When they dropped out of hyperspace the worldship loomed before them. Jade had never seen one before and despite all she'd heard she'd never comprehended how massive the thing was. The great disc of yorik coral filled their viewport and half the beings aboard the Sekotan flier crammed into the cockpit to see.
Viull Gorsat watched most closely. The shaper's eyes seemed to roam over every detail of the superweapon until he said, "We were right. This worldship is very sick. The outer regions of the hull are dead entirely."
"Can you see where to land?" asked Jade's father.
Gorsat nodded. "I can see the places where the worldship has been regenerating. We'll figure out where the closest node is and land inside." He taped the copilot on the shoulder. "Tell the other ship we'll take the one at the twelve o'clock position. They should start in the opposite direction. We'll both work out way through the nodes going rightward."
Both the pilots were Yuuzhan Vong with their faces covered by translucent cognition masks that allowed them to communicate with the living ship telepathically. Jade had first found the sight revolting but now it was weirdly fascinating to know the two silent pilots were communicating with their counterparts on the second ship.
As the worldship swelled in front of them Lowbacca roared a question and Ben translated. "Have those patrol ships spotted us?"
"We're small and we're not giving off any thrust trail. They've probably written us off as stray space rock." Gorsat shook his head. "I used to know a little Shryiiwook, by the way, but it's gotten rusty. So thanks."
"Don't mention it," Ben smiled a little. "Everyone else hanging in there?"
"You bet," Jodram said, but Jade could hear the waver in his voice, feel his anxiety in the Force. Like Jade, he'd gotten stories from his grandparents about the Yuuzhan Vong War, and the sight of this worldship brought back memory of all those dark legends. Gorsat had said the vast thing was mostly dead, but to her untrained eyes the entire surface seemed the continuous landscape of dark, jagged yorik coral that could have easily been plain space rock.
"Does it have any live defenses?" Wharn asked from Jade's side.
"Not the kind you mean." Gorsat shook his head. "I can see the dovin basals implanted on the hull. Those are what make the superweapon. The usual defenses, like missile launchers, don't look like they've been rejuvenated. Of course, worldships were never designed to fight wars, just haul Yuuzhan Vong between galaxies."
Gorsat said something to the pilots in Yuuzhan Vong and their flier started to descent sharply. Jade watched through the viewport as the second flier, the one with her aunt and Allana aboard, kept soaring ahead for its own target.
They seemed to drop, belly-first, toward the jagged surface of the worldship and stopped so suddenly it made Jade's stomach leap in her gut. There was a harsh grating sound and a vibration through the ship, and then Gorsat said, "All right, we've landed."
"How do we actually get inside?" asked Jodram.
"We've landed right next to an old airlock valve. The ship's talking with it now and convincing it to open."
"Will that alert the rest of the ship there's intruders?" asked Jade.
"I don't know," Gorsat admitted. "That's why we'll have to move fast."
He said something else to the pilots in Yuuzhan Vong. They were apparently going to stay with the ship, but for everyone else it was time to file out.
Jade followed Wharn and Jodram out the airlock. The walls of the tunnel looked like rough-carved rock; the air smelled rank and there was no breeze at all. Once the Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong had all filed out of the flier they brought down the rest of the cargo: a trio of landspeeders designed to get them from target to target swiftly. They split into groups; the Yuuzhan Vong warriors divided themselves evenly between the landspeers. Gorsat and Jade's father took the front speeder in the line. The three apprentices took the second, and the trio of Wookiee Jedi took the third.
They accelerated through the tunnel, slowly at first. Jade had no idea how Gorsat would know his way around the inside of this worldship, and at first it seemed like he was as confused as everyone else. Gradually he began pointing them down tunnels with more surely. After five or ten minutes they soared out of the tunnel mouth and across a wide open space of rolling dusty hill. Instead of a sky, a faintly luminous cavern roof yawned for kilometers overhead. It was the largest enclosed space Jade had seen in her life and she realized the worldship must have been full of places like this. They must have been the closest thing to outdoors the Yuuzhan Vong experiences for generations.
As the wind whipped her hair back she crouched low against the deck of the speeder and asked her companions, "Well, how do you like this place?"
