Kerra Holt

Kerra Holt's birth occurred in 1050 BBY on the world known as Aquilaris Minor, which is situated in the Grumani sector. She was the firstborn daughter of Aron Holt, who worked as a skin diver, and Mercia Holt, who was an archaeologist. Kerra spent a significant portion of her early years on this planet, residing in the main city called Capital Cay. Both of her parents had attended the University of Sanbra. Prior to 1042 BBY, her parents were involved in a research endeavor aimed at locating the Helm of Ieldis, an ancient Sith artifact that dated back to the Great Hyperspace War. One of their research expeditions took them to the planet Sarrassia, where they made contact with the Grumani Hierophants, one of the numerous religious sects present on that planet. During this period, the Holt family formed a friendship with Aunt Zoojoo, a Woostoid Grumani priestess, who became a close family acquaintance. On one occasion, Kerra climbed onto the roof of the Great Hall, which caused the abbot to suffer a stroke. Her parents later reprimanded Kerra for her mischievous behavior.

In 1042 BBY, when Kerra was approximately eight years old, the planet Sanbra and its university were raided by Odion, a Sith Lord who was then fighting under the banner of Chagras, the ruler of the Chagras Hegemony. The research team managed to escape offworld, but not before Odion discovered information about the Helm and sought to use it to gain an advantage over his Sith rivals. The Holts and ten other researchers returned to their home on Aquilaris Minor. There, they planned to meet with several Jedi on Aquilaris, including Vannar Treece, a Jedi Knight and activist. However, Odion obtained intelligence that the researchers were there. He was subsequently authorized by Vilia Calimondra, the Sith matriarch, to invade Aquilaris under the pretext of capturing Treece, a long-standing enemy of the Sith.

Later that year, Aquilaris was invaded by Chagras Hegemony forces under Lord Odion, who overwhelmed the weak Republic defenses and slaughtered and enslaved much of the population. By that time, her mother, Mercia, was pregnant with their second child. During the invasion of Capital Cay, her parents were packing up and preparing to leave to prevent Odion from accessing their sensitive research. Her father, Aron, was seen carrying a blaster pistol in case Sith troops stormed their house. They planned to flee to the harbor and escape on a submersible operated by the Seacroppers' Guild. As their house was being besieged by Sith troopers, Kerra was instructed by her mother to flee to the harbor first. Her parents would then meet her there, and they would escape with her childhood friend Joad Kreel and his father into the open seas. Finally, Mercia told her daughter not to return looking for them and promised that they would join her there.

Kerra managed to reach the harbor, evading Hegemony forces who were pillaging the city. There, she met Joad, who was waiting by his Seacropper Submersible. His father had not returned, and he emphasized that they needed to leave since Odion had already arrived at the scene. By that time, Odion had already gained a reputation as a ruthless and violent conqueror. Joad also told Kerra that he would wait for her to bring her family back so she could escape underwater. Despite Joad's warnings that it was too dangerous to return to her home, Kerra ran back, determined not to be separated from her parents. By then, Odion's troops had captured both her parents and the other members of the research team. To conceal evidence about his secret project and indulge his nihilistic tendencies, Odion ordered the razing of the entire neighborhood block. By the time Kerra arrived at her burning home, all she found was her father's pistol.

Meanwhile, her friend Joad evacuated the harbor in his submersible alone to escape the Sith rampage and bombardment of the harbor. The two childhood friends would only be reunited several years later. During the subsequent house-to-house fighting that engulfed Capital Cay, Kerra encountered the Jedi Knight Vannar Treece. Initially, she mistook him for an intruder and nearly shot him with her blaster pistol. However, she quickly recognized him as a Jedi and told him how her family had instructed her to flee, but she returned because she did not know where else to go. Taking pity on her, Vannar informed Kerra that he had a starfighter hidden nearby and offered to help her escape offworld. He promised Kerra that they would return to Aquilaris when it was safe and that they would make it safe as Jedi.

Having lost her entire family, Kerra Holt found solace in her rescuer Vannar and the Jedi Order, considering them her new adopted family. Subsequently, she became a Padawan under Treece's guidance and resided on Coruscant, the capital of a diminished Galactic Republic centered around the Core Worlds and Colonies. Under the Jedi's care, Kerra experienced an active childhood. By the age of twelve standard years, she was already coordinating travel arrangements for volunteers. At the age of fourteen, Kerra was assisting in raising funds for Treece's "knight errant" operations into Sith Space. In the three years leading up to 1032 BBY, Kerra had been responsible for equipping Treece's Jedi operations. Thus, Kerra quickly acquired the necessary experience and skills to manage a volunteer paramilitary operation, which would prove crucial to her work as a Jedi operating as a "knight errant" in enemy territory.

One of her earliest assignments as a Padawan involved shutting down a smuggling ring operating in the Core Worlds that had been transporting fungi to Coruscant for processing into illegal narcotics. Law enforcement activities, such as spice interdiction, were often assigned to Jedi Padawans, as the Jedi and Republic were preoccupied with more pressing matters, such as the centuries-long protracted wars against the Sith and the effects of the Candorian plague. Kerra's experiences during that assignment exposed her to the effects of narcotics on people, leading her to conclude that they effectively deprived individuals of the power to control their own lives. This led Kerra to develop a negative view of narcotics and drug traffickers in her later career. By 1032 BBY, she had passed her Jedi Trials and become a novice Jedi Knight.

While most of the Jedi Order had retreated to the safety of the Core Worlds to fend off a Sith invasion, her Master Vannar continued to stage hit-and-run "knight errant" operations into Sith Space with the tacit approval of Genarra, the Supreme Chancellor. Vannar's operations were driven by his concern for the plight of the billions of sentient beings living under Sith rule. For these operations, Treece utilized volunteers rather than regular Jedi and Republic military personnel, as both Genarra and the Ministry of Defense were hesitant to commit substantial forces and resources to invading Sith-controlled territories due to the Republic's weakened state. He was also able to exploit a loophole that granted Jedi Knights a period of sixteen days of free travel anywhere in the galaxy between their regular routine of serving three months in law enforcement patrols and nine months of active service on the Republic's contracting frontiers. As of 1032 BBY, Vannar's missions were the only Jedi activity in the entire Grumani sector.

In the year 1032 BBY, Treece received crucial information from his longtime friend and former Jedi Knight, Gorlan Palladane. This intel revealed that the Sith warlord Daiman had discovered substantial deposits of baradium, an unstable substance vital for creating weapons like thermal detonators, on the agricultural planet of Chelloa. Following the disintegration of the Chagras Hegemony around 1040 BBY, Lord Daiman had founded an autonomous territory known as the Daimanate, fostering a cult of personality around his self-proclaimed status as "creator of the universe." The baradium was being mined from deep underground and then transported off-world to munitions factories located near the battle lines. Daiman was exploiting the local population as slaves while he relentlessly strip-mined the planet for its valuable resources.

Fearing that Daiman's access to baradium would disrupt the power balance in the Grumani sector, Treece organized a covert team to disrupt the off-world baradium shipments. This operation, codenamed "Operation Influx," was structured as a three-part process involving infiltration, sabotage, and a return to Republic territory. Given the gravity of Operation Influx, Vannar meticulously selected several experienced Jedi who were indebted to him. Among these were the Trandoshan Jedi Knight Mrssk, a veteran of previous Treece missions, and the Quarren Jedi Master Berluk, renowned within the Jedi Order for his combat prowess. Kerra initially named this mission Operation Deadlock. However, Treece changed it to Operation Influx, realizing that the original name exposed their secret strategy of pitting the Sith Lords against each other. This risked alienating civilian populations under occupation who saw the Jedi as their saviors, and it could enable the Sith to decipher the Republic's tactics.

This marked Kerra's first return to the Grumani sector since her homeworld was invaded by the Sith eight years prior. Her master, Treece, had learned of the baradium operations from his old comrade and undercover Jedi operative, Gorlan Palladane, who led the Chelloan resistance. Palladane and his Rodian mechanic friend Skodo had used a hijacked transmitter to reactivate a hyperspace relay and establish contact with Treece. However, the Sith Lord Odion had been monitoring these transmissions and prepared to invade Chelloa. This Sith Lord, driven by nihilistic beliefs, believed that the planet's high concentration of baradium caused an imbalance in the Force and therefore needed to be destroyed.

Vannar's Jedi strike team journeyed to the planet Oranessan aboard an unidentifiable Jedi starship. This planet, a polluted and rain-soaked world, was strategically located on a key hyperlane within the Daimanate. As they approached Oranessan, the Jedi intercepted and destroyed a Daimanate personnel shuttle. This shuttle was transporting flight crews to the planet's spaceport, where a fleet of Daimanate Heavy-Lift Starcrosser transports awaited departure for Chelloa. These crews were intended to operate the large transports. The shuttle crashed on a hilltop in the mud flats, and the Jedi quickly secured the crew's uniforms and identification. During the initial phase of Operation Influx, Kerra was part of a four-member advance team, including her Master Treece and the Cerean Dorvin Eltrom, that approached the spaceport where the Starcrosser transports were departing for Chelloa.

The Jedi quartet then encountered a Daimanite group consisting of a female ground crew chief and four armed sentries who attempted to punish them for being late to a flight preparation meeting that had occurred twenty minutes earlier. The Jedi swiftly eliminated the Daimanite sentries using their lightsabers. Kerra personally killed the ground crew chief, seizing her control device and jumpsuit for later use. After acquiring the equipment of the deceased Daimanites, the four Jedi commandeered an unoccupied Starcrosser transport. Vannar then contacted the rest of the team via comlink, confirming that the target vessel was secured, Operation Influx was underway, and they could rejoin the advance team at the transport.

During a brief exchange with her master Vannar, Kerra reflected on her shift from using Force Persuasion to lightsaber combat during the encounter with the ground crew chief. Kerra confessed her dislike for impersonating a Sith, to which Vannar replied that subterfuge was essential for operating in enemy territory. Before leaving Oranessan, Kerra had another short conversation with Dorvin, the Cerean. He inquired whether her decision to wield a green lightsaber indicated her ambition to become a Jedi Consular like Chancellor Genarra. Kerra explained that she had simply grabbed a lightsaber crystal from the top of a pile, which happened to be green. Dorvin was disappointed by Kerra's lack of interest in becoming a Jedi Consular. However, Kerra did not believe in adhering to tradition, as she was more focused on rapidly acquiring Jedi skills to combat the Sith and avenge the invasion of her homeworld.

Before they could depart for Chelloa, the Jedi team faced a new problem: the transport's navigation computer lacked an activation cylinder, a small device needed to initiate hyperspace travel. While the Starcrosser could still take off, it could not make a hyperspace jump, potentially aborting Operation Influx. Meanwhile, the other transports were already heading to Chelloa. Kerra suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to retrieve a dispatch case from the wreckage of the downed personnel shuttle. The case was trapped under one of the shuttle's consoles, and she had mistaken it for a personal item. While it was standard Republic procedure for flight crews to keep their activation cylinders with the ships, the Trandoshan Jedi Mrssk explained that the Starcrosser lacked one because Daiman required his flight crews to keep them on their person to minimize the risk of desertion.

When Kerra expressed her frustration at failing to retrieve the dispatch case, Treece sympathized, acknowledging that she could not do everything. The Jedi could not travel to Chelloa on their own ship because the planet was heavily guarded by Daiman's forces. Time was running out, as they had only one hour to infiltrate Chelloa, sabotage the baradium shipment, and escape to neutral space. Vannar considered activating the backup plan, which involved flying the transport back to their hidden Jedi vessel and using it to destroy the Daimanite transports before returning to the Republic. However, this plan had a significant drawback: Daiman could reroute other vessels to Chelloa. Kerra opposed this idea and suggested hijacking an ore transport, but Vannar rejected it because the ore transports were heavily armed.

Ultimately, Kerra proposed returning to the wrecked shuttle to retrieve the dispatch case. Vannar was hesitant, not wanting to risk the lives of the Jedi Knights involved. However, Kerra was determined to carry out Operation Influx, given the substantial investment of energy, time, and resources. At that moment, they were interrupted by an announcement from the Sith control tower on Oranessan, ordering them to hasten their departure or face punishment. Vannar then instructed the team to proceed with the fallback plan. He dismissed walking the several kilometers back to their hidden Jedi ship due to the wet conditions. Vannar also ordered Dolvin to secure all the vessel's hatchways.

However, Kerra disobeyed her master's orders and used her stolen remote control to open the transport's main cargo hatchway as it was taking off. Donning the fallen ground crew chief's overalls, she headed to the spaceport's hangar bay, which stored replacement navicomputers and activation cylinders. Despite flying at low altitude, the transport's external sensors were unable to detect Kerra due to Oranessan's harsh weather. After several minutes, Kerra returned to the departing Starcrosser transport, using her lightsaber as a beacon.

Soaked and exhausted, Kerra climbed back onto the transport's cargo deck, presenting the activation cylinder to her pleased master. Kerra explained that she had obtained the activation cylinder by infiltrating the hangar while disguised as a worker. Her stolen clothes and the busy period of the day allowed her to evade detection. When Treece remarked that he thought Kerra hated posing as a Sith, she replied that she hated letting them win even more. Having secured the activation cylinder, the Starcrosser transport was now capable of making a hyperspace jump. With the successful completion of the first phase of Operation Influx, the relieved Treece and Kerra shared jokes before their journey to Chelloa.

Using a captured cargo liner, the Jedi team infiltrated Jenith's spaceport and, with the support of the slaves, rapidly overwhelmed Daiman's security forces. During the assault, Holt rescued Palladane and a group of miners from being assaulted by Daiman's thugs at the South Work Yards. She incapacitated a T'surr Daimanate Sith trooper with her lightsaber, while Gorlan disabled a Human officer. Despite the warm welcome from the liberated slaves, Palladane was disappointed that the mission was a quick raid rather than a full-scale liberation of Chelloa. Holt defended her master, explaining that the Republic's financial constraints had limited the resources available to the Jedi. Nevertheless, Treece planned to evacuate as many slaves as possible on their cargo liner.

The Jedi strike team successfully landed at Jenith's spaceport aboard their stolen Daimanate cargo liner. During the raid, they rammed a squad of Daimanate Sith troopers and destroyed several cargo liners to disorient their Sith adversaries. They then overpowered the security guards with the assistance of the mining workers, many of whom were members of the Chelloan resistance. During the melee, Kerra was eager to demonstrate her combat skills with the lightsaber. However, her Master Treece cautioned her against recklessness, reminding her that she had already passed her trials. He then reminded Holt that her mission was to rendezvous with Gorlan Palladane, who was gathering a group of miners in the South Work Yard. She and Palladane's group would then rejoin the main force after the fighting.

Treece also mentioned to Holt that she could become the charismatic leader running "hopeless" missions in the future. She jokingly replied that her job was to make the charismatic leader "look good" before departing for her assignment. Holt rescued Gorlan Palladane and his fellow miners from being killed by a T'surr Daimanate Sith officer, who intended to kill them as part of a scorched earth strategy to prevent opponents from securing Daiman's labor force. She knocked out a T'surr Daimanate Sith trooper with her lightsaber, while Gorlan incapacitated a Human officer with his crowbar. Holt then escorted Palladane and his companions to the spaceport. By this time, the Sith garrison had been defeated, and Treece was being welcomed by a jubilant multi-species crowd of laborers and miners. Vannar and Gorlan reunited and shook hands as close friends. Vannar also introduced Gorlan to Kerra, presenting him as his top-secret intelligence source.

Palladane had used his position as a community leader and relief worker in the spaceport town of Jenith as a cover for his work as an undercover field operative for the Jedi Order. However, tensions arose when Gorlan pointed out that the small size of the Jedi task force was insufficient to liberate Chelloa. Vannar explained that Operation Influx was not a rescue mission but a preemptive strike to sabotage the distribution of baradium and prevent further incursions into the remaining Republic territories. Gorlan criticized Vannar's "filibustering raid" as inadequate in helping ordinary people living under Sith rule. Kerra intervened, defending her Master by asserting that a small tactical raid would keep the Sith deadlocked.

Vannar then spoke to Kerra privately, acknowledging Gorlan's point but admitting that he could not help everyone. However, he noted that their transport ship still had enough space for the dock crew. He instructed her to personally assist Gorlan in mobilizing anyone willing to flee to Republic space. Kerra argued that she should be assisting the other Jedi in the demolitions work, given her orbital reconnaissance of the site. Gorlan countered that her knowledge of the site's dimensions could also be used for more peaceful work, emphasizing that might and mercy were both essential.

