A few hours later, Jagged was strapped into his TIE Defender command couch and was headed out of the Lightning’s hangar. Once past the magcon field he punched his thrusters and accelerated to the Defender’s cruising speed.

Jagged called over the radio, “I am ready to head out.”

“Good luck Typhoon Leader,” Captain Lantill replied.

Jagged set his jump timer to pull him out after only a short moment and punched his hyperdrive. The stars barely had time to swirl around him before he was dropping back into real space. He could tell he had not gone far as the blue haze was still filling the gaps between the stars around him.

“Ok, jump successful. Activating the advanced navigation scan now,” he radioed back to the Lightning.

His computer display changed to indicate that it was scanning and locating all the bright stars around his fighter. It took a few moments but then the computer beeped that it was done and sending the data back to the Lightning.

“Scan complete and data on its way,” he called.

Lieutenant Commander Jast replied, “Hold one Typhoon, data coming through.”

After a moment or two Jast then said, “Transfer complete and data is processing.”

Jagged sat, looking out at the stars for several minutes when his tactical board let out a tone and he heard Lantill say, “Typhoon, we have jump coordinates for your first star system.”

Jagged brought his Defender around on his new exit vector and his craft leapt into hyperspace.

He dropped out of hyperspace to a new starfield and a planet, not too far off in the distance. Gone was the blue haze, now white clouds dominated the stars, framing the blue and green planet below. The world had a moon, just peeking out from behind it, and it somehow looked familiar to Jagged.

Keying his radio, “Jump successful. Scanning the area.”

Jagged waited for his fighter to finish its sensor sweep. A pair of ships, freighters by their size showed, transiting the planet’s orbit. “Showing some ships in the distance.”

He tried to hail them but got nothing back, even on the automated transponder channel. “They are not responding to hails.”

He turned his fighter towards the closest and began to close the distance to affect a better scan of the craft. “closing in for a closer inspection.”

“Be careful Typhoon,” Lantill called back.

It took a little time but as Jagged closed to visual range of the first freighter he was struck by how odd it looked. It was a metallic green color, and while its main body wasn't that abnormal, it did have a huge delta wing mounted on one side of the craft. Jagged couldn't make sense of what possible benefit it would give the craft. He raced past it after he made sure his craft's sensors had fully cataloged it, and made his way to the second freighter in the area.

This one was much more conventional, heck it even reminded him of the Corellian freighter series, but still not a craft model he had ever seen before. This craft was white and bronze, shaped like a half saucer with central fuselage and two smaller sections to each side, all culminating in a pair of round engines in the rear of the freighter. They must have been thrown out into the Unknown Regions for the Lightning’s nav computer not to recognize the stars and for him to have never seen these trading craft before.

Jagged reported, “Scan completed for both ships. They aren't familiar to me but they look old. At least in their styling and design, the ships themselves look new enough.”

Lantill replied, “Send back what you have found. Anything else?”

“Just that the planet below sure LOOKS like Eriadu, but it can't be as I am not detecting any pollution in the atmosphere. Jumping to the next system on the list.”

As Jagged brought his Defender around to the course to the next system on his list and punched his hyperdrive, he heard Lantill mutter, “You don't say…”

When the stars around him once again resolved back into pinpricks of light, his attention was immediately drawn to a battle raging in the near distance.

“Lightning I have come upon a running light fight between unknown ships,” he reported.

“Send us your sensor readings,” Lantill radioed back.

Jagged watched the fight between the two opposing factions and examined their ships. He saw the smallest of the capital ships have an explosion go off on its port side. It was of corvette class in size, with a narrow main fuselage and two elongated, ovoid engines, mounted one to each side of the fuselage on short wings. The first explosion was followed by another and then the whole ship broke apart.

The doomed craft's sister ship was much larger, light cruiser or frigate in length. It reminded Jagged of the Corellian Hammerhead corvette the Rebellion deployed, but this craft was larger and had a much more angular “head.” The body of the cruiser had three step-ups in size finishing with four engines at the rear, arranged into two, downward swept wings.

The largest ship in the engagement was highly reflective, glinting in the light of the system’s sun. It was shaped like a giant break from some avian predator. Its hull was split into two, an upper half that jutted out and curved down, while the lower portion was shorter and curved up into the other, creating the appearance of a giant mouth. The ship also sported a bridge tower, very similar to that of a Star Destroyer. This larger craft either had no shields, or they had already failed at this point as Jagged could see the hammerheaded cruiser’s weapons raising gouts of flame as they impacted against the beak shaped ship's hull.

