Chapter 1
Anakin Solo spooned some green thakalito into his mouth, dryly savoring the tasty soup. He looked up around him at the other members of the strike team - his brother, Jacen, nervously thinking about the dark side, his sister, Jaina, with an air of cool detachment, Raynar Thul, Ganner Rhysode, Tahiri, Telki, Ulaha, Alema Rar, Elusa and Lowbacca.
Nearly an hour ago, they'd felt the ship land, and they'd heard Lando lower the boarding ramp, heading out to meet the Yuuzhan Vong picket ship they had no doubt encountered. Tenel Ka and the Barabels had left in an escape pod back to Eclipse, because Anakin had said they needed smaller numbers to succeed. The strike team had been shocked, but had supported his decision with much calming from Jacen through the battle meld.
They could faintly hear arguing voices, constantly bargaining for the past hour. That was when it happened.
The strike team could faintly hear Lando's voice rapidly rise.and then he signaled the alarm. There was a loud explosion outside, and a blaring ring started to go on the inside.
Anakin stood up with the rest of the Jedi Knights, lightsabers ignited, and sprinted towards the hatchway. Jaina arrived there first, and nearly ran headlong into a Yuuzhan Vong warrior.
Instead of panicking, she spun to the left as she reversed her lightsaber, stabbing through his back. The warrior fell without a sound. Jaina moved ahead, and down the ramp, ahead of the others.
A sea of thud bugs headed their way, hissing through the air. The sound of over a dozen lightsabers swinging cackled through the cold night sky. Anakin couldn't tell what planet they were on, but he guessed it was a moon.
Anakin soon spotted Lando, hidden behind a large boulder, throwing thermal detonators over it randomly. He looked terrible, his face was covered in blood, and he held his hand over his stomach. Anakin stood in front of him to give him cover.
"What happened!?" Anakin yelled.
They said you weren't real Jedi! They said that real Jedi would've attacked them by now!" Lando yelled back. "So they tried to kill me!"
Anakin concentrated on batting away the swarm of thud bugs coming his direction, and silently cursed Lando. The mission was over now. It they even escaped this fiasco alive, they would have to get back as soon as possible. Lando was badly injured, and needed to be tended to.
A fresh group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors charged out of the ship, and three of them headed towards Anakin.
"Stay down," Anakin told Lando, and charged forward to meet them.
The strike team's confidence had been heavily shaken when Lowbacca and Telki both fell. Jacen had seen it, tried to help them, had to try, but couldn't. Lowbacca dove in front of an amphistaff that was about to bisect Telki from behind. The amphistaff drove through Lowbacca's heart, killing him nearly instantly. Telki, unaware of what was happening, was showered with thud bugs from behind, and by time Jacen had gotten to her, she was dead.
Jacen now held off two warriors at once with his right hand, while shooting warriors with his blaster in his right hand. He ducked under a two blows, and the two amphistaffs collided with each other, wrenching themselves from their masters' grip. Jacen gave them each a flick to the throat, and they were down, and he was taking on the next batch. He shot two warriors in the armpit with his blaster, then heard the alarm of an empty cylinder. He used the Force to propel the useless blaster at a nearby warriors head, sending him spiraling into Tahiri's lightsaber. Jacen turned as several thud bugs headed his way.
He stuck out his hand and used the Force to reverse the path of the bugs. They were sent screeching back at their throwers, who where bisected at least a dozen times by the bugs. The battle raged on, and all Jacen Solo could do was fight. This is why I told Uncle Luke I'm not made to be a Jedi. He thought to himself.
Jaina had watched Ulaha die, side by side with Raynar Thul and Jovan Drark. The numbers were just too overwhelming for the young Jedi Knights. A group of at least a dozen warriors surrounded the three, and Jaina had tried to fight towards them. But the ring was too strong, and no one could kill Yuuzhan Vong that fast, not even Jaina Solo.
One warrior stepped forward and fired thud bugs at the group. Ulaha leaped forward to block them, but was stabbed in the neck by a thrown coufee. Jovan and Raynar, thinking the thud bugs had been burnt out of existence, were too late. The bugs sliced through them, some in the abdomen, others in the chest. Some were deflected by the thin armor they wore, but all too many got through.
Soon Jovan fell, and warriors were on him in an instant. Raynar Thul made the mistake of trying to defend Jovan, and was cut in half by an amphistaff. Jovan was already dead.
Jaina felt guilt and despair begin to rise up within her. Lowie, Telki, Raynar and Jovan were all dead. Elusa was about to die, Jaina sensed, and abandoning the attack she was pressing with a warrior, she leapt over ten meters to Elusa's side.
She was being attacked by two Yuuzhan Vong, who kept throwing thud bugs and coufees alternately. Elusa kept battering them down, but her strength withered. Jaina stepped in front of her, determined not to lose another Jedi today.
If she only knew how futile that was.
Anakin flicked his blade through a warrior's midsection, then spun, and used the Force to hurl sand in the next warriors eyes. Anakin kicked him in the chest, then rolled under another blow, coming up swinging, and the Vong's head parted with it's body.
Anakin was growing tired, and he was battered and bruised. But no physical wound could heal the emotional wounds he was going through. Four Jedi dead already, and they hadn't even reached Myrkyr! Not only was the mission a failure, but he was a failure as well, for allowing this to slip through his -
Knock it off.
That would be Tahiri. He spared a glance over at her. She was moving swiftly through Yuuzhan Vong ranks, untouched by each amphistaff and thud bug that was thrown at her. Each weapon thrown at her was thrown back mercilessly at it's master. But she seemed more concerned with his mental state than her own well-being.
Anakin shoved aside his remorse and stepped up to meet the charge of an incoming warrior. That was when he realized something. Why weren't they attacking the Vong? The enemy was attacking them. It should be the other way around. We didn't come here to defend.
"Ganner!" Anakin yelled.
Ganner knocked a Yuuzhan Vong warrior down, sending him tumbling into another, and they both fell.
"What!?"
"Take Lando and get out of here! Try to get our dead, too!"
"What? You can't seriously still be going through with the mission!"
"Go, Ganner! That's an order, now! Go!"
Ganner was furious. He finished dealing with the remaining two warriors in a very unpleasant fashion, then used the Force to levitate Lando and the other dead Jedi into Lando's ship.
"Give them cover!" Anakin yelled.
Jaina and Ulaha did neat backflips, Jaina's landing hers next to Anakin in front of the ship. But Ulaha slipped in the Force, she didn't have enough strength. She made it only halfway and tumbled into a group of charging warriors.
"No!" Jacen yelled, and he sprinted towards her, trying to intercept the Vong.
The warriors trampled Ulaha, and Anakin felt her slip away silently. Jacen cut off the charging group of warriors with a strong Force wind that pushed everything near the warriors left and right, including them. Ganner quickly and very resignedly levitated Ulaha aboard the ship.
"Go!" Anakin said.
Ganner closed the hatch, and the strike team was down to five. Besides Anakin, only Jaina, Jacen, Alema Rar and Tahiri remained.
Into the ship. Anakin thought at his remaining comrades.
Jacen and Alema each had similar thoughts, both wondering vaguely if Anakin had gone insane. But from Jaina and Tahiri Anakin sensed an utmost trust, willing to follow Anakin no matter what and without any question.
Three Solos, a Twi'lek, and an orphaned human leapt into the air, lightsabers ignited, towards the Yuuzhan Vong ship.
Chapter 2
Anakin Solo leaps into the air.
He took in everything the moment he left the ground - how hard the dirt was, how many warriors there were with their attention towards him, where his comrades were in relation to him, how many thud bugs were heading towards him. He took all of this in, and then acted on it.
