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Observations:

- Both Darth Krayt and Luke Skywalker put up a great fight against Abeloth. In-fact, the Sith power Force Drain had been a game-changer. Both ended up wounded in similar ways but both managed to recover.

- Krayt really impressed me. He seems to have raw power on par with that of Luke. And his powers are really effective.

However, it took lot more then these two to defeat Abeloth, Vestara and Ben also played a significant role.

Agreed. And Vestara was amped by the Font of Power's residual energy, and Ben was amped by Oneness.

Luke did have a lot of help defeating Abeloth

I agree with you on that 100% (except on Krayt being Luke's equal)

you aren't even supposed to exist here

Krayt may have been receiving an amp during this battle, as his later performances in Legacy suggest he's nowhere near Luke...or Sidious, or other top tier characters.

Whatever was going on for him was, in perspective, some sort of one time thing, much like Mace vs. Sidious.

Originally posted by Angelalex242
Krayt may have been receiving an amp during this battle, as his later performances in Legacy suggest he's nowhere near Luke...or Sidious, or other top tier characters.

Whatever was going on for him was, in perspective, some sort of one time thing, much like Mace vs. Sidious.
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/004/815/lol-guy.jpg

Originally posted by Angelalex242
Krayt may have been receiving an amp during this battle, as his later performances in Legacy suggest he's nowhere near Luke...or Sidious.

If this thread is meant to "defame" Luke like the thread with Caedus, I don't really see how it does that. Yes Abeloth is substantially above Luke. Everyone already accepted Abeloth's vast superiority to him. This thread doesn't really change my view of Luke at all.

Hey, I stand by it.

Krayt cannot 1 v 1 Caedus, or Plageuis, or Yoda. Probably can't 1 v 1 peak Revan either or Vitiate if he's got his act together at the time.

Most characters would lose to them .

Bane however would die to everyone you mentioned in your above post.

Yep, Abeloth is 12 times as powerful as Luke, I don't see how needing help to kill her indicates weakness/incompetence/overblowing Luke's power.

Also, what Angelalex and cart said.

Originally posted by Angelalex242
Hey, I stand by it.

Krayt cannot 1 v 1 Caedus, or Plageuis, or Yoda. Probably can't 1 v 1 peak Revan either or Vitiate if he's got his act together at the time.

He really can. In his speed, dueling ability and power he has it in him to compete with those guys, even if he'd lose to some of them.

Krayt is up with Caedus and Revan, and above Plagueis.

His big weakness is a lack of significant TK showings, but his other abilities are stellar.

What? His TK domination of Nihl made an entire planet cry in sorrow.
He also TKed Cade a couple times IIRC, who is in the Top 10 of Jedi easily.

Easily in the top 10? Nah, potentially in the top 10 is probably more accurate.

Originally posted by DarthAnt66
Krayt is up with Caedus and Revan, and above Plagueis. wut

Originally posted by NewGuy01
Easily in the top 10? Nah, potentially in the top 10 is probably more accurate.
Nitpicking isn't necessary.

Originally posted by Nephthys
His big weakness is a lack of significant TK showings, but his other abilities are stellar.

He has better telekinetic showings than Darth Bane

http://mleeg-art.deviantart.com/art/Bane-Breaks-Batman-comparison-321082281

Well, Bane does have that feat. It's something, right?

Lord Nyax

NOTE: This confrontation took place on Coruscant and Lord Nyax contended with a Strike Team of Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker and Tahiri Veilla.

Era: NJO

Event timeline: After Yuuzhan Vong invasion and arrival in Coruscant

--

Luke and Mara approached Lord Nyax and his Yuuzhan Vong attackers.

They kept their guards up, their senses-both physical and Force-alert.

Luke searched the face in front of him. He looked for some trace of humanity. He saw only smiling mockery, and he could feel the thing through the Force, its appreciation at having slaughtered warriors, its appreciation at the thought of slaughtering Luke and Mara.

There was no recognition in its emotion, no acknowledgement of kinship of any sort.

"I don't know if you can understand me," Luke said. "But whatever you're doing, whatever your plans are, I have to stop you."

Lord Nyax's smile grew broader. It seemed to recognize Luke's intent, even if it could not grasp his words.

Then it answered-not in words, but in images. Luke saw the power of its will, expressed through the Force, rolling over the remaining people of Coruscant like water roaring down a canyon through a burst dam. He saw them sweeping across Coruscant, killing and eating everything in their way-the Yuuzhan Vong, the disobedient, the Force-blind. He saw the workers here boarding the machine beneath their feet, crashing it through kilometers of buildings until they came to some place, a source for more
power to fuel this glorious, deliriously happy destructive impulse.

In that instant, Luke joined in the plan. He longed to slaughter the outsiders, those who did not understand or join. He longed to taste their flesh,

He turned to Mara, beckoning her to join. She was facing the Yuuzhan Vong warriors, preventing them from surprising Luke with an attack, but her gaze was yanked to Luke. Her eyes widened, and he could feel her leaning toward him, leaning toward acceptance of this crucial duty.

But the sight of her brought memories. Luke saw worlds of beauty.

He saw his son, composed of Luke and Mara and years to come. Around the edges of Lord Nyax's command he felt the Force, its other natures, the life from which it flowed.

He turned back toward Lord Nyax and struggled to find the words to express his thought. "I... stand... in... your... way."

It was the Jedi way. Jedi did not attack. But to position oneself in the path of a violent aggressor who would not yield achieved the same result.

All he could ever do as leader of the wartime Jedi was lead them into the path of the enemy. That was, Luke realized, perhaps his greatest limitation, and in struggling against it without understanding it, he may have hampered the Jedi effectiveness against the enemy.

But once recognized and accepted, it was also perhaps his greatest strength. Whether by accident or design, by his own will or by the permutations of the Force, he had always found his way into the path of the great enemies of all things living.

And here he was again. "I stand in your way," Luke repeated, and was pleased that he had regained control over his voice. "What you see, you will not achieve."

The expression on Lord Nyax's face turned from mocking amusement to seriousness... even sadness, for a brief moment, as though the thing had at last recognized some kinship and discovered that it did not bridge the gulf between the two of them.

Then it charged.

Kell finished binding Viqi's hands behind her back and looked up in time to see Lord Nyax lunge toward Luke.

Luke raised his lightsaber, caught the downward sweep of Lord Nyax's right-hand forearm weapon. He spun clockwise, narrowing his profile as the left-hand forearm blade thrust toward him, and kept his guard up in time to intercept the right-hand elbow blade. Mara leapt forward, unleashing two fast blows that the thing's left-elbow blade caught, then folded over nearly double as she leaped back from a strike from its left knee.

The Yuuzhan Vong warriors unloaded handfuls of thudbugs and razorbugs, heedless of which of the targets they might hit, but the two Jedi and Lord Nyax flicked the weapons out of the air or dodged them entirely.

Two Jedi? Three. Suddenly Tahiri was in their midst, coming up on Luke's left, blocking a follow-up blow from the elbow blade on that side.

"Bad,"Kell said.

Face nodded. "Bad bad." He pulled his blaster rifle from the wrappings on his back. "But who to shoot first?"

"We're no good here." Kell gestured toward the stairwell. "Let's see what they're doing down below. If it's important, I can blow it up."

"That's our Kell."

Kell set Viqi on her feet, then hauled her up over his shoulder.

Following Face, he descended the stairwell.

Denua Ku watched the palejeedai, and for a moment admiration almost drowned out the revulsion he felt at the notion of having abomination-machines like light-sabers touching one's own flesh.

The pale thing fought with a savagery and speed unlike those of any warrior he had ever seen. And it was untrained. With his experienced warrior's eye, he could see that its movements were instinctive, a fact revealed in the creature's failure to throw effective combinations of blows, its inability to gauge which way its enemies would leap when it attacked them.

If it had been born Yuuzhan Vong, if he'd been able to train it for a year, even half a year, he could have turned this thing into the greatest warrior who was not himself a god. As it was, he'd have to kill this thing.

Even if the Jeedai, too, wanted it dead, it was still an abomination. And it was the greater threat. It had to die first. He threw his last razorbug, then lunged forward into hand-to-hand range, probing at the pale thing's back with the tail-tip of his amphistaff.

The pale thing spun, sending its knee blade toward Denua Ku's guts.

He blocked the sweep with his amphistaff, but the impact was tremendous; it threw him back off his feet. He rolled backward and came upright, saw one of his warriors perform a similar probing assault... and this warrior took a forearm blade through the throat.

Nine Yuuzhan Vong warriors down. Sixteen to go. The numbers were becoming worse.

A tremendous mechanical roar shook the chamber. It lowered slightly in volume but became steady, filling the air.

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Stand)

Continued...

FOURTEEN

"It's a delaying tactic!" Mara shouted over the roar.

