Myri Antilles had never thought of herself as a pilot. She'd never thought of herself as much of anything exactly, which might have been a problem, but that was another issue entirely. The point was, while she had the quick eye and fast reflexes of a pilot (chalk it up to genetics), she didn't have the natural talent for flying that her father or sister did. Sometimes people observed that where Syal took after their father, Myri took after her mother (which usually produced eye-rolling on Iella's part), and while that wasn't totally true either it was closer to the mark. She felt comfortable with her feet on the ground, or barring that, the deck of a ship.
She certainly didn't feel comfortable weaving her matte-black StealthX fighter through a swam of coralskippers as their volcanic missiles spewed fire and destruction all around. Rather, as she wrestled with her control stick, she used every breath in her to utter a torrent-of-consciousness of profanity that would have made the worst Corellian pirate blush.
When she cleared the pack of skips she checked with her astromech droid to make sure no vital systems had been damaged. Then she flicked her comlink back on and said, "Lead, this is Skate. You still with me?"
"Copy that, Skate," Piggy's mechanical voice soothed her ears. "Follow my lead. Reforming with others."
Myri decelerated, letting Wraith Leader's StealthX overtake hers. Then she fired her engines again and followed. With their curved hulls and dark finish, StealthX fighters were difficult to see with the naked eye as well as with scanners, and she didn't notice Turman, Thaymes, and Wran until their fighters were right next to hers.
"All clear here, lead," Turman reported. "Those skips are coming in fast."
"Too fast," Wran growled.
"Cut chatter," Voort ordered. "Stand by. Orders from Starless."
For a second, her comlink went dead. Myri looked out either side of her cockpit and surveyed the awful scene. Rather than face the incoming wave of Yuuzhan Vong fighters and capital ships, what was left of Trinity Fleet had thrown itself into a pitched battle with Daala's forces. Starless and Phoenix were in a messy broadside brawl with Chimaera and Resolve, while Vindicator attacked Repulse and the three Marauder corvettes generally played merry hell with the lancer frigate Swift. Starfighters wove tangled thrust-trails between the giant capital ships, and flares lit up and vanished every second. Good people died with every flash of light and Myri felt sick at her own helplessness to stop the slaughter.
Corusca Gem, Lacentra, and Niathal were on rear guard, which meant facing the brunt of the oncoming Yuuzhan Vong attacks. Their coralskippers were already swarming around the Mon Cal cruisers and carrier like wasps, and a pair of heavy cruisers were moving in to attack.
"Look alive, people," Voort returned to his comlink. "We're going after one of those cruisers."
"What?" Myri yelped. Thankfully, her speaker wasn't on.
"Lead, please explain," Wran said, clearly tense.
"Nexu and Pike Squads are taking it to the port-side cruiser. We're flying with them."
"Heavy hitters," Myri muttered. Pike Squad was a host of B-wings assault fighters from Starless, while Nexu Squad was made up on old K-wing heavy bombers from Gem.
"Lead, are we covering their backs?" Thaymes asked.
"Negative, Talker. Torch Squad's doing that. We're dropping bombs too. Starless thinks we can slip in while they're aiming for the big boys."
It was, from a certain view, logical. The skips and gunners on the Vong ships would be going after the heavy bombers and attack craft, and they'd probably miss the black X-wings entirely.
From another point of view, trying to take out a huge heavy battleship with five X-wings was karking mad.
Her father had taken out capital ships using only snubfighters before. Of course, her father had helped take out two entire Death Stars using snubs. And Myri was not her father, nor Luke Skywalker.
But orders were orders. Piggy's StealthX leapt forward, and so did hers.
The big Yuuzhan Vong ship loomed ahead. It seemed like a jagged, sinister counterpart to the smooth organic Mon Cal ships. The Wraiths pushed in a little ahead of the Nexus and a little behind the Pikes. The XJ X-wings of Torch Squadron hung back, keeping skippers off the backs of the Nexus' lumbering K-wings.
"Skate, on me," Piggy said. "Everyone else, follow Shooter."
"Copy," Wran said. "Taking lead position."
The Vong ship began to fire its defensive batteries. Big missiles like flaming rocks shot past the B-wings.
