Elsewhere on Cinnagar, Odan-Urr is visited by Master Ooroo. The Chagrian Jedi Master is now having the same dark nightmares as his pupil, and he tells Odan that his warning to the Republic were heard and heeded by the Jedi Order. They stand ready to defend the Republic, as does Empress Teta and her repaired (and augmented) warfleet.

On Khar Delba, Naga Sadow gleefully oversees the building of his warfleet and the repair of his fortress. Gav is reluctant to help him strike against the Republic...though he certainly remembers how harsh the Republic was to him. "I suppose I could do it...for Jori..." The preparations are interrupted by the sudden arrival of Ludo Kressh's warship. Over holo, Kressh warns the other Sith Lords that Sadow "has deceived us all with his murderous lust for power!" Sadow orders Gav to press a certain button to block his transmission. He does -- and a volley of fire from the fortress vaporizes the warship. 

Jori, meanwhile, is railroaded through a quick trial. Her desperate warnings about the Sith Empire and imminent invasion are mocked, her pleas to speak to Empress Teta ignored. Even Aarrba considers her a liar and a thief. Adding insult to injury, Ssk Kahorr shows up to repo the Starbreaker for himself. With the case an open-and-shut one, Jori is convicted and sentenced to slave labor on the budding colony world of Ronika. 

She toils to dig out ore for her slavemasters, but her mind is only on escape. Spotting a landing ore ship, she risks all and races into the automated vessel, taking off under heavy fire. She flies towards Cinnagar as the ore ship disintegrates around her, finally leaping out in the lower atmosphere and riding an escape repulsor chute down to the Empress's palace. She rushes into the throne room and blurts out her warning before an armed and alarmed Teta. She proves her words with a Sith amulet Gav gave her. Teta listens and orders her fleet to full alert, as Odan-Urr and Memit Nadill do for the Jedi Knights.

The Sith masses a huge armada of warships from every world of the Empire. Naga gloats at the coming battle; Gav only wants to make sure Jori is safe. He also questions the wisdom of using every ship -- leaving the Empire practically undefended in the meantime. The overconfident Sadow pooh-poohs Gav's worries and appoints him as commander of the warfleet. The fleet gathers around an eye-shaped meditation sphere in space -- Sadow's flagship. 

Finally all is ready, and the fleet launches into hyperspace...

And when they emerge in Republic space, they find the Starbreaker 12 all alone with a shocked Ssk Kahorr aboard. Ignoring Gav's screams to stop, Sadow orders the fleet to fire. The Starbreaker 12 (and Kahorr) are vaporized. 

Memit Nadill arrives on Coruscant just barely ahead of the Sith warfleet. All eyes on Coruscant turn up to see tens of thousands of Sith warships spitting dropships down upon them. The dropships are full of Massassi warriors and giant war beasts that stomp upon civilians. The Jedi base their efforts at the foot of the Senate hall, holding back the Sith hordes. On Koros Major, Empress Teta launches everything she has and offers blanket pardons to all imprisoned rebels in return for their aid against the Sith. The exiled slaves are freed and returned to Kirrek post haste. Jori offers her service to Teta; Odan-Urr gives her a lightsaber. She heads for Aarrba's dock hoping to find a starfighter; Gav leaves the fleet and heads down there hoping to find her. He gets to the dock first, only to be spit upon by the Hutt. In blind rage, Gav's troops move in (ignoring their commander) and slice the Hutt to hamburger, only to be killed by Aarrba's droids. 

As the Sith army lands on Kirrek, Gav panics and runs from his sister, leaving his other Sith amulet on the ground. Jori frantically pursues him, chasing him in a Tetan starfighter, but can only watch as Gav reaches a Sith battleship in his shuttle and flees into hyperspace.

He arrives at Primus Goluud, where Naga Sadow's meditation sphere hovers in orbit. Silently begging Jori for forgiveness, Gav opens fire on the meditation sphere. As Sadow's concentration is broken, most of his armada on Coruscant and the Tetan worlds fades....fades into nothingness. They were only illusions, products of Sadow's mind. Emboldened by this revelation, the Jedi wage a fierce counterattack along with the Republic military. The tide of battle turns, and the now-greatly diminished Sith army retreats back into the skies. Sadow contacts Gav, begging him to reconsider. "Please come over here, so we can discuss this...or we will battle it out, man to man, if that's how it must be." Gav agrees and flies over in his shuttle. He finds the sphere empty, abandoned -- another of Sadow's tricks!

Back on Kirrek, the fighting remains fierce. The Massassi, even without illusions, are giving the Tetans the fight of their lives. Even Odan-Urr's battle meditation isn't enough to halt the savages' single-minded advance. Master Orroo orders the soldiers to fall back, and then he alone advances on the oncoming Sith army. With the swipe of a tentacle, he smashes his glass enclosure, releasing lethal cyanogen gas onto the enemy. The Sith army is halted -- just long enough for the reinforcements from Ronika to arrive. The Tetans win the day, as Master Orroo fades into nothingness before the weeping Odan-Urr.

Jori flies into view of the meditation sphere (she recognized the vector her brother shot away on), backed up by several of Teta's warships. Gav tells the warfleet that the Sith Empire is wide open, undefended. "You can ensure that the Sith Empire will never again pose a threat!" A moment later, the remants of Sadow's fleet arrives over the red giant. They stay only just long enough to pick up Sadow, who triggers a shocking trap -- 

The two fleets shoot away in different directions; the meditation sphere -- with Gav trapped inside -- is incinerated.

The few remnants of the Sith fleet return to their Empire, to find another warfleet waiting for them -- 

The two fleets battle each other, and Sadow sends one of his mortally wounded warships straight into Ludo's flagship. "I don't think you're faking this time, Ludo." Just then another fleet arrives -- the Tetans, led by a vengeful Empress Teta and Jori, hellbent on finishing the Sith Empire for good.

Battered and diminished as they are, the Sith fleet haven't a prayer. Jori herself leads the charge in a starfighter, vowing justice for Gav. Realizing all is lost, Sadow decides to retreat like a coward. He orders the Massassi on all remaining ships to slay their commanding Sith Lords, then sets up a barricade while his own ship flees. The Tetan fleet pursues, smashing through the barricade. The chase leads to the Denarii nova, where Sadow again unleashes the Dark Side to ignite flares between the two stars...wiping out the pursuing starfighters. Thinking Sadow destroyed, Teta and Jori recall what's left of the fleet and retreats.

Celebrations are held on Coruscant and the Tetan worlds, even as rebuilding work commences. Nadill returns to Teta's side, as Odan-Urr boards the smashed Sith ships in Cinnagar orbit to learn about the vanquished enemy. On one of them, he makes a rare find: a pyramid-shaped Sith holocron. Remembering Orroo's dying words ("You will grow old and one day die among your precious books and scrolls...one of the most ancient Jedi ever..."), Odan decides he will establish a great learning center for all Jedi on the quiet world where Master Orroo trained him: Ossus.

Halfway across the galaxy, Naga Sadow's crippled ship limps into the isolated, uninhabited Yavin star system. Cursing how badly his life has turned out, Sadow lands on the steamy jungle-filled fourth moon of Yavin, where he and his Massassi crew begin to dismantle their ship and use it to build a huge temple. One day, he vows, the Sith Empire will return and crush the Republic and Jedi both -- 

And Jori Daragon has the happiest ending of all. Cleared of all charges, she takes over Aarrba's repair dock with Empress Teta's blessing, and now has a secure fortune and bright future....

BACK TO SECTION 1.1...