The radio came alive once again. “I believe I know what happened. We are on our way to your location. Stay clear of that fight.”

Jagged continued to move his fighter slowly towards the fight, to get better sensor readings of the strange ships. The hammerheaded cruiser was launching a new wave of fighters to press their attack. These fighters had swept back wings and reminded Jagged of Republic A-Wings but didn't seem to be nearly as fast. Their opposite number were similar in coloration to Jagged’s own fighter, but impossibly fragile looking, having the appearance of an enlarged bat. Their protruding forward wings dwarfed the small cockpit and fuselage. They also didn't seem to be shielded as they were falling with only a shot or two from their larger enemy fighters.

A flash of light drew Jagged’s attention back to the capital ship battle just in time to see the hammerheaded cruiser finish off their beaked enemy. Soon after the spindly fighters were also destroyed. Jagged was turning away from the now victorious ships when his threat display lit up like a casino.

HEY! They just turned hostile to me! He thought to himself. Well, I know Lantill said to keep clear, but they are leaving me no choice!

Jagged powered up his weapon systems and got to work on the closest fighters targeting him. They fell quickly to his Defender’s quad laser cannons and twin ions. One after another burst into a ball of expanding fire before cooling into an expanding cloud of debris. Jagged didn't take pleasure in killing them, but they had targeted him first and Emperor’s Hammer rules of engagement stated that they were not to be given a second chance.

That's all their fighters. He thought as he turned to the already heavily damaged cruiser. It didn't take long for his weapons to find a critical area on the ship’s hull and it too was just a ball of metal fragments spreading out in all directions. That's it for them.

Just then the Lightning finally arrived. “Typhoon! What happened here?!”

“They attacked me, I had no choice.”

“Come aboard. We have a lot to talk about if my suspicions are correct. We will send out ships to investigate the wreckage to confirm what has happened here.”

—

Jagged entered the bridge of the Lightning and reported to Commander Lantil.

“Sir, I know you ordered that I stay out of the fight, but when they got done destroying their primary enemy, they turned and attacked me,” justified Jagged to the older man. “All I did was defend myself.”

“Be that as it may, we very well could wish that you had stayed with the Lightning today if what I fear is true,” responded Lantill.

“What is it that you fear?”

“Well, I believe that we have been sent into the distant past, and our actions here could cause irreparable harm to our timeline. Resulting in who knows what possible changes to the future we know, and the ones we love.”

“What?! How?”

“Let me first explain my reasoning for believing we are in the past,” began the Captain. “When you sent your scans of those merchant ships in the Eriadu System.”

“I mean, it looked like Eriadu but the scans showed that it couldn't be,” interjected Jagged.

“Please, may I continue to explain?” Lantill said with an annoyed expression.

“Sorry sir, please continue.”

“As I was saying, when you sent back the scan data on those merchant ships, I knew them at once.”

He entered a command on his console and a hologram of one of the ships Jagged had scanned appeared.

“You said you did not recognize the ship type, but I do,” he entered another command, and a new image appeared of the same ship, but this one was obviously from a craft specification datasheet. “It is called a Dynamic Class freighter. A bit of a forerunner of the Corellian YT-series.” Then he flashed another series of images, showing the second craft Jagged had scanned. “This one is a Coruscant Heavy Courier. Both ships are from the Old Republic Era. The two of them combined with the appearance of Eriadu, but without its modern pollution gave rise to the suspicion in me that we could be in the past, but then you continued your patrol and removed all doubt.”

“You mean you also recognize the ships that were fighting?”

“The ship that attacked you was an Old Republic Hammerhead Cruiser, supported by Aurek Fighters. The ships they destroyed before turning on you were a Sith Interdictor and its supporting Sith Fighters.” He again manipulated the hologram display, showing reference images of each of the craft as he spoke, and Jagged was left with a sinking feeling in his heart. Could it be true?

“Hopefully the destruction of that Old Republic patrol can just be chalked up to the Fog of War of the war that they are currently fighting, and its disappearance can go unmarked by history at large.”