See, and act.
Two thud bugs sliced straight for his eyes, and he saw them coming all too early. Spinning in the air, he sliced both of them, and then used his feet to kick away a thrown amphistaff. He landed solidly, and headed towards the nearest warrior, lightsaber spinning. He cut open the first near the neck, then gave the next two quick jabs at the armpit, kicking him away. The third dove at him, and he ducked and rolled out of the way. With a quick glance back he saw that the warrior had been upended by Jaina's lightsaber.
He sprinted up the boarding ramp and into the ship, Tahiri on his left, his twin siblings immediately behind him, and Alema Rar bringing up the back. Anakin felt Jacen bringing the battle meld together.
Anakin made a sharp left at the top of the ramp, and headed quickly down a long hallway. He was halfway down the hall when a boot kicked out and caught him in the stomach with a breath-taking whoosh. Anakin stumbled and the boot kicked him in the back of his head. Looking up, he was just in time to see Tahiri block the potentially fatal blow, and then have Jacen pierce the warrior behind the neck. He collapsed in a heap.
Anakin leapt up, and started to head down the hall again.
"No, Anakin, wait!" Tahiri said.
He spun. "What?"
"Alema is holding off about half a dozen warriors and a voxyn from our back. Jaina's going to help her," Jacen told him.
"Yes? And?" Anakin asked.
"What do we do?" Tahiri wanted to know.
Anakin closed his eyes, and then snapped them open again an instant later.
"They'll be fine," he said, patiently. "If they're in trouble, we'll know."
Jacen sighed, Tahiri nodded, and Anakin started running down the hall again, lightsaber re-ignited.
Jaina sprinted back down the hall when she realized Alema wasn't right behind them anymore. She ran to the opening of the ramp again, and saw Alema, twisting and twirling among Yuuzhan Vong warriors, lightsaber blazing. A voxyn was there as well, but it sat outside the inferno, swiping a paw every once and a while, too afraid of hurting the warriors to actually attack Alema.
Jaina hurled her lightsaber at the voxyn. It gave a sonic screech as the lightsaber went straight through it's skull. Somehow, it still writhed on the floor. Jaina called her lightsaber to her and finished the voxyn with a quick downwards stroke, then spun and caught an incoming warrior on the jaw with the heel of her boot.
Another warrior came, this one small and lithe, unlike most. Jaina sliced at his head with her lightsaber. He ducked, then rolled and grabbed her ankle, twisting it and yanking her to the ground. Jaina did a backflip, and used the Force to nudge Alema's mind.
Let's go.
Alema leapt to Jaina's side almost immediately, and they began to fight the warriors while jogging backwards. Jaina pulled out a thermal detonator, set if for 3 seconds, and dropped it. She used the Force to speed her further down the hall, and Alema followed suit. They heard the muffled blast, and a shout, and without a glance around, they continued down the hall.
"Where are they?" Jaina said as they neared the end of the hall.
Alema shrugged. "Reach out to them in the Force, you should be able to sense them, they're your brothers."
Jaina concentrated, and then frowned. "That's the thing, though. I can't sense them."
Jacen sprinted down the hall, struggling to keep up with even Tahiri. Anakin had pulled a good five meters ahead of the two of them, and Tahiri kept up pretty well, running easily. Although Jacen was in excellent shape, he was shocked at how much better shape Anakin and Tahiri were in. Finally, they reached the end of the hall. It had to be at least 1000 meters, Jacen thought.
They were at a fork. To the left was another long, winding passage, straight was a wider passage that looked like the main part of the ship, and to the right was a winding corridor almost as wide as the straight one. They heard a bounding roar, and a voxyn sprinted down to them from the left hallway, and into the right. All three had their lightsabers out in a second. But the voxyn didn't even give them a second glance, it just bounded straight down the corridor, as if possessed by a devil. Jacen shrugged, and saw Tahiri do similar.
"Let's follow it," Anakin said, and sprinted down the right hallway after the voxyn.
The voxyn was quick, but Anakin, with the Force, had been quicker. Jacen and Tahiri could only watch as Anakin pulled nearly even with the voxyn.
It made a left hand turn, and it disappeared around the turn with Anakin. Jacen and Tahiri came around the turn a second later, and saw the voxyn pounding itself against a door, completely oblivious to the fact that Anakin was standing right next to it.
Finally the door broke down, and the voxyn charged in. Anakin was right on his heels, but his lightsaber was not ignited. Jacen went in, and saw the voxyn tearing down cages - the whole room was full of them - and trying to break them open. Jacen walked further up to get a closer look, and two things happened at once.
The first thing that happened was that he lost all contact with the Force. The second thing was that he saw the cages held ysalimari. They could not feel the Force.
The voxyn was going mad, throwing the cages violently everywhere to try to get at the ysalimari. It would have been humorous, under different circumstances.
Jacen heard footsteps in the corridor, and suddenly several Yuuzhan Vong appeared in the doorway, and Jacen heard Anakin and Tahiri curse simultaneously as they saw the Vong and realized the situation.
They were cut off from the Force, and their only escape route from being cut off had just been blocked.
Chapter 3
"Their not dead," Jaina said. "I know that much for sure. We would've felt it. But I can't sense them."
Alema considered this. "Try Anakin's comlink. He's kept it on since we got here, I think."
Jaina frowned. Very rarely was she cut off from both of her brothers at the same time. It could be me, she thought. Maybe my senses are just a bit off. But even as she thought this she realized how unlikely it was. Something had happened to her brothers and Tahiri. She pulled out her comlink.
"Anakin? Anakin, are you there?"
No response.
"Anakin, are you there?"
The comlink beeped loudly, and Jaina almost dropped it in surprise. Then Anakin's deadly calm voice floated over the comlink.
"I'm here, Jaina," he said.
There was something in his tone of voice that she didn't like very much. He sounded far-off, concentrating tightly on something elsewhere. "You okay?" she asked. "What's going on?"
There was no response, and Jaina frowned again. "Let's go," she said to Alema, and they took off down the corridor.
Anakin pulled out his blaster and leveled it at the first warrior in front. "These odds aren't fair," Anakin said. "We'll kill you in seconds." Anakin was hoping the warriors didn't know of the ysalimari's power, which they probably did.
"Surrender or we will kill you. Either is fine with us, infidels," the lead warrior snarled.
Anakin sighed. These creatures would never see reason. "Very well then," Anakin motioned with his blaster to Jacen and Tahiri. "Capture them."
At the word capture, the lead warrior flinched, and turned to the warrior behind him. This is what Anakin had been waiting for. He dove at the warrior closest to him, ignited his lightsaber as he flew. The molten-hot blade disintegrated the warriors weak neck armor, and he fell to the ground. Anakin then de-activated his lightsaber and threw it at the next warrior. It bounced off his skull, sending him unconscious.
Moving lighting quick for one without the Force, Anakin grabbed the ankles of the other two warriors and tackled them, clearing the doorway. As Anakin fell, the other two warrior fell on top of him, and he winced as he heard a resounding crunch in his ribcage. Anakin swung his fist, but the warrior caught it and squeezed, and Anakin felt like his hand was going to break.
"Go!" he screamed to Jacen and Tahiri, who didn't know what to do, standing over Anakin and the two warriors as they wrestled. "They'll bring reinforcements. Don't let them get in!"
When he saw they weren't going to leave, he yelled again, "I'm in charge here. Go! Now!"
Any further words he may have said were cut off when a thick hand wrapped around his throat. He tried to pull it off, but his hands were pinned to his sides.
"Goodnight, jeedai," one warrior sneered as he raised a fist and smashed it between Anakin's eyes.
