Above Kashyyyk [Monday morning]

[momslilassassin]

Ben had spent the week it had taken them to arrive at Kashyyyk (when he wasn't trying to warn Jaina telepathically about what Jacen'd been planning for the academy) trying to talk Jacen out of attacking the Wookiee homeworld.

He wanted his cousin dead more than just about anything in his life, but he wasn't prepared to sacrifice the rest of his family to get it.

A squadron of new Owool Interceptors flew past the viewscreen on the bridge where Ben stood a half step behind Jacen and Commander Twizzl. "What a dismal showing," he commented. "If those Owools are all they have ready, there won't be a fight. Even the Wookiees aren't that crazy."

	"Wookiees are resolute, not crazy," Caedus corrected. "And they will fight, Ben. Never confuse hope with expectation."
	"I wasn't," Ben insisted with a frown. "But we need the Kashyyyk fleet, Jacen. If there's anyway to take it without a fight--"
	"There isn't," Caedus interrupted. "And I'd like for you to call me Colonel, not Jacen."
	Seriously? Ben allowed himself to look surprised. "Okay, Colonel."
	"Thank you," Caedus said sincerely. He didn't mind Ben calling him by his first name, but Jacen Solo was gone. "And I didn't say we wouldn't give the Wookiees a chance to avoid a fight, only that they wouldn't take it."
	"They certainly don't seem inclined to," Commander Twizzl commented. "Those Owools are threatening to open fire if we don't stop and explain ourselves."
	Caedus glanced down at the tactical display and smiled. With the entire Fifth Fleet spread out behind the Anakin Solo, the Owools were outgunned two-to-one by capital ships alone. "You do have to respect their courage," he said. "Very well, Commander. Tell them we'll respect their orders."
	"You intend to comply?" Twizzl replied, sounding shocked.
	"Of course," Caedus said smoothly. "Bring the Anakin Solo to a dead stop and have the fleet form around us."
	"Sir, Lieutenant Skywalker has a point," Twizzl said, frowning. "If we move now, we might capture their fleet intact. It's still trying to free itself from its tethers, and their orbital guard is no match for the Fifth Fleet."
	"Commander, I hope you're not advocating an unprovoked attack on a current member of the Galactic Alliance," Caedus said. "As far as we know, all the Wookiees have done is listen to the Jedi deserters. They haven't betrayed us yet."
	That seemed far too easy. "So you're not going to attack?" Ben wasn't sure if he should be relieved or not. "Why'd you pull the Fifth Fleet out of the Core?"
	"To give the Wookiees the opportunity to do the right thing." Caedus smiled at Twizzl. "You have your orders, Commander. Tell the Owools we've come for the prisoners, and we'll depart as soon as we have them."
	Ben's eyes narrowed. "This is only going to make things worse, Ja--Colonel. They're not going to turn Uncle Han and Aunt Leia over to you."
	Caedus's smile turned into a smirk. "Of course not. They're Wookiees. They're too stubborn. But when they refuse, we have justification to proceed."
	"After their fleet is deployed," Ben replied, his voice sounding strained. "We'll never capture it then. They'll fight until the last ship is slagged." Thousands would die. Tens of thousands. Force help him, he was really going to have to go through with his plan to kill Jacen.
	Caedus shrugged a shoulder, practically humming from the tension coming off of Ben. "We didn't come here to recover the Kashyyyk fleet," he said, waiting to see how Ben would react. If his cousin wasn't going to try to kill him soon, he was going to be terribly disappointed.
	Ben paused, mulling that over. "You're serious about taking the prisoners back?"
	"Of course not," Caedus replied. "We're here because this is what's going to keep the Confederation from capturing Kuat and moving on to Coruscant."
	Another pause as Ben tried to follow Jacen's insane troll logic. "...I don't get it."
	"Good," Caedus said, smirking and presenting his back to Ben. "Neither will the Confederation." He walked over to Twizzl, feeling betrayed by Ben when he got there without a lightsaber being pushed between his shoulder blades, and listened to the chatter coming through the comm. "Sir, they're saying they don't have any--" the comm officer began. "I've understood Shryiiwook since I was five," Caedus said, cutting her off and leaning towards the microphone. "We're here for Han and Leia Solo and the Jedi deserters," he said. "If you're having trouble with the deserters, we're prepared to assist. That's why we brought the fleet." He listened with barely concealed impatience as the Wookiee replied with a denial. "If you're saying the Solos are no longer your prisoners, then Kashyyyk has betrayed the Alliance or the Jedi are holding the planet hostage. Either way, we'll be forced to attack," Caedus replied.
	Twizzl stood by, his eyes full of disapproval as the Wookiee insisted that the Colonel had been misinformed: no Solos were being held on Kashyyyk, and they had no problems with any Jedi deserters. He began issuing orders to continue the advance almost before the Colonel had hung up on the Wookiee.
	"That won't be necessary, Commander," Caedus said, smiling to himself. "The planet is already within range of the Anakin Solo's long-range turbolasers, is it not?"
	Twizzl's eyebrows shot up. "Of course, but the Kashyyyk fleet is--"
	"Unimportant," Caedus declared, presenting his back to Ben again. If he wasn't going to make a move when he heard the next order, he would have to be eliminated as unworthy. "Have the long-range batteries open fire."
	"On the Owools?" Twizzl asked, confused.
	"On the planet." Caedus was careful to keep his hand from his lightsaber, practically begging Ben to attack. "Have them center their fire on the same target--I want to create a firestorm."
	Ben couldn't feel anything as he stared at the back of Jacen's head. He'd never been so glad in his life to be able to hide in the Force. "You want to burn the wroshyr trees?" he finally managed.
	"Precisely," Caedus replied. "The entire world-forest if we can manage it." He'd loved Chewbacca as a child, but the Wookiees had brought this on themselves.
	"But that won't accomplish anything!" Twizzl finally stammered out.