But their hopes were dashed as soon as the crews investigating the wreckage returned to the ship. They had found the data logs of the Republic ship, and armed with the knowledge of their ancient origin the engineering crew was able to access the ship's log. What he read there made Captain Lantill lose all color in his face.

“It is even worse than I feared,” croaked Lantill. “That ship you destroyed was the Ursa, and she was on her way to make history. Our future may forever be lost to us now.”

“What was so special about that ship?” Jagged asked quickly.

“The Ursa played a pivotal role in the capture of Darth Revan. Without the Ursa, the Jedi strike force attempting to steal onto his ship will never make it through the Sith’s defensive lines. And without the capture of Revan, the entire Old Republic may be destroyed in his war of conquest.”

“With it gone, won't the Jedi just send another ship in its place?”

“Per the ship's logs they have already split off from the main assault force to be in position to come out of hyperspace in a flanking position on Revan’s fleet to provide cover for the strike team's transport. The Jedi will never know the Ursa is gone until it is too late.”

Jagged sat in stunned silence for a long time. It was Lieutenant Commander Jast who broke the quiet of the room.

“What if we provide the cover for the Jedi strike force?”

“What?” replied Jagged. “I would think that the Jedi might notice we aren't a Hammerhead Cruiser. And what happens after the battle when the Ursa doesn't rejoin them?”

“No…” said Commander Lantil, slowly, “the Ursa was lost with all hands in the operation. Their being missing from the post battle retreat wouldn't be an issue.”

“But still, we aren't a Hammerhead Cruiser, and our fighters are not Aurek Fighters,” responded Jagged.

“True,” granted Lantill, “and I shudder to think how the sight of our craft could alter the course of technology development, but the failure to capture Revan, and the likely death of Bastila Shan, would reverberate through history in cataclysmic ways.”

“So, we are going to do this?” questioned Jagged. “How, and do we even know where and when?”

“We know from the Ursa's logs what today is now, and that tells us we have two days to arrive in the Tammar system to rescue the Jedi strikeforce and help deliver Revan into their custody.”

“How would we get there?” Jagged persisted. “Our navigation system is down.”

“Now that we know the date, and approximately where we are in the galaxy, it shouldn't be a problem for the nav computer to make the adjustments to the star positions in our map,” answered Chief Engineer Jast. “Give my people an hour, sir.”

“Get them moving on this, as quick as they can,” ordered Lantill.

As Jast hurried from the room Lantill turned to Jagged and continued, “As to your other concerns about how we are to do it, I think in the heat of battle, a small craft flitting about, protecting their assault, while perhaps will not go unnoticed, but nor would they overly concern themselves with questioning it.”

“So, the Lightning would stay back and only the fighters would engage?” asked Jagged.

“Unfortunately, I think only your craft is suitable,” answered Lantill. “We cannot afford to leave any wreckage behind, and the Defender is shielded, while our two TIE Fighters are not. Additionally, all our pilots are inexperienced in battle and may fail in their mission. No, this is something you, and you alone, will need to do. Otherwise, all that we hold dear may be lost to us.”

“I won't fail.”

Two days had past since the incident with the Ursa and the Lightning had raced to the Tammar system as soon as Jast’s crew had gotten the navigation computer’s map updated. It was simpler than Jagged had expected it to be. The nav computer already stored the historical positions of nearly all the stars in the galaxy as, of course, the star positions would appear in different positions depending on your distance from them due to the lightspeed delay.

Jagged entered the improvised briefing room and Captain Lantill turned to him as Jagged took a seat.

“The Lightning will remain on the outskirts of the Tammar system as you jump into the on-going battle,” began Lantill. “Your primary objectives will be to protect the Jedi strike team’s shuttle until it can board Darth Revan’s flagship, the Reaper.”

Apparently Lantill had tasked some crew member to create a basic briefing holo as it now appeared over the central table. It showed the different Jedi and Sith ships above a featureless, white sphere, obviously a stand in for the world of Tammar. As the Captain spoke, different ships highlighted and flashed. Whoever had put together this visualization had done a first-rate job.

“Also, you will need to ensure the survival of the Jedi’s ship, the Strikefast,” Lantill was saying. “Likely, your best strategy for protecting the Jedi will be to disable the Reaper so that they can board without coming under its guns. All the while you must protect them from the Sith Fighters that will be in the area.”