"I know!" Luke shouted back. "It's working! I'm being delayed!" He stopped a forearm-swing and was driven back a step, stopped the follow-up elbow swing and was driven back a step, jumped back to avoid the knee-strike and discovered it was only a feint; Lord Nyax's leg snapped back and caught a Yuuzhan Vong warrior in the crotch, collapsing the warrior despite its armor.

Every step took the Jedi and the warriors toward the center of the chamber. The floor vibrated beneath their feet.

"What?" Mara said.

"I didn't say anything!"

"Not you! Speak up, Face!"

Luke waved Mara back. She jumped up and backward in a somersault, taking her out of Lord Nyax's range, and took out her comlink, holding it up to her ear. Tahiri took her place, swinging her lightsaber defensively, eyes wide as she analyzed her attacker's motions and patterns.

***

"I said, it's a big machine," Face shouted. Here, at the source of the vibration, the noise was much worse.

He, Kell, and their struggling cargo were on a catwalk two levels down from the floor where the Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong fought, one level down from the side-passageways by which the Vong must have arrived. And the catwalk itself was the top level of a deep, deep chamber-a chamber that housed a single vehicle.

Had that machine been set up on any world but Cor-uscant, it would have been considered a skyscraper. It was hundreds of meters tall. At its base were treaded appendages that could roll like tank treads or lift and move independently like feet. All along its surface were hydraulic arms; some ended in what looked like plasma cutters, others in huge ball-like weapons, still others in manipulator hands.

At the top was a sensor station surrounded by trans-paristeel panels, and packed into that station were living beings. Many of the workers who had not been on the floor above at the onset of the Yuuzhan Vong attack were here, and more were shoving their way way along a catwalk extension that led to a door in that station.

Down below were more beings, tirelessly carrying hunks of debris away from the machine's base.

The whole thing roared like a fleet of antiquated Pod-racers. The vibration cut into Face's skin wherever the vonduun crab armor did not cover it.

"Tell her it's a construction droid," Kell shouted. "It looks completely functional."

Face shouted that information into his comlink.

"Did she hear you?"

"I don't know."

"Tell her it's moving."

Far below, the treads spun into action. The construction droid's machinery whined as the gigantic machine J lurched into action... and then crashed into the dura-crete wall before it.

Unable to hear, Mara bit off a curse. She tucked her comlink away and jumped back into the fight, deflected a pair of thudbugs, took a swipe at Lord Nyax's hand; its arm rotated and it caught the attack on its lightsaber blade.

Unable to hear, Mara bit off a curse. She tucked her comlink away and jumped back into the fight, deflected a pair of thudbugs, took a swipe at Lord Nyax's hand; its arm rotated and it caught the attack on its lightsaber blade.

Tahiri, in front, lunged forward... and stumbled, right into the path of a knee blade. Mara reached out, an effort to shove with the Force, knowing that she was too late, knowing that the knee-blade would emerge in a fraction of a second from the back of Tahiri's skull-but Tahiri whipped to the side, still in control, still in balance, even as Luke crashed feetfirst into Lord Nyax's neck, forcing its head down toward its own knee-blade.

The blade turned itself off. Lord Nyax's head passed through empty space. Luke, backflipping to his feet, offered up an expression of bafflement and frustration.

Mara sighed. It had been a feint, an effort to trick the thing into spearing itself with its own weapons. But its designers had been too thorough. There were fail-safes.

The floor rocked under their feet. Mara felt the crash from below as much as she heard it.

Lord Nyax leapt upward a half-dozen meters and then, impossibly, just hung there in space, smiling down at the Jedi and the Yuuzhan Vong.

Mara realized, a fraction of a second too late, that it had merely grabbed the same cord by which she and Luke had descended. Then the floor went out from under her.

The construction droid plowed into the wall before it, smashing steel and duracrete out, allowing blue-white sunlight to spilt in. It lurched and wobbled as it continued, internal balance compensators having a hard time keeping up with the irregularity of the surface it moved across.

The catwalk under Face's feet rippled. "C'mon!" He turned back toward the stairs they'd descended, but the catwalk mounting on the corner nearest the droid's exit hole snapped and dropped, snapping the next mounting toward him and the next mounting after that. The catwalk fell all along one wall, except for the mounting behind Face and Kell, turning their footing
into a steep ramp.

Face managed to get his hands on the catwalk railing. As his feet went out from under him, he held on. He looked up, could see Kell holding on above him, could see the ceiling of this chamber split and collapse as one of its supporting walls gave way under the droid's destructive exit.

Bodies began spilling through the split in the ceiling. Some were bodies of workers. Others were Yuuzhan Vong warriors.

Then there were the bodies of his Jedi friends.

As he felt his footing give way, Luke sprang, with the last bit of traction the flooring gave him, toward Mara and Tahiri. He hit them like an overly aggressive ballplayer, catching one in each arm.

The patch of floor they were heading toward opened, giving him nothing to land on. With the Force, he shoved at his own back, propelling him through the rent, toward the metal wall he saw before him, the wall and the catwalk there...

He saw that their arc was going to miss the catwalk. They would hit the wall and plummet. But in that instant, the left end of the catwalk broke free of its moorings and dropped, bringing it beneath their ballistic arc. A moment later, they hit the swaying thing, bending it down still farther, but Mara and Tahiri grabbed its trailing end and held on with their considerable strength.

Gasping for breath, Luke looked around. He and both of the others had switched off their lightsabers midleap. "Good instincts," he said.

"Good teacher," Tahiri said. She looked up, past Luke. "Hey, Face, is that you?"

"Hold on, hold on, I'll get a line down to you."

Face tied off the cord he'd once used to safeguard his passage across an elevated walkway. He dropped the other end down the swaying catwalk toward the Jedi. In moments, Luke, Mara, and Tahiri swarmed up to join them. The construction droid was only just pulling out onto the avenue beyond the building.

"Did you see Viqi Shesh?" Mara asked.

Kell jerked a thumb up toward the stairwell behind them. "She was still at the bottom of the steps when the big boom hit. She took off."

Mara clambered up to the base of the stairs. "I'm going after her."

"Mara, no." Luke's voice did not carry a plea; his tone conveyed simple truth. "Lord Nyax is more important. I can feel him moving up there. Moving away. We have to go after him, bring him down."

Mara sighed, shut her eyes. After a moment, she nodded.

"I lost her, I'll go after her," Kell said.

Face pressed the locator into his hand. "No. You go after this, Mechanic Boy. It could be our ticket out of here."

"You go after her, then."

Face gestured toward the construction droid, which leaned at an alarming angle toward the next building over as it turned rightward onto the avenue. "I'm going after that. Nyax sent it off for a purpose. We need to know what that purpose is."

Mara pounded her fist on the bottom step, then stood. "Let's go,"

she said.

Up on the half-collapsed floor above, Denua Ku hung, unable to climb, unable to descend.

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Stand)

Continued...

A three-meter length of rebar emerged from his gut. It was slick with his blood. He knew that his lung had been punctured.

The pain was extraordinary. He did not mind pain, did not fear it, but it was beginning to fade in a way that suggested imminent death rather than recovery.

In the silence left by the infidel machine's departure, he heard feet padding softly across the remaimng floor. He looked up. Viqi Shesh, most of the way around the chamber toward the hole by which the pale monster had entered, her hands tied behind her back, paused and looked at him.

"Tell them I died well," Denua Ku said.

"I'll tell them," she said. "I'll tell them you died whining, that you died begging for infidel medicines, anything to alleviate the pain."

Denua Ku snarled. He reached for his pouch, for his last remaining razorbugs.

Viqi laughed at him. Before he could bring out the weapons, she reached the corner and ducked through the hole there.

Lord Nyax led the three Jedi on a high-speed run through the ruins of Coruscant. He could travel faster than they could, because from time to time he'd simply leap from one building to the next one over, usually a leap too great for them to match. Yet they could always feel him in the distance, sense his movements, sense a feeling of expectation and even anxiety from him.

Once they caught up very close. The bodies of five lightly scarred Yuuzhan Vong warriors, young ones, lay in a brightly lit corridor, their wounds still smoking. In the distance, the Jedi could hear the footsteps of Lord Nyax fleeing.

"Where's he going?" Mara asked.

Luke thought about where they started this fight, where they'd been since then. "It's a big arc. Maybe part of a big circle."

"Why?" Tahiri asked. She breathed more easily than Luke or Mara, the energy and resilience of youth standing her in good stead.

"He's not fleeing," Luke said. "He could have left us behind some time ago. So he wants us to follow him. Into a trap?" He shook his head.

"He would have gone straight. No, he's just leading us on a chase. A diversion."

"So where does he want us not to go?" Tahiri asked.

Mara turned abruptly, headed back the way they'd come. "To wherever it sent that construction droid." She pulled out her comlink. "Mara to Face. Come in, Face."

Face ducked behind a pillar between two smashed-in panels of transparisteel. He got out of sight just in time. Outside, a wingpair of coralskippers flew by at his exact altitude-the same altitude as the top level of the combat droid. "Face here. I hear you."