"Target weapon emplacements," said Piggy. "Dive on my mark. One. Two. Mark!"
Myri made sure her speaker was off, pitched her ship forward, and started swearing up a storm as space lit up all around her.
She followed Piggy's X-wing as it bobbed and fell toward the surface of the Vong ship. Missiles fired past them at the bigger ships. Piggy and Myri flew low over the rock-like surface of the cruiser, firing off laser blasts at any missile launcher or dovin basal emplacement they could find. They scored a few hits and knocked two launchers out of commis-sion before they shot out behind the cruiser and wheeled around for another pass.
As she turned around, she saw the other three StealthX fighters flying to meet them. Meanwhile, the B- and K-wings dropped payload after payload onto the cruiser. Ribbons of red exhaust from their missiles fell toward the cruiser's surface, but less than half exploded on the surface; the others were swallowed up by the dovin basal singularities that protected the vessel.
"We're going under. Get ready to target the aft dovin basals with torps," Piggy said. "Same teams."
"Copy, Lead, We're on it," said Wran.
Myri followed Voort again. She loaded two hot missiles in the tube and aimed for the undersides of the dovin basals used to propel the cruiser. On Voort's mark, she let two fly. Piggy popped off another pair, then turned his nose down so he ran beneath the cruiser's belly. Myri did the same, and ducked her fighter down right as a fireball burst out of the cruiser's aft.
"Whooo!" Wran shouted over the comm. "That got 'em!"
"Wait!" Turman shouted. "We lost Talker!"
Myri checked her scanners. "I got no EV."
"I think he was... swallowed. By a dovin basal."
Myri's mouth felt dry. All thrill of victory was gone in a second. First Trey, now Thaymes had joined the honor rolls of dead Wraiths along with Bhindi Drayson, Jesmin Ackbar, Ton Phannan, and many more.
"Incoming," Wran reported. "Coralskippers, three o'clock."
Myri swore. Swore for Thaymes, for Trey, mostly for her-self as a hail of missile fire raced in from her starboard side. She and Piggy dove down, away from the cruiser's fiery belly. She checked her scanners and saw more skips in pursuit. Wran and Turman were tangling with even more enemy fighters.
It was amazing how fast battles could turn. Thirty seconds ago, she'd surged with elation. Now she was about to die.
Suddenly a hail of green laser blasts slanted through space. Explosions flared behind her and she looked to see the shredded debris of the coralskippers on her tail.
"We're clear!" Wran's voice sounded in her ear. "Thanks for the help!"
"Not a problem," said a cool female voice. "My brother would, ah, bust my butt if I didn't protect yours."
Myri laughed in relief and flicked her comlink back on. "Yeah, thanks, Claw Lead."
"Understood," Wynssa Fel said curtly as her clawcraft settled between Myri and Voort's X-wings.
There were more flares of light from above, and Myri looked overhead to see explosions chewing through more of the cruiser's hull. As the Wraiths and Claws pulled back, she got a better view as the B- and K-wings tore a massive gash through the nose of the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser. With its engines down and dovin basals overwhelmed, even the X-wings from Torch Squadron were feeing their torpedoes.
"Join the fun?" Myri suggested.
"Gladly," Piggy said. "All ships ahead. Let's take it out for Thaymes."
"Roger that," Wran said. "Going in, weapons hot."
"Affirmative," Wyn Fel said.
The X-wings and clawcraft dove toward the dying cruiser, Myri waited until she was close enough to get a good shot at one of the remaining dovin basal emplacements and popped off two more torps. She pulled away just after she got to see them impact and tear through the yorik coral hull.
As they pulled out, so did the B- and K-wings. The bombers were turning to attack at the remaining Yuuzhan Vong heavy cruiser, which was currently exchanging fire with both Lacentra and Niathal. Its dovin basals were already being overwhelmed and explosions began to gnaw at its surface.
Myri felt another surge of exhilaration. Then she looked back toward the planet and saw some twenty more Yuuzhan Vong vessels eager for a fight. Another wave of coral-skippers and bulkier attack craft were already nearing firing range.
This was a long, long way from over.