Somehow, Anakin didn't even grunt. And he didn't fall unconscious, either. It took three more blows before his arms finally began to sag and stop resisting. It took two more to get him to shut his eyes, but another was required when he made a furious attempt to get free again. Cut off from the Force, his power was greatly diminished. Anakin coughed and lapsed into unconsciousness.
Jacen and Tahiri darted out of the small room and into the hallway. They still couldn't feel the Force. They heard the pound of feet coming, but Jacen motioned for them to go into the room down the hall. "It's shapers," he whispered to her once they were inside the tiny, dark room. "They're not after Anakin."
As they sat there in the dark, Jacen realized Tahiri was shivering, probably with cold, for it was freezing in the ship, and for fear of Anakin. Jacen put a tentative arm around her shoulder. "He'll be fine," Jacen said as he drew her closer. "I won't let anything happen to him. I promise."
Tahiri didn't respond, she just kept shivering. Jacen took off his heavy cloak, which he wore over a thick tunic, and placed the cloak over Tahiri. She mumbled her thanks, and she wrapped her arm up and kissed Jacen on the cheek. "Thanks," she said again.
Jacen suddenly stood up and put his ear against the door. He heard several warriors outside, probably at least a dozen. They seemed to have Anakin, but Anakin had put up a fight. The voices stayed outside the door. Jacen sat back down on the floor next to Tahiri.
"There's too many of them," Jacen said. "And we still don't have the Force back. We should wait until they leave before we go out again."
Tahiri nodded. The voices would sometimes go silent, but then they would soon be arguing very loudly. Jacen sat cross legged and tried to get comfortable. He closed his eyes, and he fell to sleep.
Sometime later Jacen felt Tahiri nudge his head.
"What?" Jacen whispered.
Tahiri was smiling. "Your head is on my knee," she said, trying not to laugh.
Jacen blushed, and started to sit up. "I'm sor-"
Tahiri grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back down so his head was on her knee again. She ran he finger along Jacen's cheek, and slowly lowered her lips to his. Then she kissed him. Jacen started to turn away, but then kissed her back. They were both oblivious that the voices had stopped now for several minutes, and now two entirely new pairs of feet were trodding along the hall outside.
Jaina and Alema skidded to a halt in front of a room with several ysalimari in it. It looked as if there had been an intense struggle. Jaina frowned as she felt the Force slip away. "Oh, no." she said. "That's why we couldn't sense them in the Force. I still can't feel Jacen or Tahiri, but I can feel Anakin every once and a while, as if he keeps fading in and out."
"But what does it mean?" Alema asked. "And what should we do?"
Jaina sighed. That was the problem. They had lost the first and second in command on the mission already, not counting the countless others they'd lost in the battle outside, which had turned into a Jedi slaughter field. Jaina was beginning to despair.
"I don't know," she said. "I just don't know.
Chapter 4
"C'mon, I don't hear the voices anymore," Jacen said to Tahiri. Tahiri leapt up sharply and unhooked her lightsaber.
"Let's go, then," she said.
Jacen softly opened the door, and saw a bewildered Jaina standing in front of him.
"What were you doing in there?" she asked incredulously. She wasn't used to being surprised by the presence of her, brother, but she was cut off from the Force by the ysalimari, so she hadn't sensed them.
"Hiding," Tahiri said simply.
Jaina gave her a penetrating stare, and turned back to Jacen as he spoke.
"They've captured Anakin."
Alema frowned. "Where is he? We can't sense him."
"Of course you can't," Jacen said. "We can't sense anything when near ysalimari. This way," he said, leading off down the corridor to the right.
Jaina, Tahiri and Alema followed, and they had only made it but perhaps twenty meters when an unarmed Yuuzhan Vong warrior darted out in front of them, with two armed ones several feet behind him.
"Jeedai," he hissed.
The sound of four lightsabers igniting echoed through the corridor.
"We do not come here to fight," the unarmed warrior said. "But you must surrender to us or your other Jeedai will be excuted."
Jaina stepped forward. "I should just rip your sorry little head off right n-"
"If you harm any of us, your friend is dead," he said.
Jaina made a visible effort of holding herself back, and she barely succeeded.
"Give us a minute, OK?" she asked.
The warrior nodded and turned away. Jaina huddled together with the other three Jedi.
"What do we do?" she asked.
"We surrender," Jacen said.
"NO!" Tahiri said. "We must try to rescue him!"
Alema shook her head. "You heard the warrior, Tahiri. They'll kill Anakin if we don't surrender."
Tahiri glanced at Jaina, who only shrugged and gave an 'it's all for the best' look to her. Infuriated Tahiri ignited her lightsaber, and, screaming, she bolted down the passage at the three warriors.
Jaina and Jacen dove at her feet and missed by inches. Alema hurdled them and tried to use the Force to pull Tahiri back, but Tahiri was moving too quick.
Tahiri sliced the unarmed warrior into four sections in seconds. Spinning and ducking an amphistaff blow, she flicked her blade across the next warrior's neck. Then she blocked two blows from the third warrior before cutting him open under the arm. Jacen, Jaina and Alema reached Tahiri just as the third warrior fell.
"Sithspit, Tahiri!" Jaina said. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"I'm saving Anakin. If any of you want to join me, feel free. But you can be garunteed one thing."
"What?" Alema said, not bothering to cover her obvious distaste for Tahiri.
"None of you are going to stop me."
With that she turned around and stalked down the corridor. It was several seconds before she heard the tramping of three disgruntled Jedi behind her. Suddenly, it felt like she had a second pair of legs again. Then she realized what had happened: the Force was back!
"We must be out of ysalimari range," Jacen said happily. "I can sense Anakin now. Let's hurry up!"
"Your friends seem to have betrayed you, Jeedai," Malik Osh'ung said to Anakin, who was strapped down to the floor, the voxyn hovering above him. "They seem to care more about themselves than your life."
Anakin smiled. "Good."
"You will suffer for this, young Solo Jeedai. Do not underestimate me." With that he turned around, leaving Anakin with the voxyn and the shapers that controlled it. "Torture him to the brink of death," Osh'ung said to the shaper as walked out the door.
Before he even closed the door and ysalimari were slipped into the room, Anakin's screams echoed through the ship.
Jaina heard Anakin's screams just before she lost her sense of him in the Force. The screams continued for a moment, then there was a horrible silence.
They were all silent for a moment. Alema and Jacen were more heartbroken than anything, but Jaina and Tahiri were infuriated. Sprinting down the corridor, Jaina turned the corridor and ran headlong into a hail of thud bugs. Unable to block them, one eventually grazed her forehead, and she dropped unconscious.
Tahiri was right behind her, and when she saw all the thud bugs she just put her head down and charged, at the warriors. Just as she reached the first one an amphistaff curled out like whip and hit her in the back and then in the side of the head. She too dropped, unconscious.
Jacen and Alema, more cautious, snuck around the corner and saw the bodies of Jacen and Tahiri in the hands of several warriors. One stepped forward.
"Surrender, or they die, Jeedai. And you know we'll do it."
Two warriors held coufees over the throats of Jaina and Tahiri. Seeing no other choice, Jacen and Alema tossed down their lightsabers and raised their hands.
The voxyn dripped brown mucus into Anakin's mouth.
He involuntarily screamed as his mouth set on fire. He twitched and moaned until he finally sagged, unconscious. The last thing he remembered was losing all contact with the Force..
Sometime later, Anakin awoke. His mouth burned horribly, but other than that he felt fine. He was still strapped down, but there was no one else in the room besides several ysalimari cages. He could not feel the Force. He wondered where Jacen and Jaina and the others were now. He hoped they were okay. I have to get out of this, he thought desperately. I have to try to help them. He tried to budge his restraints but could not. He strained and strained until he exhausted himself. He tried everything, he wiggled his legs, pushed his legs, pulled with his arms and legs, tried to turn over. Nothing worked. All of his energy drained, he faded off to sleep again.