"Not my style," Jodram admitted.
"I can't imagine how long it took to grow a thing like this," Wharn said. For the moment it seemed like wonder had distracted him from anxiety.
The speeders came to slow down and circle around what looked to Jade like a simple pit in the ground. Gorsat, though, was the first to dismount from the speeder and a pair of warriors followed. Both wore a shell of spiked Vonduun crab armor like the others but they also had some kind of fat dark bladder made of animal skin slung around their shoulders.
"Okay, this is it!" Gorsat called. "Stand by here. We're going in. Everyone else stand guard outside."
The three Yuuzhan Vong clambered down into the pit, apparently to find whatever neural node lay inside and inject it with a poison that would, hopefully, begin the shut-down of the entire worldship. Everyone else remained on the speeders as ordered, and as minutes went by the tense silence began to dissipate. Though they watched the rest of this vast plain no enemies seemed to be approaching. They'd encountered no opposition the entire ride through. It was, Jade thought, almost anticlimactic.
Then Karrash pointed a furry arm at the ceiling and roared. Master Lowbacca did as well, and Jade squinted at the gloomy cavern roof for whatever the Wookies had spotted. She didn't sense anything with the Force, but if they were dealing with Yuuzhan Vong she wouldn't sense them anyway. She only spotted the two dark, flying shapes when they got close. Her hand went to her lightsaber. Wharn and Jodram reacted with her and ignited their blades. Then they fell from the sky on parachutes like balloons of stretched skin: a dozen Yuuzhan Vong in full armor. As the flying mounts flapped away the warriors let out war-cries and charged. The other Yuuzhan Vong who'd come with them didn't hesitate to shout back and charge their own kind.
The Jedi couldn't let themselves stay out of the fight. Though her heart was racing, Jade jumped off the landspeeder and charged ahead with Jodram and Wharn. She saw that the Wookies were already attacking a group of Vong fighters; their lightsabers snarled and hissed as they bit into Vonduun armor and snapping amphistaffs without searing through.
Before she knew it the fray was all around her. She didn't know where Wharn and Jodram were; suddenly a Yuuzhan Vong with a face full of red scars reared in front of her; she'd had no idea how big they were. He swung his amphistaff in a vertical swipe and she rolled away, letting it cleave into dust. She kicked up dust as she came upright and caught the next blow against her saber. Then the Vong snapped his wrist and suddenly the straight-bodied amphistaff wilted. The Vong struck again and this time the amphistaff lashed out like a whip and curled its body so tight around Jade's free forearm it hurt. Its snarling, toothy mouth was suddenly snapping in her face and though she batted its body with her saber it only tightened its grip; any harder and it would shatter bone.
She felt Jodram- determination, desperation, anger- right before he attacked the Vong from the side. His lightsaber wedged tight between two plates of armor; the Vong staggered and looked sideways at the second Jedi in surprise. Jodram shoved again and this time his blade pushed through the plates and into the warrior's flesh. The Vong howled; his amphistaff let go of Jade and instead snapped into Jodram's head hard and fast. The apprentice went limp and dropped. Jade caught his lightsaber as he fell to the dust, threw herself over his body, and raised both blazing weapons in an X in front of her to block two more cleaving blows from her attacker.
When Wharn came to help there was a short warning. He sneaked up behind the Vong and slashed at the back of his knees. The Vong half-pivoted to see his new attacker; that was when Jade called on the Force and pushed herself off the ground, over the Vong's head, and came down on his back. Her new weight tipped him off-balance. Before he could whip his staff back at her she let both sabers fall low against the Vong's throat. Then, weapons still blazing, she let herself fall back into the sand. The Vong's head toppled first; the first of his body pitched forward a second later.
Wharn sent triumph through the Force but Jade shut off the sabers and crawled over to Jodram. She felt a pulse, saw him breathing, and slapped his cheeks three times before his eyelids started to flutter.
Wharn ducked down with her, saber still on. They looked the fight around them: Yuuzhan Vong fighting Yuuzhan Vong, Wookiee Jedi releasing war-cries, bodies dropping and she couldn't tell whose side they were on.