-{}-
When the Yuuzhan Vong fleet finally attacked, it didn't pay any heed to the long, fragile line of Sekotan ships strung out between two angry fleets. Of the coralskippers that led the charge, most whipped past the shuttles without even firing. Only a few bothered to launch missiles, most of which were easily avoided by the nimble organic vessels, though one was hit in the wing and spiraled into the passing coralskipper, taking its killer with it.
"All ships, fall back," Danni Quee broadcasted urgently to all Sekotan ships. "I repeat, all ships fall back! Seek shelter on the nearest capital ship you can get to."
"I knew this would happen," Scut grumbled as he kicked the ship's repulsors and tipped it out of the path of a swarm of coralskippers.
Tahiri didn't disagree. She had, frankly, been expecting this too. The Sekotan ships would now be in a mad scramble to reach Corusca Gem, Starless, Phoenix, or whoever else had room for them. It would be a mess and some would surely die. All their brave line had succeeded in doing was delay the inevitable battle, not that she'd ever really expected to accomplish anything more.
Maybe it would mean something in the end. Maybe it wouldn't. All the other Sekotan ships were fleeing toward Trinity Fleet, but they were different. They had a special mission.
"Scut, take us in," Tahiri said.
Her pilot blew out a long breath. "Copy that."
They had already pinpointed the location of the Sith vessel, and Scut fired their engines to draw them nearer. Tahiri glanced at the scanners, hoping they would provide a more detailed account of whatever kind of ship they'd be facing. It was, in one sense, totally mad to charge a mysterious vessel full of Sith in a single unarmed craft.
Tahiri just hoped trust in the Force would get the job done.
As they drew closer, Tahiri could make it out with her naked eye: one relatively small vessel, disc-shaped, with a hull that was at once glossy and slightly irregular, like the surface of an insect's exoskeleton. She felt something in the Force, something ancient and pulsing, almost like the ancient, Sith meditation sphere Ben had uncovered on Ziost all those years ago but decidedly different.
Her surprise gave way to acceptance. Of course they'd use some kind of organic vessel. The Yuuzhan Vong would never have accepted them otherwise.
"What is that?" Kodra Val asked as the shaper leaned over Tahiri's shoulder. "It looks... alive. But hardly Sekotan, or Yuuzhan Vong."
"I'm not sure," Tahiri admitted. In the back of her mind she remembered reports from the Jedi Jaden Korr, who said he'd found an ancient organic Rakatan vessel somewhere in the Unknown Regions. That vessel had been destroyed, but this might have been something from the same set.
Before she could ponder what mysteries the galaxy might be hiding, the Yuuzhan Vong frigate nearest the Sith vessel opened fire. Molten missiles lanced out, not at Tahiri's own ship but at the Sith. The other frigate nearby began firing as well. The Sith ship moved immediately, as nimble as a star-fighter. Despite having no visible means of propulsion, it danced around both volleys and hurled itself toward the closest frigate. Energy crackled out of unseen weapons and scorched the frigate's surface. It kept firing, and another volley clipped the Sith ship on the edge, but it quickly recovered and continued to overwhelm the larger vessel.
As the frigate broke apart, the Sith ship spun on the other Yuuzhan Vong cruiser and charged.
"You want us to board that?" Kodra Val gaped.
"I've never seen anything like it," Scut shook his head.
Tahiri looked behind her. Everyone in the cockpit was staring in shock and awe as the Sith vessel took out a second ship far larger than itself. Narith's eyes were wide with fear, while the old warrior Kerem Charn's scarified face was stretched in horror. Two of the younger Ganner sect warrior, Volan Kraal and Zokal Buhl, looked almost excited.
"Incredible," said Zokal Buhl. "It will be an honor to take that ship down."
"An honor?" Scut spat.
"Wait, look!" Tahiri said.
Even as the second Yuuzhan Vong ship smoldered and began to crack apart, two more were arriving, as well as a swarm of coralskippers. The Sith vessel did not hesitate to attack the closest cruiser. Its energy weapon again lashed out, nearly breaking off the cruiser's port fins with a single attack. Yet just after scoring a hit, a squadron of coralskippers dropped into a dive-bomb, pummeling the Sith ship with missiles. The Sith's dark disc was hit, wavered, stopped firing. Then energy stretched out to the skips, but too late. The coralskippers at the head of the formation were dis-integrated but the others charged through and slammed into the Sith vessel like living missiles, one after another.
