Rescue

Darth Liden's Immortal Fleet was stopped in empty space preparing the next jump through hyperspace that would take them closer to their intended destination well outside the boundaries of the charted regions of the galaxy. At least, charted by the Republic. Liden herself stood at the bridge of her personal star destroyer. She felt tense, she was closer to her goal than she had ever been in her entire life. Soon they would wage war with the phantoms, a war that none but her and her fleet would know about.

And the galaxy would be none the wiser about the sacrifices she and her men and women would be making for them.

It mattered little, Liden would be happy to see the phantom threat come to an end at last. And hopefully after seeing what they were up against, Serenity would finally come around, but now Liden doubted that. The girl was stubborn. How Mar had managed to tolerate her insolence for so long was a mystery to her.

Liden could sense the tension in the men. The anticipation of the battle ahead. It was like the air was filled with arcs of electricity. Liden trusted Jin'Lor's work, however, and knew that her immortal army would get the job done.

Just before the fleet was about to jump into hyperspace, alarms went off on the bridge. Liden turned and looked to the navigational officer as she looked at the screen.

"My lady! A fleet has dropped out of hyperspace! It's the New Republic!" The nav officer announced.

Sure enough, X-wings were soon swarming the fleet while the larger vessels began to bombard the star destroyers. Liden hissed in annoyance, she had hoped the New Republic would've reacted a little later to her amassing this fleet. "Launch TIE fighters, keep those x-wings off our destroyers while they jump to hyperspace." Once it became clear that Liden's fleet was fleeing into unknown space it would only be a matter of time before the New Republic broke pursuit. Liden was confident of that.

---

The Cerulean Phoenix exited hyperspace and was plunged into the middle of a large space battle as TIE fighters and x-wings engaged in dogfights while star destroyers and Republic cruisers traded volleys of laser fire. Mira was at the controls, diving and weaving through the cacophony of lasers and ship metal as they carefully made their way to the heart of the Immortal Fleet.

"You certain it was a good idea to call in the New Republic?" Mira asked Mar.

Mar was dressed in a black cloak and sat patiently in the co-pilot's seat. "It's as good a diversion as any to sneak aboard Liden's ship and get Ryze and Serenity."

"That is if we don't get spotted and blasted out of the stars." Mira said.

"I have the utmost confidence in your piloting, Mira." Mar smirked.

"You are a sweet talker, aren't you?" Mira grinned back at him. She sent the Phoenix soaring under a Star Destroyer, moving close enough that their signature would be masked by the destroyer's hulking mask on any scopes. They would occasionally appear as a blip on the scopes of the other ships in the fleet once they were out of the destroyer's shadow, but would swiftly disappear again the moment they reached another, and due to the close formation of the destroyers and the fact that numerous other ships were swarming the fleet, they most likely wouldn't get noticed.

Mar reached out to the force, trying to find the destroyer that was Liden's. His mind was clear and calm, and he soon felt the dark presence on the destroyer at the heart of the fleet. "There..." He pointed to the star destroyer. "...Liden's on that ship, and I can sense Serenity and Ryze..."

"Let's go get our friends." Keran said, clambering off of the back of Mira's seat and heading for the bottom hatch.

Mira quickly brought the Phoenix in and locked onto the star destroyer, then set the cutting lasers to cut into the hull so they could board.

Once on board, Mar looked to Keran. "Take Ghost, Mira, and Thrass and go find Ryze. I'll go find Serenity."

"By yourself?" Mira protested. "No I'm coming with you."

Mar put his hand on Mira's shoulder. "I'll be fine. Now go."

Mira sighed and nodded. "Fine. But you better come back with Serenity... and you both better be in one piece."

The group ran off down one end of the corridor while Mar slowly made his way down the other...

After a few turns he drew closer to the prison deck and it was here he was met with the first group of storm troopers that weren't scrambling around as the battle outside continued.

"Halt! Identify yourself!" The trooper shouted.

Mar took this opportunity to remove the cloak he'd been wearing, revealing the fresh batch of jedi robes he'd collected on his way to Hoth. A mix of deep brown and dark blues fabrics that felt, surprisingly, right to wear given the situation. He produced his new lightsaber and ignited the solid green blade.

"Jedi! Blast him!" The trooper shouted. The other troopers began to fire their blasters but Mar easily deflected the bolts back at his attackers as he approached them. The ones that didn't get struck by their own blaster bolts he casually cut down before heading to the detention area.

He soon reached the cell bay Liden was holding Serenity, a single trooper was stationed outside the force field and when he saw Mar it was too late. He pushed the trooper into the bulkhead behind him with the force before slashing at the door controls to switch off the force field. Then he shut off the saber and entered the cell to find his padawan.

"Serenity? It's me. I'm here to get you out."

---

"My lady," Liden's security officer was listening to internal communications. "I've got not response to teams 3 and 9 in the detention block. And there's a disturbance in the labs as well..."

Liden could already sense it. "Leto... you've come..." She looked to her security offficer. "Dispatch the Undying Legion to deal with the intruders at the lab... I will handle the intruder in the detention block..."