"Are you still with the construction droid?"

"Well, yes and no." He leaned out of the shattered viewport next to him. In the distance, he could see the coralskippers hovering outside the mound of rubble the construction droid made when it plowed into the side of a giant ziggurat of buildings. "It's ahead of me. It's digging through construction. Moving a lot faster than those things are rated to move, I'll bet. I'm cut off
from it for the moment. I'm going to have to track it from floors above and hope they don't fall out from under me."

"Leave a tracking signal open. We need to find you."

"Done. Face out." He sat there for a few more moments, gasping in the warm, moist, cloying air of Coruscant, then rose again. "I hate this job."

The Jedi circled around the growing accumulation of coralskippers hovering outside the collapsed hole the construction droid had bored into the ziggurat's side. On an upper floor half a kilometer from the gathering, they met up with Face and peered at the ziggurat.

"Interesting," Luke said.

"What?" said Tahiri.

"This is one of the monolithic blocks that served the Old Republic as a government center," Luke said. "A lot of it belonged to secondary bureaus, to embassies and legations from non-Republic worlds, and to businesses and organizations more or less allied with the Old Republic."

Tahiri gave him a skeptical look. "How do you know that?"

"Because, youngster, the few surviving databases and filemaps that mentioned the old Jedi Temple indicated that it was-" Luke pointed. "- somewhere there. I've been all through it, kilometers and kilometers of it. By the time I got to look at it, of course, Emperor Palpatine had long destroyed every remaining trace of the Jedi."

"Maybe not every trace," Mara said. "Why do you suppose Lord Nyax is digging there?"

"Because..." Luke considered. "Because he has some kind of implanted memories or instincts? Perhaps he wants to destroy any remnant of the Temple because of lingering emotions. Or maybe he knows about some portion of it that was never on the public databases."

"Either way," Mara said, "we have to find out."

Luke smiled. "One of the advantages about having been all through that region is that I know quite a few ways in and out. C'mon, let's bypass these skips."

Deep in the guts of the ziggurat, the construction droid leaned against the sloping black wall, driving its plasma cutters into the smooth surface, hammering the glossy wall with its mechanical limbs.

Chunks of dense stone fell away from the impact points, but the wall yielded only very slowly.

Luke and his companions peered at the action through a crack in a duracrete wall a couple of stories up. Much of the construction that should have been beneath them had collapsed as soon as the construction droid had plowed its way to this point, meaning that the creaking and sagging of the floor beneath them heralded a further collapse that was probably imminent. "What's beyond that wall, farmboy?" Luke shook his head. "I don't know. I didn't know this area was here. I'm not sure there were any visible accesses into it before. Hey, we have Yuuzhan Vong coming."

Despite the danger that her extra weight might present, Mara leaned in over her husband's shoulder to look. Yuuzhan Vong warriors were scrambling over the rubble and rushing toward the construction droid.

Coruscant survivors rushed out of the construction droid's base to meet them. Unarmed, ill-fed, they still had a tremendous edge in numbers over the warriors, and Luke saw several of the Yuuzhan Vong go down under struggling masses of bodies. The stronger survivors picked up chunks of stone and brained the troops. More Yuuzhan Vong entered. More survivors swarmed in, now coming from surrounding areas of rubble instead of just from the droid's base.

Luke looked back at the others. "He's near. He's calling to them.

Calling for help."

Face pulled his helmet off, touched his forehead. He looked troubled. "I know. I can feel him. In my head. I Want to go down there."

He looked up into their worried expressions, offered them a wan smile.

"Well, mostly I don't. But I can feel the draw."

"You're strong," Tahiri said. "Well fed. You have hope still. He'd have to exert himself more to control you. But I suspect he can. I'm not sure he can't control us."

"Kell to Face." The voice, small and tinny, floated up from Face's helmet.

The Wraith leader pulled his helmet up beside his features. "Face here."

"I've found the source of the locator signal. We're in luck. It's a spaceworthy transport. It's our passage back to Borleias."

"What kind of condition is it in?"

"It's ready to go. Oh, it's blocked in by several tons of rubble."

"Can you handle that?"

"What's my bag full of?"

Luke looked again at the battle raging below, a battle where his only opponent of consequence was the creature they called Lord Nyax.

"Face, our mission is over. I want you to round up the others, get to that transport, and prepare to leave Coruscant."

"That's what I thought."

Face grinned at him as though he were waiting for a punch line.

"And what about you silly Jedi types?"

"We're going down there." Luke closed his eyes, just for a moment, as the weight of that decision pressed upon him. He was about to lead his wife and a teenager into a situation he wasn't sure he could handle, a situation that was likely to get them all killed. He looked at Face again. "If we die here, the other Jedi need to know about Lord Nyax.

You're going to tell them."

Face thought about it, his smile disappearing. "I normally try to argue against suicide missions."

"But you know what Lord Nyax can do."

"Yes. So all I can do is wish you luck."

Face left.

Luke took a couple of deep breaths, turned to the others. "Ready?"

"Ready," Tahiri said.

Mara just nodded.

Luke ignited his lightsaber and sliced into the gap he'd been peering through, widening it.

Lord Nyax watched as his workers swarmed toward the warriors he could not sense. He did not like the fact that he could not feel them, but he did enjoy seeing his workers kill them-though it was usually at a cost of twenty or thirty workers per warrior.

But he was summoning more workers from all around. No matter how well they hid in the ruined undercity, his call reached them and forced many, most, to climb free of their hiding holes, to stumble and then walk and then race toward the scene of this conflict.

And he could feel the wall weakening. Soon it would give way completely. The woman who had told him of this wonderful machine-he thought she was up at its summit, making it move-had been right.

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Stand)

Continued...

Then he sensed something and looked up. A bar of en-ergy flashed, and three people fell out of a hole in the ceiling.

They drifted laterally to the top of the slope of the black wall, riding it down, using their power to slow their descent, keep their balance, increasing the friction between the clothes on their feet and the wall's surface.

Lord Nyax moved to be beneath them. He ignited his blades, all of them. He knew they'd be here, knew it from the moment they stopped chasing him. He wished they'd go away instead of tiring him.

The foremost of them, the male, slid down until he was not far above Lord Nyax's reach, then leapt free, somersaulting to land somewhere behind him. Lord Nyax reached out as the male came down; he slid a sharp-edged piece of stone toward the male's landing area, timing it so that the stone would shear through the male's legs. But the male slowed his descent and rotation, landing atop the stone instead of in front of it, and bounded off, toward Lord Nyax. Meanwhile, the women leapt clear of the stone, spinning down toward him, igniting their weapons as they came.

Lord Nyax leapt free of the center of their formation, bounding up over the head of the red-haired female. He hit the stone wall feetfirst, shoved off, and rotated to a landing many steps away from the three pests.

Then he made a thought and drove it into their heads.

It hit Luke like a razorbug fired straight through his forehead.

Luke staggered under the pain. His back hit the irregular floor. He waved his lightsaber up and in front of him, a defensive form, but there was no follow-up blow for him to counter.

There was, however, a new priority. He was to switch off his lightsaber and then go attack the Yuuzhan Vong. He leapt to his feet and turned his weapon off. He could see Mara and Tahiri doing the same.

But that would mean dying-and, worse, failing.

No, it's what he had to do.

No, he couldn't do that.

He stood, frozen by the dilemma, straining against the thought that filled his mind, the thought that was slowly driving out every other consideration.

So he did what he had to whenever he was confused. He reached out, touching Mara in the Force. He didn't have to open his mind to her; his mind was as open as it could be, held open by Lord Nyax's thought. He just had to reach for her, and she was there, locked in as much confusion and pain as he.

She had no answer for him. He reached for Tahiri and found her to be identically immobile.

He felt Lord Nyax grow impatient, then angry, and Lord Nyax expressed his anger through pain. Luke felt his fingers and toes, hands and feet, shins and forearms explode. He fell, writhing, then stared in amazement as he realized that his limbs were still attached-the pain was real, but no injury had caused it. He could feel Mara's pain, feel Tahiri's.

There was something different about Tahiri's. He looked over to where she lay.

She was rolling to her stomach, forcing her way to her feet. Off-balance, weaving as she stood, she nevertheless managed to pick up her lightsaber and ignite it. She looked at Nyax, anger blazing in her eyes.

"I know something about pain you don't," she said. "Pain drowns other people. I just swim in it." She took a step toward her tormenter.

Luke could feel Nyax's anger, his moment of confusion. And though Luke couldn't move, he could act. He reached out through the Force and grabbed the stone that Nyax had tried to use against him moments earlier.

He jerked it toward his enemy.

And though he was weakened by pain, by distraction, it flew those few meters and slammed into Nyax's back, driving him forward, slamming him off his feet.

Tahiri leapt forward, bringing her lightsaber down in an all-out attack. Nyax managed to get one of his arm-blades up to intercept it, then kicked out, shoving off against a pile of rubble. He slid away from Tahiri, and the slide continued well past the point that it should, carrying him clear of her... but he left skin and blood behind on rubble he crossed.