Lantill got serious and looked Jagged straight in the eye, “Additionally, you CANNOT destroy Darth Malak’s ship, the Scourge.”

Lantill’s demeanor relaxed some, “I will be following the battle through your sensors and order a retreat when the situation has been restored. You must retreat from the area so that history can play out as it was meant to.”

Giving Jagged a smile he ended with, “Good luck.”

A very short time later, Jagged was once again in his Defender’s cockpit, exiting the Lightning’s hangar.

As Jagged flipped switches and brought up the course for the mission his radio came alive with Captain Lantill’s voice, “Ok Jagged, head to Tammar and ensure that the Jedi capture Revan.”

“Understood, help the Jedi…that sounds SO weird to say.”

“It can’t be helped if we want our future to be safe.”

With a shake of his head at the absurdity of the whole situation Jagged launched his fighter into hyperspace and after just a moment dropped back out into the middle of a raging battle.

“Alright, I am here.”

“Focus on clearing those fighters off the Jedi shuttle first,” directed Lantill.

Jagged keyed up his targeting computer and located the nearest sith fighter attacking the Jedi’s shuttle. The unshielded sith fighter shredded like tissue paper under his quad laser blast. Moving on to the next, one after another, he quickly dispatched the half dozen fighters that had been harassing the Jedi’s assault craft, the Eagle’s Talon. Jagged checked his sensors and reported back to the Lightning that, at least for the moment, the Jedi’s strike team was safe from the Sith’s defensive screen.

Lantill reminded Jagged over the radio, “Better help the Strikefast and disable the Reaper before it can attack the Jedi shuttle.”

I know, Jagged muttered to himself as he quickly deleted another three fighters, these ones had been targeting fhe Strikefast. With that done he wheeled about and began weaving through the Reaper's turbolaser fire closing into range so that he could begin to defang the large Sith vessel.

It took Jagged only a few minutes after he managed to destroy enough of the Reaper's point defense turrets to give himself a safe area to fire from to use his ion cannons to disable the huge Sith capital ship. He had been fortunate that the Sith flagship had next to no shield strength left after the Republic’s assault. That made Jagged’s work much quicker and easier than it should have been.

“Revan’s ship is now vulnerable, good work!” praised Lantill over the radio link.

Jagged once again focused on the wider battlefield and saw that while the Eagle’s Talon was almost to the hanger deck of the Reaper, it had picked up several new sith fighters which were making repeated strafing runs on the beleaguered shuttle.

Oh no you don't! Jagged roared as he shoved his throttle to its stop, rocketing his claw-like fighter at the fragile, bat-like sith craft. I have NOT come this far for you to kill these Jedi now!

Three of the shieldless fighters disintegrated at his rage before, at last, the Jedi’s shuttle slipped into the hangar of the Reaper and that task was finally completed.

Watching his tactical feed back on the Lightning, Lantill announced, “Bastila’s team is on Revan’s ship, the timeline is almost restored, just protect that Republic ship a little longer.”

Circling back to the Strikefast, Jagged found their shields had taken quite the pounding from the waves of sith fighters throwing themselves into the fray. Jagged once again became a hunter of the weak and unwary, killing numerous sith fighters, all of whom had been trying to destroy the Jedi’s mothership.

After several more minutes Lantill finally said, “That should be enough, come back before you do too much.”

Not wanting to damage the timeline again, Jagged quickly complied and brought his craft around to the correct exit vector and leapt into the safety of hyperspace.

When he reverted back into real space he found the Lightning sitting in the distance, dim out here away from any major stars.

“I am back, did it work?”

“I…believe so, come aboard and we will discuss what we must do next.”

—

Jagged entered the improvised conference room to find most of the command staff already present.

“So, did the rest of the battle turn out as the history books say that it did?” Jagged asked.

“Yes, the probe droids we placed in the system report that the Scourge fired on the Reaper, dealing a crippling blow prior to being driven off by the Steadfast,” answer Lantill.

“All of that for the Reaper to be hit by their own? What was the point of it all?” asked Jagged.

“Malak turned on his master like all Sith of this era when they think they can get away with it. The Jedi have captured an injured Revan and taken him back to Dantooine to be brainwashed into supporting their cause in this war. He will now go on to lead the Jedi’s efforts to destroy his former Sith Empire.”