"Did it work?" Narith asked. "Is it dead?"
Tahiri's gut, or maybe the Force, told her that ship wouldn't be killed by the Yuuzhan Vong. That would be too easy. This was only going to end with the blaze of a lightsaber and the hiss of amphistaffs.
Yet the Sith vessel was clearly damaged. The two Yuuzhan Vong cruisers began pounding it again, and it did not fire back.
"It's down," Scut said hopefully. "They've got it-"
Then another burst of energy spread out. The damaged cruiser took the brunt of it. Its yorik coral hull began to crack and break. Oxygen, people, and equipment was flushed into the void. The second one kept pounding the Sith vessel even as its kin died.
When the Sith vessel moved again, it gave no warning. It simply shot like a bullet right into the bottom of Yuuzhan Vong ship. It disappeared as explosions and breaches tore through the ship's hull. Kodra Val gasped. A couple warriors cheered.
Then the Sith ship appeared, breaking through the top of the hull, trailing fire and smoke and debris. This time, instead of dancing over to its next target, the vessel seemed the waver. Tahiri felt something through the Force like an animal cry of pain.
Then the ship began to fall, slowly at first, then more quickly. It was being pulled in by Zonama Sekot's gravity well.
"It's falling to the planet," she said. "Keep on it!"
"What?" Scut frowned. "The ship's dead, right? It'll burn up in the atmosphere."
"A scientist always verifies," Kodra Val said.
"Okay, okay," he grunted. "Better be sure."
He fired the engines again. The Sekotan ship passed through a field strewn with the wrecked, scorched remains of four Yuuzhan Vong vessels and several squadrons of coralskippers. That meant those ships couldn't hurt her friends on the planet or in the fleet, and while Tahiri felt glad of that, she was hardly relieved.
The Sith were her target from the start, and even in a crippled dying ship, they weren't dead yet.
Scut pitched their shuttle toward the planet, following the Sith vessel's tumbling black disc as it hurled toward Zonama Sekot. As it hit the upper atmosphere its shiny surface turned red-hot with flames.
"It's burning up," Scut said hopefully.
"Stay on it," Tahiri said.
They plunged in the falling ship's fiery wake. The Sekotan vessel's shields would protect it from the heat of re-entry, but Tahiri wasn't sure if the Sith ship even had energy shields, or if its hull was made up of some ultra-durable compound known only to its builders. Soon they'd cleared the upper atmosphere and began tearing through the cloud layer. White vapor, illuminated by stark sunlight, blinded them in flashes, but Scut still trailed the Sith vessel as it streaked like a comet across the blue sky.
When they burst through the last layer of clouds, Tahiri saw nothing but a vast ocean twinkling in the sun. Scut pulled the shuttle up to avoid plunging into the water, but the Sith vessel had no such control. Still trailing flame, it slam-med into the ocean's surface, kicking up a geyser of white foam hundreds of meters high. Scut leveled the shuttle and banked around the crash site.
"Do you see anything?" he asked. "I don't see anything."
Tahiri, and everyone else, craned forward to get a better look. White-capped ripples spread across the ocean, disrupt-ing the natural flow of waves. At the center of the disruption was nothing. They continued to circle the crash site for a minute and nothing happened. The impact ripples were level-ed by the timeless, all-consuming ocean.
"It's gone," Narith said with relief.
But it wasn't. Tahiri could sense the vessel in her mind, crying out in dying pain. She would have felt better about that if she couldn't sense, with increasingly clarity, the presence of many Dark Side-using beings around it.
Then the black disc breached the ocean surface. Foamy salt water spilled off its surface. It bobbed in the waves like a bird.
"Is it... dead?" Narith ventured, hope already draining from his voice.
Tahiri shook her head. "It's dying, though. We have to finish it off."
"How?" Scut looked at her.
"This thing can land on water. Put us down right next to the Sith ship." Tahiri unbuckled her crash webbing and got to her feet. She unhooked the lightsaber from her belt and turned to the warriors.
"This is what you came for. Are you ready?"