Luke felt Nyax's astonishment, his outrage at having been wounded, however trivially. Then Nyax drove another thought into Luke's brain: Kill Tahiri.

This time, Luke was ready for it. He'd had a moment to center his thoughts and, most important, emotions. He was ready with his memories of Tahiri, all the time's he'd been delighted as she'd made another gain in her study of the Force, all the hopes he'd had for her future and happiness. He could hold up like a shield his memory of her love for his nephew Anakin Solo. All those memories blunted Nyax's attack, shattered its speartip.

Luke reached for Mara again and found her similarly armored, but with logic, not emotion. Running through her mind was a cold calculation of allies and opponents, actions and consequences. Uppermost in it was a realization that Nyax could rule any individual, and out of individuals whole galaxies were made.

But deep beneath the analysis was a stream of emotion, an awareness of their son Ben, of what he would be if Nyax could find him and shape him.

Luke came up on shaky legs, felt Mara doing the same. And though Nyax was not letting up on the pain-energy, it affected Luke less now. He could feel Tahiri's part in that, the way she opened herself to the pain, was not daunted by it, was not shut down by it.

They faced Nyax as a single creature. The part of them that was Mara rejected the false truths Nyax tried to impose upon them. The part of them that was Luke rejected the false hatreds, the lying enmities. The part that was Tahiri made the pain part of what they were, a fuel for their strength.

Nyax looked between them, and a flicker of distress, a childlike expression of fear, crossed his features.

Then all four of them felt the wall break. Whatever was beyond it roared forth to sweep them away.

FIFTEEN

Luke swam out of a sea of-not pain, not shock, but something between exultation and complete confusion. His back was against a mound of rubble, and his wife and the girl were beside him. He couldn't remember their names, or his own.

Red fluid dripped down upon his shoulder. He craned his neck to look up and saw a body on the mound above him, that of a human man. Its right arm was missing and blood poured down the rubble below, one stream of it pooling and then dripping onto Luke.

Luke. That was it, Luke. And Mara and Tahiri. And the Yuuzhan Vong, and Nyax. Luke rose, saw his lightsaber a few meters away, and yanked it to him with a casual display of the Force. It struck his palm with far more energy than he'd intended, and he dropped it again.

Then he saw Nyax, standing beneath the hole in the black wall. The hole, one of the construction droid's wrecking claws still within it, was twenty meters up. Nyax danced on the pile of rubble beneath it. His was the uncoordinated, artless, dance of a child. It was a dance of joy.

Mara rose beside him. Luke had known she was unhurt.

"Force energy," she whispered.

This must have been a wellspring of it, he thought. The old Jedi Temple must have been built above because it was here. They were guarding it. And guarding the planet from it.

Nyax finished dancing. He turned to look at the Jedi. His expression was so full of uncomplicated happiness that it seemed impossible that he would ever try to hurt them.

Nor did he attack them now. He simply raised a hand.

Above him, a portion of the ceiling, a plug some ten meters across, shot straight up and out of sight. Debris rained down, but drifted to one side before it could hit Nyax. Tremendous crashing noises emerged from the hole above, and the walls all around them began to shake.

Tahiri joined Luke and Mara, tucking something away in her backpack. "We're in trouble," she said.

One of the advantages of running around in a lawless, ruined city several kilometers deep, Face reflected, was there was always gear to find.

Such as this airtaxi. It had been perhaps the thirtieth one he'd seen since leaving the Jedi, the fourth undamaged one he'd come across-and the first one to start up with a single press of the controls. Now he roared along the tumbled canyons of Coruscant, following a comm beacon, keeping well below rooftop altitude.

It was a necessary precaution. He saw a lot of coral-skippers. All seemed to be heading toward one location.. the same location he'd recently fled.

He reached the vicinity of the beacon, gained until the signal was its strongest. That put him directly opposite the collapsed corner of a building. He could see something shining silver there-a simple antenna, attached so recently that nothing had had time to grow on it; no dust or soot had darkened it. "Face to Kell," he said. "I see your antenna."

"Drop six stories and drift over to the next building. Come in the first big window," Kell answered. "The access to where I am is in the main chamber there."

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Stand)

Continued...

"On my way." Face lost altitude and sideslipped. He peered in through the shattered viewport of what had once been a luxury apartment, could see the stairwell reaching from the ceiling. He gunned his thruster and crashed through the framework around the viewport, then cut power.

His airtaxi dropped half a meter to the floor.

Seconds later, he squeezed in through the access hatch of the vehicle named Ugly Truth.

Kell was above him in the pilot's seat. He didn't turn around. "Did you feel something a couple of minutes ago?" Kell asked.

"No."

"Good. Me either, then."

Face looked up through the cockpit viewport at the jumble of rubble overhead. "Do you really have enough explosives to blast through that?"

"Approximately... but that's not what we're going to do."

"Ah."

A detonation like that might damage this frail little flower of an escape ship." Kell pointed down toward his feet. "But the building wall on that side isn't a support feel their confusion, too. Nyax, his objective accomplished, had released them. As their volition returned, their physical exertions, their outrage at the way they had been violated for so long, overwhelmed them. "I have to get up there," Luke said.

"Persuade them to drive that thing out of here before the building comes down."

"No, you don't," Mara said.

He looked at her, surprised at such a merciless, unnecessarily cruel statement. But then he sensed her amusement at his mistake.

"Just tell them," she said.

Luke reached up and found minds-dozens of them, all receptive to the Force. In the wash of Force energy emerging from the crack in the wall, he found he could reach any of them, all of them.

He projected a strong demand for silence, a sense of calm, and could feel them quiet. Then he formed a picture in his head: the building collapsing, the construction droid driving in reverse to get away. He projected that image with all the strength he could muster, bolstered by the Force wellspring.

He felt them react-shock... and then belief. In moments he heard the metal tower's engines roar again, and could feel their intention to crash their way back out through the rubble pile behind them.

Luke thumbed his lightsaber into incandescence and marched toward the creature with Irek Ismaren's face. Let's finish this.

But Nyax, ignoring him, lifted straight up into the air and floated up through the hole his Force powers had made. In a moment he was out of sight. wall. Support comes from the building's metal skeleton. So I've planted shaped charges to blow that wall out."

"And then what?"

"And then I hit the topside nose repulsors. We tilt forward, I hit the thrusters, we punch free, and we rotate for a while, everybody screaming and vomiting, until I regain control."

"Kell, sometimes I hate you."

"Yeah, but I'm still the best pilot you ever saw."

"Where are the others?"

"En route. I got a comm message to them."

"How? There are kilometers of rubble between us and them! A comm message couldn't possibly penetrate."

Exasperated, Kell finally did look down at his leader. "Do you remember something about us putting a sensor package up at rooftop, then running a direct cable down so Danni and Baljos could get a constant sensor feed?"

"Oh, that's right."

"I broadcast to that sensor package-"

"Never mind, never mind, I get you now. I'll set up for the others getting here."

The hole above Nyax's head widened. No more rubble poured down upon him. Instead, sunlight did. First it was a tiny shaft; then it broadened into a blue-white column of brilliance. He bathed in the light, held out both hands to capture it, rubbed it into his cheeks.

Luke could feel Tahiri's sense of shock; it matched his own. "Did he drive a hole all the way to the surface?" she asked.

"I think so," Luke said. He turned his attention to the beings at the summit of the construction droid. He could

Danni, Elassar, and Bhindi scrambled in through the access hatch.

"Take the seats forward," Face ordered. "These rear ones are for the Jedi; we don't want people climbing over each other when they board.

Copilot's seat is mine. Where's Baljos?"

"He's staying," Bhindi said. "Instead of me."

Face sighed. Once it became likely that resistance cells would be of little use here, he'd told Bhindi to pack up for a return to Borleias.

He hadn't anticipated Baljos being so resistant to having his studies cut short. Baljos's choice here might prove to be a scientific boon someday... or it might be a useless way to commit suicide.

But it was Baljos's choice.

Face dogged the hatch shut, then struggled up the makeshift ladder and into the copilot's seat. He strapped himself in, "Ready when you are."

"Boom," Kell said. He thumbed a hand remote.

The Ugly Truth rocked as the wall beneath its keel blew out into the street beyond.

Kell didn't wait to evaluate the situation, the size of the hole.

He shoved his control yoke and the transport lurched forward. Face's stomach rose into his throat as the transport leaned out into the open air above the avenue, then leapt free of the building to plummet nose-down toward the ground.

The construction droid's internal turbolift opened and the Jedi stepped out into the machine's topside control chamber.

The scores of people packed into the chamber didn't notice them.

Their attention was riveted on the forward viewports. Beyond them, mounds of rubble were falling away.. - and beyond hovered a cloud of coralskippers.