Jaina awoke groggily sometime later. She wondered where she was at first, and why she was in so much pain, but then remembered her fresh anguish over Anakin's death. She also realized she was bent backwards, her hands and feet pinned to the floor by blorash jelly. Turning her head to the left, she saw that Jacen, Tahiri and Alema were similarly attached. They were all already awake.
Jacen said something, and then Alema said something, but Jaina couldn't hear them. Anakin. Anakin was dead. It couldn't be. Not her little brother. Her sweet, innocent little brother, the kid that could fix machines and seconds, fly an X-wing nearly as good as she could, and had lightsaber skills that were unmatched. She pictured several ugly Yuuzhan Vong warrior brutes holding Anakin down while he was executed. If you'd let him fight for his life, you'd all be dead now, Jaina thought savagely. They will pay.
Suddenly the ship lurched. Jaina watched her other brother concentrate deep into the Force. "We've landed, I think. Where, I don't know," Jacen said.
Jaina said, "Oh, I know where. Look out the window. I've seen holos of that planet a million times."
"And?" Alema said.
"That is the planet of Myrkr. We must be landing on a worldship or something."
Slowly, the planet dipped away from view as they went further into whatever they were in.
"I can feel the voxyn queen," Jacen said, his eyes closed. "And she can feel us."
The view of the planet disappeared altogether as there was another lurch. "Now we've landed," Alema said.
Only a few seconds passed before several warriors came through the door, unhooking the four Jedi from the blorash jelly, and then putting them in handcuffs.
"You are being transferred," one warrior said.
Gloomily, Jaina along with her comrades were marched out of the door and down the ramp or the ship, and into the worldship of the voxyn queen.
Chapter 5
Sometime later, Anakin Solo woke up.
He took in his surroundings briefly. He was in a new prison chamber, and definitely not aboard the same ship anymore. His mouth felt terrible, but other than that he was fine. Glancing over at the large window to his right, he saw a lone Yuuzhan Vong guard staring at him.
Anakin yawned and sat up. He noticed the warrior give a jolt as he rose. Anakin walked over to the window.
"Hello," he said to the warrior.
The warrior grunted a response.
Anakin chuckled, and leaned his elbows on the wide sill. "So, how much do Vong warrior guards get paid, eh? Ten credits for the hour?"
The warrior was indifferent.
"That's not too good, you know," Anakin said. "My friend Coli, she's only an assistant guard and she is paid forty credits every hour. And she's not even that good at it. She only guards at little prisons, no big ones."
The warrior grunted, and looked like he was getting annoyed. Anakin continued.
"See, if I were you, I'd be a bit pissed off. I mean, only ten credits an hour? Imagine that, an underpaid Yuuzhan Vong guard."
A smile crept onto Anakin's face as the warrior turned towards Anakin. He still didn't say anything, but wore an ugly scowl.
"So let me get this straight," Anakin said. "You are paid ten credits an hour to make sure a tortured prisoner doesn't escape or anything. Keep things under control, right?"
The warrior barely contained his rage.
"I wonder how much Yuuzhan Vong credits are worth. Probably less than Republic credits. All Yuuzhan Vong things are less than Republic things."
The warrior stood up, and walked to the window sill. "When you die," he snarled, "The galaxy will be a better place. Each time one of your sniveling friends die, the galaxy is a better place. You are unworthy. I would kill you now if I didn't have direct orders otherwise."
Anakin smiled broadly. "Not aloud to kill me, eh? Well, you may not be aloud to kill me, but surely a little torture wouldn't hurt? I mean, how mad could Mr. Carr get if you just twisted my neck a little?" Anakin pointed at a button on the reverse side of the window and moved his head to lean against the glass. "Go ahead. Hit me. Take out your anger. You know you want to."
The warrior didn't move. Anakin didn't move. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Anakin tensed.
The warrior grinned, and pulled out his coufee, pressed the button, and stabbed Anakin in the head.
Anakin put his hand up and let the coufee blade go between his fingers until the hilt hit his hand. Then he grabbed it with his two fingers and flung it at the warrior. It hit him between the eyes.
Anakin climbed out of the window and to freedom.
First task: find his lightsaber.
"She's a beast, for being the smallest of them. That's why she's by herself."
"I could crush her with my pinky, she is so puny. What are you getting at?"
"I'm saying it's dangerous to hold her with-"
The tall Yuuzhan Vongwarrior's last sentence was cut off by the rasping of the other warrior.
"You okay?" the tall warrior asked him. The air did smell a bit funny, but he hadn't felt it yet. Then he began to choke as well.
They both started coughing uncontrollably, until they couldn't breathe. They both made frantic gestures towards the door, to safety. The tall warrior stumbled and fell, and the other joined him shortly thereafter on the floor. They were unconscious.
There was a jinkle, and soon Tahiri Veila was free. She stepped over the warrior's bodies as she left the room, grabbing her lightsaber.
"Still think I'm puny?" Tahiri yelled, her outrage uncontained. The tall warrior grumbled and began to stir.
After that he stirred no more.
Tahiri raced down the corridor, her lightsaber ignited. She'd been worried about escaping, but it had been relatively easy. Now she had to release the other Jedi. The problem was, she had no idea where they were.
She turned a sharp corner and ran headlong into a pile of feathers and dust. She fell, but smoothly picked herself back up. Her heart hammered, though when she realized the feathers and dust were alive.
"You must wake when I tell you," it said.
"What?" Tahiri said as she squinted at the feathers.
"You must wake when I tell you," it repeated, and then it turned around and sprinted off.
Tahiri looked after it as it disappeared, but then she heard a familiar voice calling in her head, associated with several pictures that she roughly translated as: Tahiri! I'm alright! Don't worry!
It was Anakin! She jumped for joy, and sent back I love you, I'm saving the others now!
She quickly ran down the corridor again, her senses expanded, even more determined now then ever to save Alema, Jaina and, and, and.
Jacen.
Jacen. She'd forgot about Jacen.
Now she forgot about Anakin.
She expanded her senses even more, and realized that Alema was being imprisoned very close nearby. She ran up to the nearest door and kicked it in. She found it was empty after a quick survey. She headed into the next one and found it full of ysalimari. She killed some, then headed into the next one.
Two guards jumped out at her the instant she entered. They must have heard the ruckus she had been making, for they reacted instantly. She disarmed the first with two quick armpit blows, then kicked in the face of the second till he was unconscious. Tahiri found Alema at the back of the room, and quickly freed her.
"Tahiri! Am I glad to see you or what?"
"C'mon!" Tahiri growled. "Let's go!"
"Wait!" Alema said. "How did you escape!"
"I'll tell you later," Tahiri said. "Right now we have to help the others.
They headed out the door, moving quickly, until they reached another door at the end of the corridor. It led into a much wider area, and the site before them brought both Tahiri and Alema skidding to a halt.
Below them was a huge procession of at least three hundred Yuuzhan Vong warriors and priests and shapers, all dressed in black. But in the very center of the entire procession were two figures dressed in scarlet red. Tahiri peered closer.
"What is this?" Alema asked.
Tahiri took a deep breath, and she seemed to shudder with a bad mixture of anger, hope, and fear.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Tahiri asked, as she nudged the two red- clad figures with the Force.
"What's going on? Of course I want to know."
The two red figures looked up at Tahiri and Alema at the same time. Even from this distance, their features were unmistakable.
"It's the Solo twins," Tahiri said. "The twin sacrifice."