Zokal Buhl held out an arm. The amphstaff wound around it extended its fanged face toward Tahiri. "We would be honored to fight with you, Riina Kwaad."
"It's an honor to fight with you," she said truthfully and extended a hand. The amphistaff leaped from Zokal Buhl to her and coiled around her forearm so she could wrap her hand around it midsection.
She looked at the lightsaber, and the amphistaff, and felt more whole than she had in a long, long time.
"Okay," she said, "Let's go."
-{}-
Vilath Dal generally considered wallowing in self-pity to be the habit of an inferior mind. A being should be in control of himself at any given time, constantly aware of the world around him and adjusting to act on new data.
That being said, as they marched him toward the airlock, he couldn't help but feel like a fool. He'd joined True Honor because he was bored to madness in Harrar's staid utopia on Zonama Sekot. He needed challenge and struggle, and he needed new opportunities to expand himself as a scientist and as a sentient being. In Maal Lah, a rare warrior he knew and respected, he saw a leader who might create an environ-ment where the Yuuzhan Vong could flourish as they were meant to, spread out across the stars instead of huddling pathetic and defeated on Zonama Sekot.
Somehow, in his quest for excitement he had forgotten the stupidity, arrogance, and proclivity to mindless violence that marked the warrior caste. As punishment for his arrogance, they intended to take his life in the most agonizing way possible.
But because Vilath Dal was an aware, thinking, superior being (most of the time, anyway) he stuffed his melancholy back where in belonged, right next to fear and panic in a part of his brain he usually kept tightly sealed.
"Please, you must reconsider," he told the warriors dragging him down the hall, "I can still be useful to True Honor! Maal Lah meant nothing to me. I can serve War-master Voran Lah in countless ways!"
Linking the word 'warmaster' with 'Voran Lah' was enough to put bile in his throat, but he stuffed that down too and adopted a trembling tone. "Please, please don't do this! I am a loyal Yuuzhan Vong like yourself! I will do anything to serve!"
"Quit talking, coward," grunted the brute on his left.
They took him past the portals that connected Honor Regained to the coralskippers and shuttles that clung to her hull. They were probably planning to toss him into an umbilical with no ship attached and let him get sucked out into the vacuum, which was no pleasant thought. He was pleased to note that a few of them still had vessels berthed.
"No, stop! You can't do this!" He writhed against their grip with renewed energy, not that it did him any good against the hulking warriors.
"You are a pathetic coward," the one of his right grumbled. "You deserve to be torn apart by yansacks, but the Warmaster says you should float in space, and that is what you will do."
They hauled him up to a portal with no ship attached. The one with on his right reached out to open it. Vilath Dal coiled his arm up and dug the nails of his hand into the inside of the warrior's elbow, inserting poison directly into his blood.
The warrior let out an un-warlike yelp. His partner asked, "What is it? What did he do?"
The warrior's grip on Vilath Dal's arm slackened. His jaw worked but no sound came out. He let go of the shaper and fell hard to the deck.
"Traitor!" the other warrior snarled. He let go of Vilath Dal and went for his amphistaff. Before he could bring the weapon to bear, Vilath Dal stepped right in front of him and drove the same finger-nails right into the warrior's neck.
Right where Voran Lah had made the killing blow to his commander. Vilath Dal felt there was something a little poetic about that.
The light went out of the warrior's eyes and he fell next to his friend.
Vilath Dal sighed. He didn't like killing his own- such was an infidel specialty- but he didn't like dying in vacuum either. He picked up the dead warrior's amphistaff and let it curl around his waist like a belt. Then he went looking for a good ship. He wanted to be far, far away when Voran Lah inevitably got everyone aboard killed.
There was no place for him with True Honor, and he doubted there was a place for him on Zonama Sekot.
That left one very narrow possibility. Very narrow, and potentially very... exciting.
-{}-
In a way, it was kind of funny. Miranda Fardreamer had gone off to fight the Yuuzhan Vong, ended up fighting with Empire against the Alliance, then joined the Alliance to fight the Empire.
And now, after all that run-around, she was finally getting a chance to fight the Vong.