Even as the construction droid burst out into sunlight, the coralskippers opened fire, pouring plasma bursts into the machine's front face. Shocks from impact points dozens of stories down rocked the control chamber. Diagnostics screens lit up; alarms blared. Tatterdemalion workers who had, minutes ago, been mind-controlled slaves now shrieked, possessed again of enough intelligence to realize that their doom was at hand.

"We've got to get them out," Tahiri said. "The weapons-"

Luke shook his head. "This droid's weapons won't do much against coralskippers. We have to use other weapons."

"What weapons?"

Mara said, "Us."

Luke raised his voice, drawing on the Force to strengthen it.

"Everyone out! Down the emergency stairs. Don't take the turbolift; it's evil." He added the mental image of the turbolift snapping open and shut like the mouth of a malevolent carnivore.

The Coruscant survivors continued shrieking, but crushed forward toward the two opposite stairwell exits, leaving the Jedi some room in the middle. The parting of the sea of flesh also gave them a clearer view of the coralskipper formation and the incoming plasma fire.

"That fountain of Force energy is what made Nyax stronger," Luke said. "It's pure power... and we can use it, too." To demonstrate, he raised a hand like an orchestra conductor... and a mound of rubble against a building a hundred meters ahead rose into the air. Luke clenched his fist and drew it toward him, and the rubble swept toward the construction droid.

The coralskippers to the rear of the formation had no chance.

Chunks of duracrete, stone, and ferrocrete plowed into them from behind.

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Stand)

Continued...

Dovin basal singularities snapped into position to swallow some of the improvised missiles, but even that was not enough. Luke's missiles smashed into yorik coral, sweeping coralskippers out of the way.

Eyes wide, Tahiri mimicked Luke's gestures, but with the face of a building to their left, to the right of the coralskippers. Chunks of facing blew forth from the building, hurtling and falling among the coralskippers.

Mara continued to add her voice and her Force presence to the orders Luke had given, spurring the workers to flee more quickly, but most of her attention was on the chamber's controls, its walls and ceiling features. She found what she wanted and reached up to undo a hatch in the ceiling. Bright light spilled in from above and a metal ladder lowered. She went up topside.

Coralskippers rose from the formation in sudden flight, attempting to get away from the stream of crude projectiles, but those who rose first ran into another stream, this one moving much faster; chunks of rock and duracrete pounded into the yorik coral, eroding it like a super-powered sandblaster, destroying those vehicles.

At first Luke thought that Mara had initiated that attack, adding her strength to his and Tahiri's, but he realized after only a moment that it felt wrong. He leapt up through the hatch Mara had opened, landing beside her on the construction droid's roof. Tahiri was only a second behind him.

From here, they had a clearer view of the sky full of coralskippers and of the ziggurat behind them.

From the ziggurat emerged a column of rubble. As it rose, it parted, arcing away from its point of emergence in all directions like a water spray. But this spray was being flung kilometers in every direction, chewing through building tops and coralskippers as it landed.

And above its center, where the rubble no longer rose, floated Nyax. Giant boulders danced in and out through the rubble spray, weaving a lovely spiral through the air.

"Another Jedi academy graduate," Tahiri breathed. "He can lift really big rocks."

"Very funny," Luke said. He gauged the leap from the construction droid's roof to the nearest solid surface on the ziggurat, decided they could make it. "Let's go."

Viqi heard a noise in the distance, a roar as if some dam had finally opened its valves to let countless tons of water through. The floor rumbled under her feet.

She ignored it. She ignored the pain in her wrists, pain caused by her struggles against her bindings; those struggles had gone on until she'd found a jagged piece of metal protruding from a wall, and now she was free again.

She reached the Terson's apartment building and the floor of their chambers. She was trembling with exhaustion and dripping with sweat by the time she stumbled into the living chamber... and then she froze, almost all remaining hope draining from her.

The secret access stairs were down, and, of all things, an airtaxi rested in the middle of the chamber.

She took the stairs up as fast as she could and stared in anguish at the hole in the wall through which the Ugly Truth had left. All her work was undone. She would have to start again, searching, hiding, surviving, until she could find or repair another functional spacecraft.

Well, it was likely that the airtaxi was functional. That was a starting point. She descended to give it a look.

On the front seat was a pile of preserved food from the Ugly Truth, and a note:

Senator Shesh:

We thought you would probably need these more than we do. Don't eat them all in one place.

Love,

The Wraiths

Only then did Viqi sink down to the carpet. Only then did she begin to cry.

The ziggurat was a series of high, broad steps. The Jedi leapt up to the next step, ran its width, and then leapt up to the one above, again and again, until they reached the roof.

From here they could see the hole in the ziggurat root widening.

With every moment that passed, more tons of rubble poured up and out of the hole and flew out to pour onto surrounding kilometers of buildings.

Some streams diverted to hose coralskippers out of the air. The lines of giant boulders still danced their merry circles around Nyax.

Luke led the others off at an angle, to where each of the boulders in turn dipped down to within meters of the zig-gurat's surface. As the next one swept low, they leaped, propelling themselves farther with use of the Force, and landed atop the irregular duracrete surface.

Luke could feel it as Nyax detected them. The pale giant rotated in the air to face them, his smile changing from one of simple pleasure to one of malice. "This is going to be bad," Luke said.

Mara nodded. The wind at this altitude whipped her hair into a life of its own, making it look like a candle flame in a strong breeze. "Any ideas?"

"I have one." Tahiti knelt to improve her balance while she stared ahead. In the distance, this stream of boulders took a sharp turn, then moved to within a few meters of Nyax's position and beyond. "Just past that point. Distract him. I'll finish him."

Luke cocked an eyebrow at her. "You'll finish him. How?"
There was something in Tahiri's eyes that sent a chill down Luke's spine.

"He could fight the Jedi just by feeling us in the Force," she said. "He couldn't feel the Yuuzhan Vong, so he had to watch. Well, I'm both." She rose and turned away from Luke and Mara, then took the long leap to the next flying boulder back in line. She raced its length, then leaped again to the third boulder down.

"What do you say we take her at her word?" Mara said.
"I'm too tired to argue."

Their boulder reached the end of its straightaway course and turned. It turned more violently than its predecessors had, but Luke and Mara could feel Nyax's intentions in the Force; they kept their feet planted and did not budge.

As their vehicle came closer to Nyax, Luke stretched forth his hand. He snatched a portion of the rubble stream from beneath them, bent its course, sent it hurtling toward Nyax.

Nyax reacted without moving, regaining control of the stream, hurling it at Luke.

Upside down, clinging by virtue of her enhanced Force strength, Mara ignited her lightsaber and hurled it. It twirled under the flow of boulders, almost invisible through the dense rain of duracrete; then, as it came within meters of Nyax, it twirled up and at him.

His expression changed to one of startlement. With none of his own blades active to protect him, he slipped sideways, out of the lightsaber's path, then turned to watch it as Mara directed its flight.

She sent it around in a long loop, preparing it for another approach.

Mara and Luke came upright as their boulder completed its rotation, and Luke could feel Nyax's attention on him, too, waiting for his attack.

Luke made it, shoving in the Force, trying to hurl Nyax off balance and onto Mara's blade. The attack was a success, but Nyax activated all his blades as he was shoved, and with contemptuous ease he swatted Mara's lightsaber away.

Power flowed through Nyax, such power as no being alive had ever felt. He could reach down into this world, reach through the false crust beneath him, through the natural stone crust beneath that, all the way to where stone turned to sluggish fluid and through to where superheated metals ran like river water. He could crack this world in two, could force the meaningless worker-things to convey him to another, and crack that one, too.

And he was tired of these creatures. They were weaker than he, but so stubborn. Even inventive.

Nyax raised his hands. He would crack the stone they rode on and send it and them hurtling down into the ruins.

Something slammed into his back, just below the point where his internal armor plate protected him. His eyes snapped wide. He had not felt it coming. He used his power to overcome the pain.

A second thing struck him. He felt bones in his lower hack shatter.

Numbness flowed across his legs. He exerted greater control over himself, desperately trying to force sensation into those limbs, as he turned.

His third antagonist, the smaller female with the yellow hair, rode another boulder, lying upon it and gripping it with one hand. She looked at him with alien merciless-less in her eyes. She barely registered in his special senses - she must have closed herself off to the power, reducing his ability to detect her, his ability to anticipate her moves.

Something was wrong. He had the pain under control. He was full of the power. He should be able to make anything happen, anytime.

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Stand)

Continued...

He did not understand, for he had not been trained in the ways and use of the Force, that the catastrophic failure of the body's functions could interfere with use of the Force. All he did understand was that his control over the boulders, over the debris flow from the ever-widening hole beneath him, was faltering.

The yellow-haired female held up a third missile. It had legs that writhed as she held it.

Nyax gaped at her. It was one of the alien creatures, one of the types flung by the warriors he could not feel. Her type was not supposed to use this. Only the flat-nosed aliens were.

It was unfair. She had cheated.