Anakin Solo spooned some green thakalito into his mouth, dryly savoring the tasty soup. He looked up around him at the other members of the strike team - his brother, Jacen, nervously thinking about the dark side, his sister, Jaina, with an air of cool detachment, Raynar Thul, Ganner Rhysode, Tahiri, Telki, Ulaha, Alema Rar, Elusa and Lowbacca.
Nearly an hour ago, they'd felt the ship land, and they'd heard Lando lower the boarding ramp, heading out to meet the Yuuzhan Vong picket ship they had no doubt encountered. Tenel Ka and the Barabels had left in an escape pod back to Eclipse, because Anakin had said they needed smaller numbers to succeed. The strike team had been shocked, but had supported his decision with much calming from Jacen through the battle meld.
They could faintly hear arguing voices, constantly bargaining for the past hour. That was when it happened.
The strike team could faintly hear Lando's voice rapidly rise.and then he signaled the alarm. There was a loud explosion outside, and a blaring ring started to go on the inside.
Anakin stood up with the rest of the Jedi Knights, lightsabers ignited, and sprinted towards the hatchway. Jaina arrived there first, and nearly ran headlong into a Yuuzhan Vong warrior.
Instead of panicking, she spun to the left as she reversed her lightsaber, stabbing through his back. The warrior fell without a sound. Jaina moved ahead, and down the ramp, ahead of the others.
A sea of thud bugs headed their way, hissing through the air. The sound of over a dozen lightsabers swinging cackled through the cold night sky. Anakin couldn't tell what planet they were on, but he guessed it was a moon.
Anakin soon spotted Lando, hidden behind a large boulder, throwing thermal detonators over it randomly. He looked terrible, his face was covered in blood, and he held his hand over his stomach. Anakin stood in front of him to give him cover.
"What happened!?" Anakin yelled.
They said you weren't real Jedi! They said that real Jedi would've attacked them by now!" Lando yelled back. "So they tried to kill me!"
Anakin concentrated on batting away the swarm of thud bugs coming his direction, and silently cursed Lando. The mission was over now. It they even escaped this fiasco alive, they would have to get back as soon as possible. Lando was badly injured, and needed to be tended to.
A fresh group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors charged out of the ship, and three of them headed towards Anakin.
"Stay down," Anakin told Lando, and charged forward to meet them.
The strike team's confidence had been heavily shaken when Lowbacca and Telki both fell. Jacen had seen it, tried to help them, had to try, but couldn't. Lowbacca dove in front of an amphistaff that was about to bisect Telki from behind. The amphistaff drove through Lowbacca's heart, killing him nearly instantly. Telki, unaware of what was happening, was showered with thud bugs from behind, and by time Jacen had gotten to her, she was dead.
Jacen now held off two warriors at once with his right hand, while shooting warriors with his blaster in his right hand. He ducked under a two blows, and the two amphistaffs collided with each other, wrenching themselves from their masters' grip. Jacen gave them each a flick to the throat, and they were down, and he was taking on the next batch. He shot two warriors in the armpit with his blaster, then heard the alarm of an empty cylinder. He used the Force to propel the useless blaster at a nearby warriors head, sending him spiraling into Tahiri's lightsaber. Jacen turned as several thud bugs headed his way.
He stuck out his hand and used the Force to reverse the path of the bugs. They were sent screeching back at their throwers, who where bisected at least a dozen times by the bugs. The battle raged on, and all Jacen Solo could do was fight. This is why I told Uncle Luke I'm not made to be a Jedi. He thought to himself.
Jaina had watched Ulaha die, side by side with Raynar Thul and Jovan Drark. The numbers were just too overwhelming for the young Jedi Knights. A group of at least a dozen warriors surrounded the three, and Jaina had tried to fight towards them. But the ring was too strong, and no one could kill Yuuzhan Vong that fast, not even Jaina Solo.
One warrior stepped forward and fired thud bugs at the group. Ulaha leaped forward to block them, but was stabbed in the neck by a thrown coufee. Jovan and Raynar, thinking the thud bugs had been burnt out of existence, were too late. The bugs sliced through them, some in the abdomen, others in the chest. Some were deflected by the thin armor they wore, but all too many got through.
Soon Jovan fell, and warriors were on him in an instant. Raynar Thul made the mistake of trying to defend Jovan, and was cut in half by an amphistaff. Jovan was already dead.
Jaina felt guilt and despair begin to rise up within her. Lowie, Telki, Raynar and Jovan were all dead. Elusa was about to die, Jaina sensed, and abandoning the attack she was pressing with a warrior, she leapt over ten meters to Elusa's side.
She was being attacked by two Yuuzhan Vong, who kept throwing thud bugs and coufees alternately. Elusa kept battering them down, but her strength withered. Jaina stepped in front of her, determined not to lose another Jedi today.
If she only knew how futile that was.
Anakin flicked his blade through a warrior's midsection, then spun, and used the Force to hurl sand in the next warriors eyes. Anakin kicked him in the chest, then rolled under another blow, coming up swinging, and the Vong's head parted with it's body.
Anakin was growing tired, and he was battered and bruised. But no physical wound could heal the emotional wounds he was going through. Four Jedi dead already, and they hadn't even reached Myrkyr! Not only was the mission a failure, but he was a failure as well, for allowing this to slip through his -
Knock it off.
That would be Tahiri. He spared a glance over at her. She was moving swiftly through Yuuzhan Vong ranks, untouched by each amphistaff and thud bug that was thrown at her. Each weapon thrown at her was thrown back mercilessly at it's master. But she seemed more concerned with his mental state than her own well-being.
Anakin shoved aside his remorse and stepped up to meet the charge of an incoming warrior. That was when he realized something. Why weren't they attacking the Vong? The enemy was attacking them. It should be the other way around. We didn't come here to defend.
"Ganner!" Anakin yelled.
Ganner knocked a Yuuzhan Vong warrior down, sending him tumbling into another, and they both fell.
"What!?"
"Take Lando and get out of here! Try to get our dead, too!"
"What? You can't seriously still be going through with the mission!"
"Go, Ganner! That's an order, now! Go!"
Ganner was furious. He finished dealing with the remaining two warriors in a very unpleasant fashion, then used the Force to levitate Lando and the other dead Jedi into Lando's ship.
"Give them cover!" Anakin yelled.
Jaina and Ulaha did neat backflips, Jaina's landing hers next to Anakin in front of the ship. But Ulaha slipped in the Force, she didn't have enough strength. She made it only halfway and tumbled into a group of charging warriors.
"No!" Jacen yelled, and he sprinted towards her, trying to intercept the Vong.
The warriors trampled Ulaha, and Anakin felt her slip away silently. Jacen cut off the charging group of warriors with a strong Force wind that pushed everything near the warriors left and right, including them. Ganner quickly and very resignedly levitated Ulaha aboard the ship.
"Go!" Anakin said.
Ganner closed the hatch, and the strike team was down to five. Besides Anakin, only Jaina, Jacen, Alema Rar and Tahiri remained.
Into the ship. Anakin thought at his remaining comrades.
Jacen and Alema each had similar thoughts, both wondering vaguely if Anakin had gone insane. But from Jaina and Tahiri Anakin sensed an utmost trust, willing to follow Anakin no matter what and without any question.
Three Solos, a Twi'lek, and an orphaned human leapt into the air, lightsabers ignited, towards the Yuuzhan Vong ship.
Chapter 2
Anakin Solo leaps into the air.
He took in everything the moment he left the ground - how hard the dirt was, how many warriors there were with their attention towards him, where his comrades were in relation to him, how many thud bugs were heading towards him. He took all of this in, and then acted on it.