Then she saw her father. The grand master was taking on two Yuuzhan Vong at once. He ducked beneath one amphistaff, threw himself into a somersault, came behind his attacker and thrust into the base of his spine. The armor stopped most of the strike but the Vong still staggered. Ben immediately switched to his other attacker; he ducked beneath a whip-like amphistaff strike, came up low right in front of his opponent, and shoved his lightsaber straight into the air. It speared into the bottom of the Vong's jaw and dropped him. By then the second enemy was a running toward him. Ben threw his saber, a disc of light in the air. The Vong dodged it and kept attacking. He was fast but Ben was faster, dodging three successive strikes with impeccable speed. As the Vong raised his weapon for a fourth blow Ben's saber came spinning back around and took the Vong from behind. His head rolled off his shoulders and his body kicked up a cloud of dust when it fell.
Jade had never seen Ben Skywalker fight a real battle before. It was a thing to behold.
The fight was over within two minutes. All the attacking Vong were dead, as were four of their ones who'd come with the Jedi. Jodram was awake but dazed; he insisted he was fine but Jade was worried he's had a concussion. As she and Wharn helped him back to their speeder Gorsat and the two Yuuzhan Vong who'd accompanied him emerged from the pit.
"It's done," Gorsat said.
"Is the poison working?" asked Ben.
"It's been injected into the worldship's neural tissue and it should spread. We won't know how well it's working until we've done more injections. Come on, we need to get moving.
"What do you want to do with your dead?" Ben gestured to the fallen.
"We'd like to take them if we can. Load the bodies into the speeders but do it fast. That was just one patrol. The next time there will be a lot more. Come on, there's no time to lose."
-{}-
Kheykid and Xoran were both in the worldship's command chamber when Vilth Dal came for them, his shaper's cloak trailing behind him like a black cloud.
"We're under attack," he snarled. "It's the Jeedai come for us at last."
"Are you sure?" Kheykid asked. "We saw no ships approaching."
"Perhaps you were looking for the wrong kind," Vilath Dal said darkly. "My fliers reports there are Yuuzhan Vong with them. They probably came on organic ships."
"We expected the Jedi to seek help from Zonama Sekot." Darth Xoran seemed much less anxious than the shaper. "I only wish they'd picked less busy time."
"Should we delay the attack on Malador?" asked Kheykid.
"What for?" she shrugged. "Master Shaper, how many Jeedai are aboard?"
"My fliers report two teams on different sides of the worldship. They seem to be attacking the main neural nodes that control the dovin basals."
"Of course, they want to disable the weapons. Send all available troops to stop them."
"I already have. One patrol charged in too soon and got itself obliterated. Do not underestimate the Jeedai. They could ruin everything we've done here."
"Trust me, I'm aware," Xoran glowered; it creased the scars that darkened half her face. "Master Shaper, lead the attack on one team. Darth Kheykid, take the other. I'll stay here and command the attack on Malador."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Vilath Dal pressed. "I recommend holding off the attack until we've eliminated the Jeedai infestation."
"This worldship is vast. It could take days to root them out. No, we keep our appointments, Master Shaper. We'll go as planned."
That was her final word on it, and Vilath Dal acquiesced. Kheykid could feel his master blazing with determination and he realized then what should have been clear a long time ago. Darth Xoran was less concerned with killing the Jedi than with taking over Senex-Juvex. She'd not been raised One Sith as he had; she'd come of age here, under the brutality of the demolished Houses, and all her years spent mastering the Dark Side of the Force had been to achieve domination over those who'd once dominated her. She understood the Jedi, respected them and hated them as Sith should, but in the end they were a distraction.
This operation was the fulfillment of her life's dream, not just as a Sith, but as a person. She'd delay it for nothing.
He found himself doubting her wisdom for the first time and tried to hide it. He bowed and said, "As you wish, Master. Leave the Jedi to me."
She merely nodded and turned her attention to the Yuuzhan Vong crews hurriedly working to prepare the worldship for hyperspace. Vilath Dal stood at Kheykid's shoulder and rasped, "No time to waste, Sith Lord. We have enemies to kill."