Before she could throw it, Nyax lost control. He fell, screaming, into the pit he had created.

All at once, the boulders came crashing down onto,. and often through, the ziggurat roof. Luke and Mara leapt free, using their augmented power to soften their landing, and rolled up to their feet, looking among the rain of multi-ton missiles for a head of blond hair.

"There," Mara said, and sprinted. The distance of a ballplaying field away, Tahiri lay atop a small dome. But as Luke watched, as a boulder arced down toward her, the young Jedi leapt free. The boulder crashed through the dome and was gone.

"Face to Mara, Face to Mara, do you read me?" Luke skidded to a halt and pulled out his comlink as his wife reached and embraced the younger Jedi.

"Mara's a little busy right now, Face." He leapt to one side and a mass of ferrocrete the size of a Y-wing smashed into the roof beside him. "For that matter, so am I. What is it?"

"Tell me that the whole mess with the fountain of rock was you."

"It was."

"We're inbound. So are a couple of Vong capital ships. You want a lift?"

"We do."

"We'll be there in two."

The three Jedi leapt from the ziggurat roof edge to the stubby wing of the Ugly Truth. They squeezed in through the open hatch. Before they were buckled into their restraint couches, Kell had heeled over in a stomachchurning dive into the avenue below. Luke had a glimpse of the construction droid, thought they were going to plow right into it, and then they were level again and accelerating along the avenue.

"So," Face said, his tone conversational. "Is property damage on a massive scale normal for Jedi?"

"That's just if you're friends with them," Kell said. "Wait until you're married to one."

"We need to go back," Luke said. "Nyax isn't dead."

Face and Kell exchanged a glance. "Are we saving him or killing him?"

Luke sighed. "Just getting in his way."

Kell shook his head and gained altitude. As soon as he reached rooftop level, he looped around again, back toward the ziggurat.

Nyax lay in pain at the bottom of the pit.

He'd never known what pain was before he met those three with the power.

Now there was nothing but pain.

He would find them, and he would kill them. He must do so soon because he could feel his strength ebbing. No matter how much strength he drew from what lay behind the black wall, he could feel himself failing.

Soon he would sleep.

He extended himself, finding the minds of every living thing his power could detect. Where a mind was strong and complex enough to hear him, to obey, he looked through that creature's eyes.

In the first few moments, he could see only a blur of superimposed images. Then he learned to subtract some, overlap others, remap the image into a coherent one in three dimensions.

The power-wielders who had hurt him were not visible. But two chunks of coral he could not feel with his own power, big ones, were approaching him from two different directions.

His enemies had to be aboard them, hidden by whatever power they possessed to block his senses. Since they never gave up, they must be coming back after him. They had to be aboard because he would not sleep until they were dead.

He roared out his pain and sent ton after ton of rubble into the sky.

Kell lost altitude and slid to a landing on a rooftop four kilometers from the ziggurat. From here, they could see the two Vong mataloks, cruiser analogs, approaching from north and south.

Two sprays of rubble leapt from the hole in the ziggurat, each going after one of the mataloks. Nyax's aim was getting worse; in the first few seconds of the attack, neither Vong ship took a hit.

And both fired, raining plasma projectiles as numerous as raindrops into the ziggurat.

Luke jerked as he felt his flesh burn. He looked at his arm, but no blackness appeared there, no seared flesh. It was Nyax, his pain being transmitted to all close enough to feel it, and he could see that pain reflected in the faces of Mara, Tahiri, Danni, even Kell.

Then the rubble streams hit the mataloks. They poured across the vessels, some small portions of them being swallowed by voids, the majority eating away at the yorik coral as though it were sugar. The mataloks sideslipped, desperately trying to avoid the streams of destruction, but the rubble blasts tracked them, followed them, wore them down.

A constriction in Luke's chest, one he had been unaware of until now, suddenly loosened, vanished. "He's dead."

"Lord Nyax?" Face frowned back at him. "I don't think so. Look, more rubble than ever is flying out of there."

"Luke is right," Mara said. Her voice had a distant quality as she tried to interpret what she felt through the Force. "Nyax is gone. But he's imbued his surroundings with some of his hatred. Some of his last intent."

The mataloks rose above the rubble-stream, launching a new volley of plasma before the blasts tracked them, tore into them again. In the distance, more Yuuzhan Vong capital ships raced toward the disturbance.

"It's going to continue," Luke said, "as long as some Part of him is there. As long as some part of him can exert his will on his surroundings, and that wellspring of the Force allows it to happen. But he's gone." He took a deep breath. "Let's go home."

Taken from (Enemy Lines: Rebel Stand)

Oh, so this thread has become a lowball Luke thread. How fun!

OBSERVATIONS:

NOTE: This is arguably the longest battle of Luke. It gives the vibe of a flashpoint like event. Some people may find the content too long, so they can read the points below for a quick glance.

01. Luke and Mara had been watching a fight between the Vong and Lord Nyax in a setting from safe distance. Nyax was winning, so the Jedi decided to tackle the Lord themselves.

02. As soon as the two Jedi (Luke and Mara) approached the position of Lord Nyax, the latter telepathically influenced Luke but the Jedi found strength to counter the influence upon witnessing his wife and drawing strength from the memories of the two.

03. Then a lightsaber duel began between the Jedi and Lord, and a 3rd Jedi Tahiri also joined. During this development, nearby Vong attacked all Force-users but the Force-users evaded and countered their attacks while fighting each other.

04. A vong felt that Lord Nyax could become an unstoppable warrior with proper training. But this was not a realistic option based on how things were working out between them.

05. A gigantic construction droid was also in the vicinity, operating beneath the surface of the setting of confrontation, causing vibrations in the region with its operations. Construction workers Face and Kell were operating the droid.

06. Nyax, after being momentarily pressed by the Jedi during the duel, leapt 6 m in the air and grabbed the cord which the Jedi used to reach the setting.

07. Face and Kell were using the droid to dig through the region and the setting of confrontation eventually gave way in the process, causing all of the individuals stationed on the platform to fall below in the resultant hole with exception of Nyax.

08. Luke got hold of the other 2 Jedi and attempt to land on a stable structure nearby but all of them fell on another point during the destruction process, narrowly avoiding direct fall into the ground below.

09. Mara decided to pursue another target at this moment but Luke convinced her otherwise.

10. The Jedi proceeded to chase Nyax across the ruins.

11. During the chase, Luke realized the region (ziggurat) as a portion of the Jedi Temple of the Old Republic.

12. The gigantic droid continued to dig through the structure.

13. The vong also started to gather around the position of the construction droid in pursuit of the Lord.

14. Nyax telepathically influenced Coruscant citizens nearby to stop the advance of Vong.

15. The construction workers found a transport in the region while digging through it and decided to use it to escape to another planet.

16. The Jedi decided to continue to the battle and charged towards the position of Nyax.

17. Nyax, first hurled a stone towards Luke which the Jedi evaded and then telepathically assaulted the Jedi, immobilizing them this time by inflicting pain upon them. However, the Jedi used their combined might to shrug off the immobilization. Tahiri was the first to free herself and charge towards the Lord.

18. As Tahiri charged, Luke hurled the same stone back at Nyax that the latter had thrown towards him earlier. The stone hit Nyax, slightly injuring him.

19. Nyax responded by telepathically motivating Luke to kill Tahiri. However, Luke drew strength from other Jedi to resist the influence.

20. By this time, the construction droid broke through another section of the structure. Luke got caught in the process again, ending up dazed.

21. The Jedi realized that a nexus existed here and Nyax wanted its access.

22. Nyax, in joy, collapsed a nearby ceiling, which contributed to the instability of the setting and went further in.

23. Luke realized that the entire building may collapse due to operations of the construction droid, so he decided to persuade all innocent individuals within the vicinity to leave the region.

24. Luke reached out with the Force, drawing upon the power of the nexus, and did the (23.) with maximum exertion.

25. Nyax had dug through the rubble up towards the surface by himself, and this surprised Tahiri.

26. Face got inside the transport found earlier and took off.

27. The construction droid bore through one-end of the ziggurat and got out it. The coralskippers hovering above opened fire on the droid.

28. As the firing commenced, the Jedi decided to help the construction workers. Luke reminded the other two that Nyax had been drawing from the nexus to fuel his power, so can they.

29. The Jedi drew upon the nexus to fuel their power and hurled chunks of debris towards the coralskippers, damaging them and disturbing their formations in the process.

30. Luke soon noted that Nyax was also hurling debris towards the coralskippers.

31. The Jedi approached the top of the construction droid and could see the entire region (ziggurat) and Nyax's position within its middle with full clarity. Drawing from the nexus, Nyax was hurling debris towards the coralskippers while floating mid-air in meditative form, boulders were also rotating around him.

32. The Jedi headed towards the position of Nyax again.

33. Tahiri decided to split from the other two and attempt an ambush on Nyax. Tahiri suppressed her Force-signature at this moment and leapt on the floating boulders, surprising Luke.

