sort of campaign they were waging. The most stringent evaluations were for officers, but even the grunts were checked to make sure they weren't psycho or sociopaths. Still, there was a painful room for error between 'not a psycho' and 'mentally healthy enough to handle being able to choke a bitch with your mind.'

Groaning, Izuku really hoped that Master Thorla in particular, could help. The Twi'lek male was the only Master from Almas Academy that had been away from said academy when it vanished, and had previously been running interference for the remaining Almas Jedi with the High Council. Since the Hutt Crusade started, he'd come to Hutt Space, though he hadn't tried to take over running the handful of Almas Jedi from Knight Agai'I. Since Almas has focused on training adults, and had run class sizes significantly higher than the one-to-one Master-Padawan pairing preferred by the main Jedi Order, Izuku hoped the man would have some ideas how to handle this.

"Oh, by the way…Asora and Lieutenant Trotter are both among those who 'awoke' and have been taking the lessons! So you have that to look forward to~!"

Izuku's mind blanked, jaw working despite words failing him as he desperately tried to figure out if that was a good thing or not…

... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: This chapter was actually the first one of this batch that I wrote. I was trying to get into 'Star Wars' mood, and listened to a bunch of Epic Star Wars Music...which resulted in the Orbital Drop scene. Which I can only hope I did half decent justice too! Honestly, Jedi ought to be just about the perfect troops for that sort of thing. Able to use the Force to maneuver through defensive fire and disproportionately dangerous in small numbers once they land. Also, considering Miruko was this Izuku's mentor, I figured it was Exactly the sort of Dynamic Brute Force Entry tactic that would deeply appeal to him.

A/N 2: Just a reminder, I lean heavily toward the EU version of the Force. Which explicitly says 'No, the Dark Side is not natural.' Really, the only implication that it could be even in canon is the Ones. And...well...the Son was an unstable, murderous, psycho. So I kinda can't agree there either. The various fan interpretations that 'the Dark Side isn't so bad because XYZ' are just that, fan interpretations.

A/N 3: Building on that...midi-chlorins don't mean shit. Even in canon, literally all a high count gets you is an easier connection to the Force. Anakin was skilled because he was given a cheat code to make everything come easy, since it was harder for him to NOT hear the Force where most people struggled with that part. It didn't actually do a single thing for his power level, though. That's a common misunderstanding. Anakin wasn't any more powerful than any other Jedi. He just had an easier time growing into that power. We got this lesson as early as Empire, when Yoda verbally smacks Luke for failing because he didn't believe. Once you have a reliable connection to the Force, the scale of what you can do WITH it is pretty much entirely hooked to your own mental blocks. Meaning, if someone gets a jumpstart to forging that connection...

A/N 4: ...you end up with someone who can access the Force without a high midi-chlorin count. This is Repeatedly presented as fact in the EU. There are at LEAST two separate factions of Force Users (The Matukai and the Aing-Tii) that could teach you to access the force without being innately Force Sensitive. High midi-chlorins are basically just a short cut to something anyone can do with enough effort and belief. Well, unless you're a Force-blank species or something.

A/N 5: Note! This does NOT mean that the League suddenly has a massive infusion of Jedi troopers or some such nonsense. Those that 'awoke' are all adults, with professions and jobs. Most of them will walk away with nothing more than one or two neat tricks useful to make them better mechanics, pilots, strategists, or so on. SOME of them will be interested in more and will become a pool for new Force Using talent to be trained from. This honestly will have greater effects on the Clone Wars, rather than making an immediate power shift for the Hutt Crusades. It's setup for events later, rather than a dynamic shift in how the pieces on the board are moving currently.