Kerra agreed and began tending to a wounded Duros laborer. However, they were distracted by the rumbling of engines coming from Squatter's Hill. Daiman's rival and estranged brother, Sith Lord Odion, had arrived with an attack force consisting of landing ships and a Kinetic corruptor, a massive repulsorlift vehicle capable of harvesting baradium from the surface by igniting it. Earlier, Palladane and the Rodian mechanic Skodo had contacted the Jedi by using a transmitter to activate a routing station in space. While the Jedi received his transmission, it was also intercepted by Daiman's estranged older brother and fellow Sith Lord Odion, who ruled an independent domain known as the Odionate.

Chelloa's narcissistic ruler, Lord Daiman, viewed himself as the Creator of the universe and all other beings as soulless automatons. Meanwhile, the nihilistic Odion saw himself as the self-appointed Destroyer of life, which he considered an obstacle to achieving true peace. While Treece planned to disrupt the shipping operations, Odion sought to destroy Chelloa because he believed that the high concentration of baradium on Chelloa created an imbalance within the Force. In the ensuing battle, Odion unleashed his Force-sensitive Novitiate acolytes on Vannar's Jedi team. Both Kerra and Vannar expressed surprise at Odion's presence, as Chelloa was located far from the Odionate's supply lines. Kerra attempted to join the fight and kill Odion in revenge for the destruction and suffering inflicted on her homeworld ten years earlier.

However, Vannar reminded Kerra of his previous order to assist Gorlan in evacuating the people, stressing that Daiman would be returning with reinforcements. He ordered her to evacuate Gorlan's people from Chelloa, emphasizing that dealing with Odion was his sole responsibility. Kerra returned to the freighter only to find that Gorlan was refusing to leave because he still had family in Jenith. Gorlan also pointed out that there were still sixty thousand people in the slave cities of Chelloa and that he was still needed as the de facto leader of the Chelloan resistance. Upon learning this, Kerra correctly deduced that Odion was trying to destroy Chelloa because it was too far from his supply lines to defend effectively. She told Gorlan to evacuate while she rejoined the fight to defeat Odion.

During the ensuing duel, Vannar confronted Odion atop an automated repulsorlift platform, with the two men taunting each other. Meanwhile, the Kinetic corruptor was beginning its activation process. Kerra interrupted the duel and attempted to stop the Kinetic corruptor by damaging its cables. However, Odion stopped her and used the Force to hurl the young Jedi onto the repulsorlift platform. Vannar quickly attended to Kerra and sternly reminded her to resume her original mission before sending the repulsorlift platform back to the spaceport by pressing its control button. By then, the ground had begun shaking, and Odion gloated that his baradium experts had discovered how to detonate baradium. Taken by surprise, Treece was impaled by Odion from behind, and all of the Jedi team except Holt were killed in the resulting magma explosion. This explosion also killed and wounded many of Odion's cultists, Chelloan workers, and Daiman's guards. Kerra was rescued by Gorlan, who took her aboard the Starcrosser transport, which was protected from the magma flow due to its distance from the site. Vannar's death was sensed in the Force by Kerra, who became the last surviving member of the Jedi mission and was stranded on Chelloa.

As the survivors began tending to the wounded, Lord Daiman arrived on a repulsorcraft. Despite the immense loss of life and the numerous burn victims, Daiman was indifferent and demanded to see Palladane. Palladane pleaded for help in treating the wounded, but Daiman was more concerned with discovering how his rival Odion and the Jedi had uncovered his secret baradium mining operations. When Palladane claimed ignorance, Daiman used Force choke to strangle him. However, Kerra intervened, attempting to force Daiman to stop tormenting Palladane at gunpoint.

Amused by her courage and dismissing her as an orphan, Daiman released Palladane and fondled her, making obscene gestures. He mockingly told her to embrace her anger as a distraction and released her, preoccupied with the threat Odion posed to his goals. Showing little concern for the well-being of his subjects, Daiman ordered them to erect one of his statues in the village square before dismissing the crowd. Later, at his alpine compound above Jenith, he tortured the Rodian worker Skodo with Force lightning in an attempt to force him to confess to contacting Odion. Skodo had been found with a transmitter that he and Palladane had used to contact Odion with information about Daiman's baradium operations.

However, Daiman's torture session was interrupted by the arrival of Holt, who engaged him in a duel. She trapped Daiman in a suspension field before arguing with the temporarily incapacitated Sith Lord. When she criticized his mistreatment of slaves, Daiman countered by reiterating his personal Sith philosophy, asserting that he was the only true living being. To distract Holt, he revealed that his brother Odion was preparing a second attack and that Odion possessed a mobile space station known as The Spike, capable of producing various weapons, particularly kinetic corruptors. A single kinetic corruptor could ignite the entire planet of Chelloa due to its vast baradium deposits. Daiman managed to break free, but Holt escaped, hijacking one of Daiman's starfighters deployed to attack The Spike.

Viewing Odion as a threat to his control of baradium extraction on Chelloa, Daiman had dispatched a small strike force of Daimanate starfighters to disable The Spike. However, his light starfighters were destroyed by Odion's gunships. Amid the attack, Holt ejected from her starfighter into space and infiltrated The Spike through an open hatch. Discarding her spacesuit, she disabled a service droid and made her way to Pod Seventeen in the vast assembly area. There, Holt overpowered a labor droid known as GAD-3 and reset his motivation center. In exchange for Holt repairing his robotic arms, Gad-3 revealed that The Spike was dedicated solely to the production of kinetic corruptors and that all floors were decentralized from the main structure for security reasons. Gad-3 then warned Holt that she should not have come alone.

At that moment, they were interrupted by the arrival of Odion and his Givin second-in-command Jelcho. However, Odion did not initially sense Holt or Gad-3, as they were hidden under the catwalk. Odion was preoccupied with using his corruptors to extract Chelloa's baradium deposits. From Odion's conversation with Jelcho, Holt learned that an unidentified informant had provided the Odionates with intelligence on Daiman's baradium operations. In a recorded transmission, the informant claimed that all of Daiman's mining operations were permanently offline, attempting to divert Sith attention away from Chelloa. However, Odion dismissed the informant's latest reports as an attempt by Daiman or other parties to undermine his planned baradium operations. Meanwhile, Holt released GAD-3 and sent him back to his station with instructions to open another door when she gave the signal.

Odion concluded the meeting by ordering all his kinetic corruptors to be prepared for landing on Chelloa to harvest all the baradium. Due to the volatile nature of baradium, much of Chelloa would be destroyed and rendered uninhabitable. While gloating about his recent victory over the Jedi, particularly Master Treece, Odion suddenly sensed the presence of an intruder through the Force. In a fit of rage, he ripped apart the catwalk and discovered Holt. He engaged her in a duel. Kerra led him into a pursuit. Kerra was also pursued by a mob of armed Gamorrean guards, followers of Odion who craved dying in combat. The fighting led the combatants through a series of catwalks to the upper levels of the Spike, the main structure supporting the various assembly lines.

In a verbal confrontation, Kerra told Odion that she had attacked him aboard his space station to drive him away from Chelloa, thus saving the lives of thousands of sentients. She also revealed that Daiman's mobile munitions factories were bringing in thousands more slaves daily. Odion dismissed Holt's concerns for innocent lives, arguing that all sentients existed only to be killed by him. Due to his nihilistic philosophy, Odion saw himself as the destroyer of all life in the galaxy and embraced death. As he prepared to strike Holt down with his lightsaber, she played her final card by ordering the reprogrammed Gad-3 to open all containment fields, thus exposing much of the space station to zero-gravity space. This triggered an explosion that wrecked large areas of The Spike, destroying many labor droids and killing many workers. Further destruction was averted after Jelcho reactivated the emergency shielding. As with all Givin, Jelcho had a tough exoskeleton that could seal all external orifices for protection against depressurization, allowing him to survive in hard vacuum.

Amid the chaos, Holt hijacked a construction shuttle, incapacitated the pilot, and fled into space. Meanwhile, Odion ordered his entourage back to his flagship Sword of Ieldis. Understanding his Jedi opponent, Odion knew that Holt would return to confront him. In an ensuing cat-and-mouse chase in space, Holt's shuttle engaged Odion's gunship. Anticipating that Holt was going to ram her shuttle into his ship, he ordered his crew to open fire. However, the duel was interrupted by an incoming transmission from Lord Daiman.

In a broadcast transmitted live from his stronghold on Chelloa, Daiman, enraged, revealed to Odion that he had captured and subjected Palladane, his informant, to torture. As a consequence of the intelligence breach, Daiman initiated a forceful military action against all mining outposts on Chelloa, during which his soldiers devastated and plundered the homes of the Chelloan inhabitants. Witnessing her friend's predicament, Holt broke off her journey and made an immediate jump to hyperspace. By divulging information about Daiman's mobile factory installations, Holt successfully dissuaded Odion from employing his kinetic corruptors to obliterate Chelloa. Odion's elite Lightning Guard was mobilized for a ground assault, commencing with the seizure of Daiman's foundries located near the baradium mines. His broader objective was to conquer Chelloa and incorporate it into his interstellar domain, known as the Odionate.

Concurrently, Holt journeyed back to Jenith, a mining settlement, with the intent of shielding Palladane's family from Daiman's vengeance. She arrived just in time to prevent two Sith troopers from harming Gorlan Palladane's family. Upon discovering Palladane's imprisonment, Holt secured passage on one of Daiman's shuttles and secretly entered Daiman's compound, where she neutralized the Sith guards and released the captives. Kerra then rescued the injured Palladane from Daiman's prison cells. Gorlan disclosed that his attempts to contact the Jedi using a transmitter had drawn the attention of Odion, who had intercepted the interstellar signal. Initially, he believed Odion's attack was coincidental until Skodo's death at Daiman's hands.

Sensing Palladane's honorable motives, she reassured him that his actions served the best interests of his people. Palladane further revealed that Odion was deploying a fleet of kinetic corruptors and that Daiman was preparing for a confrontation with his Sith rival. At this point, Holt understood that her primary mission was to evacuate the Chelloan populace rather than to eliminate the two Sith Lords, Daiman and Odion. However, before departing with Palladane and the village leaders on their shuttle, she personally decapitated all of Daiman's statues as a symbol of defiance.

Subsequently, Palladane, Holt, and the other village leaders sought refuge in a safehouse located in the town of Arboth, where he was reunited with his family. Meanwhile, Holt observed the massive transports conveying workers to Daiman's mobile munitions facilities and noticed they were empty. Concluding that Daiman had no plans to further invest in his mining and industrial ventures on Chelloa, she proposed to Palladane that they utilize the empty transports to evacuate the entire population of Chelloa: 60,000 individuals dispersed across ten mining towns. Aware of Odion's intention to conquer Chelloa, Daiman had intentionally allowed Holt to escape to Odion, thereby leaking information about the mobile munitions plants. Odion intended to use these factories for his own purpose of defeating Daiman's forces. Seeking to support a fellow Jedi in what he perceived as a righteous cause, Palladane offered his assistance to Holt and reactivated his lightsaber, signifying his renewed commitment to the Jedi Order.

Meanwhile, Lord Odion launched an invasion of Chelloa with a planetary assault force composed of elite Lightning Guards. Following his earlier encounter with Holt, Odion had abandoned his plan to annihilate Chelloa with his kinetic corruptors, swayed by intelligence suggesting Daiman was expanding baradium mining operations using mobile munitions complexes. Desiring an industrial base to support his war efforts, Odion altered his strategy to capturing these factories. However, this maneuver played directly into Daiman's scheme to eliminate both the Jedi and his estranged sibling. In reality, the mobile factories were actually disguised Kinetic Corruptors designed to incinerate Odion's troops while simultaneously destroying Chelloa's surface, rendering it uninhabitable. As planned, Odion's forces landed on the surface and overwhelmed a poorly equipped contingent of Daimanate soldiers. They arrived at the pyramidal factories only to realize too late that they were, in fact, Kinetic corruptors. The corruptors initiated an explosion that ignited the volatile gases beneath Chelloa's surface, resulting in the deaths of numerous Odionate and Daimanate combatants. Meanwhile, Daiman and his forces prepared to escape using a fleet of transport vessels.

With Daiman occupied, Holt and Palladane orchestrated a mass evacuation of Chelloa's inhabitants by organizing the villagers into teams. These teams infiltrated the spaceport at Arboth and seized control of the transport fleet, overpowering the crew and guards. By the end of the engagement, they had successfully evacuated the majority of Chelloa's population on a hastily assembled fleet known as the Freedom Fleet. Facing imminent death from lava flows triggered by the kinetic corruptors, Odion and his surviving troops fled towards Daiman's transports at Arboth, but were prevented from boarding by Kerra and Gorlan. Having accomplished their objective and with all teams safely aboard, the Freedom Fleet departed into space.

Meanwhile, Holt confronted Odion, mocking him for missing the "flight" and challenging him to conclude their duel. This escalated into a fierce lightsaber battle in the upper atmosphere above Chelloa. The Jedi Knight commandeered an airspeeder while her Sith adversary donned a jetpack. Kerra managed to reach one of the ascending cargo liners, but Odion caught up with her. He taunted her by recounting the killings on Aquilaris in an attempt to provoke her into attacking him. However, this duel was interrupted by Gorlan, who opened one of the entry hatches while secured to a cable. Armed with a lightsaber, Palladane engaged the Sith Lord and drove him towards the engine thrusters, expressing his desire for vengeance. During the confrontation, both men sustained severe burns, but Odion managed to escape due to his jetpack.

Mortally wounded, Palladane crawled back to the entry hatch with Holt's assistance. In his final moments, Palladane remarked that Kerra was dying for the wrong cause while he himself was living for the wrong cause. Kerra pledged to bring the Chelloan people back into Republic space, but Palladane reminded her that they were now her people and that she had a responsibility to save billions of other sentients living under Sith oppression. She internalized this message and formulated a new mission: to remain in Sith space and rescue as many individuals as possible.

After witnessing the Freedom Fleet's departure towards Republic space, Kerra journeyed to Daiman's throne world, Darkknell, disguised as a traveling worker. During her journey, which lasted several weeks, she made stops at various planets housing munitions and weapons factories, which she sabotaged. On one such world, Nilash III, she freed the enslaved workers and delivered a symbolically potent message to Daiman by decapitating the statues he had erected in his own honor.

Following the events on Chelloa and Nilash III, Kerra returned to the Grumani sector to continue her campaign against the Sith warlords. Her actions eventually drew the attention of the Sith Lord Vilia Calimondra, the matriarch of the Calimondra family and the de facto administrator of the Sith principalities within that region of the Outer Rim. Kerra primarily focused her efforts on Daiman and Odion, the self-proclaimed Creator and Destroyer of the universe. The Jedi Knight Errant infiltrated Darkknell, the capital of Daiman's princedom. Daiman resided in Xakrea, the planet's largest city, within a massive fortress known as Sanctum Celestial, which had been constructed with significant labor and resources. In Xakrea, Kerra secured employment as a traveling laborer and part-time tutor at the residence of Gub Tengo, a reclusive Sullustan scribe and the grandfather of Tan Tengo, a twelve-year-old Sullustan girl. As Gub was preoccupied with altering documents to conform to the new Daimanite alphabet, he delegated the responsibility of educating his granddaughter to Kerra.

Kerra's role as a tutor served as a cover for her plans to destroy the Daimanate Dynamic Testing Facility, also known as "Black Fang," Daiman's primary research and development center for his war efforts. The Jedi hoped to undermine Daiman's war machine, thereby preventing millions more from falling victim to Sith invasion. While conducting reconnaissance on the site, Kerra discovered the presence of another foreign operative: Narsk Ka'hane, a Bothan spy and Odionate mercenary secretly employed by Vilia Calimondra. Narsk had previously served as an intelligence operative for various Sith employers, including Odion. He had been tasked by Odion with gathering intelligence on Daiman's starship, Convergence, which was under construction at the Black Fang facility, and subsequently destroying the vessel.

Utilizing a Cyricept Personal Concealment System, Mark VI stealth suit, Narsk infiltrated the testing facility and downloaded the Convergence's technical data onto a datapad. After planting several baradium thermal charges on the ship, Narsk exited the facility. However, Kerra spotted him, having learned his routine as he consistently used the same reform to store and change into his stealth suit. Kerra sought to acquire the Mark VI for her own use against Daiman. Following a chase through the streets of Xakrea, Holt incapacitated Narsk and activated his remote detonator, resulting in the destruction of the testing facility. After a verbal exchange with the Bothan, Kerra stole Narsk's Mark VI and detonator. She then abandoned the Bothan in a garbage container, where he was apprehended by Daiman's police, the Correctors.