-{}-
They were just about to leave their second neural node when the attack came. The cavern Kodra Val had used to access it was located deep inside one of the worldship's artificial habitat domes. The trees of this forest had withered to dead columns and the Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong defenders had used them as cover against the first wave of warriors that had dropped from their fliers and scampered through the forest to attack them. The fighting had been brutal but Allana had done better than she'd thought and escaped with only minor scratches. Her mother and Jaina, though older, fought well also, taking down two warriors apiece.
Kodra Val and her team were coming out of the cave and started for the circled landspeeders when a high-pitched animal howl cut through the stagnant air. The sound alone was enough to chill Allana but Tenel Ka and Jaina radiated a deeper horror through the Force.
"Voxyn," Jaina whispered.
Allana had been told of the hybrid monsters created to hunt Jedi during the Yuuzhan Vong War; her father had risked everything to destroy the queen they'd been cloned from. "That's impossible," she whispered.
"I don't feel them in the Force," said Tenel Ka.
Kodra Val hurried up to them. "Not voxyn. Those sounded like fero xyn, one of the creatures voxyn were made from."
"Close enough to be nasty, then," grunted Jaina.
"Very. We must fall back to the-"
She was interrupted by another chorus of howls, and then a scream. Allana glimpsed through tree-trunks as one Yuuzhan Vong warrior fell to the ground, thrashing, with a two-meter-long six-legged animal's jaws around his throat.
"To the cave! Now!" Jaina shouted. Allana ignited her saber and tried to cover her mother and aunt's retreats. Looking over her shoulder as she ran she spotted the six-legged Vongformed animals darting in and out of view as they wound around treetrunks, getting ever-closer.
Then one lunged from the side. Claws clattered against Allana's armored chestplate and the creature pushed her to the ground. She fumbled her saber and stabbed the fero xyn in the side; it let out a pained whine and fell back, but as soon as it did a second animal lunged for her, teeth snapping in her face.
A blaster panged behind her and three shots took the animal in the chest. It howled and tumbled back. Allana scrambled to all fours, then to her feet, and ran back to the cave mouth where Tanith Zel was laying covering fire with the barrel of her rifle notched against a crook in the rock.
"Thank you," Allana panted as she dropped to one knee.
"You're welcome," Tanith grunted and kept popping off more blasts. The fero xyn were fast and nimble but she managed to clip one more as it darted between trees.
As the last Yuuzhan Vong warriors fell back to the cave the fero xyn let cry another series of howls. If they did that to scare their prey, it was working. Allana watched, but the forest around the cave seemed to have gone still.
"They're regrouping and will be back in moments," Kodra Val warned.
"We need to get to those speeders and get out of here," Jaina warned.
"That may prove difficult," Tenel Ka breathed.
"Right, understatement of the year. Listen, Kodra Val, can you communicate with our flier by villip?"
"Of course."
"Have them see if they can track us under the surface, see if there's a way they can get in here and save our butts."
"Unlikely, but I can try."
"See if they can check on Ben's team too."
"I will. But Master Jeedai-"
"What?"
"There's something else. I accessed the neural node before we injected it. I said we'd entered darkspace before. Now we've left it."
"Left it? Are we still inside the Shroud?"
"I don't know."
Then the fero xyn started howling again, and the pack came darting once more through the forest. Kodra Val darted deeper into the cave to talk with her villip. The Jedi ignited their sabers and raised to defend. The warriors behind them hurled thud-bugs into the woods. Tanith began popped off shot after shot with her blaster.
Then the fero xyn were on them: snapping teeth, tearing claws, and fast death lunging through the air.
-{}-
The second Voidwalker dropped out of hyperspace in the Malador system, Davek knew something was very wrong. Arlen had taken Starlight Champion over to the second planet and verified that they could, in fact, service Voidwalker, which Chief Daharr said had suffered severe structural damage to the outer hull in the last battle and would need some reinforcements before it took the weeks-long hyperspace ride back to Imperial space. Champion was inside the frigate's hangar now and Arlen was at his brother's side on the bridge when they reverted. Davek had insisted on keeping the command deck at full crew and full readiness just in case, and he was grimly disappointed to be right.