	Caedus stared at him. "Just this once I'll explain myself," he finally decided. "You know how evenly matched we were at the battle at Kuat. We're already too weak to defend all the worlds under our protection, and the Confederation knows it. So they're not going to withdraw. They're going to keep fighting and hope we withdraw--and leave them a path clear to Coruscant."
	"So we're in a stalemate," Ben said, stepping closer to Jacen and keeping his emotions completely hidden from him. "How's burning Kashyyyk going to change that?"
	Caedus was unable to hide his frustration. "Think, Ben! What do we both need to break the stalemate? What are we losing here, and the Confederation gaining?"
	Ben recoiled at the anger in Jacen's voice, but he thought through the problem quickly. "Allies," he replied. Mostly because “the last vestiges of sanity” was too obvious.
	"And if the Confederation wants to make an ally of the Wookiees, what do they need to do?" Caedus asked.
	"Come to Kashyyyk's defense," Twizzl answered, sounding horrified.
	"Which means they'd have to abandon their advance on Coruscant," Ben said, feeling his blood run cold. "Burning the forests is going to provoke more public outrage than just taking their fleet. If the Confederation doesn't come to their aid, they'll look like they're just in it for themselves."
	"But who will want to join us?" Twizzl asked. "We're going to look like monsters!"
	Caedus smiled coldly. "Exactly, Commander. Worlds will tremble at the thought of deserting us. If we're willing to burn the Kashyyyk forest as punishment, what might we do to them?"
	Ben bit his lip hard to stop himself from suggesting something in a Death Star. "This will make the Wookiees go nova," he commented instead as he started preparing himself for an action that was becoming inevitable. "Where do you want me?"
	"At my side will be fine," Caedus replied, trying to keep the sadness from his voice. If Ben wouldn't strike now, someday he would, and under less controlled circumstances. He'd have to be eliminated. "I'll need you close when the fighting starts to keep a watch for Jedi StealthXs."
	"Yeah," Ben said. "The plasma's really going to hit the shields when the Anakin Solo starts firing." He braced himself as four beams of light streaked from the ship's weapons towards the surface of the planet. A wave of shock and confusion radiated through the Force from the Owool squadron as they realized the shots weren't being directed at them. The confusion changed to disbelief as scarlet flames erupted on the planet's surface. When the Anakin Solo fired again, that disbelief turned to fury and a steely resolve.
	"Assessment is reading a forest fire a half kilometer square and growing," Twizzl reported, every inch of him blazing with how unhappy he was with this order. "I've instructed them to change targets every time they've reached a self-perpetuating threshold."
	"Maybe it would be smart to target a city or two," Ben suggested. Jacen had to believe he was invested in this insanity, he told himself. "That way we can keep their fire-suppression units busy trying to save populated areas." He was pretty sure that wasn’t the lesson he was supposed to have learned from Master Atreides’ class about fire.
	Twizzl gave him a look of loathing as Jacen beamed. "Excellent thought, Lieutenant! Pass that along to fire control." He glanced out the viewport. "And the Owools?"
	"I think they must've gotten caught in a turboblast," Twizzl replied. "There were there before the last strike and now they're just...gone."
	Ben shook his head. He could still feel their fury in the Force, coming closer to the ship. "They're riding the stripe," he said quietly. At Twizzl's confused look, he elaborated. "Old Jedi trick. They're using our turbolaser strikes for cover. The static keeps our sensor from detecting them, and our own fighters have to stay out of the firing lane."
	"But we're not facing Jedi," Caedus said, frowning into the distance, "unless..." He began concentrating on the individual pilots, searching for one he recognized, a presence he'd known since childhood. "Of course!" There was an explosion of rage in the Force as Lowbacca demanded to know how his friend had betrayed him so completely. Caedus almost became Jacen again, filled with sorrow for what he had to do to bring peace to the galaxy, reaching out to Lowie to get him to understand...which was when he felt the presence that was also with his old friend: a shadow bomb. He broke the meld and turned to warn Twizzl, but the words never came out.
	Ben had chosen that moment--when Jacen was distracted with Lowbacca--to act. His lightsaber snapped to life and buried itself through Twizzl's torso in his eagerness to kill his cousin. He gasped with shock and guilt--and disappointment--as it only grazed Jacen's ribs. He freed his blade, not thinking about who he had just cut through, and attacked again, stepping close to be sure of the kill.
	Jacen had a heartbeat to react before Lowbacca's shadow bomb exploded. The Anakin Solo bucked under his feet, Ben's lightsaber sweeping past his face as he slammed against the deck with everyone else. Maybe he'd been wrong about his cousin after all. With no time to reach his lightsaber, Caedus simply reached into the Force and hurled lighting from his fingers.
	Ben went shooting across the deck in a smoking, convulsing heap.
	Caedus snatched Ben's lightsaber up and sprang to his feet amid the wreckage of twisted metal and bodies that had been the Anakin Solo's bridge a few seconds before. He stalked towards his cousin. "Not bad," he said, raising his voice to be heard over the wailing sirens. "Artfully done, even. You sacrificed an entire planet for that shot."
	Ben was taking sharp gasps of air as he straightened out his smoking limbs. Eyes full of anger and hate, he looked up at Jacen. "Just finish it."
	"Finish it?" Caedus flipped off the lightsaber, tucked it into his belt, and used the Force to pull Ben to his feet. "Oh, Ben. We're just getting started."

[NFB, NFI, OOC is looooove. Dialogue snurched from Troy "If They Ain't Smoking, It Ain't Star Wars" Denning and his book Inferno. Warnings for violence and bad guy scenery-chewing.]