Following a mission, Kerra returned to the Tengo residence. Along the way, she passed a large holographic statue of Daiman surrounded by seven smaller statues. Daiman's holographic image served as a source of news and indoctrination for his subjects. Kerra observed that Daiman's practice of erecting holographic displays reinforced the myth of his omnipresence and control over all weather patterns. Her pursuit of the Bothan had led her to the Manufacturers' District, necessitating her passage by the destroyed Black Fang facility on her way home. On her return journey, she passed four of Daiman's sentries, one of whom had been severely burned during the explosion and was subsequently euthanized by his three colleagues. Equipped with the stolen Mark IV stealth suit, Kerra was prepared for the second phase of her mission: assassinating Daiman.

Upon arriving back at the Tengo residence, Kerra concealed the stealth suit in the bedroom she shared with Tan. She was confronted by Gub, who inquired about her whereabouts the previous night. Kerra claimed that she had been working at the munitions factory during the wraith-watch shift, the shift devoid of daylight regardless of the season. As Darkknell tilted sharply on its axis during the winter solstice, this shift became the pitch-black third of the daily 24-hour cycle. However, the Sullustan grandfather countered that this was a falsehood, as one of her colleagues had contacted them, requesting her presence at work in the morning. Gub reminded her that this was not the first instance of her disappearing for the night. Kerra then claimed that she had been on a romantic date and promised that it would not happen again. Gub accepted her apology and reiterated that she was contracted to tutor his granddaughter Tan after she completed her work.

Due to Kerra's demanding work schedule, she had insufficient time for sleep. Meanwhile, Narsk was captured by Daiman's Correctors and subjected to torture by the Sith Lord. While he admitted to being a spy and having a hand in the destruction of the Black Fang facility, he refused to reveal his true employer. However, Daiman suspected that his brother Odion was involved in the destruction of Black Fang and devised a plan to lure him into a trap. This involved purchasing an arxeum, a mobile university dedicated to the science of war, from Ayanos Bactra, a Quermian Sith Lord who ruled the Bactranate and possessed lucrative corporate assets. Daiman had recently permitted one of Bactra's corporations, Industrial Heuristics, to recruit students from Darkknell and other regions within his territory—known as the Daimanate—in exchange for the fruits of the students' research. Daiman would arrange for the business exchange to occur on the volcanic planet Gazzari, setting a trap for Odion. Daiman's fleet would then emerge from hyperspace, trapping Odion on Gazzari.

Kerra learned of Daiman's secret plot when Ler-Laar Joom, a Gran, and Eraffa, an Ishi Tib —two representatives from Industrial Heuristics—visited the Tengo household. These talent scouts were recruiting youth from across the Daimanate as prospective students at Daiman's new arxeum. Tan attracted the attention of these corporate talent scouts due to her technical expertise in salvaging old electronics and her mathematical aptitude. They promised the Sullustan girl a better life, where she would be trained to develop a new generation of bombsights for the Daimanite war effort. Due to her impoverished lifestyle and limited job prospects on Darkknell, Tan was overjoyed at the offer, viewing it as an opportunity for a better future. For the children and youths conscripted into this project, it entailed relocating to a new home and long-term separation from their families.

With Tan departing, her grandfather Gub no longer required Kerra's services as a tutor and instructed her to leave. This allowed Kerra to proceed with her mission of assassinating Daiman. For her mission to the Sanctum Celestial, Kerra donned her newly acquired Mark IV stealth suit. She infiltrated the fortress, where Daiman was conducting a holo-meeting with Bactra to discuss the sale of the arxeum and their planned rendezvous at Gazzari. Daiman also had Narsk present at the meeting, albeit restrained within a torture wheel, so that he could eavesdrop on the meeting and then report back to his employer, who would take the bait and enter his trap on Gazzari. In exchange for the arxeum, Daiman would provide Bactra with the students while granting the Sith Lord's fleet safe passage through the Daimanate to strike at Vellas Pavo, a planet rich in gadolinium. Bactra agreed to deliver the arxeum to Gazzari, located on the frontier of Daiman's border with the Odionate.

Kerra witnessed these proceedings and then stealthily exited the auditorium, narrowly avoiding detection by both Narsk and Daiman. Following the meeting, Narsk was taken to a secluded maintenance unit, where he encountered Kerra. As part of the trap, Daiman ordered his Gamorrean guards to loosen Narsk's bonds, allowing him to escape. When Narsk asked Kerra if she had come to return his stolen property, Kerra replied that it depended on the information the Bothan provided and how quickly he disclosed it. Narsk agreed to trade the information for his freedom, emphasizing that he was not in the business of aiding Jedi. Narsk quickly revealed that Daiman was traveling to Gazzari on his flagship. When Kerra inquired whether this trip was connected to Daiman's dealings with Bactra, Narsk only agreed to disclose this information once she had moved his gyroscopic torture wheel outside. Upon arriving outside the Sanctum Celestial, Narsk reneged on his earlier agreement by demanding that she take him in exchange for him revealing the information, adding that his life was in danger because he had made an enemy of Daiman.

However, Kerra refused to cooperate, as she did not work with the Sith or their collaborators. After taunting Narsk about his slim chances of survival down the chute, Kerra pushed the captive Bothan and his torture wheel down a long stone trough leading downwards from Daiman's palace. However, Narsk survived this fall and emerged in a junkyard. Narsk also managed to reach a spaceport, where he found offworld transport on a freighter heading to a neutral planet in the Grumani sector, a regular destination for visitors from the Odionate. After two standard days, Narsk found his way back to the Odionate. There, he informed Odion about Daiman's deal with Bactra. Most importantly, he also alerted his master to the presence of the Jedi Knight Kerra, which piqued Odion's interest as he sought revenge against the Jedi woman for seriously wounding him on Chelloa.

As part of his trap, Daiman also invited several mercenaries to the Sanctum Celestial to assist him in executing the ambush. Among them were Brigadier Jarrow Rusher, Mak Medagazy, Kr'saang the Togorian, and an unidentified Nosaurian mercenary. After his meeting with Bactra, Daiman hired the mercenaries and directed them to Gazzari, where they were to deploy their forces and await Odion's arrival. The mercenaries departed for Gazzari, as did Daiman, unaware that the Jedi Holt, who possessed several baradium nitrate charges stolen from Darkknell, had stowed away aboard his ship, the Era Daimanos, with the intention of assassinating the Sith Lord. Holt, however, was unable to locate Daiman aboard the ship during its journey to Gazzari.

Upon reaching Gazzari, Kerra Holt disembarked from the Era Daimanos and discarded her Mark VI, which had become unusable due to the volcanic ash that clung to the suit. Carrying the baradium nitrate in a bandolier she had taken from Ka'hane on Darkknell, Holt made her way toward Daiman's command dome, intending to use the baradium and the remote detonator to kill him. She was spotted by a Nautolan trooper, but quickly killed him by suffocating the trooper with his own head tendril. She picked up the trooper's rifle and reached the command dome, where she overheard Daiman speaking with his aide, Uleeta. Before Holt could detonate the explosives, however, four transports from Industrial Heuristics arrived and descended into the crater. Within moments, the arxeum landed a kilometer east of the transports. The transports lowered their landing ramps, and the young students inside poured out, making their way toward the arxeum. Holt, realizing that the students were being used as bait, resolved to protect them. Cutting down two Daimanite troopers with her lightsaber, she ran toward the students in the valley, but was hindered by a stinging pain in her heart, caused by the arrival of Lord Odion in the system.

Odion had arrived aboard his flagship Sword of Ieldis and was accompanied by Narsh and his Givin navigator Jelcho, whom Kerra had also encountered earlier on Chelloa. Although they saw no trace of Daiman's fleet in the system, they did spot about a dozen of Bactra's ships near Gazzari's sun, where they could observe the events on the planet from a safe distance. Although Odion knew that Bactra had just delivered the arxeum, he ordered his fleet not to fire on the Quermian's forces. Instead, his flotilla—which consisted of a quarter of his home fleet—formed an orbital perimeter around the planet and awaited the arrival of his most important weapon, a massive siege tower called the Death Spiral. Once the Death Spiral exited hyperspace behind Odion's fleet, the Sith Lord ordered his Thunder Guard units to their transports. He then boarded his own transport, ordering Jelcho and Ka'hane to come with him.

During the fighting, the Death Spiral inflicted heavy casualties on Daiman's mercenary forces including Rusher's Brigade who would lose most of his troops. Faced with heavy casualties, Rusher ordered a general retreat, using the battalions on either side of the Diligence to protect the ship and the forces returning to it. As planned, the Industrial Heuristics transports carrying the students and the arxeum arrived. The Death Spiral landed between the transports and the arxeum. During the fighting, the arxeum was badly damaged while Daiman's mercenaries tried unsuccessfully to destroy the Death Spiral. Once Odion's ground forces had landed, Daiman's fleet made the hyperspace jump to Gazzari, hoping to trap Odion's forces in the system. On the surface, the members of Odion's Thunder Guard—many on speeder bikes—engaged Medagazy's battle droids, which were charging the valley from the east. Three members of the Thunder Guard on speeder bikes broke off to engage Holt, who was still trying to reach the students. Holt killed the three troopers and hijacked one of the speeder bikes, using it to reach the students. She shepherded them toward the arxeum, where they could use its massive body for cover from the Death Spiral.

Meanwhile, Narsk received a signal from his true master, Vilia Calimondra. The Sith Lord wished for her grandsons to unite against Bactra, who was still observing the battle from space, and she ordered Ka'hane to deliver her message to them. However, the Bothan's comlink was not working due to his proximity to the Death Spiral's energy shield. He managed to convince Jelcho, who was guarding him, to join the fight against Odion while he headed south of the Death Spiral where he hoped to get better reception. However, he waited to deliver the message, as both Odion and Daiman were on the battlefield, approaching each other and preparing for a duel. With both Sith Lords engrossed in the battle, Ka'hane found it unlikely either of them would receive his message.

While trying to lead the students to safety, Holt felt the subconscious suicidal effects of Odion's presence. As she leaped off her speeder bike to impale one of Odion's Vodran troopers, she noticed Daiman's command dome, untouched beneath its raised energy shield. Believing she had left the baradium nitrate just outside the dome, Holt prepared to detonate it, unaware that the bandolier was still slung over her shoulder. She was saved by Tan, the Sullustan student from Darkknell, who distracted Holt and prevented her from detonating the explosives. Holt, suddenly realizing that the bandolier was on her shoulder, saw a speeder bike flying toward her, piloted by Jelcho. Standing her ground, Holt used the Force to telekinetically push the bike to the ground and then knocked the Givin unconscious.

Using her bandolier to secure Jelcho to the bike, Holt jammed the bike's accelerator and sent it flying into the speeder bays of the Death Spiral. Once the explosives were inside the speeder bays, Holt set off the explosives using the detonator she had stolen from Ka'hane, destroying the siege tower. She then led the students to the east, where the laser fire from the Death Spiral had created a path to the top of the ridge. Climbing to the top, Holt encountered Jarrow Rusher and the remnants of his brigade, whose members were now loading their weaponry onto the Diligence. After a lengthy argument, Holt convinced Rusher—who had already lost five-sixths of his forces;to allow her student refugees aboard his ship.

After the destruction of the Death Spiral, Ka'hane was able to deliver Calimondra's message to Odion and Daiman. The two warring Sith factions quickly abandoned their fighting and turned on Bactra's ships, destroying half of the Quermian's flotilla in under a minute. Amidst the fighting, the Diligence, carrying Rusher, Holt, and the arxeum students, made for space. Nevertheless, the Diligence survived the onslaught as Bactra's forces fled to hyperspace, and Daiman and Odion ordered their fleets to invade the planet Jutrand, Bactra's capital. As the forces of all three Sith Lords made for Jutrand, the Diligence, too damaged to continue fighting and carrying over a thousand students seeking refuge from the battle, fled into hyperspace, making six jumps to evade any pursuers.

The journey to Byllura stretched over several days, leaving Kerra and Rusher with shared memories of a tense and unpleasant ordeal. Initially, Rusher held a negative view of Kerra, seeing her as a "knight errant" Jedi, meddling in Sith Space to rescue students. More importantly, he considered Kerra and the refugees she brought with her an unnecessary encumbrance, hindering his mercenary operations. Rusher's primary desire was to find a suitable location to disembark the refugees as swiftly as possible. Subsequently, he planned to repair the Diligence and restock their dwindling ammunition and munitions. The severe losses sustained on Gazzari also necessitated the recruitment of additional mercenaries.

A census conducted by Rusher's shipmaster, Ryland Dackett, revealed a total of 1,717 individuals onboard. In contrast, only 560 of Rusher's original three thousand crew members survived, forming two diminished battalion-sized units: Team Ripper and Team Zhaboka. The sheer number of student refugees created a significant overcrowding issue on the Diligence, as the ship lacked adequate facilities and beds to accommodate everyone. Overwhelmed by the recent battle, Rusher delegated the management of these problems to Kerra and his newly recruited Duros, Beadle Lubboon.

The majority of the crew displayed hostility or indifference towards the newcomers. Consequently, Kerra was compelled to enlist the help of older students to care for the younger refugees. Kerra's challenges were exacerbated by a shortage of refreshers, as the former liner had been designed primarily for male Devaronians. The diverse mix of species among the student body also proved to be a source of instability, stemming from the significant physiological and cultural differences between individuals from various worlds. Unbeknownst to Kerra, Vilia was able to track her location through her stolen Mark IV stealth suit, which was connected to an embedded information network.

During the voyage, Kerra approached Ryland Dackett, the shipmaster, at the solarium, presenting a list of demands on behalf of the refugees. Dackett listened attentively before offering to speak with Rusher in his cabin to advocate for her requests. During their private discussion, Dackett and Rusher discussed the critical shortage of beds caused by the influx of refugees. While the Diligence possessed sufficient food supplies, resources were dwindling, and Dackett emphasized that rationing would be insufficient due to the large number of refugees. Unlike typical mercenaries, the students had nothing to offer in exchange to supplement the ship's existing supplies. Both men concurred on the necessity of finding a place to offload the refugees, with Rusher even contemplating extreme measures such as ejecting them through the airlock or poisoning them. Dackett then highlighted the rising tensions between Rusher's Brigade and the newcomers.

At that moment, Kerra entered Rusher's cabin and reiterated her demands and concerns directly to him. Irritated by the Jedi's requests, Rusher excused himself to the refresher in the adjacent room, feigning the need to relieve himself. However, the refresher served as a service accessway leading to a ladder that ultimately connected to a wardroom. For the subsequent three hours, Rusher entertained his men by recounting a story from a past battle. Upon discovering his deception, Kerra confronted him, brandishing his walking stick. During a walk through the corridors, Rusher inquired about her activities in Sith Space, and she shared her experiences working under her Jedi Master, Vannar Treece. As Kerra detailed her Jedi work in Sith Space, Rusher's attitude towards her cause softened. In return, he provided more information about the Diligence.

Returning to the matter at hand, they discussed the refugee situation. Kerra criticized his willingness to abandon the passengers and expressed her distrust of someone who had previously worked for the Sith. Rusher countered that he had no other options since the Republic had closed its offices in the Outer Rim. Rusher also revealed that the Diligence had executed six hyperspace jumps since departing Gazzari, yet had failed to locate a suitable port. Kerra voiced her concerns that Daiman desired the children for his "military-industrial brain trust" and that he would still be searching for them. Rusher dismissed this, asserting that Daiman was too occupied with his conflict with Odion to concern himself with the children.

Growing increasingly frustrated, Kerra inquired about the possibility of traveling to the Republic. Rusher then consulted his Mon Calamari navigator, Ishel, regarding a route to the Republic. Although a lane existed to Daiman's transport center near Chelloa, Kerra rejected this option, determined to avoid Sith Space at all costs. Due to the Republic's closure of all subspace communications relays in Sith Space, reliable information on safe hyperspace routes throughout much of the galaxy was scarce. After examining a list of hyperspace routes displayed on a holographic screen, Rusher identified one leading to Byllura, a supposedly neutral planet. Kerra initially resisted this idea, as Byllura was situated farther from the Republic than Gazzari, and unconfirmed reports suggested it was controlled by a Sith domain known as the Dyarchy. However, Rusher countered that they had limited options.