See, and act.
Two thud bugs sliced straight for his eyes, and he saw them coming all too early. Spinning in the air, he sliced both of them, and then used his feet to kick away a thrown amphistaff. He landed solidly, and headed towards the nearest warrior, lightsaber spinning. He cut open the first near the neck, then gave the next two quick jabs at the armpit, kicking him away. The third dove at him, and he ducked and rolled out of the way. With a quick glance back he saw that the warrior had been upended by Jaina's lightsaber.
He sprinted up the boarding ramp and into the ship, Tahiri on his left, his twin siblings immediately behind him, and Alema Rar bringing up the back. Anakin felt Jacen bringing the battle meld together.
Anakin made a sharp left at the top of the ramp, and headed quickly down a long hallway. He was halfway down the hall when a boot kicked out and caught him in the stomach with a breath-taking whoosh. Anakin stumbled and the boot kicked him in the back of his head. Looking up, he was just in time to see Tahiri block the potentially fatal blow, and then have Jacen pierce the warrior behind the neck. He collapsed in a heap.
Anakin leapt up, and started to head down the hall again.
"No, Anakin, wait!" Tahiri said.
He spun. "What?"
"Alema is holding off about half a dozen warriors and a voxyn from our back. Jaina's going to help her," Jacen told him.
"Yes? And?" Anakin asked.
"What do we do?" Tahiri wanted to know.
Anakin closed his eyes, and then snapped them open again an instant later.
"They'll be fine," he said, patiently. "If they're in trouble, we'll know."
Jacen sighed, Tahiri nodded, and Anakin started running down the hall again, lightsaber re-ignited.
Jaina sprinted back down the hall when she realized Alema wasn't right behind them anymore. She ran to the opening of the ramp again, and saw Alema, twisting and twirling among Yuuzhan Vong warriors, lightsaber blazing. A voxyn was there as well, but it sat outside the inferno, swiping a paw every once and a while, too afraid of hurting the warriors to actually attack Alema.
Jaina hurled her lightsaber at the voxyn. It gave a sonic screech as the lightsaber went straight through it's skull. Somehow, it still writhed on the floor. Jaina called her lightsaber to her and finished the voxyn with a quick downwards stroke, then spun and caught an incoming warrior on the jaw with the heel of her boot.
Another warrior came, this one small and lithe, unlike most. Jaina sliced at his head with her lightsaber. He ducked, then rolled and grabbed her ankle, twisting it and yanking her to the ground. Jaina did a backflip, and used the Force to nudge Alema's mind.
Let's go.
Alema leapt to Jaina's side almost immediately, and they began to fight the warriors while jogging backwards. Jaina pulled out a thermal detonator, set if for 3 seconds, and dropped it. She used the Force to speed her further down the hall, and Alema followed suit. They heard the muffled blast, and a shout, and without a glance around, they continued down the hall.
"Where are they?" Jaina said as they neared the end of the hall.
Alema shrugged. "Reach out to them in the Force, you should be able to sense them, they're your brothers."
Jaina concentrated, and then frowned. "That's the thing, though. I can't sense them."
Jacen sprinted down the hall, struggling to keep up with even Tahiri. Anakin had pulled a good five meters ahead of the two of them, and Tahiri kept up pretty well, running easily. Although Jacen was in excellent shape, he was shocked at how much better shape Anakin and Tahiri were in. Finally, they reached the end of the hall. It had to be at least 1000 meters, Jacen thought.
They were at a fork. To the left was another long, winding passage, straight was a wider passage that looked like the main part of the ship, and to the right was a winding corridor almost as wide as the straight one. They heard a bounding roar, and a voxyn sprinted down to them from the left hallway, and into the right. All three had their lightsabers out in a second. But the voxyn didn't even give them a second glance, it just bounded straight down the corridor, as if possessed by a devil. Jacen shrugged, and saw Tahiri do similar.
"Let's follow it," Anakin said, and sprinted down the right hallway after the voxyn.
The voxyn was quick, but Anakin, with the Force, had been quicker. Jacen and Tahiri could only watch as Anakin pulled nearly even with the voxyn.
It made a left hand turn, and it disappeared around the turn with Anakin. Jacen and Tahiri came around the turn a second later, and saw the voxyn pounding itself against a door, completely oblivious to the fact that Anakin was standing right next to it.
Finally the door broke down, and the voxyn charged in. Anakin was right on his heels, but his lightsaber was not ignited. Jacen went in, and saw the voxyn tearing down cages - the whole room was full of them - and trying to break them open. Jacen walked further up to get a closer look, and two things happened at once.
The first thing that happened was that he lost all contact with the Force. The second thing was that he saw the cages held ysalimari. They could not feel the Force.
The voxyn was going mad, throwing the cages violently everywhere to try to get at the ysalimari. It would have been humorous, under different circumstances.
Jacen heard footsteps in the corridor, and suddenly several Yuuzhan Vong appeared in the doorway, and Jacen heard Anakin and Tahiri curse simultaneously as they saw the Vong and realized the situation.
They were cut off from the Force, and their only escape route from being cut off had just been blocked.
Chapter 3
"Their not dead," Jaina said. "I know that much for sure. We would've felt it. But I can't sense them."
Alema considered this. "Try Anakin's comlink. He's kept it on since we got here, I think."
Jaina frowned. Very rarely was she cut off from both of her brothers at the same time. It could be me, she thought. Maybe my senses are just a bit off. But even as she thought this she realized how unlikely it was. Something had happened to her brothers and Tahiri. She pulled out her comlink.
"Anakin? Anakin, are you there?"
No response.
"Anakin, are you there?"
The comlink beeped loudly, and Jaina almost dropped it in surprise. Then Anakin's deadly calm voice floated over the comlink.
"I'm here, Jaina," he said.
There was something in his tone of voice that she didn't like very much. He sounded far-off, concentrating tightly on something elsewhere. "You okay?" she asked. "What's going on?"
There was no response, and Jaina frowned again. "Let's go," she said to Alema, and they took off down the corridor.
Anakin pulled out his blaster and leveled it at the first warrior in front. "These odds aren't fair," Anakin said. "We'll kill you in seconds." Anakin was hoping the warriors didn't know of the ysalimari's power, which they probably did.
"Surrender or we will kill you. Either is fine with us, infidels," the lead warrior snarled.
Anakin sighed. These creatures would never see reason. "Very well then," Anakin motioned with his blaster to Jacen and Tahiri. "Capture them."
At the word capture, the lead warrior flinched, and turned to the warrior behind him. This is what Anakin had been waiting for. He dove at the warrior closest to him, ignited his lightsaber as he flew. The molten-hot blade disintegrated the warriors weak neck armor, and he fell to the ground. Anakin then de-activated his lightsaber and threw it at the next warrior. It bounced off his skull, sending him unconscious.
Moving lighting quick for one without the Force, Anakin grabbed the ankles of the other two warriors and tackled them, clearing the doorway. As Anakin fell, the other two warrior fell on top of him, and he winced as he heard a resounding crunch in his ribcage. Anakin swung his fist, but the warrior caught it and squeezed, and Anakin felt like his hand was going to break.
"Go!" he screamed to Jacen and Tahiri, who didn't know what to do, standing over Anakin and the two warriors as they wrestled. "They'll bring reinforcements. Don't let them get in!"
When he saw they weren't going to leave, he yelled again, "I'm in charge here. Go! Now!"
Any further words he may have said were cut off when a thick hand wrapped around his throat. He tried to pull it off, but his hands were pinned to his sides.
"Goodnight, jeedai," one warrior sneered as he raised a fist and smashed it between Anakin's eyes.