34. Luke and Mara also stepped on a boulder, gaining attention of Nyax. Luke telekinetically hurled some debris towards Nyax but the Lord hurled them back towards Luke, forcing the Jedi to use a nearby boulder as a shield.

35. Mara telekinetically flung her lightsaber towards Nyax and Luke unleashed a blast of power on Nyax to nudge him towards the lighsaber of Mara, but Nyax countered successfully.

36. Nyax gathered more power this time but got ambushed at this point. Nyax began to loose power and fell into the pit below.

37. The floating boulders began to fall and the Jedi leapt from them towards safety.

38. Face arrived with the transport and the Jedi entered it.

39. Vong shps arrived again and opened fire on Nyax's position. The lord hurled more debris towards them but he had been loosing strength. The vong ships also opened fire.

40. The Jedi felt demise of Nyax but he imbued the nexus with his intent, continuing his actions for a while.

Originally posted by ares834
Oh, so this thread has become a lowball Luke thread. How fun!
No, this thread represents realistic Luke with factual data.

Not FANON Luke who breaks planets apart with mere thought and wins every fight on his own, putting all to shame.

An all out Luke moves black holes and cuts through legions of Vong. He does put almost everyone to shame TBH.

Eh. I wouldn't worry about it. Luke has much in common with Superman. Including the TV Tropes

Strong as he needs to be
World made of cardboard

Luke holds back for fear he'll kill people callously and turn to the dark side in so doing. Woe to you when he stops feeling that fear. On top of that, he's a fundamentally kind, gentle soul who believe heavily in redemption. So he usually doesn't operate at 100 percent capacity.

Compare Sidious, who has no morals, and is thus perfectly happy to chew the scenery and innocent victims alike, damn the consequences. And yet Sidious remains weaker then Luke.

It's a fundamental difference between the Light and Dark sides. Light side cares. Dark side does not.

And yet, when Superman fights Zod, Superman wins. Cause ultimately, caring makes you stronger.

Originally posted by ares834
An all out Luke moves black holes and cuts through legions of Vong. He does put almost everyone to shame TBH.

Originally posted by Angelalex242
Eh. I wouldn't worry about it. Luke has much in common with Superman. Including the TV Tropes

Strong as he needs to be
World made of cardboard

Luke holds back for fear he'll kill people callously and turn to the dark side in so doing. Woe to you when he stops feeling that fear. On top of that, he's a fundamentally kind, gentle soul who believe heavily in redemption. So he usually doesn't operate at 100 percent capacity.

Compare Sidious, who has no morals, and is thus perfectly happy to chew the scenery and innocent victims alike, damn the consequences. And yet Sidious remains weaker then Luke.

It's a fundamental difference between the Light and Dark sides. Light side cares. Dark side does not.

And yet, when Superman fights Zod, Superman wins. Cause ultimately, caring makes you stronger.
God that has to be without a doubt the corniest thing I've read in a long time.

Luke Skywalker is corny as hell tbh, but he puts to shame Vitiate. That much SWL proved

It's Star Wars. If you're not writing corny, you're doing it wrong.

Originally posted by ares834
An all out Luke moves black holes and cuts through legions of Vong. He does put almost everyone to shame TBH.

Originally posted by ares834
An all out Luke moves black holes and cuts through legions of Vong. He does put almost everyone to shame TBH.
Eh, its not the black hole that you are assuming it to be. And cutting through legions of Vong isn't better then cutting through legions of Mandalorians and Sith forces.

Though, don't worry, I will cover these battles as well.

Yes it kinda is since you, you know, can't feel the Vong through the force.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
Yes it kinda is since you, you know, can't feel the Vong through the force.
Precisely, Vong are the toughest non-Force User challenge for any Force User in the mythos and Luke stomped the greatest legion of them.

Luke's feats: manipulation of a black hole created by Dovin Basals of a vong vessel for defensive purposes against enemy firepower.

Era: NJO

Timeline: Before the events of confrontation with Lord Nyax (revealed earlier)

--

In Impervious 's cockpit, Luke pointed toward the large vehicle.

"Get us closer."

"Yes, Master Skywalker."

"How's the missile telemetry coming through, Artoo?"

The little droid tootled confidently, spinning his head around to look at Luke.

A beep sounded from the droid, and Elegos glanced at a secondary monitor. "I have four torpedo launches. All are hot."

"Good."

Luke sank back into the chair and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and reached out through the Force. He let his sense of things ride above the frayed ones' jagged profile and vectored in toward the vehicle.

He got no solid sense of it directly, though a few frayed ones did appear to be housed inside. Instead he used that emptiness as a way point to search out a void, and as it formed, the black hole blossomed fully in the Force.

The void that the vehicle's dovin basals created to intercept the missiles was a gravitic anomaly that had substance in the real world.

Tiny threads of the Force leaked into it as insects and birds, bats and bugs were pulled into it. Luke used their vanishing life traces and the very currents in the air that the void created to define the void. He traced its edges, knew exactly where it was, and knew how powerful it was.

He opened himself to the Force more fully than he had in years. He sought more power than he had when freeing his nephew. The Force flooded into him, at once molten-metal hot, yet as soothing as a cool rain. It swirled through him, filling every cell of his body, freeing him from fatigue, sharpening his mind.

Luke reached out with that power and latched onto the void that the Yuuzhan Vong vehicle had created. He pushed a bit, then tugged, in nanoseconds getting a feel for the power the dovin basals were able to exert to control the void. He almost smiled, since that amount of power was nothing compared to the Force, but he stopped himself short of pride in that fact.

"Artoo, juke the missiles."

R2-D2 keened sharply and fed the proton torpedoes a new set of data. The torpedoes twisted in flight and arced toward the sky, flying up and over the void. Then they turned again and fell toward the ground, aimed at the vehicle's spine.

Immediately the dovin basals started to shift the void to cover this new attack vector. Luke fed the Force into his hold on the void, thwarting them. Their pressure increased, and still Luke held it unmoving. The torpedoes got closer and closer. The dovin basals pulled harder, and when their effort reached a new peak, Luke let the void slip over toward intercepting the proton torpedoes.

The dovin basals devoted their efforts to sliding the void into place, which required both some lateral movement and shortening the arc over which the void would travel. As they brought it close to the vehicle, Luke pushed with the Force. Since the dovin basals were already tugging the void back toward the vehicle, they were not prepared to have the travel accelerated.

The void crashed into the vehicle, striking it in midspine. The long vehicle bent backward as both ends became sucked into the black hole. It flowed like thick liquid, all the sharp horns and bony plates becoming fluid as they curved up over the void's event horizon. In less than an eye blink the vehicle had been consumed by the void, leaving a huge gap in the Yuuzhan Vong formation.

Then the proton torpedoes detonated. One after another the four missiles slammed into the ground and exploded. Their blasts scattered Yuuzhan Vong warriors and lit the night. They gouged a huge canyon across the Yuuzhan Vong line of advance, and the shock waves were such that the ground rippled even into the refugee compound. Soldiers fell on both sides of the battlefield, and ramparts collapsed.

"What now, Master Skywalker?"

Luke stared at the Caamasi for a moment, trying to reply, but a wave of exhaustion crested over him and eroded his ability to think. He shook his head, then slumped back in the chair. The Force energy he had used to help the Yuuzhan Vong destroy themselves had drained out of him completely, leaving him limp and barely able to keep his eyes open.

Taken from (Star Wars: Dark Tide - Onslaught)

---

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Dovin Basals of a vong vessel created a black hole to protect itself from the firepower of a Republic vessel (i.e. Proton Torpedoes)

2. Luke sat on a chair and opened himself to the Force on a level that he had not in a span of years before, he then concentrated on the Vong black hole and began to manipulate it.

3. A tug-of-war began between Luke and Dovin Basals to manipulate the positioning of the black hole which led to black hole making contact with the vessel itself.

4. The vong black hole destroyed the vong vessel and evaporated.

5. The feat exhausted Luke and he relaxed for a while to recover.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
Yes it kinda is since you, you know, can't feel the Vong through the force.
If you are referring to the Jedi assault on Shimrra's stronghold then I shall remind you that Luke had not been fighting alone. Luke, Jacen and Jaina were a Strike Team.

In-fact, the Strike Team utilized battle-meld talent to increase their effectiveness:

The strength of their meld was such that the three might have been sharing the same mind, and that mind was the Force itself.

In addition, Jacen had vongsense and connection with the World Brain and he managed to convince it to rebel and this really turned the tide of the battle before it even began.

During the confrontation with the Vong Elites, the World Brain began to shake the setting and the Jedi benefitted from this development.

Most importantly, Jacen send a lightsaber into Luke's hand after the latter had been cornered and trapped by Shimrra, giving Luke the opportunity to win.

--

So much for the misrepresentation and wanking.

Interesting to actually see that dovil basin feat. Whats your evaluation of it, Legend?