While limited information existed regarding Byllura's political landscape, rumors suggested it was a Sith principality governed by children, with a regent overseeing the realm on their behalf. According to a friend of Rusher who had visited the planet, they had held power for at least five years. These rumors proved to be accurate. Byllura served as the primary territory of the Dyarchy, a Sith realm ruled by Quillan and Dromika, the younger children of the deceased Chagras, the former ruler of the Chagras Hegemony. These Sith twins possessed a strong connection to the Force, with Quillan exhibiting powerful farsight abilities, while Dromika could issue potent hypnotic commands that compelled other sentients to obey her will. Under the guidance of their Regent, Saaj Calician, the twins utilized their Force abilities and a network of enslaved Celegians to directly impose their will on the inhabitants of the Dyarchy, transforming their subjects into thralls.

As the Diligence entered Byllura's atmosphere above the capital city of Hestobyll, Kerra and Jarrow were relieved to encounter no resistance. Rusher received permission to land via commset from an unidentified individual known as "Deep Voice," who was actually the Celegian "One." Upon arriving at their designated hangar platform, they were surprised to find no welcoming party. Believing Byllura to be a safe haven devoid of Sith influence, an optimistic Jarrow instructed the crew to deploy the cargo ramps to allow the refugees to disembark. Jarrow attempted to lead the refugees off the ship, but Kerra intervened, reiterating her need to scout the area first, emphasizing the necessity of a thorough reconnaissance probe of the surrounding city, rather than simply observing the immediate platform area.

This sparked a disagreement between the young Jedi Knight and the Brigadier. Citing a datapad entry on Byllura, Jarrow argued that Hestobyll offered adequate shelter for the refugees and that there were no signs of danger. Kerra countered that they possessed limited intelligence regarding who actually controlled Byllura, and angrily accused Jarrow of disregarding the refugees' well-being. In response, Jarrow argued that the refugees were an inconvenient burden. Ultimately, the two reached a compromise, with Kerra securing one hour to conduct a proper recon probe of Hestobyll in exchange for returning the refugees to the Diligence.

However, these events were being sensed by the enslaved Celegian "One," who transmitted the information back to Calician. While Calician was aware that the ship's captain had expressed willingness to offload his passengers on Byllura, he grew suspicious of a potential threat to the Dyarchy when an unidentified person (later revealed to be Kerra) instructed the student refugees to reboard the ship. Calician suspected a Daimanate ploy and swiftly dispatched a contingent of Unifiers to investigate the Diligence under direct orders from Dromika, who was in turn being telepathically controlled by her twin brother Quillan. Nevertheless, Calician viewed the arrival of the Diligence as an opportunity to accelerate his plans for galactic domination, starting with several of Daiman's undefended systems. He then ordered the Dyarchy Fleet to prepare for hyperspace departure.

While Kerra conducted her reconnaissance probe of Hestobyll, Rusher remained aboard the ship. Despite Rusher's orders for the passengers to stay on the vessel, the Sullustan girl Tan sneaked off the ship, determined to follow Kerra, whom she idolized. In response, Rusher sent the Duros Lubboon to retrieve her. During her reconnaissance probe of Hestobyll, Kerra encountered individuals of various species, including Duros, Caamasi, Ithorians, and Sullustans, who all ignored her. When Kerra attempted to communicate with an Ithorian man and an elderly Duros couple, they responded only with mute indifference. At that moment, Jarrow contacted her via comlink to inform her that they had received another transmission from "Deep Voice" on the commset, stating that the Byllurans had seen the refugees on the platform and were sending people to assist with their situation. The refugees would supposedly be "directed to a center for assigning quarters."

Aware of Sith relocation practices, Kerra expressed surprise that the local authorities had learned of their predicament and warned Jarrow to exercise caution, as they were in unfamiliar territory. Kerra's situation was further complicated when she discovered that she was being followed by Tan, who in turn was being followed by Lubboon. The three then proceeded towards a nearby crowd heading for a massive hexagonal silo. Kerra encountered a Duros man and quickly deduced that Byllura was being controlled by Sith who were directly imposing their will on all its inhabitants. Before she could contact Rusher via comlink, she sensed an alien entity ordering the crowd of Dyarchy Fleet workers to commence loading operations and deliver the Celegians to their assigned vessels.

Immediately, Kerra witnessed the crowd surging towards the hexagonal complex. In the ensuing chaos, Tan and Beadle became separated from her within the crowd. At that moment, several red-clad Force-sensitive enforcers known as Unifiers, whom she dubbed "Scarlet Riders," arrived at the scene. When Kerra witnessed the same Ithorian she had encountered earlier echoing the same commandments uttered by the Unifiers, she quickly realized that the planet was being controlled through mental manipulations by unidentified Force-users. The Celegians formed a telepathic network that relayed these commands, while the scarlet Unifiers enforced their rules using Force persuasion. Meanwhile, Beadle and Tan were swiftly captured by the Unifiers, who took them aboard one of their airspeeders.

In an attempt to rescue Tan and Lubboon from Sith captivity, Kerra ignited her lightsaber and engaged the Unifiers, killing several of them in the ensuing melee. She then pursued the scarlet Unifiers through the streets of Hestobyll, commandeering an airspeeder. Kerra also managed to warn Rusher in time to bring most of the refugees back aboard the Diligence, minutes before the arrival of another party of Unifiers dispatched to the spaceport. The Unifiers captured several members of Rusher's crew, including shipmaster Dackett and Prenda Novallo, who had been performing external repairs to the ship on the landing platform. However, Rusher and the crew managed to repel the attackers. After eliminating the Scarlet Riders, he rescued his captured crew. With the Dyarchy's fleet ascending into space from their underwater hangar bays beneath Hestobyll's reflection pools, Rusher ordered the Diligence out to sea, away from the chaos.

Meanwhile, Kerra pursued the scarlet Unifiers through the streets of Hestobyll, even hijacking an airspeeder. During an aerial dogfight, she collided with an airspeeder piloted by a Rodian Unifier, resulting in a physical altercation where the Rodian was thrown to his death in the streets below. During this melee, Kerra sensed that the Rodian did not actually know how to operate an airspeeder but was being directed and controlled by an unknown force. Her pursuit eventually led her to The Loft, a mushroom-shaped retreat situated atop a mesa opposite the harbor. During the flight, Kerra observed that a network of Celegians were positioned at strategic junctures stretching from The Loft to the city, forming an unbroken telepathic communication network used to mentally subjugate the Bylluran population through Force suggestions.

Meanwhile, Calician learned of Kerra's presence through his telepathic network. The twins perceived Holt as a threat and ordered the Krevaaki to protect them, then seized direct control of his mind via the Force. Using her hijacked airspeeder, Holt infiltrated The Loft's airspeeder hangar bay. She then proceeded to the chamber where One was held, where she persuaded the aged Celegian to cease sending messages on behalf of the Dyarchy, disrupting the communications network. She also instructed One to send Tan and Beadle to the hangar for later pickup. Under the influence of the twins, Calician headed to One's chamber and attacked Holt, wielding six lightsaber-batons, which he twirled from his tentacles. He launched himself at her in a nihilistic rage, driven by the twins' influence, and nearly ruptured One's tank, which would have released a poisonous gas and killed both him and Holt.

He regained some control over his body, but Holt outmaneuvered him, singeing his facial tentacles and severing one of his limbs from his middle carapace. He felt no pain, due to the twins' influence, and realized that Holt was too strong for him to defeat, as his weakened mind could not access his memories of how to fight Jedi while being dulled by Dromika's mental manipulations. Therefore, he ceased fighting and offered to take Holt to the twins, who resided in a penthouse at the top of The Loft, and she accepted his offer. Upon their arrival in the twins' quarters, several nanny droids hurled themselves at Calician and Holt in an attempt to defend the twins.

However, Holt brushed them aside, and Calician introduced her to the twins. Using the Force, Dromika pinned Holt down and compelled Calician to bring his blade to bear against the Jedi. Calician resisted, desiring the opportunity to fight Holt alone, free from the twins' mental influences, and during their brief distraction, Holt broke free and severed one of Calician's leg tentacles. She then engaged the twins in a mental battle, using telepathy to hurl objects across the room. During the fighting, Kerra quickly realized that Quillan was using his sister Dromika as a puppet to carry out his will.

The ensuing duel was interrupted by the arrival of the Diligence, which used its heavy frontal gun emplacement to breach the penthouse's windows. Rusher had already picked up Tan and Beadle, who had escaped from the palace's hangar bay on an airspeeder. In the ensuing chaos, Kerra kidnapped Quillan and brought him aboard the Diligence, fleeing an enraged Dromika, who had by then picked up one of Calician's lightsabers. Once aboard the Diligence, Quillan descended into an infantile tantrum, unable to sense his sister through the Force. Meanwhile, a distraught Dromika fell into a comatose state, unable to distinguish between a physical presence and a Force emanation. Rusher was initially angry with Kerra for bringing a Sith aboard, albeit an adolescent, due to his strict policy of not taking any Sith Lords as passengers.

The capture of Quillan and the incapacitation of Dromika would have significant repercussions for the Dyarchy on Byllura. Deprived of its twin rulers, the highly centralized fiefdom rapidly dissolved into anarchy. Meanwhile, the other Celegians on Byllura followed One's example and refused to send telepathic messages, leading to the collapse of the entire telepathic network. Their rebellion made it impossible to coordinate the Dyarchy's manufacturing efforts and led to explosions in the world's major construction facilities, destroying several battleships in dry dock. With the demise of the Dyarchy's telepathic network, the population emerged from their mentally induced thralldom and swiftly regained their former cognizance and autonomy. Riots erupted across Byllura's major centers, including Hestobyll, as the inhabitants vented their fury on the old order.

Calician quickly rushed to The Loft's communications center and sent a transmission to the Diligence to inquire about Quillan's well-being. With Dromika still in a coma, Calician attempted to persuade Kerra to kill Quillan in revenge for the slavery he had endured under the latter. In return, Kerra secured Calician's agreement to free the remaining Celegians. As the Diligence exited Byllura's upper atmosphere, the Dyarchy was invaded by a fleet of Arkadianate warships led by their older sibling and Sith Lord, Arkadia Calimondra. Arkadia's warfleet swiftly neutralized the Dyarchy's battleships and ensnared the Diligence in their tractor beam projector. Ultimately, Byllura fell, and the Dyarchy was absorbed into Arkadia's territories.

Unbeknownst to Kerra and Rusher, Vilia had been able to monitor their movements through Narsk's stolen Mark IV suit. Aware that they were heading towards Byllura, she had reassigned the Bothan spy to work for her granddaughter, Arkadia. Narsk was present during the Arkadianate's occupation of Hestobyll and witnessed the execution of Calician, who accepted his fate peacefully. The Sith Lord had planned to annex Byllura as a means of eliminating the minuscule Dyarchy. She also claimed to care for the welfare of her younger siblings, Quillan and Dromika, and officially maintained that she had come to overthrow the tyranny of Lord Calician and integrate the Byllurans into her "enlightened" Arkadianate. Unlike other Sith Lords, Arkadia invested heavily in social spending for her citizens and professed to care for their well-being. She also implemented universal education through a system of schools called Promisoriums and a policy of frequently rotating her citizens through different jobs to provide them with broader experience.

Upon arriving within the Byllura system, Arkadia immediately contacted Kerra and Rusher, offering assistance and providing them with coordinates to her capital world of Syned, a remote icy world situated within the margins of the Grumani sector. In contrast to her previous encounters with the Sith, Arkadia was warm and hospitable towards Kerra and Rusher. Kerra personally admired some of the Sith Lord's personal attributes, including her frank openness and rational outlook. Still, she noted that Arkadia was the warlord of yet another eponymous empire, a Sith tradition within the Grumani sector where the various warlords named their empires after themselves. Most importantly, Kerra remained distrustful of the Sith woman, despite her friendly outreach, due to the ancient animosity between the two Force-using groups. During the journey to Syned, Kerra criticized Rusher for accepting Arkadia's offer and argued that they could have dropped out of hyperspace mid-journey.

Rusher remained unmoved, arguing that prematurely exiting hyperspace could have resulted in a collision with Arkadia's flagship, the New Crucible. He also reminded Kerra that she had to accept the reality that every location within the Grumani sector was controlled by some form of Sith. Finally, Rusher emphasized the importance of patience and assessing the Arkadianate before passing judgment. Upon entering Syned's atmosphere, they passed two tractor beam generators in orbit before disembarking at the spaceport on the outskirts of Calimondretta, an underground city serving as Syned's main settlement and Arkadia's headquarters. After donning space suits due to Syned's thin atmosphere, the two parties met on the icy surface.

During this meeting, Arkadia was warm and hospitable towards her guests, offering shelter for the refugees aboard the Diligence. She also requested custody of Lord Quillan of Byllura. Kerra was initially apprehensive until Arkadia revealed that Quillan was her brother and professed concern for the well-being of her younger sibling. Kerra and Rusher promptly produced Quillan, who remained in a semi-catatonic state, accompanied by the teenage Sullustan girl Tan Tengo and the Duros mercenary Lubboon. Arkadia then took her visitors on a tour of her capital city, Calimondretta. Syned had been recently colonized, and Arkadia's city had been constructed within a series of connected ice calderas.

Compared to other Sith worlds like Darkknell and Byllura, Calimondretta and its citizens appeared more affluent and cleaner. During the tour, Arkadia praised her guests for "making history" by helping her bring about the defeat of the Dyarchy. She complimented Kerra by remarking that she was a destabilizing factor wherever she went in Sith Space. She also attributed her recent victory to leader Quillan's dependence on a physical linkage to maintain his power, which made it vulnerable to attack. While touring Calimondretta's streets, Kerra also had a brief reunion with the Bothan spy Narsk Ka'hane, whom she had overpowered and subsequently helped escape during an earlier mission to Darkknell, the capital of the Daimanate.

Kerra and Rusher learned that Narsk was an independent operator who had worked for several different Sith Lords and that he was "currently" working for Arkadia. Narsk also provided a brief report on the ongoing Arkadianate occupation of Byllura. He also revealed that Quillan's twin, Dromika, remained on her mountaintop home but was now under Arkadianate custody. Arkadia remarked that she had arranged for the twins to be permanently separated due to the strong Force connection between them. With Dromika free from the domination of her twin brother Quillan, Arkadia expressed her hope that she could now have a better life. Arkadia also justified the execution of Regent Calician on the grounds that he had been the mastermind who manipulated Quillan and Dromika to further his own grandiose ambitions of galactic domination.

Arkadia complimented Kerra for inadvertently aiding the Arkadianate cause by being a destabilizing force wherever she went in Sith Space. Meanwhile, Narsk demanded that Kerra return his Mark IV stealth suit. However, Kerra mentioned that the suit was in Tan's custody, while Rusher assured the Bothan that he could retrieve his suit after they had transported the students to Arkadia's capital. Arkadia then sent Kerra on a tour of Calimondretta with the Herglic tour guide Seese, hoping to win her over. From Seese, Kerra would learn about the nature of daily life within the Arkadianate. While she appreciated Arkadia's socially progressive policies and the absence of violent coercion within her domain, Kerra felt uneasy about the former's policies of rotating people through different occupations throughout their lives. Meanwhile, the Sullustan student Tan was completely captivated by Arkadia's charismatic personality and "utopian" society, particularly its well-run Promisoriums. Due to her impoverished background growing up in the Daimanate, Tan had limited exposure to other parts of the galaxy. At one point, the teenage Sullustan gave Arkadia a hug, which pleased the Sith Lord but caused Kerra to wince.

Arkadia saw this as an opportunity to promote a favorable image of her realm by inviting Tan to tell her friends aboard the Diligence about the supposedly 'good life' awaiting them in the Arkadianate. Arkadia also sent one of her Twi'lek assistants, Warmalo, to help Rusher replenish his stock of food for the refugees. Rusher himself was surprised by the wide variety of food available within the Arkadinate. Sensing that the Twi'lek had outlived his usefulness as a cargo worker, Arkadia reassigned him to a new position as the director of metallurgical operations on Syned. When Kerra inquired whether the Twi'lek had any training in metallurgy, Arkadia merely replied that Warmalo had the same grounding she expected from all her people. She added that he had been working on the same assignment for three months and thought he could do more.

Arkadia justified her rotational policies on the pretext that she liked to instill the traits of flexibility and versatility among her subjects. She also claimed that constant revival was needed to ensure that a Sith Lord's rule lasted forever. Kerra quickly recognized that her policy of rotating everyone was an insurance policy that preserved her rule. Her more skilled underlings never became rivals because they were always having something new to do in order to maintain their place in society. While Arkadia offered sanctuary to all the refugee students on Syned, Kerra still did not trust the Sith Lord. She sensed that Arkadia wanted to utilize her services in return for guaranteeing the safety of her student refugee charges. In Rusher's case, however, Arkadia was not interested in recruiting mercenary groups like Rusher's Brigade because she considered their thinking too narrow. Finally, Arkadia departed to prepare for a meeting at her museum in Calimondretta.