Somehow, Anakin didn't even grunt. And he didn't fall unconscious, either. It took three more blows before his arms finally began to sag and stop resisting. It took two more to get him to shut his eyes, but another was required when he made a furious attempt to get free again. Cut off from the Force, his power was greatly diminished. Anakin coughed and lapsed into unconsciousness.
Jacen and Tahiri darted out of the small room and into the hallway. They still couldn't feel the Force. They heard the pound of feet coming, but Jacen motioned for them to go into the room down the hall. "It's shapers," he whispered to her once they were inside the tiny, dark room. "They're not after Anakin."
As they sat there in the dark, Jacen realized Tahiri was shivering, probably with cold, for it was freezing in the ship, and for fear of Anakin. Jacen put a tentative arm around her shoulder. "He'll be fine," Jacen said as he drew her closer. "I won't let anything happen to him. I promise."
Tahiri didn't respond, she just kept shivering. Jacen took off his heavy cloak, which he wore over a thick tunic, and placed the cloak over Tahiri. She mumbled her thanks, and she wrapped her arm up and kissed Jacen on the cheek. "Thanks," she said again.
Jacen suddenly stood up and put his ear against the door. He heard several warriors outside, probably at least a dozen. They seemed to have Anakin, but Anakin had put up a fight. The voices stayed outside the door. Jacen sat back down on the floor next to Tahiri.
"There's too many of them," Jacen said. "And we still don't have the Force back. We should wait until they leave before we go out again."
Tahiri nodded. The voices would sometimes go silent, but then they would soon be arguing very loudly. Jacen sat cross legged and tried to get comfortable. He closed his eyes, and he fell to sleep.
Sometime later Jacen felt Tahiri nudge his head.
"What?" Jacen whispered.
Tahiri was smiling. "Your head is on my knee," she said, trying not to laugh.
Jacen blushed, and started to sit up. "I'm sor-"
Tahiri grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back down so his head was on her knee again. She ran he finger along Jacen's cheek, and slowly lowered her lips to his. Then she kissed him. Jacen started to turn away, but then kissed her back. They were both oblivious that the voices had stopped now for several minutes, and now two entirely new pairs of feet were trodding along the hall outside.
Jaina and Alema skidded to a halt in front of a room with several ysalimari in it. It looked as if there had been an intense struggle. Jaina frowned as she felt the Force slip away. "Oh, no." she said. "That's why we couldn't sense them in the Force. I still can't feel Jacen or Tahiri, but I can feel Anakin every once and a while, as if he keeps fading in and out."
"But what does it mean?" Alema asked. "And what should we do?"
Jaina sighed. That was the problem. They had lost the first and second in command on the mission already, not counting the countless others they'd lost in the battle outside, which had turned into a Jedi slaughter field. Jaina was beginning to despair.
"I don't know," she said. "I just don't know.
Chapter 4
"C'mon, I don't hear the voices anymore," Jacen said to Tahiri. Tahiri leapt up sharply and unhooked her lightsaber.
"Let's go, then," she said.
Jacen softly opened the door, and saw a bewildered Jaina standing in front of him.
"What were you doing in there?" she asked incredulously. She wasn't used to being surprised by the presence of her, brother, but she was cut off from the Force by the ysalimari, so she hadn't sensed them.
"Hiding," Tahiri said simply.
Jaina gave her a penetrating stare, and turned back to Jacen as he spoke.
"They've captured Anakin."
Alema frowned. "Where is he? We can't sense him."
"Of course you can't," Jacen said. "We can't sense anything when near ysalimari. This way," he said, leading off down the corridor to the right.
Jaina, Tahiri and Alema followed, and they had only made it but perhaps twenty meters when an unarmed Yuuzhan Vong warrior darted out in front of them, with two armed ones several feet behind him.
"Jeedai," he hissed.
The sound of four lightsabers igniting echoed through the corridor.
"We do not come here to fight," the unarmed warrior said. "But you must surrender to us or your other Jeedai will be excuted."
Jaina stepped forward. "I should just rip your sorry little head off right n-"
"If you harm any of us, your friend is dead," he said.
Jaina made a visible effort of holding herself back, and she barely succeeded.
"Give us a minute, OK?" she asked.
The warrior nodded and turned away. Jaina huddled together with the other three Jedi.
"What do we do?" she asked.
"We surrender," Jacen said.
"NO!" Tahiri said. "We must try to rescue him!"
Alema shook her head. "You heard the warrior, Tahiri. They'll kill Anakin if we don't surrender."
Tahiri glanced at Jaina, who only shrugged and gave an 'it's all for the best' look to her. Infuriated Tahiri ignited her lightsaber, and, screaming, she bolted down the passage at the three warriors.
Jaina and Jacen dove at her feet and missed by inches. Alema hurdled them and tried to use the Force to pull Tahiri back, but Tahiri was moving too quick.
Tahiri sliced the unarmed warrior into four sections in seconds. Spinning and ducking an amphistaff blow, she flicked her blade across the next warrior's neck. Then she blocked two blows from the third warrior before cutting him open under the arm. Jacen, Jaina and Alema reached Tahiri just as the third warrior fell.
"Sithspit, Tahiri!" Jaina said. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"I'm saving Anakin. If any of you want to join me, feel free. But you can be garunteed one thing."
"What?" Alema said, not bothering to cover her obvious distaste for Tahiri.
"None of you are going to stop me."
With that she turned around and stalked down the corridor. It was several seconds before she heard the tramping of three disgruntled Jedi behind her. Suddenly, it felt like she had a second pair of legs again. Then she realized what had happened: the Force was back!
"We must be out of ysalimari range," Jacen said happily. "I can sense Anakin now. Let's hurry up!"
"Your friends seem to have betrayed you, Jeedai," Malik Osh'ung said to Anakin, who was strapped down to the floor, the voxyn hovering above him. "They seem to care more about themselves than your life."
Anakin smiled. "Good."
"You will suffer for this, young Solo Jeedai. Do not underestimate me." With that he turned around, leaving Anakin with the voxyn and the shapers that controlled it. "Torture him to the brink of death," Osh'ung said to the shaper as walked out the door.
Before he even closed the door and ysalimari were slipped into the room, Anakin's screams echoed through the ship.
Jaina heard Anakin's screams just before she lost her sense of him in the Force. The screams continued for a moment, then there was a horrible silence.
They were all silent for a moment. Alema and Jacen were more heartbroken than anything, but Jaina and Tahiri were infuriated. Sprinting down the corridor, Jaina turned the corridor and ran headlong into a hail of thud bugs. Unable to block them, one eventually grazed her forehead, and she dropped unconscious.
Tahiri was right behind her, and when she saw all the thud bugs she just put her head down and charged, at the warriors. Just as she reached the first one an amphistaff curled out like whip and hit her in the back and then in the side of the head. She too dropped, unconscious.
Jacen and Alema, more cautious, snuck around the corner and saw the bodies of Jacen and Tahiri in the hands of several warriors. One stepped forward.
"Surrender, or they die, Jeedai. And you know we'll do it."
Two warriors held coufees over the throats of Jaina and Tahiri. Seeing no other choice, Jacen and Alema tossed down their lightsabers and raised their hands.
The voxyn dripped brown mucus into Anakin's mouth.
He involuntarily screamed as his mouth set on fire. He twitched and moaned until he finally sagged, unconscious. The last thing he remembered was losing all contact with the Force..
Sometime later, Anakin awoke. His mouth burned horribly, but other than that he felt fine. He was still strapped down, but there was no one else in the room besides several ysalimari cages. He could not feel the Force. He wondered where Jacen and Jaina and the others were now. He hoped they were okay. I have to get out of this, he thought desperately. I have to try to help them. He tried to budge his restraints but could not. He strained and strained until he exhausted himself. He tried everything, he wiggled his legs, pushed his legs, pulled with his arms and legs, tried to turn over. Nothing worked. All of his energy drained, he faded off to sleep again.