“It feels so wrong that we of the EMPEROR’s Hammer have helped the JEDI,” said an exasperated Jagged. “Are you sure that this was what we had to do?”

“I am. All of this needed to happen. Revan had to be turned to the Jedi’s cause, he needs to destroy his Empire. And he needed to father a dynasty with Bastila that will lead the Old Republic, and the Jedi Order, for generations to come. All of this will lead the galaxy to be ready for Darth Bane in 3,000 years or so as our beloved Emperor is of Darth Bane’s order.”

“Okay, we have fixed the damage I did to the past by defending my self from some Jedi sympathizers. What do we do now?”

“I don’t know. We must remain away from anywhere that could impact our future,” answered Lantill. “And hope that the Challenge will be able to make it back to Aurora in time to save it in our original timeline. Suggestions on where we can settle down to live out the rest of our lives”

The room broke out into a fatalistic discussion of where the optimal place would be to die.

Two weeks later, as Jagged and Lantill were settling into yet another game of pazaak, Lieutenant Commander Jast rapped on the door to the Captain’s Cabin.

“Enter,” called Lantill as he examined his cards. “Ah Chief Engineer Jast, what may I do for you this evening?”

“Sir, I have been thinking,” replied Jast, timidly.

“On what subject have your ruminations fixed upon?”

“Sir, I don’t want to die here in the past, away from my family.”

“None of us do.”

“Sir, I was thinking if I am going to die, I rather it be trying to get back to them, rather than of old age.”

“Do you think that is possible? Us getting back to our families I mean.”

“It is a longshot, but if flying away from a newly formed supernova is what threw us into the past, maybe flying into, or at least just to the side of, a supernova could allow us to go back.”

Lantill ponder this for a time. “What makes you think another supernova would send us through time at all? Could it not have been a result of how the New Republic’s Sun Crusher technology affected that star that brought us here?”

“Yes, their tampering could have been the reason chronal radiation was released by the explosion. But maybe not. Maybe all supernova release chronal radiation at the moment of their creation. Maybe the only reason no one has ever reported on it is that no one has been close enough to detect it and live before.”

“Alright,” Jagged interjected, “say that you are right, how does that help us? We would still need to know EXACTLY where and when a star was going to explode to be able to even try this idea of yours. Unless you are suggesting we figure out how to destroy our own star.”

“No, nothing as crazy as that,” replied Jast.

“Then I doubt even Captain Lantill’s records are so complete to know when and where a supernova occurred, nearly 4,000 years in our past.”

“I am afraid I don’t know of any supernova from the past,” Lantill supplied.

“I might know of one,” Jast said hesitantly.

“How?” asked Lantill.

“I grew up on Lysatra, out in Wild Space. We are a small world but long in history and there is a legend we all grew up on that came to mind for me yesterday. In the night sky there is a large nebula that the elders always said came from this time. Came from the gods protecting us from a Sith invasion by destroying the star in the system they were staging in before expanding into our region of space. I never believed the story, thinking it was just normal Wild Space superstition. But it stuck with me as the story was weird in that it gave the exact day and place of the explosion, not something you would expect in a 4,000-year-old legend.”

“Not much to go on,” Jagged said. “A legend.”

“Agreed,” answered Jast, “but what do we have to lose?”

“What indeed Lieutenant Commander, what indeed,” said Lantill pondering what he had been told.

While the Lightning was a military ship, and not ordinarily a place of democratic decision making, Captain Lantill put forth Chief Engineer Jast’s idea to a vote by all the ship’s compliment, everyone agreed that it was better to die trying than to waste away in the past. So, six months later, in 3956 BBY, the Lightning was sitting in the system Jast’s legend said was to explode that day, hoping against hope that legends could be real.

“What do you think the chances are that the legend is correct that a Sith Fleet will be here when it blows?” Lantill asked Jagged as they stood on the bridge of the Lightning, looking out at the fated star in front of them.

“One would think it was merely something added to the legend of the supernova,” answered Jagged, confidently. “Something to make it memorable for later generations. I mean what are the chances they could even have known?”

“Sir, I have ships existing hyperspace!” called the sensor operator. “I read four Sith warships.”