Originally posted by Nephthys
Interesting to actually see that dovil basin feat. Whats your evaluation of it, Legend?
It is one of his best showings but he pulled it off with full concentration in meditative form.

Kyp Durron also have a similar showing:

Within the Force, within the broader range of senses it gave him, he tried to feel the presence of that void. He couldn't feel the Yuuzhan Vong or their creatures, but he could feel distortions in space, hard little nuggets of wrongness where there should be nothing.

He felt many of them, but didn't know which belonged to the interdictor, which to the coralskippers, and this rarefied sensory data didn't precisely translate to exact directions and distances. A void that felt far away could be from a coralskipper close at hand.

He armed a proton torpedo and fired it. He felt its physical presence as, in a matter of seconds, it closed the distance between him and the interdictor... and was swallowed by another void.

He felt it enter the void, felt which of the many singularities it was.

And he seized upon that void, directing all his Force abilities and discipline against it.

It was like using a thin metal rod to push a grounded landspeeder. Too much pressure and it would bend, becoming useless. Too little and nothing would happen. He had to find the right pressure to budge it, to set it into motion and keep it going that way...

For a moment, the only things in the universe were him, Jaina, and the void. He moved the void, turned it around, moved it back the other direction.

Then he was himself again, in the cockpit, watching the flank of the interdictor distort. The void had moved back and touched the interdictor, and now the interdictor elongated into it, extending what looked like a pliant extrusion of what he knew to be hardened yorik coral into the singularity.

The portions of the interdictor in closest proximity to the void accelerated faster into its maw so that portions farther back tore, venting gases into space. But the incredible gravity of the singularity didn't allow the remainder of the ship to tear away and be free. It dragged greater and greater portions of the interdictor into it, compressing them, rending them, and in a moment the interdictor was gone.

Kyp felt obliterated, bone-tired, as though he'd run for days, drawing on the Force to sustain him, and had finally settled down for rest. His diagnostics board was beeping at him and he spared it a glance.

Taken from (Enemy Lines - Rebel Dreams)

---

It shall be noted that these are (not) real cosmic black holes. These are vong creations, for the purpose of defense of their vessels, and no match for the real thing.

The real cosmic black holes are so massive and powerful that it is difficult to comprehend their power.

People just casually throw around the word black hole as if Luke manipulated a real one.

Semantics really. A black hole is a singularity and that's what they generate. And even a "small" black hole is going to be more massive than a moon (and likely a planet but I can't bother to do the math).

These are easily the two most impressive feats of TK in the mythos. Way beyond TKing capital ships or knocking down temples.

Originally posted by ares834
Semantics really. A black hole is a singularity and that's what they generate. And even a "small" black hole is going to be more massive than a moon (and likely a planet but I can't bother to do the math).

These are easily the two most impressive feats of TK in the mythos. Way beyond TKing capital ships or knocking down temples.
So Dovin Basals created a black hole the size of a planet to protect a single vessel? I wonder why other vessels did not get sucked into them.

You surely need to do the math, it seems.

Space magic. Dovin Basals didn't merely create a singularity the could control and direct the gravitanial field as well. Using them they could fly around and direct gravity beams to move moons or strip shields off space ships.

Now I don't actually argue that Luke can use TK to move planets because real world physics and fiction. I do, however, realize that these two TK feats trump all others by a rather wide margin.

Originally posted by ares834
Space magic. Dovin Basals didn't merely create a singularity the could control and direct the gravitanial field as well. Using them they could fly around and direct gravity beams to move moons or strip shields off space ships.

Now I don't actually argue that Luke can use TK to move planets because real world physics and fiction. I do, however, realize that these two TK feats trump all others by a rather wide margin.
Its not space magic. Its the nature of these artificial black holes, they have uses but are weak enough to be expendable.

The real black holes stay and expand if they consume matter. Even the smallest cosmic black holes are far bigger then our planet (even bigger then the Sun) and they are powerful enough to survive billions of years without consuming anything.

---

As for the intensity of the feats in question; they can be performed by a powerful Force-user with proper concentration as apparent from the example of Kyp Durron.

However, their are other feats which can be comparably taxing or worse such as Luke exerted full power to telepathically convince workers in the ruins of the ancient Jedi Temple to leave the region before the structures would collapse. In-fact, Luke drew power from the nexus to augment his original strength to perform this action. This happened during a break in the ongoing confrontation with Lord Nyax.

However, among TK feats, I have not yet dug enough to figure out the most tedious TK feat of the mythos yet but I have heard of one in which a Jedi channeled sufficient power through him (not his own) to move several cruisers but he ended up dead from the exertion. I don't recall the details at the moment.

Some other TK feats also require tremendous exertion such as using the Force to collapse a building or move a large starship and these have happened. I believe that these feats would considerably tax Luke Skywalker and require his full concentration, should he try.

It's space magic. They are breaking countless laws of phyics. Also most black holes are smaller than Earth just far more massive, I assume though that is what you meant. Nor am I sure what this talk about "surviving" is... Are you implying that they can "die"?

And just because Durron was capable of performing said feat doesn't mean others could as well. Rather it just shows how powerful Kyp is and that he has the strongest TK alongside Luke...

Dorsk 81 was the Jedi who pushed away a fleet, but as you note, it was not on his own and therefor not as impressive.

Originally posted by ares834
It's space magic. They are breaking countless laws of phyics. Also most black holes are smaller than Earth just far more massive, I assume though that is what you meant. Nor am I sure what this talk about "surviving" is... Are you implying that they can "die"?
Vong black holes are artificial manifestations for defense-related purposes so they do not conform to laws of physics. I just distinguish them from cosmic black holes to make assessment simple.

Cosmic black holes have two components: Singularity and Event Horizon. The former is the central component where all the matter is sucked into and the latter is the outer span of the black hole which facilitates in trapping matter. To give you the idea of mass of a cosmic black hole; its Singularity may have the diameter of New York City but its Event Horizon would cover 3 Suns. And this is a small black hole by cosmic standards.

To give you an idea, a real cosmic black hole would consume the entire fleet, planets, stars and vice versa. It have such a span.

Originally posted by ares834
And just because Durron was capable of performing said feat doesn't mean others could as well. Rather it just shows how powerful Kyp is and that he has the strongest TK alongside Luke...
Oh nice. I wonder if you had believed that any other Jedi could match Luke's vong black hole manipulation feat, if Kype had not performed it earlier.

Subjectivity would cloud your judgment.

Originally posted by ares834
Dorsk 81 was the Jedi who pushed away a fleet, but as you note, it was not on his own and therefor not as impressive.
Thanks for revealing the identity.

An ally of Tulak revealed that he once brought down a starship the size of Endar Spire from the space into planet. Doesn't sounds like a feat that can be performed without tremendous effort.

Don't know why you keep talking about black holes when I know how they work, especially since you seem not to. For future refrence, a singularity would not have a diameter the size of New York or a diameter at all TBH.

Anyway, moving one still remains the best TK feat in the mythos so whatever.

Originally posted by ares834
Don't know why you keep talking about black holes when I know how they work, especially since you seem not to. For future refrence, a singularity would not have a diameter the size of New York or a diameter at all TBH.
It was just a rough reference based on this:

Don't let the name fool you: a black hole is anything but empty space. Rather, it is a great amount of matter packed into a very small area - think of a star ten times more massive than the Sun squeezed into a sphere approximately the diameter of New York City. The result is a gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. In recent years, NASA instruments have painted a new picture of these strange objects that are, to many, the most fascinating objects in space.

The diameter of Event Horizon is easier to determine then singularity component itself due to the nature of the phenomenon.

Anyways, my position is that Vong black holes should not be regarded as same as real cosmic black holes.

Originally posted by ares834
Anyway, moving one still remains the best TK feat in the mythos so whatever.
One of the best, IMO.

As I pointed out earlier, if Luke had to move a starship, I don't think that he would find this task less stressful then his vong black hole manipulation feat.

At the very least I think we can agree on two things:

1) The dovin basals artificial black holes are NOT the same as the real thing.

2) Regardless, Luke being able to manipulate it as he did is a truly incredible feat.

I eagerly await the exposure of fanon hype of Vitiate. Keep up the good work.

I love how this thread covertly turned into an NJO respect thread, continue.

Originally posted by chilled monkey
At the very least I think we can agree on two things:

1) The dovin basals artificial black holes are NOT the same as the real thing.

2) Regardless, Luke being able to manipulate it as he did is a truly incredible feat.
Yes, this is what I have been asserting.

Though Kyp Durron matched no. 2 so the feat isn't unique for Luke or can be used to hype him.

Originally posted by S_W_LeGenD
Yes, this is what I have been asserting.

Though Kyp Durron matched no. 2 so the feat isn't unique for Luke or can be used to hype him.

So a feat has to be uniquely attributed to a character to be used to "hype" him?

Arbitrary rules are arbitrary.

And selectively applied, apparently.