While Kerra remained aloof and suspicious of Arkadia, Rusher, in contrast, was completely won over by Arkadia's personality and utopian policies. He revealed that the Arkadianites had offered to provide a large icecrawler to transport the Diligence and all its passengers to Calimondretta, where they would be given refuge. He also argued that they should remain on Syned since they lacked knowledge of reliable hyperspace routes that would allow them to travel back to the Republic safely. Kerra then criticized Rusher for his willingness to work for different Sith Lords. This led to a heated argument between the two erstwhile allies, with Kerra arguing that Rusher should dedicate his energies to working for the people. Rusher responded that he had to care for the lives and well-being of his crew and passengers. One of Arkadia's Citizen Guards then interrupted their conversation to summon Kerra to participate in a meeting at the museum. Meanwhile, Rusher was instructed to wait outside for a meeting at Arkadia's Museum. Brigadier Rusher is instructed to wait outside once he had finished work with the Arkadianate engineers. Kerra sensed that Arkadia had not asked for anything yet but has only given in. Before leaving for the meeting, Kerra instructed Rusher to look after the kids and his crew.

While inside the Arkadian museum, Arkadia engaged in conversation with Kerra, her visitor and long-standing adversary. Their initial discussion centered on an intricately crafted branding instrument on display. This tool had been fashioned by a solitary artisan who had dedicated three decades to the craft, only to be forced out of business by a Republic corporation capable of mass-producing similar tools at a fraction of the cost. Overwhelmed by shame, the artisan tragically ended her life by plunging into the ocean. After damaging the branding tool, Arkadia concluded that dedicating one's entire existence to a single pursuit was a path to stagnation and eventual irrelevance.

In response to Kerra's assertion that Arkadia's policies were leading her people to their demise, Arkadia countered by noting that commercial interests similarly dominated the Galactic Senate. While these interests generated employment, they offered no guarantees of job security, as the Republic's free-market economy fostered competition and technological advancement without concern for those whose livelihoods were disrupted. Kerra retorted that the Republic's citizens willingly embraced these challenges. Arkadia defended her own system by arguing that, under her governance, her people at least had advance notice of impending changes. For the Sith Lord, transformation within the Arkadianate possessed purpose and furthered a specific agenda, namely her own. Although Kerra viewed Arkadia as misguided, she acknowledged the Sith Lord's logic. Arkadia then challenged Kerra to re-examine her deeply ingrained belief that all Sith were inherently murderous villains, suggesting that such a mindset would be an impediment to effectively governing a galaxy.

Kerra insisted on the release of the students, but Arkadia refused, stating that she would not trade the lives of those under her control for the trust of an outsider Jedi. She did, however, offer them sanctuary and claimed to possess something else of significant value to the Jedi woman. Recognizing that Kerra had ventured into Sith territory to oppose the Sith and assist those oppressed by them, she correctly deduced that Kerra sought an explanation for the internal conflicts plaguing the galaxy. Arkadia added that she required Kerra's assistance but first she needed to reveal something that no one outside Sith space knew: the Bequest. Prior the Bequest, Arkadia detailed the complex family relationships within the Calimondra lineage and the intricate histories of the two Charge Matricas, a secret that none outside the Sith dynasty knew. Arkadia then informed Kerra of the power struggle within the Calimondra family, led by her grandmother and family matriarch Vilia Calimondra.

Back in 1066 BBY, Vilia's seven offspring had participated in a contest called a Charge Matrica to inherit her assets, and now the grandchildren were repeating the process. Daiman and Odion were the sons of Vilia's daughter Xelian, while Arkadia, Quillan, and Dromika were the offspring of Vilia's son Chagras. After her seven children engaged in internecine warfare, Chagras emerged victorious but died mysteriously, leaving no clear successor to Vilia's legacy. Consequently, the grandchildren were now undertaking the same challenge as their parents, striving to impress the Sith matriarch by waging war against each other or eliminating outsiders like Lord Bactra or Saaj Calician, the Dyarchy's regent. Following the briefing, Arkadia permitted Kerra to observe the proceedings, provided she remained concealed in the shadows. She cautioned the Jedi Knight that she would be forced to kill her if she were discovered.

The Bequest was conducted via hologram, enabling each participant to attend the meeting regardless of their location within the Grumani sector. The pylon projecting these holographic images also functioned as a star chart. At the center of this pylon stood a holographic representation of the Sith family matriarch Vilia Calimondra, who commended her descendants on the elimination of the Quermian Sith Lord Ayanos Bactra, the ruler of the Bactranate who had outlived his usefulness to the Calimondra family. She distributed the territories of the former Bactranate among the Sith Lords Daiman, Odion, Lioko, and Malakite—the warlords situated closest to the former Bactranate. During the bequest, Daiman acquired Bactra's corporate holdings, including Industrial Heuristics and its associated enterprises. While Daiman was pleased with his acquisition, Odion protested, asserting his rightful claim to the company since it was based in Jutrand, the former Bactranate capital that had fallen under the Odionate. In an attempt to appease Odion, Vilia allowed him to retain Jutrand but stipulated that he grant the company's executive staff sufficient time to relocate to Daimanate territory.

However, an infuriated Odion retorted that he would rather kill the staff than allow them to fall into the hands of his estranged younger brother, whom he despised. As compensation, Vilia proposed a deal in which she would offset Odion's loss by dispatching two legions of Trandoshan slave warriors from her own forces to bolster Odion's forces. These legions would arrive in the Odionate within three days, coinciding with the Industrial Heuristics staff's departure for the Daimanate. Odion reluctantly agreed, but tensions between the two brothers persisted, influencing the politics of the Grumani sector. After Vilia completed the distribution of Bactra's remaining corporate assets among her grandchildren, the meeting shifted its focus to Arkadia's recent annexation of the Dyarchy.

Arkadia explained that she had taken the former Dyarchy's twin rulers—Quillan and Dromika—into her custody. The catatonic Quillan was brought into the Bequest in a hover chair, completely oblivious to the ongoing proceedings. Vilia expressed concern for the well-being of her younger grandchildren. Arkadia assured her that they were being well cared for and that she had kept them separated. Vilia granted Arkadia complete authority over Byllura and the former Dyarchy territory. Arkadia and her grandmother discussed the future of the two dysfunctional Sith twins, agreeing that it was best to keep them apart for their own safety. Dromika remained on Byllura, but the catatonic Quillan required more specialized care, with Arkadia suggesting that Vilia was best suited to provide it.

While Vilia was initially taken aback by Arkadia's request, she consented and requested that the teenaged boy be brought to her secure residence. For security purposes, Vilia insisted on transmitting the coordinates via a secure channel. She commended Arkadia for her accomplishments, praising her intelligence and reasoning. Following the conclusion of the Bequest, Kerra confronted Arkadia about the power dynamics within the Calimondra family, expressing her astonishment that Matriarch Vilia possessed the authority and influence to compel her grandchildren to cease their infighting. Kerra then inquired as to why the various Sith warlords did not collaborate more frequently. Arkadia explained that any cooperation among members of her Sith family was fleeting, often lasting no more than ten minutes. She attributed her grandmother's significant leverage to her own conquests and numerous marriages to deceased husbands who had died under suspicious circumstances. Given Vilia's vast wealth, military strength, and corporate holdings, she was able to maintain control over her descendants by dispensing rewards to keep them engaged in the political arena. Due to the immense stakes involved, Arkadia explained that no one wanted to fail the Charge Matrica and their grandmother.

Arkadia then attempted to recruit Kerra as an assassin, revealing that this was the very reason she had brought her to the Bequest. As part of the scheme, Kerra would act as her personal courier, transporting Quillan to Vilia, and then assassinate the matriarch of the Calimondra family. While acknowledging Vilia as her grandmother, she attributed the constant conflict within the sector to the former's alleged insanity. Arkadia attempted to justify her conspiracy to assassinate her grandmother by arguing that Vilia was so consumed by power that she had orchestrated the Charge Matrica as a means of preventing the emergence of a successor. Arkadia resented the fact that her grandmother had been subtly encouraging her descendants to attack each other. She dismissed the bequests as a charade intended solely to exacerbate the competition within her family. Finally, Arkadia alleged that Vilia may also have been involved in the fatal poisoning of her late father Chagras, who had succumbed to a potent neurotoxin that overwhelmed his healing abilities.

Arkadia explained that she was unable to carry out the assassination herself since her grandmother had dozens of secret retreats and that her bodyguards kept a close watch on familiar presences. As a Jedi Knight, Kerra was regarded as her first choice since Jedi assassins had a reputation of being clean operatives. Finally, she tried to play on Kerra's personal feelings by claiming that Vilia had authorized the invasion of her homeworld of Aquilaris Minor; sensing that the young Jedi woman was a guerrilla operative for her own cause of protecting the common people and fighting for justice against the Sith warlords. However, Kerra unequivocally rejected Arkadia's offer, stating that she was a Jedi and would never work for a Sith. Kerra's refusal angered the Sith Lord who activated her double lightsaber and ordered her Citizen Guards to take the Jedi woman into the dungeons.

After leaving the museum, Arkadia confronted Jarrow Rusher. She demanded that the refugee passengers aboard the Diligence be brought immediately to Calimondretta. An icecrawler was waiting at the southern garage bay to transport the vast troop ship and its student passengers to the settlement's main atrium. She promised that she would only then allow Rusher and his mercenaries to leave Syned, handing him a set of secure coordinates in a datapad. In reality, she intended to kill them by sending them on a one-way journey to the Nakrikal Singularity, a black hole. When Rusher queried about Kerra and offered to take the Jedi offworld, Arkadia replied that she would be given the same treatment that any Jedi in Sith Space received: death. Due to the historic animosity between the two Force-wielding orders, the Sith Lord was unwilling to allow an enemy Jedi to create havoc in her domain, just as she had done so earlier in the former Dyarchy. Arkadia also intended to interrogate the Jedi woman on any intelligence about the Republic and other Sith warlords before executing her personally. Finally, Kerra would be executed by being exposed to the neurotoxin Chagras's Blood, which Arkadia intended to employ as a military bioweapon.

Kerra's prison, known as the Impound, resembled a large data processing center where the inmates were housed within a series of narrow cells that resembled large, stacked cabinets. The Impound's prisoners were regularly questioned by several interrogator droids who hovered on floating platforms. Each of the Impound's cells was also fitted with bright interior lights and high-pitch sound systems, which were designed to cause maximum discomfort to the inmates. These visual and sound systems operated alternately at irregular intervals, leaving the inmate in a constant state of stress. Despite her unhappy situation, Kerra refused to cooperate with her interrogators and maintained her resolve. These interrogators quizzed about basic questions pertaining to the Republic and the Jedi Order. For Kerra, this confirmed an earlier report by Treece that the Sith Lords seemed to know very little about the Republic and Jedi.

With Kerra unwilling to work as her assassin, Arkadia instead enlisted the services of Narsk and assigned him with the task of transporting Quillan to their grandmother's secure location. In return for his services, Narsk got Arkadia to successfully pressure Brigadier Rusher into return his stolen stealth suit. Unknown to Arkadia, Narsk had always been secretly in the services of Vilia Calimondra, his true master. While the Bothan had not been present at the family bequest with Arkadia and Kerra, he had received an encoded signal from Vilia through his embedded implant, telling him to beware of his current employer. Through unknown means, Vilia had sensed that her eldest granddaughter was posing a threat to her rule. After receiving his latest set of orders, Narsk convinced Rusher to work against Arkadia's orders, claiming that they would pose a danger to his crew. After briefly outlining plans for an escape attack from Syned which involved both explosives and sending one of his crew to fetch both Narsk's stealth suit and Kerra's lightsaber, Narsk gave Rusher part of the hyperspace coordinates to a jump-point in uncontrolled space which would bring them to another hyperspace lane leading to the Republic. He promised to give the other half of the coordinates to Kerra on the condition that she helped create a distraction that would allow both parties to escape the Arkadianate.

Unaware of Vilia's secret counter-plot, Arkadia had a modified shuttle prepared for a single hyperspace jump to her grandmother's top secret destination at Embarkation Station 7. She explained to Narsk that his primary mission was to assassinate Vilia. Since the Bothan lacked the Force abilities and lightsaber combat skills of a Force-wielder, Narsk's weapon would consist of a remote-controlled series of pods containing the deadly neurotoxin Chagras's Blood. These neurotoxins had been harvested from Synedian algae, a flora indigenous to the planet Syned. Upon arriving on Vilia's world, he would slip out of the vessel unseen, shadowing Quillan. Once he located both Quillan and Vilia, he would activate the nerve toxins hidden in the chair; killing both targets and plunging her empire into anarchy. Arkadia hoped to benefit from this chaos by annexing other territories, thus furthering her larger ambitions of galactic dominance.

Since the planned assassination of Vilia would destabilize the Grumani sector's political order, she had assembled several military parties to take advantage of the ensuing chaos by launching strategic attacks on the Arkadianate's neighbors. As part of her expansionist blitz, Arkadia planned to deploy the nerve toxin known as Chagras's Blood to wipe out any resistance. She intended to use the inmates at the Impound including Kerra as her test subjects prior to its operational deployment. During the meeting, the Lubboon arrived in an environment suit, carrying Narsk's stealth suit within his pouch. Rusher had sent Lubboon to deliver both the stealth suit and Kerra's lightsaber, knowing that the cumbersome Duros would not attract Arkadia's suspicion. The Duros had managed to smuggle the lightsaber past Arkadianate security by hiding it within the left arm of his spacesuit. Feigning that his left arm had been injured during a fall, Lubboon was allowed by Arkadia to depart for the infirmary for medical attention.

Following the meeting with Arkadia, Beadle left for the infirmary as well by feigning an allergic reaction to the algae. There, Narsk obtained Kerra's lightsaber from Lubboon and infiltrated the Impound using his stealth suit. After breaking Kerra out of her prison, he convinced the Jedi woman to help her create a diversion that would allow both the Diligence and Narsk to escape the Arkadianate after convincing her that he was working for someone opposed to Arkadia's plans. In return for agreeing to this task which Rusher was already involved in, the Bothan also supplied Kerra with the remaining half of the hyperspace coordinates. However, Kerra and Narsk were unable to free the remaining prisoners at the Impound since they had already been exposed to the deadly Chagras's Blood and quickly succumbed to the effects of the nerve toxin within minutes. When Kerra asked why Narsk had spared her life despite working for Vilia, Narsk replied that he did so because he had no orders to kill her before departing on a turbolift.

Meanwhile, Rusher kept to his side of the bargain by hijacking the icecrawler and loading it with two artillery cannons. Rusher and his mercenaries then infiltrated Calimondretta, going past security before launching their assault at Patriot Hall. Arkadia's Citizen Guards were caught by surprise and sustained considerable casualties. Much of the city's interior was also damaged during the fighting with the protective outer barrier being destroyed, exposing the city to Syned's frigid climate. During the second stage of the attack, the Ryland Dackett flew the Diligence towards the spaceport. There, he released one of the warships massive cargo assembly pods, destroying one of the tractor beam emitters and several Arkadianate warships. These warships were equipped with shells containing the nerve toxin Chagras's Blood and had been prepared for a blitz raid on Arkadia's neighbors in the event that Vilia was successfully assassinated. Satisfied with his work, Rusher then used his encrypted comlink to issue Arkadia an ultimatum that she release the Jedi woman Kerra or face destruction.

Meanwhile, Narsk took advantage of Rusher's diversionary attack to escape with Quillan from Syned. Prior to escaping he switched the hoverchair containing the nerve toxin with the original one from Rusher's ship. With the technicians distracted by the fighting, the Bothan then got one of the mechanics to load Quillan and his hoverchair aboard the modified shuttle that had been designated for the mission. After strapping himself into the hidden engine compartment, Narsk departed the hangar bay and sent a signal to the droid pilot in the shuttle's cockpit. When the ground crew tried to stop the shuttle from departing, Narsk detonated the neurotoxin system which quickly killed them. However, his ears and Mark IV stealth suit were permanently damaged by the loud sound of the accelerating engines. Thus, Narsk fulfilled Vilia's orders to stop Arkadia by foiling her granddaughter's assassination plot.

