Then another… then another
Over a dozen of the circles forming just within their line of sight alone, and Harry kept speaking the words, even when there was no visible effect upon the beachhead around them.
The brilliant flames, in both colors, but also in a variety of bizarre forms that the women didn't recognize, went in seemingly random directions. Some hitting the ships that still hovered in the air and some plunging right for the ocean's surface and engulfing the ships that skimmed the surface of the turbulent waters, waiting to land, while still others scoured up and down the paths of the beach, engulfing entrenched droid emplacements there.
The droids took nearly thirty seconds to react to this attack, especially as they were not expecting it. There had been no sign of an approaching attack force so they could not pinpoint the origin point.
Some of the transports tried to flee the flames only for the flames to shift directions as well and give chase. Some of the ships attempted to fire on the flames. The attacks did absolutely nothing to the flames, passing through like they weren't even there. Several ships fell to friendly fire as turbolaser blasts impacted other ships in the area adding to the chaos and destruction.
As more fire filled the sky, Harry began to move his arms. With the wand in his hand he looked like a demented conductor of the chaos in front of them, with the colored fire his responsive and attentive orchestra.
The two Jedi behind him could only stare, frozen in a state of pure astonishment. Ahsoka beside him kept looking back and forth between Harry and the fires in front of them. All the while they were swamped by the magic in the air as it seemed to claim the area for its own. It had been merely a minute since he uttered the conclusion of the first spell, and half of the droid occupation force lay in stationary and smoldering heaps amongst the oceans and beaches of Kashyyyk. They could only assume that, up and down the coast beyond their sight, the scene had repeated itself.
Elsewhere, the sudden shattering of the relative calm natural state of the Force had not left those who felt the shift as unmoved.
Yoda, Grand Master of the Jedi, was making his way through the Jedi Temple. He was walking slowly with his gimer stick as a cane and nodding to different Jedi as he passed them.
Events of late had been troubling to him. Fractures in the Order always present and easy to alleviate, were splitting open almost faster than he could move to mitigate their repercussions.
Some of the Order's flaws, only noticeable to those few amongst the highest echelons of leadership, had been foisted bluntly into the public's eye, without anything that would even remotely lessen the revelation of the ugliness of the truth.
It was a fickle thing, sometimes, leading a group of essentially volunteer peacekeepers in an effort to truly serve the greater good without compensation or recognition
The few times such recognition did happen, despite the Orders best efforts to curtail it, such as with Anakin Skywalker, it often caused others who had accomplished just as much but out of the limelight to begin to feel the stirring of emotions that were best left outside of the life of a Jedi. The decision the Council had made the other day regarding Anakin just highlighted this.
With all the meetings, discussions, and work needed to at least set the proverbial great ship right again, it was a relief when he found himself once again in the company of the future of the Order by his regularly scheduled classes with the groups of young initiates.
He had just finished instructing a group of younglings with training sabers. They were learning the very basics of trying to sense the remote moving through the air. Of course it was somewhat eventful as one of the younglings who showed some promise and almost no ability to hold himself back had gotten a little over eager and had managed to hit three other younglings with the training saber in one sweep.
Over 800 years of training Jedi, and he had long ago learned that there was always one in each group.
Yoda had just entered the elevator to take him back to his private meditation room when he felt it.
The Force… had not just trembled… or had a disturbance. No the Force itself was letting loose a cry of exultation? Of freedom? It was as if the Force, which they trained to hear the softest whispers was suddenly an entire instrumental line playing loudly and triumphantly.
His eyes widened in shock and his hand pressed against the wall to brace himself as he felt the Force rumble through his body in a way he felt down to his very core.
In over a thousand years, he had never experienced anything close to the tremors in the Force that had just washed over him.
It took all of his efforts to not go with his first instinct and attempt to blunt the impact of the energies as it slammed into his heightened senses. Instead, he painfully allowed himself to open up even more to the reverberations that he knew were echoing across the galaxy
A wave of power that he intended to follow his senses to the source… but his attention was diverted almost immediately. It was then, only for one brief shining moment that he felt it. The red and angry aura of a Sith.
The enemy was close.
Closer than Yoda had ever dreamed the adversary could be
If Yoda didn't know any better, he would say the Dark Lord that had declared war on the Jedi from the Shadows was not only on Coruscant at that very moment, but was within a few short kilometers of the Jedi Temple itself.
The revelation was short, as the Dark Lord shored up whatever method he used to hide himself from the Jedi, but the momentary lapse granted them something they had never before had.
It was enough to let Yoda draw numerous conclusions on their long-hidden and slippery foe.
Chief among them was that the Sith close by was powerful.
But many of those conclusions would come later. After all, it was only a second into the veritable Force Storm that had somehow been unleashed, and now he needed to ride this out before he could do anything with what he had just learned.
One fact Yoda knew instinctively, the Force that he had felt and served for a millennia was changed and would never feel the same way again.
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