“It would seem that the legend maybe all true after all,” Lantill said dryly to Jagged. “You must protect the Lightning until the time is right for our jump. Yours is the only hyperdrive equipped fighter available to us, and the time it would take to recover the other fighters would doom us all, so you will be alone in defending the Lightning. Listen closely to the radio and be prepared to fall back when I message so that you will be in position to jump when the time is right.”

Giving Jagged a wink Lantill ended with, “Good luck.”

Jagged hurried to his fighter and ran through the start-up sequence as fast as he could. No careful preflight checks today, he had to get out there, and quick.

“Hangar control, Typhoon 1-1 moving,” Jagged said. Not waiting for a response, he twisted his repulser lift controls and pushed the throttle forward, rocketing his Defender out of the hangar and curved his course around to start heading towards the Sith ships in the distance.

Lantill quickly relayed over the radio, “The Sith ships are launching fighters, keep them away from the Lightning until I message that it is time to go. Stay safe.”

“Will do my best,” Jagged said as he settled himself for combat. He knew that these sith fighters melted easily under his guns, but even so he was only one against many. One small mistake and he could be quickly overwhelmed. He hoped to the bottom of his being that the two Sith capital ships did not close to combat range too, otherwise it would be almost impossible for him to protect the Lightning.

Jagged reached the first wave of the spindly sith fighters and pounced. It took only a single quad blast from his guns to destroy each, but they seemed to be endless. He gradually worked the fight further away from the Lightning so as to prevent the never-ending waves of sith from slowing chipping away at their shields. While none of them individually could harm the Raider Corvette, if enough of them all concentrated their fire on the wedge shaped ship, Jagged wouldn't be able to kill them fast enough to save her. The other consideration Jagged had for his chosen battlefield was that he didn't want to get too close to the predatory sith capital ships, as one lucky turbolaser blast for them could spell the end of Jagged’s Defender.

For what felt like hours, but his cockpit chronometer said had only been a few minutes, Jagged whirled his fighter around in a fur ball of death, with dozens of sith fighters falling to his guns. The ancient sith fighters had not managed to land many laser blasts on the shields of his hyper advanced fighter, but running into their debris in his maneuvering had begun to tax his systems. Just a little more, hold it together…

Lantill called, “One minute until the star explodes, fall back to the Lightning.”

Wheeling his fighter towards the Lightning Jagged replied, “On my way.”

Now the fighting had drawn near to the Lightning and her shields lit up under the ruby blasts from the sith fighters. Jagged did his best to destroy any sith who got too bold in their attacks on the Lightning, and did his best to keep most of the bat-like fighters focused on him.

“Hyper buoy active, jump now!” Lantill shouted into the radio. Jagged turned to the pre-calculated exit vector and pulled back on his hyperdrive controls. Both he and the Lightning leapt into hyperspace as he watched the star in front of him explode into an all consuming supernova.

Once again, the normally safe blue serenity of hyperspace was disturbed by angry reds and his fighter was buffeted and thrown from his hyperspace tunnel. Looking around he saw the Sith were gone, and the stars around him had shifted drastically. Locating the Lightning off in the distance he made his way towards the ship while calling over the radio, “Did it work?”

“We don’t know, we took some damage in the jump,” came Lantill’s reply. “Come aboard and we will discuss.”

—

Jagged landed back on the Lightning, with a sense of deja vu. It wasn’t that many months ago that he had first landed aboard the Lightning after a jump out of a supernova. He devoutly hoped that this would be the last time he had to jump from a star exploding.

He hopped out of his Defender and walked the now familiar corridors to the Lightning’s Bridge where he found Captain Lantill reviewing the damage reports streaming in from across the ship.

“We definitely took a significant hit from the explosion this time,” Lantill said as a way of greeting. “Systems are down across the ship.”

“Is the hypercom responding? Did we get home?”

Lantill pressed a command on at his station and Chief Engineer Jast appeared on the console’s display.

“Lieutenant Commander Jast, report, if you please on our mission.”

“Sir, the sensors definitely recorded a similar chronal radiation surge as we traveled through hyperspace. I think it worked, or at least we are no longer in the same year as before.”

“And the hypercom? Are we able to reach Aurora?”

“Still nothing on the hypercom, but I have a crew investigating it now to make sure it wasn’t damaged by our latest jump.”

“So, either it is damaged, or we are again lost in time?”

“It would appear so, Captain…”

TO BE CONTINUED