After escaping the Impound, Kerra headed towards Patriot Hall by traveling across the underground hallways. Upon seeing two Citizen Guards, Kerra deliberately attracted their attention by activating her lightsaber and goading them into a fight. Kerra's escape coincided with Rusher's attack on Patriot Hall and she was caught in a crowd of workers fleeing to Reflection Prospect, a large public square. In the midst of this pandemonium, an inexperienced Houk Citizen Guard began firing indiscriminately at the crowd, killing the two Citizen Guards who had been pursuing Kerra. Kerra quickly killed the Houk Citizen Guard with a blaster taken from one of the fallen Guards. Unlike other soldiers utilized by other Sith states, the Arkadianate's Citizen Guards were not Sith wannabes but were rather ordinary sentient beings devoted or conscripted into the Sith Lord's military-industrial complex.

After felling a second Citizen Guard, Kerra headed towards a grotto facing Patriot Hall where several enemy snipers and guards had taken position. Kerra attempted to use her blaster to puncture a tube of Synedian alga alight in order to unleash its nerve toxin by-product but the cylinders were protected by a material tougher than transparisteel. Thus, Kerra resorted to using her lightsaber to deflect the Citizen Guard's blaster bolts but was unable to dent their electromesh tunics which cushioned the blaster shots. The shooting was interrupted by the arrival of Lord Arkadia who ordered her men to cease firing and deploy thermal detonators into Reflection Prospect. When one Guard pointed out that there were civilians and guards still below in the plaza, she curtly replied that they were doing their job and ordered her Guards to do theirs.

Kerra Holt survived the explosion caused by Arkadia's thermal detonators at Reflection Prospect but many civilians and soldiers were killed or wounded by friendly fire. With her escape route to Patriot Hall blocked by debris, Kerra headed to Arkadia's museum in an attempt to find a way out. However, she encountered the Sith Lord Arkadia who was wielding her double-bladed lightsaber. She was both bewildered and angered by Kerra's successful escape from the Impound but reiterated that it would stop here. Kerra parried with Arkadia but the novice Jedi Knight was unable to match the lightsaber dueling skills of the Sith Lord. The two Force-wielders also goaded each other with Arkadia deriding Kerra as a Padawan while the Jedi Knight in return labeled the Sith Lord a petty dictator.

Arkadia was angered by this comparison, voicing that the Arkadianate was an enlightened regime. Kerra retorted by asking what "enlightened Sith" would want to kill their grandmother. Arkadia charged towards the Jedi Knight with her lightsaber but Kerra moved out of the way. Arkadia then launched another offensive by deploying the Jar'Kai sword-fighting style, forcing her Jedi opponent to retreat backwards. Arkadia remarked that she had been a fool to expect a Jedi to do her "dirty work" but expressed her comfort in the belief that her Bothan spy had already left to assassinate her grandmother and brother. Kerra criticized Arkadia for her willingness to use her own brother as collateral damage.

However, their duel was interrupted by the Diligence releasing its second cargo pod assembly on the remaining tractor beam emitter. The resulting impact unleashed an avalanche of explosives and ice which destroyed the southern walls of the museum, exposing it to Syned's thin atmosphere. With Arkadia distracted, the Jedi woman knocked her over with her legs. A bruised but furious Arkadia attempted to advance on Kerra. After Kerra goaded the Sith Lord about her homicidal plans, Arkadia merely expounded her personal worldview "there could be only one Sith and no Jedi."

Before Arkadia could leap on Kerra, Rusher ordered his gunners to fire a precision shot at the museum, which opened a hole in its roof and allowed Kerra to escape to the surface. From Lubboon, the Brigadier had found out that his erstwhile ally was still in Calimondretta. Due to a sensor tag attached to her lightsaber, Rusher was able to trace the signal to Arkadia's museum near the planet's surface. After sending the Diligence to do a flyover the museum and to confirm it was a large dome, Rusher and his mercenaries positioned one of their artillery cannons on a sled and then fired a precision blast at the museum. Kerra was able to escape and also stole Arkadia's double-bladed lightsaber. However, Kerra quickly fell unconscious due to a lack of oxygen. Rusher soon spotted Kerra lying on the frigid surface of the planet and had the Diligence to pick her up. After recovering Kerra, Rusher and his men returned to the Diligence, leaving their artillery guns behind since they were too heavy to transport offworld.

After Kerra regained consciousness, Rusher explained that the Jedi woman had gone on a long walk without her spacesuit. He then explained how he had destroyed Arkadia's museum with a precision shot in order to enable Kerra to escape. Rusher then recounted the details of their escape from Calimondretta including how he had used a hijacked icecrawler as a trojan horse. For Rusher, the assault on Calimondretta marked the first time that his forces had ever been deployed inside a building. He also explained that the attack had been used to coerce Arkadia into giving up Kerra or enabling her to escape. Rusher then recounted how he had personally carried Kerra back to his ship, adding the comment that she was heavier than she looked due to her muscular frame. Due to his bad leg, Rusher had to use Arkadia's stolen twin-bladed lightsaber as a makeshift walking stick in order to maintain a perfect lurch ratio for that mission. During an earlier argument, Kerra had broken his original walking stick.

Jarrow Rusher also mentioned to Kerra that her student refugees had been rejoined by several hundred Arkadianate defectors. These had taken advantage of the fighting to don environmental suits and flee Calimondretta. These defectors fled across the ice to the Diligence and begged to be let aboard. One of these refugees was the Twi'lek Warmalo, the supply clerk who had earlier helped Rusher restock the Diligence's food supplies before being promoted to a metallurgist. However, Warmalo did not regard this as a promotion and he and the other refugees had grown tired up of Arkadia's system of rotating her subjects throughout different jobs to preserve her grip on power. Thus, they were desperate to escape to the Galactic Republic. Since Rusher's Brigade had used up all their ammunition and left behind their cannons, there was now enough space to accommodate approximately 2,200 refugees.

Rusher also related how their attack had destroyed part of Arkadia's neurotoxin operation, sabotaging her efforts to launch an expansionist campaign in the event that her grandmother was assassinated. Since Rusher had shed the cargo pod clusters, the Diligence was back to being a spaceliner again for the moment. While Rusher's engineer was unhappy with damage wrought on the starship during the fighting, Rusher was happy that they had managed to escape with the rest of the ship still intact. Finally, Rusher revealed that they were now using hyperspace coordinates given to them by Narsk to travel back to the Galactic Republic. Earlier, the Bothan spy had scrawled half of these coordinates on Rusher's arm and the other half on Kerra's arm. Unlike Arkadia's coordinates, Narsk's ones led to a jump-point in neutral space which led to a hyperspace route which led directly to the Republic.

Upon reaching the Republic, Rusher planned to disembark the refugees who would then be resettled in "greener pastures." Rusher also planned to embark on a spending spree in the Republic in order to upgrade the ship's systems and to recruit more mercenaries and materiel in order to rebuild his mercenary operation. In return, Kerra shared the top-secret information she had learnt from Arkadia about the Calimondra family and the second Charge Matrica. Kerra got Rusher to provide her with a recorder in return for using her connections to arrange for the Brigadier to have an audience with Supreme Chancellor Genarra. Rusher also joked that he hoped that he could barter the information for enough funds to refit the Diligence with four new cargo clusters instead of two. The mood among the refugees had cheered after news of their final journey to the Republic was announced. Kerra reported that the Sullustan Tan was so excited that she had been unable to sleep.

Rusher also informed Kerra that the Duros recruit Lubboon along with several of the former student refugees were keen to remain aboard the Diligence as members of Rusher's Brigade. Many wanted to join the mercenary force as a means of liberating their families from Sith rule in the future. Kerra also shared with Rusher on how she had evacuated 63,000 refugees during the Chelloan affair. As a gesture of good will, Rusher finally offered to drop Kerra off on Tramanos on their way to the Republic so that she could continue her mission. He also remarked that should the Jedi woman ever choose to hire the Diligence, he might cut her a reduced rate. With hope finally in sight, Kerra rested while planning her next move against the Sith.

Her next target was Aquilaris, a world under the yoke of the Sith. Kerra, forced to flee as a refugee a decade prior, always yearned to free it from Lord Daimain's control. An opportunity arose when she answered a distress signal from a member of the Seacroppers' Guild. However, Aquilaris also piqued the interest of the Hutt crime boss Zodoh, who aimed to extend his slave trade and weapons businesses into the Grumani sector. This sector had become a Sith stronghold after the Republic Dark Age compelled the Galactic Republic to seek refuge in the Core Worlds. Zodoh had created a fleet of Stormdrivers, powerful capital ships with weaponized vaporators. These ships could extract moisture from planets, unleashing it as devastating storms and floods. Zodoh planned to use Aquilaris as a testing ground for these superweapons, intending to intimidate his Sith rivals into submission.

Zodoh's armada swiftly overpowered Daiman's defenses in Capital Cay, a coastal city on Aquilaris. Within mere minutes, Zodoh's forces obliterated the artillery, forcing the Daimanate garrison to retreat. Amidst the pandemonium, Holt infiltrated Capital Cay hidden in a food transport and assassinated the garrison's commander. Upon reaching the Seacropper Guild's dormitories, she met her old acquaintance, "Padgett" (nicknamed "Old"). Holt then tried to evacuate the slaves aboard her passenger vessel. However, many slaves displayed indifference and apathy towards their liberation, having become addicted to Deluge, a spice used as a substitute for food. With damaged fishing submersibles and eel traps, the seacroppers were unable to fish, leading many to drug-induced stupor. Kerra managed to encounter a former associate, a Human male named Joad Kreel. He informed Holt that she was wasting her time, revealing that the distress signal was merely a desperate plea for more of the addictive substance. Frustrated by the prisoners' apathy towards freedom, Holt grew even angrier at their perceived lack of resolve.

While in the midst of an argument with Kreel, a lightning strike from one of Zodoh's Stormdrivers interrupted them. Having established atmospheric control over Capital Cay, the Stormdriver initiated a massive flood that swept the remnants of Daiman's garrison into the ocean. As the Stormdriver moved over the bay, Holt attacked it, firing her blaster pistol in a desperate attempt to halt it. However, Holt was rescued by the arrival of Captain Jenn Devaad's squadron of Fire Lotus-class starfighters from Grace Command, a pro-Republic relief organization based on Alderaan. Despite the Republic's retreat from many outer regions, Devaad's Death Squadron continued to fight against the Sith and other threats. Unwilling to expend more resources and having accomplished his Aquilaris objectives, Zodoh ordered a tactical retreat to his fighter carrier Voracious, which awaited in the Aquilaris system.

After the battle concluded, Grace Command eliminated the remaining Daimanate forces on Aquilaris and freed the populace. Devaad pledged that the Republic would dispatch additional food and medical supplies to the people. In reality, Grace Command was a covert operation orchestrated by Baron Lemayne with the sole purpose of sabotaging the Sith war effort. Grace Command sought to destabilize Sith-controlled worlds by distributing the Deluge drug among their populations. Their strategy involved "liberating" Sith-held planets and then withdrawing, allowing Sith forces to regain control. Consequently, the Sith's military personnel would become addicted to Deluge, rendering them ineffective. Despite its controversial nature, Lemayne's tactic achieved some success in diminishing Sith resistance to the Republic.

Unaware of this scheme, Kerra welcomed Captain Devaad as a newfound ally in her fight against the Sith. Convinced by Devaad's seemingly benevolent actions to alleviate the suffering in Sith-occupied territories, Kerra successfully persuaded Devaad to allow her to pilot one of the starfighters with the call-sign Devil Seven. This opportunity arose because the fighter's pilot, Yades, was scheduled to return to Alderaan with the transport crew. Devaad outlined the squadron's plans to depart from Aquilaris the following day on a mission to escort the transport ship Mother Grace to its hyperspace jump point. Subsequently, the squadron would proceed to Heptooine to assault Sith Lord Malakite's garrison stationed there.

Before embarking on the mission the next day, she encountered her old friend Joad, who was loitering outside the spaceport. He revealed that the starfighter pilots had forcibly evicted the Seacroppers from their barracks, arousing Holt's suspicions. Joad also unsuccessfully attempted to inform Kerra about Grace Command's malevolent intentions towards the Aquilarians. Joad tried to discourage Kerra from leaving, but Kerra attempted to assuage his concerns by assuring him that the most severely addicted individuals were being transported on Mother Grace for detoxification on Alderaan. Kerra attributed Joad's reluctance to seek medical treatment to brain damage caused by excessive Deluge consumption. She promised that the Alderaanian doctors would send assistance back to Aquilaris. As Kerra departed for her starfighter, Joad could only lament his failure to reveal the truth about Devaad's mission.

Following the departure of Mother Grace into hyperspace, the starfighters traveled to the outer reaches of the Aquilaris system, where they encountered Zodoh's Intruder-class starfighter. During the ensuing pursuit, Devaad divulged her past to Kerra, revealing that she and her comrades in Death Squadron harbored a deep-seated resentment towards the Hutt lord, who had enslaved them years prior. Death Squadron comprised the last survivors of a doomed Republic Navy task force dispatched into Sith territory. After five years of captivity, Captain Devaad and her comrades had managed to escape and had vowed to hunt down Zodoh. However, Kerra cautioned against recklessness, pointing out that this skirmish was not part of their original plan and that Zodoh might be attempting to bait them. Devaad responded by criticizing Kerra's lack of enthusiasm. Kerra's suspicions were confirmed when they stumbled upon Zodoh's flagship, Voracious. In reality, Zodoh had intended to lure Death Squadron into a trap, and the Republic fighters were immediately attacked by the Voracious and its escort of Intruder starfighters.

Simultaneously, Zodoh's fleet of Stormdrivers emerged from hyperspace. When Jenn expressed her surprise at Zodoh's decision to deploy tactical weapons over the intercom, Zodoh replied that the Stormdrivers were merely a means of removing the Sith from their conquered territories without committing substantial resources. Holt quickly realized that Zodoh intended to unleash artificial rain on Aquilaris, to which Zodoh replied that his scientists had discovered that a network of Stormdrivers were capable of submerging an entire world in water. Death Squadron immediately engaged the Stormdrivers, but their efforts were futile due to the ships' defensive systems. The Republic starfighters were unable to inflict significant damage, and several were destroyed by enemy fire. While Jenn was determined to harm Zodoh's forces, Kerra recognized that Death Squadron was both outnumbered and outgunned. She also agreed that Zodoh had advance warning of Death Squadron's arrival.

Over the intercom, Devaad attempted to dissuade Kerra from her plan, claiming that any evacuation efforts would be pointless since Daiman had recalled his cargo transports to Oranessan. By tolerating the status quo of preserving a deadlock between the Republic and the Sith, Devaad was willing to sacrifice Aquilaris as part of the greater goal of defeating Zodoh and the Sith. Unable to reconcile their differences, Kerra disengaged from the dogfight, stating that she wanted to survive so that she could save the people of Aquilaris from Zodoh's impending deluge. Ultimately, Kerra's assessment proved correct, as the Voracious deployed a tractor beam projector that ensnared the remnants of Death Squadron, except for Kerra. Captain Jenn and her crew were captured by the Hutt Lord, who had her pilots tortured to coerce Devaad back into his service. In exchange for seizing the remaining Deluge spice, which was disguised as orange food containers, he offered to release her and her squadron-mates.

In the meantime, Kerra returned to Aquilaris and attempted to persuade the planet's population to evacuate to higher ground. She encountered widespread discouragement and apathy from the workers, compounded by logistical challenges. The airspeeders were susceptible to the stormy conditions, while most of the boats had been destroyed by the Sith occupiers. Her friend "Padgett" (nicknamed "Old") added that the Seacroppers' Guild had ceased operations due to the drug-induced state of its members, and their submersibles were in even worse condition. When Holt inquired about the underwater harvester stations, Padgett replied that they were in a dilapidated state. In exasperation, Kerra lamented that everyone would perish together. Nevertheless, she managed to convince Padgett and the others to evacuate the barracks before the storm arrived. Meanwhile, a frustrated Kerra visited the docks, where she encountered a dejected Joad, who was cowering in the command deck. The two had a brief conversation about their childhood and their separation during the Sith invasion.

Kerra tried to persuade Joad to help repair the submersible, but he remained despondent and uncooperative, stating that he had died when his family died. Finally, he told Kerra to take back the time-locked food crate provided by Grace Command, as he no longer wished to live. In a final outburst of exasperation, Kerra kicked the food crate, only to discover that it contained the narcotic Deluge spice, which Grace Command was supposedly meant to treat. Kerra quickly realized Grace Command's true intentions. Returning to the barracks, she encountered Captain Jenn coercing the other Aquilarians into gathering all the orange food crates containing Deluge. She was attempting to save her fellow starfighter pilots by delivering Grace Command's remaining Deluge supply to Zodoh the Hutt. Kerra overpowered Jenn with her Force powers and attempted to reason with her, but to no avail. Jenn also revealed the existence of Lemayne's Operation Deluge. Obsessed with saving her comrades, Jenn refused to assist Kerra in evacuating the Aquilarian people, whom she derided for not fighting for themselves. Following Jenn's departure in a shuttle, Zodoh's Stormdrivers unleashed an artificial flood, causing widespread damage and fatalities throughout the planet.