Jaina awoke groggily sometime later. She wondered where she was at first, and why she was in so much pain, but then remembered her fresh anguish over Anakin's death. She also realized she was bent backwards, her hands and feet pinned to the floor by blorash jelly. Turning her head to the left, she saw that Jacen, Tahiri and Alema were similarly attached. They were all already awake.
Jacen said something, and then Alema said something, but Jaina couldn't hear them. Anakin. Anakin was dead. It couldn't be. Not her little brother. Her sweet, innocent little brother, the kid that could fix machines and seconds, fly an X-wing nearly as good as she could, and had lightsaber skills that were unmatched. She pictured several ugly Yuuzhan Vong warrior brutes holding Anakin down while he was executed. If you'd let him fight for his life, you'd all be dead now, Jaina thought savagely. They will pay.
Suddenly the ship lurched. Jaina watched her other brother concentrate deep into the Force. "We've landed, I think. Where, I don't know," Jacen said.
Jaina said, "Oh, I know where. Look out the window. I've seen holos of that planet a million times."
"And?" Alema said.
"That is the planet of Myrkr. We must be landing on a worldship or something."
Slowly, the planet dipped away from view as they went further into whatever they were in.
"I can feel the voxyn queen," Jacen said, his eyes closed. "And she can feel us."
The view of the planet disappeared altogether as there was another lurch. "Now we've landed," Alema said.
Only a few seconds passed before several warriors came through the door, unhooking the four Jedi from the blorash jelly, and then putting them in handcuffs.
"You are being transferred," one warrior said.
Gloomily, Jaina along with her comrades were marched out of the door and down the ramp or the ship, and into the worldship of the voxyn queen.
Chapter 5
Sometime later, Anakin Solo woke up.
He took in his surroundings briefly. He was in a new prison chamber, and definitely not aboard the same ship anymore. His mouth felt terrible, but other than that he was fine. Glancing over at the large window to his right, he saw a lone Yuuzhan Vong guard staring at him.
Anakin yawned and sat up. He noticed the warrior give a jolt as he rose. Anakin walked over to the window.
"Hello," he said to the warrior.
The warrior grunted a response.
Anakin chuckled, and leaned his elbows on the wide sill. "So, how much do Vong warrior guards get paid, eh? Ten credits for the hour?"
The warrior was indifferent.
"That's not too good, you know," Anakin said. "My friend Coli, she's only an assistant guard and she is paid forty credits every hour. And she's not even that good at it. She only guards at little prisons, no big ones."
The warrior grunted, and looked like he was getting annoyed. Anakin continued.
"See, if I were you, I'd be a bit pissed off. I mean, only ten credits an hour? Imagine that, an underpaid Yuuzhan Vong guard."
A smile crept onto Anakin's face as the warrior turned towards Anakin. He still didn't say anything, but wore an ugly scowl.
"So let me get this straight," Anakin said. "You are paid ten credits an hour to make sure a tortured prisoner doesn't escape or anything. Keep things under control, right?"
The warrior barely contained his rage.
"I wonder how much Yuuzhan Vong credits are worth. Probably less than Republic credits. All Yuuzhan Vong things are less than Republic things."
The warrior stood up, and walked to the window sill. "When you die," he snarled, "The galaxy will be a better place. Each time one of your sniveling friends die, the galaxy is a better place. You are unworthy. I would kill you now if I didn't have direct orders otherwise."
Anakin smiled broadly. "Not aloud to kill me, eh? Well, you may not be aloud to kill me, but surely a little torture wouldn't hurt? I mean, how mad could Mr. Carr get if you just twisted my neck a little?" Anakin pointed at a button on the reverse side of the window and moved his head to lean against the glass. "Go ahead. Hit me. Take out your anger. You know you want to."
The warrior didn't move. Anakin didn't move. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Anakin tensed.
The warrior grinned, and pulled out his coufee, pressed the button, and stabbed Anakin in the head.
Anakin put his hand up and let the coufee blade go between his fingers until the hilt hit his hand. Then he grabbed it with his two fingers and flung it at the warrior. It hit him between the eyes.
Anakin climbed out of the window and to freedom.
First task: find his lightsaber.
"She's a beast, for being the smallest of them. That's why she's by herself."
"I could crush her with my pinky, she is so puny. What are you getting at?"
"I'm saying it's dangerous to hold her with-"
The tall Yuuzhan Vongwarrior's last sentence was cut off by the rasping of the other warrior.
"You okay?" the tall warrior asked him. The air did smell a bit funny, but he hadn't felt it yet. Then he began to choke as well.
They both started coughing uncontrollably, until they couldn't breathe. They both made frantic gestures towards the door, to safety. The tall warrior stumbled and fell, and the other joined him shortly thereafter on the floor. They were unconscious.
There was a jinkle, and soon Tahiri Veila was free. She stepped over the warrior's bodies as she left the room, grabbing her lightsaber.
"Still think I'm puny?" Tahiri yelled, her outrage uncontained. The tall warrior grumbled and began to stir.
After that he stirred no more.
Tahiri raced down the corridor, her lightsaber ignited. She'd been worried about escaping, but it had been relatively easy. Now she had to release the other Jedi. The problem was, she had no idea where they were.
She turned a sharp corner and ran headlong into a pile of feathers and dust. She fell, but smoothly picked herself back up. Her heart hammered, though when she realized the feathers and dust were alive.
"You must wake when I tell you," it said.
"What?" Tahiri said as she squinted at the feathers.
"You must wake when I tell you," it repeated, and then it turned around and sprinted off.
Tahiri looked after it as it disappeared, but then she heard a familiar voice calling in her head, associated with several pictures that she roughly translated as: Tahiri! I'm alright! Don't worry!
It was Anakin! She jumped for joy, and sent back I love you, I'm saving the others now!
She quickly ran down the corridor again, her senses expanded, even more determined now then ever to save Alema, Jaina and, and, and.
Jacen.
Jacen. She'd forgot about Jacen.
Now she forgot about Anakin.
She expanded her senses even more, and realized that Alema was being imprisoned very close nearby. She ran up to the nearest door and kicked it in. She found it was empty after a quick survey. She headed into the next one and found it full of ysalimari. She killed some, then headed into the next one.
Two guards jumped out at her the instant she entered. They must have heard the ruckus she had been making, for they reacted instantly. She disarmed the first with two quick armpit blows, then kicked in the face of the second till he was unconscious. Tahiri found Alema at the back of the room, and quickly freed her.
"Tahiri! Am I glad to see you or what?"
"C'mon!" Tahiri growled. "Let's go!"
"Wait!" Alema said. "How did you escape!"
"I'll tell you later," Tahiri said. "Right now we have to help the others.
They headed out the door, moving quickly, until they reached another door at the end of the corridor. It led into a much wider area, and the site before them brought both Tahiri and Alema skidding to a halt.
Below them was a huge procession of at least three hundred Yuuzhan Vong warriors and priests and shapers, all dressed in black. But in the very center of the entire procession were two figures dressed in scarlet red. Tahiri peered closer.
"What is this?" Alema asked.
Tahiri took a deep breath, and she seemed to shudder with a bad mixture of anger, hope, and fear.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Tahiri asked, as she nudged the two red- clad figures with the Force.
"What's going on? Of course I want to know."
The two red figures looked up at Tahiri and Alema at the same time. Even from this distance, their features were unmistakable.
"It's the Solo twins," Tahiri said. "The twin sacrifice."