Working the comm station on Phoenix's bridge meant she was not quite in the thick of fighting, but it certainly felt hectic enough. Admiral Kre'fey was bounding back and forth across the deck with impressive vigor for an old Bothan, taking news and giving orders rapid-fire. It had been crazy enough when they were slugging it out with Daala's ships. Now that the Vong had joined the fight, a fairly standard naval engagement had turned into a messy, chaotic brawl.
From her spot at the comm station, Miranda had a decent look out the forward viewports. The situation was, frankly, astonishing. Chimaera and Starless were still slugging it out, but Resolve and Repulse had broken off and were heading toward the inner-orbit battle zone where three Trinity cruisers were trying to hold off an onslaught of Yuuzhan Vong ships. Explosions burst and died every second against the blue-and-green backdrop of Zonama Sekot. Countless starfighters and assault craft wove twirling trails around each other and filled space with flashing laser blasts.
"Admiral," she heard someone say, "Niathal is under heavy fire. Don't know how much more she can take."
"Tell her to fall back," said Kre'fey. "We'll help cover."
Miranda's chest tightened as Phoenix lurched closer to the inner battle zone. In the area immediately outside Phoenix, coralskippers had joined the already-messy tangle of TIEs, clawcraft, Alliance fighters, and the occasional Sekotan ship beating hasty retreat.
"Admiral," said the tactical officer, "We've got incoming. Vong ships on intercept course."
"Let me see, it."
Kre'fey went right over to the tactical holo. Miranda couldn't make sense of its blazing lights, not from halfway across the bridge, so she turned to watch the front viewport again. She thought she saw several ovoid ships heading toward them. They were definitely larger than the coral-skippers and seemed more sluggish.
"Assault shuttles," she whispered to herself.
"All ships, target those assault shuttles!" Kre'fey ordered. "Tell all hangars to fire up tractors. I want those shuttles kept away from both launch bays."
"Copy that," Miranda said, and flicked her console to the proper internal channel.
After a second, someone picked up the other end. "This is Main Hangar Deck Control."
"Bridge here," Miranda said. "We've got incoming Vong boarding parties. The Admiral says to fire up the tractors and keep them out."
"Copy. Putting shields on double-layer."
Miranda was just about to switch off the connection when he added, "Hold it! Wait, no, we're-"
A burst of static roared in her ear. Miranda quickly flicked off the channel and turned to the Frozian comm lieutenant.
"Sir," she said, "Communications with the main hangar are down!"
The lieutenant's pale fur bristled. "Did you try the secondary?"
"Secondary? No, I didn't-"
Suddenly the entire deck shook. For a second fear stabbed into her and she expected half the deck to be torn open like it had last battle. The shaking stopped a moment later, but alarms began wailing on the bridge.
"Admiral!" someone said frantically, "We're reporting hull breaches on decks F-7 and E-19."
"The main hangar deck is down too!" Miranda shouted.
For a second Kre'fey froze. His vigor disappeared and he looked like the tired old Bothan he was.
Then his lips curled up to reveal white fangs and he said, "Tell all troops and guards to go to red alert. Seal off all breached decks and all routes in and out of the hangar bay. Get troops there immediately."
"All of them, Admiral?" Someone asked.
Miranda knew that it might be possible to keep the Vong from boarding through the hull breaches, but there were too many routes in and out of the hangar area. If the Vong had established a beachhead there, it would be almost impossible to contain them.
Kre'fey hesitated for a second, and Miranda realized he was thinking about the ones guarding the True Victory hold-outs.
"All of them," Kre'fey said. "Arm the prisoners too. If they want to fight the Vong, let them have a chance."
A few True Victory die-hards, cheered. The rest just looked scared.
Miranda's hand slid down to the hard bulge in the pocket of her right trouser leg. Before the battle began, she'd retrieved her confiscated things, including Ben Skywalker's lightsaber. She heard they couldn't actually cut through Yuuzhan Vong armor, and she obviously knew nothing about how to properly fight with one. She hoped, very very hard, that she wouldn't have to use it to defend herself.
If that need did come, well, the ship would have been taken, and she'd be as good as dead anyway.
Still, she wanted to take as many with her as possible. If she was going to die on the deck of a ship like her mother and father, she might as well die like they hadn't: looking into the face of the enemy.
It wasn't what she wanted, but it might be all she got.