While contemplating in his submersible, Joad reconsidered his attitude towards Kerra. Realizing that Kerra was intending to help him and their people, Joad regretted his hostility. He also remembered that he knew how to operate the submersible. As a symbolic gesture, he threw his Deluge capsules into the sea in the presence of Kerra and pledged to assist her in the evacuation efforts. However instead of accompanying her, Joad dived into the stormy sea to reactivate the submersible's engines. Kerra was taken by surprise and was forced to continue alone in her efforts to evacuate a party of refugees to Tarrah Hill, the highest physical point on Aquilaris. With her starfighter overloaded with survivors, Kerra and the refugees were forced to seek shelter on a derelict building on Tarrah Hill. By then, the Stormdriver fleet had been disrupted during an escape attempt from the Voracious by Captain Devaad.

At that point, Joad surfaced his submersible and helped evacuate the refugees into its spacious hulls. When Padgett pointed out that the submersible did not have enough room for all the evacuees, Joad offered to evacuate the refugees to an underwater harvesting station. The submersible would then make several trips to ensure that as many civilians were able to survive the deluge. Joan reiterated that he needed manpower to help open the sea tunnels. Padgett replied that there were several Seacrooppers among the refugees who would be able to assist with this operation. By the next morning, Joad and Kerra had helped evacuate thousands of refugees to safety underwater. Since Aquilaris Minor was not a populous world, the death toll had not been catastrophic. Kerra also reunited with Captain Devaad, who had escaped from Zodoh in a stolen starfighter. She had abandoned Grace Command's agenda of inundating entire worlds with Deluge and realized the need to help civilian populations in Sith Space. After Jenn revealed that Zodoh was planning to unleash the Stormdrivers on Darkknell (a heavily populated world and capital of the Daimanate), Kerra and Joad departed on a mission to stop the Hutt crimelord. Meanwhile, Joad and Padgett continued their evacuation operations.

Zodoh's fleet established a blockade around Darkknell, overwhelming Daiman's understaffed defense force. Within hours, much of the planet was submerged in floodwaters, causing widespread devastation and numerous casualties. Daiman was caught off guard and unprepared, as he had purged more than half of his defense force due to the Deluge drug epidemic. Meanwhile, Daiman's remaining forces were engaged in protracted battles against his Sith rivals. Despite planet-wide broadcasts by the Sith Lord attempting to reassure his subjects, Daiman was effectively powerless against the onslaught. The Southern Reservoir was unable to cope with the inundation and burst its banks, flooding Daiman's palace. An exasperated Daiman could only express his rage against his estranged older brother Odion for indirectly enabling Zodoh to attack his realm. Still, the 'Creator of the Universe' boasted that he had inconceivable resources everywhere.

While Zodoh's victory seemed imminent, he underestimated Kerra and his old nemesis Jenn Devaad. They infiltrated Zodoh's fleet aboard a stolen two-seater Hutt starfighter. Based on her time aboard the Voracious, Jenn had correctly deduced that the Hutt lord's flagship housed a command center with a massive data processor for coordinating the Stormdriver fleet. They flew the starfighter into the hangar bay of Zodoh's flagship, and Kerra disembarked and infiltrated the vessel. The Jedi Knight swiftly eliminated Zodoh's guards and made her way to the data processing chamber, a massive dome in the heart of the Voracious. Meanwhile, Jenn harassed Zodoh's starfighter defenses. Kerra located her target, only to be surprised by Zodoh, who had donned his armor and jetpack. After stunning her with electrical lightning, he engaged the Jedi Knight in a duel using a Mandalorian vibroblade. To deliberately disadvantage his foe, Zodoh deactivated the artificial gravity field and activated his jetpack.

Following a one-sided battle, Zodoh had the young Jedi woman locked in a neck hold. However, before he could deliver a fatal blow, Jenn's starfighter intervened, blasting a hole through the command dome and exposing the ship to zero gravity. The ensuing explosion triggered a series of blasts that destroyed the Voracious in a firestorm. Zodoh was ejected into space but survived due to his Hutt physiology, which was resilient enough to withstand zero gravity. Meanwhile, his two Jedi foes escaped into hyperspace. With the destruction of the Voracious, the Stormdrivers were unable to coordinate their global storm and were presumably disabled or destroyed by Daiman's defense forces, who managed to regroup and reform their formations. Zodoh was subsequently captured and executed by Daiman, who appropriated one of his own Stormdriver devices to dehydrate the Hutt.

With the retreat of the Stormdrivers, the storms and flooding subsided, and the landscape began to dry up. Following Zodoh's demise, Kerra and Jenn returned to assist Joad in the evacuation efforts. Having misled the Sith into believing that the planet was still completely submerged, Kerra, Joad, and Jenn planned to use Aquilaris as a major base for shuttling refugees out of Sith Space. Having ceased consuming Deluge, Joad was gradually recovering and reverting to his normal self, much to Kerra's delight. Jenn also planned to sabotage Operation Deluge by misleading her superiors into shipping their supplies to Aquilaris. En route, the drugs would be dumped into space, and she would return with a shipload of refugees. While Joad had been unable to dissuade Kerra from leaving Aquilaris to continue her anti-Sith crusade, he no longer displayed any animosity towards the Jedi Knight and accepted that everyone had different roles in serving the greater good.

Kerra Holt departed Aquilaris aboard her Fire Lotus starfighter, a gift from Captain Devaad. Having "saved" Daiman from defeat at Darkknell, she had earned his grudging respect and admiration. Consequently, she was able to establish contact with him and solicit his assistance in eliminating Odion, for whom both shared a mutual dislike for different reasons. Kerra sought to avenge the devastation of her homeworld and to discover the whereabouts of her parents. Meanwhile, Daiman aimed to punish Odion for indirectly aiding Zodoh during the Aquilaris campaign. With Daiman's consent, she infiltrated Tergamenion disguised as a factory worker. Tergamenion was a desolate factory world and police state governed by a highly efficient security apparatus of holograms, which allowed Daiman to monitor his subjects' every movement and conversation. Unlike other Daimanate worlds, there was no underground resistance movement on Tergamenion, and its inhabitants lived a life of unrelenting, rigorous labor.

Daiman acquired intelligence regarding the presence of an Odionate agent named Wayman, a Claimer who had infiltrated Daiman's security forces. With Daiman as her handler, Kerra posed as a Force-sensitive factory worker named "Mercy" who would feign an escape and then be apprehended by Wayman. As the plan involved jumping from a high-rise building, Kerra was equipped with a jetpack as a safety precaution. As planned, Kerra attempted to escape from a factory and made contact with Wayman, who detected her Force-sensitivity and altered her records in the worker database to indicate that she was deceased. Wayman succeeded in recruiting "Mercy" by appealing to her supposed desire to avenge the deaths of her family at Daiman's hands. He offered to train her as a dark side-using Novitiate. As a test of her abilities and enthusiasm, he instructed her to make her own way to Odion but also provided her with a signaling device to use upon arrival at her destination. "Mercy" complied, and he departed on a speeder bike.

She then conversed with a hologram of Daiman, who had been monitoring the conversation while in his hologram mode. Daiman commented on his omnipresence, to which Kerra responded that he was deranged and questioned her decision to cooperate with Daiman. In response, Daiman boasted of his omnipotent power to know the past, present, and future, claiming that this was why Kerra was working for him. Kerra disagreed and emphasized that this partnership was merely a temporary "alliance of convenience." Daiman also claimed that he foresaw a great tribulation in the future originating in Odion's realm.

With their briefing concluded, Kerra, under the alias "Mercy," departed in her starfighter for the Odionate. There, she was inducted into the Novitiate and assigned to a mission on Skarpos, part of Sith Lord Malakite's domain known as the Menagerie. During the Battle of Skarpos, the Odionate forces suffered heavy losses when several Novitiates and Thunder Guard members were killed in a tar pit ambush by Malakite's Mutates, individuals subjected to Sith alchemical experiments that warped their minds and bodies. "Mercy" was horrified as several Novitiates and Thunder Guardsmen charged to their deaths in the blazing tar pits. She attempted to turn back Odion's forces and even tended to a wounded acolyte. Her concerns angered her commanding officer, Beld Yulan, who berated her for her unwillingness to die. However, Wayman intervened on her behalf, criticizing Yulan's suicidal tactics as a contributing factor to the prevailing inexperience among Odion's forces. He defended "Mercy," expressing that he had high hopes for the young woman but advised her to follow Yulan's orders on future occasions due to his senior position in Odion's hierarchy.

He then informed "Mercy" and the other surviving Novitiates that Lord Odion had reassigned "Mercy's" team to a major assignment to recover the Helm of Ieldis. Wayman ordered Yulan's fleet to rendezvous with Odion at his new capital of Jubalene, formerly part of the defeated Bactranate. Yulan commented that he would arrive there but first needed to stop at Vanahame to replenish his arms supplies. "Mercy" then inquired with Wayman about whether Jubalene had any data centers, feigning enthusiasm for pursuing Odion's teachings. Wayman confirmed her question, praising her devotion. At Jubalene, he and "Mercy" were present with Odion during a combat duel pitting three Duros bankers against a rancor. The Duros had been deceived into embracing Odion's nihilistic teachings and believed that they could embrace death by confronting a fully grown rancor. With Odion encouraging them "to end the pain," the three bankers entered a berserker rage and attacked the rancor with spears. Ultimately, their efforts proved futile, and they were devoured by the beast in the presence of a satisfied Odion, who commented that even Lord Bactra's bankers could be used for his own purposes when properly motivated.

Odion also added that he savored the deaths of individuals who had embraced death willingly, as it strengthened the dark side. He also expressed his annoyance towards life energies that glowed through the light side of the Force. While other Sith could tolerate it, he attempted to block it and viewed death as a relief. Kerra was also present when Odion discussed his plans to reopen Project Pandemonium, which aimed to recover the ancient Sith war relic, the Helm of Ieldis. Lord Ieldis was a Sith Lord who lived before the Great Hyperspace War and had created the helm to transform sentient beings into mindless killers. The trail last ended at Sarrassia, and the project was suspended because the planet was part of the Bactranate, a rival Sith domain. With the annexation of the Bactranate, Odion revealed his intentions to invade Sarrassia and reclaim the relic.

Wayman's team, including Kerra, was assigned the task of continuing the research where the trail ended, starting with the material available in his data center at Jubalene. At that point, Odion sensed a familiar presence in the room but could not discern who it was. However, Kerra escaped further notice with the arrival of Yulan, who had returned from Vanahame rearmed and refreshed for the invasion of Sarrassia. While Odion and Yulan departed to watch several of Bactra's former attorneys fighting a gundark at the arena, Wayman confided in Mercy about his discomfort that Odion favored Yulan and thus kept him alive. He also expressed that he sensed a great emptiness in the Force emanating through Odion's spirit. After Wayman left to join the others at the arena, Kerra took advantage of the opportunity to browse through the computer. Kerra had carried a locket of her parents throughout her childhood and wanted to discover their whereabouts and fate. She placed the locket onto the computer's scanner and quickly discovered that her parents had been captured by Odion's forces on Capital Cay and dragooned into Project Pandemonium. This discovery further convinced her to travel to Sarrassia with the Sith to ascertain the fate of her parents.

During the Sarrassia's subjugation, Mercy's squadron descended in a host of attack ships subsequently employed for the relocation of Grumani detainees. The prisoners were categorized based on their species' unique skill sets, while offspring were distressingly extracted from their families. Subsequently, Kerra would discover that the Odionate's children were confined within a network of monasteries, undergoing indoctrination. Under the guidance of the Twi'lek Doyan, the Novitiates were then dispatched to Mount Diligence alongside a Sith trooper detachment, where several Grumani Hierophants were fortifying a cavern. They had established a defensive ditch, and some brandished lightsabers. In the midst of close-quarters combat, Kerra intervened, attempting to prevent fellow Sith initiate Doyan from executing a Hierophant. However, Yulan witnessed this and commanded his artillery to unleash fire upon all combatants, resulting in the deaths and injuries of several of his own soldiers in a case of misdirected fire. Once more, Yulan admonished Mercy for her perceived compassion and reluctance to perish in battle. Mercy retorted that Yulan's cannons nearly obliterated his own forces, asserting that Odion would be greatly displeased if the quest to secure the Helm of Ieldis was jeopardized by the demise of its participants. Yulan muttered that Odion could easily replace the Novitiates and proceeded to assess the situation on the ground. He promptly realized that a number of Sith troopers had been killed or wounded due to his own friendly fire.

An officer under Yulan's command then informed him that his Sith troopers had secured the cave's entrance, eliminating the defending priests who had made a final stand. Yulan surmised that there was something valuable within and instructed Mercy and her companions to investigate the caves, expressing his longing to return to Vanahame while he still retained memories of its location. While exploring the cave, Kerra became separated from her fellow Novitiates and stumbled upon a concealed passage, accessible via the symbol adorning her mother's pendant. She discovered a temple divided by an underwater waterway and was subsequently ambushed by the alien Hierophant Aunt Zoojoo, who initially mistook her for a Sith acolyte. Nonetheless, Aunt Zoojoo swiftly recognized Kerra as an adherent of the light side, despite her Sith attire. Later, within the subterranean temple, Zoojoo disclosed the last known whereabouts of her parents and verified that the Helm of Ieldis was indeed located on Skarpos.

She further revealed that her parents had also conceived a younger sibling during their imprisonment. Their encounter was abruptly interrupted by the arrival of Yulan and several Sith, who had breached the chamber by employing explosives to create an opening. In a state of panic, Zoojoo triggered an explosion that buried the temple beneath rubble, resulting in her own demise but preventing the Sith from obtaining crucial information. Yulan and his cohorts managed to escape the collapsing debris. Mercy subsequently emerged and Yulan questioned her motives for conversing with the woman. Mercy asserted that she was merely gathering intelligence and revealed that the Helm was situated on Skarpos, directing Yulan to transport them there, as he was responsible for their conveyance. Yulan acquiesced and commenced preparations for hyperspace travel to Skarpos, which was currently under siege by Odion's forces. Kerra could only grieve the loss of a family friend in Zoojoo, but pledged to persist in her pursuit of her parents.

En route to Skarpos, Yulan's armada made a stopover at Vanahame. Driven by a fervent desire to ascertain the whereabouts of her parents, Kerra feigned unwavering commitment to Odion's cult and attempted to seize control of a transport ship for her personal use. Her commander, Doyan, intervened, rebuking her for disregarding camaraderie, reminding "Mercy" that they were functioning as a cohesive unit to locate the Helm. The Kubaz Glenk had also vanished on Sarrassia, prompting the other Novitiates to surmise that he was endeavoring to reach the Helm before them. By this juncture, Yulan's warship, the Gravedigger, had been refueled, and Mercy was dispatched to the subterranean basement beneath the base to apprise Yulan. There, she uncovered a vast Odionate monastery, an immense planet-sized orphanage where captive children were indoctrinated and transformed into soldiers and laborers for Odion's cause.

She encountered Yulan himself, who elucidated the origins of the Monasteries and disclosed his personal history. Kerra ascertained that Yulan had once been a Mandalorian mercenary who had embraced Odion's dark side doctrines following the demise of his children from a Candorian plague outbreak. From his experiences, Yulan concluded that existence was devoid of meaning and that the sole escape lay in embracing oblivion. In the hope of discovering her younger sibling, Kerra also inquired about information pertaining to the identities of the captives, only to learn that the Monastery maintained no records whatsoever. Following their stopover, Yulan's fleet returned to Skarpos, where they established an armed encampment beneath the Morbollon Mesa.

The Novitiates conducted a gravimetric scan of the mesa, revealing the presence of extensive interior tunnels, situated thirty meters beneath its plateau. They commenced preparations to explore the mesa, but their efforts were disrupted by the arrival of Lord Malakite and an invasion force, seeking to reclaim control of Skarpos from Odion. Malakite's forces included swarms of winged Night-Soarers who attempted to overwhelm Yulan's troops, but were repelled by artillery fire. The conflict was further complicated by the arrival of Odion's estranged brother and rival Daiman, who was accompanied by the duplicitous Glenk. Glenk was, in reality, a Daimanate agent who had infiltrated the Novitiates and relayed intelligence concerning the Helm back to his Master. Daiman's starfighters bombarded the Odionate camp and Malakite's troops, inflicting extensive damage. Amidst the ensuing chaos, Mercy rescued General Yulan from a fiery demise.

