Greasy smoke curled from the shattered blast door. It reeked of blood and flesh and human waste.

The smell of death.

Mace stood next to the door, waiting for the smoke to thin.

The command bunker was dark as a cave. The only light was the white shaft that spilled in through the opening that used to be the door. The interior materialized as though it slowly drew substance from the haze itself.

Bodies were everywhere.

Piled along the walls. Draped over the banks of monitor consoles. Facedown on the floor in black pools.

Some wore combat armor. Some wore militia khakis. Some wore no uniform at all.

Some were missing pieces.

Mace’s blade hissed in the smoke as he went inside.

As a weapon, a lightsaber was uniquely tidy. Even, in a sense, merciful. Its powerful cascade of energy instantly seared and cauterized any wound it inflicted. The wounds rarely bled at all. It was a clean weapon.

A vibroshield was not.

The floor in the command bunker was treacherously slippery.

Mace trod with care. Behind him, Nick slipped through the doorway and put his back to the wall.

All was silence and death. A whole different world from the madness outside. Inside was a darker madness.

So dark he might as well be blind.

“Depa,” he said softly. “Kar. Come out. I know you’re watching me.”

His answer was a low, silky predator’s growl that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

We don’t have to be enemies.

Mace brought up his blade. He moved cautiously around the ruins of the monitor bank closest to the doorway.

Aren’t we on the same side? We’ve won the planet for you, haven’t we?

Mace reached into the Force, feeling for the emptiness below that would contain the transceiver. With each step, he worked his feet down, seeking solid footing on the floor before taking the next.

Do you really want to fight us? We are kin, you and I. We are your own people.

“You were never my people.” Mace spoke without emotion. “A man like you will always be my enemy, no matter whose side you’re on. And I will always fight you.”


- Shatterpoint, Chapter 23