Yulan directed Mercy and her comrades to ascend to the mesa's summit in a ground transport, while his artillery and infantry held back the invading armies. They soon reached the opening in the mesa, and Mercy leapt into the cave, where she observed Grumani stonework adorning its walls. All the Novitiates could perceive the dark side energy emanating from the Helm's presence. Before her comrades could join her, "Mercy" employed her red Sith lightsaber to damage one of the skiff's engines, causing it to descend. Doyan and the other Novitiates managed to cling on, expressing their anger at "Mercy's" betrayal, vowing to find her regardless of the time it took. Meanwhile, Kerra activated her green Jedi lightsaber and entered the cave. She entered a hallway where she found her mother Mercia Holt's satchel. Hoping they were still alive, Kerra entered a chamber only to find a mound of rocks and earth. She was quickly struck from behind with Force lightning by Odion, who himself had arrived on a personal shuttle. He quickly exposed "Mercy" as Kerra before revealing to her that he had already taken the Helm for himself.

Odion disarmed Kerra and took her captive. Kerra was brought to the top of the mesa where she was reunited with General Yulan and her former Novitiate comrades. Meanwhile, Yulan's soldiers explored the underground network of caves and tunnels while Odion's sages confirmed that the relic was indeed the fabled Helm of Ieldis. Despite his gains, Odion expressed frustration that he did not know how to operate the Helm. When Kerra taunted Odion by saying that he should instead find a waste disposal unit to fit over his head, her former Novitiate leader Doyan offered to kill Kerra while expressing disgust that there had been a Jedi infiltrator among their ranks. In response, Odion remarked that he would have had her entire squad of Novitiates slaughtered had he not known Kerra's presence ever since she entered the Odion. However, he intentionally let her in because he wanted her to lead him to the Helm of Ieldis.

He also revealed further details about the events on Aquilaris Minor ten years ago: that he had captured her parents Aron and Mercia Holt because of their research on the Helm. Odion also revealed that the Claimer Wayman had been monitoring Kerra's whereabouts, reporting the information back to him. Meanwhile, Yulan and his troops emerged from the cave. They reported that they found some camping supplies and two Human skeletons, which had been crushed during an explosion. Yulan also discovered a necklace which was found to belong to Aron and Mercia; confirming the deaths of Kerra's parents. Faced with this discovery, Kerra descended into grief and anguish, activating the Helm of Ieldis. Odion then used the Helm to convert her anguish into destructive dark side energy.

The Helm of Ieldis had an immediate effect on the three massed armies, driving all the combatants into a homicidal frenzy. Within minutes, the combatants descended into a murderous rampage, killing their own comrades indiscriminately. Daiman himself narrowly survived an assassination attempt from Glenk. In the ensuing scuffle, he fought off Glenk and struck him with Force lightning, causing him to topple to his death beneath the Morbollon Mesa. With their armies in total disarray, Daiman and Malakite were forced to flee the battle while they could still resist the Helm's powers. Under the Helm's influence, the three armies brutally annihilated each other. Odion's rivals Daiman and Malakite narrowly escaped with their lives as their own forces turned on themselves. Following the successful test demonstration of the Helm, Odion and his entourage departed Skarpos on the Gravedigger, taking a captive Kerra with them.

Despite his initial hostility towards Kerra, one of her enemies Yulan came to grudgingly respect Kerra for risking her own life by infiltrating the Odionate to find her parents. Towards the end of the journey, Yulan would spend some time meeting with Kerra in her holding cell. He expressed his surprise that Odion had given so much attention to a young woman, admitting that he had expected a great and powerful general. An exhausted Kerra replied that she was not feeling at her best right now. The woman was also very tired due to the strain of her missions. When Yulan asked if she had come all the way from the Republic to find her parents, she replied that it was not part of her original plan but admitted she was hoping there was the slightest chance they were still alive.

Kerra lamented her failure for not expecting that Odion's spies were monitoring her. Yulan expressed sympathy towards Kerra, stating that she still took such a risk to find her parents. During the meeting, Kerra also expressed her desire to find her lost younger brother or sister, whom she believed was incarcerated in one of the Odionate cloisters. She explained to Yulan that was going to be her next search but conceded that she did not expect to have to do it alone. Yulan then explained the real purpose for his visit; a recording device had been recovered from the wrecked mesa chamber. His master Odion had viewed it privately and had ordered Yulan to bring it to Kerra in person.

It turned that the holorecording was a message from Kerra's late parents to Vannar or any other Jedi involved with the University of Sanbra on the Ieldis study. Four years after the Massacre of Aquilaris, her parents had finally recovered the Helm of Ieldis on Skarpos. Following their capture by Lord Odion, the couple had been forcibly impressed into Odion's Project Pandemonium. The Holts had intended to bring the Helm to the Jedi and the Galactic Republic for safekeeping but were unable to do so since the planet was besieged by warring Sith factions. By that stage, the Holts had run out of food and there was a permanent Sith presence outside the Morbollon Mesa. To prevent the Sith from finding the Helm, the couple made the fateful decision to blow themselves and the chamber up, in a last ditched attempt to deny the Sith access to the Helm.

Prior to their deaths, Mercia lamented she would never meet her younger child. She also left a farewell message for Kerra, wishing her good luck. They explained to her that her parents were sacrificing their lives for the good of all the children in the galaxy. They also reiterated that they still loved her and had never given up on the possibility that she had survived. Following the end of the transmission, Yulan conceded that the Holts had only feigned devotion to Odion's death cult. He added that they thought Kerra had died, lost everything, and sacrificed themselves on the chance that other people's children would be hurt. He surmised that they had no one to live for but they died for everyone else. For a Sith devotee like Odion and Yulan, this did not make sense.

Without showing any malice, Kerra disagreed and argued that her parents' sacrifice had made perfect sense. For her, their sacrifice signified that if death could have a meaning, then life must have a meaning as well. Shortly after their meeting, the Gravedigger landed on Vanahame. Upon landing, Kerra asked if Odion had wanted more anguish to feed on, adding that Yulan could tell his master it would not work on her. Yulan replied that Odion may have just wanted her to understand the Helm's potential. Upon realizing they had landed on Vanahame, Kerra reached the conclusion that Odion had come to the Cloister to harness the misery and sadness of the inmates within the planet-sized orphanage. By using the Helm to tap into these negative emotions, Odion's powers would thus be unlimited.

On Vanahame, Kerra Holt was taken into Odion's throne room where she was bound to a Y-shaped platform. Meanwhile, Odion and his followers made preparations for an apocalyptic showdown that would end all life in the galaxy, beginning with the Grumani sector. Odion's Novitiates particularly Wayman and Doyan expressed their enthusiasm in wanting to end their lives in this dark side ritual. By then, Odion's Sith family had found out about Odion's nihilistic ambitions and the Helm's deadly powers; Matriarch Vilia managed to convince her feuding family members to set aside their differences and to launch an attack on Odion before he could fully activate the Helm of Ieldis' powers. Vilia also attempted to communicate with her grandson in a desperate attempt to reason with him but Odion ignored her transmission, determined to make himself the ruler of the entire universe.

Wayman had also installed subspace links that would transmit back life footage of locations targeted by the Helm to Odion's throne room for his master's entertainment. Odion attempted to goad Kerra by asking if she wanted to view her parents' holorecording again but the Jedi woman responded by telling him that she wished that his enemies would come after him. Odion rebuffed her snide remark by telling Kerra that he was ready for any attack from his relatives. Odion then gave the signal to his controllers to switch off all the lights within the Vanahame cloister. To activate the Helm's powers, Odion needed negative emotions like fear and despair in order to project the Helm's Force-induced homicidal rampages. For the first time, the Vanahame cloister was plunged into darkness, throwing all the children into a state of fear and panic.

While Odion and his Novitiates savored the tormented state of the children, Kerra and Yulan were disgusted. While Yulan had an important status within Odion's hierarchy, he had grown disillusioned with his master's needless sacrifice of lives and sadism. Yulan explained to Kerra that the cloister's lights had never been switched off before, adding that Odion needed anguish to power the Helm and that even the worse form of agony devised by adults was nothing compared to the frightened state of the children. Prior to donning the Helm, Odion taunted Kerra by telling her that she had missed out on her opportunity to accept the dark side willingly. Since she was not a true Novitiate, Kerra would only be allowed to watch the death ritual unfold. Odion also added that Kerra's anguish was only enough to make him happy.

Confronted with Odion's apocalyptic conspiracy, Kerra attempted to reason with Yulan. She tried to persuade him to use his starship to destroy Odion's facility from space; adding that the Cloister should be safe since its vacuum was sealed. Citing her mother's last words, Kerra reiterated that they could not allow Odion's scheme to continue. When Yulan asked if she was willing to die in order to save people she did not even know, Kerra acknowledged that she did not want to die but stressed that she wanted to save the child captives in the cloister and all the children in the galaxy. She also argued that while droids who could not accomplish anything when they were shut off, people could accomplish something good even in death. Kerra managed to convince Yulan that the lives of the galaxy's people mattered by stressing that his children mattered even if they were long deceased.

As the Helm's energies were still building up, Yulan took the opportunity to recuse himself from Odion's ceremony by asking for permission to go down to the cloister so that he could add his own energies to the Helm. Due to Yulan's track record of unwavering loyalty to his Master's cause, Odion was willing to grant this request. However, Yulan was actually intending to disrupt the Helm's powers by freeing the child captives. After Yulan's departure, Odion commenced the ritual by beginning with a credo of his nihilistic beliefs before exhorting his followers into a death match through the Helm's powers. The Helm also had an immediate effect on the wider Grumani sector with entire planets descending into killing frenzies. The Calimondra armada was also affected by the Helm's dark side powers with several warships opening fire on each other. Odion's rival Daiman was also forced to unleashed Force lightning against several of his maddened crew.

Giving in to her anger, Kerra was able to use the Force to break her chains. She then grabbed a Sith lightsaber and attempted to attack Odion but was stopped by her former mentor Wayman who reminded her that he had claimed her for Odion once and demanded that she give up. When Kerra refused to submit, Wayman punched her in the head, causing her to fall down. Meanwhile, Yulan entered the cloister control room where he overpowered the two operators and seized the controls, switching all the lights in the Cloister back on. This had the immediate effect of ending Odion's murderous rampage since the children's feelings of relief nullified the negative emotions which had powered the Helm of Ieldis. At that same moment, Yulan was preparing to inflict a final death blow on Kerra while Odion was preparing to unleash all the children's energies on the entire galaxy, an act which would bring about armageddon on a galactic scale.

Yulan's actions had an immediate effect on changing the course of the battle. While Odion was overwhelmed by the children's newly-found joy, Kerra took the opportunity to kill Wayman by impaling him with her lightsaber. By the time Odion had realized what was going on in the Cloister, Yulan had released the children from their bubble prisons. As the children rejoiced in their freedom, this sudden surge of positive emotions caused the Helm to overload, creating a firestorm which consumed Odion. In his final moments, Odion tried to parley for his life with Kerra, by begging her to save him from his enemies by taking him back to Jubalene where his burns could be treated.

Kerra refused by stating that Odion had nearly destroyed all life in the universe while wishing for the collapse of his empire. She also added that his death was an "eye for an eye" for her parents' deaths. Out of desperation, Odion mentioned that he could help Kerra find her long-lost younger sibling if she saved him. Unwilling to trust Odion at his word, Kerra rejected Odion's offer by stating unequivocally that all the children within Odion's cloister orphanages were her brothers and sisters. Following Odion's death, Kerra was joined by Yulan and the liberated children who had "adopted" the former General as their father. With the disintegration of the Odionate due to invasion by Odion's Sith family, Kerra and Yulan made strenuous efforts to liberate as many of the cloisters they could.

While they succeeded in evacuating thousands of children onto transport ships, the pair were unable to reach all of the twelve cloisters since other Sith forces including the Daimanate had occupied different parts of the former Odionate. While Kerra and Yulan were unable to reunite all the children with their parents, Kerra offered to bring their parents to them. She was also at peace with herself for discovering the fate of her parents and avenging their deaths. Before parting, Yulan shook hands with his former enemy and commended Kerra as the real Claimer who had given him a new purpose in life. Without Kerra, Yulan admitted he would have been as good as dead. After wishing farewell, Yulan departed at the helm of a fleet of transports carrying the children to the Republic. Meanwhile, Kerra stayed behind in the Grumani sector to continue her personal crusade against the Sith.

Kerra Holt possessed a resolute and commanding demeanor, her dedication to the Jedi stemming less from an affinity for Jedi principles and more from deeply personal motivations: her resentment towards the Sith was ignited by her childhood trauma of witnessing the obliteration of her family and residence on Aquilaris at the hands of Lord Odion. The events during the Aquilaris Massacre instilled in her an enduring animosity towards this Sith Lord, prompting her to thwart his machinations. This propelled her to enlist in the Jedi Order as a means of exacting retribution against the Sith. Initially, Kerra's perception of the world was distinctly binary, but it evolved and acquired greater complexity as she encountered life in Sith territory firsthand, with all its intricacies and contradictions.

She possessed the capacity for swift and decisive action, as demonstrated by her prompt interventions on Oranessan, which prevented Operation: Influx from collapsing before it had even commenced. Indeed, the entire operation originated from her initiative: she had so impressed her mentor, Vannar Treece, by managing logistics for his prior missions from the Temple, that he entrusted her with devising a strategy to strike against Daiman. Operation: Influx marked her inaugural field mission, where she swiftly garnered a reputation for her impetuous conduct.

Kerra also exhibited inherent leadership qualities, employing her skills to facilitate the evacuation of civilians on both Chelloa and Aquilaris. She displayed an altruistic concern for assisting other sentient beings, particularly non-Force-sensitive civilians ensnared within Sith Space. Influenced by her childhood experiences, Kerra consistently maintained a compassionate disposition towards those less privileged than herself, even when her assistance was not reciprocated. During the Aquilaris campaign, her selflessness clashed with the self-centered perspective of Republic Captain Jenn Devaad, who asserted that only those who aided themselves were deserving of assistance.

Despite her general animosity towards the Sith, she occasionally demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with one Sith Lord against another. Thus, Kerra adhered to the principle that "the adversary of her adversary was her ally." Following the Battle of Darkknell, she conspired with Lord Daiman against his brother Lord Odion, as both harbored grievances against the latter. In this instance, she regarded the narcissistic Daiman as the lesser of two evils compared to the nihilistic Odion, whose destructive inclinations posed a threat to the well-being of the galaxy.

As with most other Jedi Knights, Kerra Holt was proficient in lightsaber dueling and wielded a green lightsaber. She was capable of taking on a wide variety of opponents in melee combat including Sith Lords, Hutts and non-Force-sensitive individuals. Kerra was also capable of using the Force to levitate both objects and people, as displayed when she lifted three refugees on Aquilaris from the floodwaters onto a submersible. She was also experienced with force concealment with the Force, able to stand in Odion's presence without him recognizing her. In non-combat areas, Kerra also knew how to pilot a variety of vehicles including starfighters, cargo transports and even airspeeders.

The name Kerra is a contraction of Knight Errant, and started as a placeholder used by John Jackson Miller. Kerra's last name was inspired by the Andy Holt Apartments, in which Miller lived for a summer. Kerra Holt was first introduced as the primary protagonist in the new Star Wars: Knight Errant comic series which debuted with the release of Knight Errant 0 during Celebration V in August 12–15, 2010. She appeared as the main point-of-view character from the series' first story arc Star Wars: Knight Errant: Aflame, which ran from October 13, 2010 through to February 16, 2011. Her story background was developed by John Jackson Miller while the character was drawn by artist Ivan Rodriguez, inked by Belardino Brabo, and colored by Michael Atiyeh. She also appeared as a key point-of-view character in Miller's tie-in short story Star Wars: Knight Errant: Influx which debuted on October 19, 2010.

She later appeared as one of the three main point-of-view characters in Miller's tie-in novel Knight Errant, which was first released on January 22 2011. Kerra would also continue to play a key role within the second story arc Star Wars: Knight Errant: Deluge, which ran from August 17 to December 21, 2010. In the first four issues, she was drawn by Iban Coello, inked by Sergio Abad, and colored by Atiyeh. In the fifth issue however, she was drawn by David Daza. She continued to play a major role in the story plot of the third story arc Star Wars: Knight Errant: Escape which ran from June 13 to October 10, 2012. Within this story arc, she was drawn by Marco Castiello and Andrea Chella, inked by Vincenzo Acunzo, and colored by Atiyeh.