"Tactical, what's going on? Talk to me." Davek said as he hurried over to the holo-display.
"Still taking a full scan of the system, sir," Por Dun said, "But it looks like… Damn."
"What is it?"
"Getting Mandalorian readings. Not in immediate range but… They're near the second planet."
His heart fell. "Are they hitting the port?"
"Not certain…. Sir, right now we're an even distance from the second planet or the third. We're the only big ship out here and we'll be easy to spot."
Davek took her meaning. The third planet was the system's population center, an industrialized planet with billions of sentients. More importantly, it had a lifeless moon that might shield them from them from the Mandalorians.
"Get us a little closer to the third planet's moon," Davek said. "Try to keep it between us and the host planet. Try to get as many sensor readings from the second planet as you can. See if the base is still there or if the Mandos have destroyed it."
Arlen, suddenly at his shoulder, said in a low voice, "That planet's airless and lifeless. The base was built under the surface. If the Mandos have found it and hit it hard enough-"
"Then there will be no survivors. I understand. Ensign, how many Mando ships?"
"Two frigates, two corvettes." Nervously, she added, "Sir, it really isn't safe for us here."
"I know." Davek looked to his brother. "Where else can we go?"
Arlen looked hesitant, uncertain; it was an unfamiliar expression for Arlen and especially unwelcome now. "I'm not sure. I may have to run down to Champ, check the data-files we got. If they're hitting this port they probably know about others too. How many jumps do you think Voidwalker can make before losing hull integrity?"
"I'd have to check with my engineering chief. He sounded like he's more concerned about the time we spend in hyperspace. Stress on the hull from sustained velocity."
"Then we'd better figure this out fast. We should probably jump away from here first."
"Yes, but jump where?"
"Sir!" Por Dun snapped. "Look!"
She was pointing to the tactical holo but Davek's view was drawn out the viewport. As they approached the third planet's moon he got a view of its gray orb, Malador beyond laced by city-lights, and finally, in the distance beyond, the familiar disc-shape of the Yuuzhan Vong worldship.
"Helm!" he shouted. "Turn us about! Ready hyperdrives! Get us out of here as soon as-"
"Too late," Korak pronounced. "That interdiction field's coming on. We're trapped."
Utter silence fell over the bridge, a silence of despair as much as shock. After every disaster and miracle, after they'd thought they were free, they were right back where they started.
This time they couldn't handle a real fight. They just couldn't.
"Sir," Por Dun whispered. "What do we do? We can try and run, hope we're far enough away when it fires. Escape like last time."
They were much closer to Malador than they'd been to Karfeddion, already within the planet's natural gravity well. If they ran they'd surely be spotted, those Mando ships would catch up fast, and there'd be no miracle to save them.
"It won't work," he rasped, then turned to the crew pit. "Helm, bring us close to the moon. As close as you can. Try to keep it between us the worldship. Hiding's our only option. Lieutenant Renwar, launch our last Stalker. Have it range from the moon, not far, just enough to keep an eye on the worldship and the Mandos."
It wouldn't do them much good, aside from giving a little advanced warning of their deaths, but it was all that could be done. Davek had never felt so exhausted, so tired, so beaten, not even during their worst moments in the Shroud.
Arlen grabbed him by both shoulders and spun him away from the tactical station. He leaned in close and said, "Mom might be on that worldship. If the Jedi can disable it in time we still have a chance."
He talked like man who still had hope. "How do you know she's even aboard?"
"I don't, but I can call her ship from mine. Just hold on." He squeezed Davek's shoulders tighter. "Don't give up, dammit. This crew, they're your crew. Anyone can see that. They believe in you. Don't let them down."
Arlen let go, turned, and sprinted off the bridge. Davek stood there, watching, and dared wonder if they could squeeze out another miracle.
-{}-
Tamar was in Champion's storage room, checking to see if there were power packs for her blaster, when she heard feet clattering through the ship. She stuck her head out in time to see a boot-heel disappear down a turn in the corridor. She heard Arlen talking frantically and made his way to the cockpit and followed to find the Jedi in the co-pilot's seat and Chance standing over his shoulder. Arlen was speaking into the grille and the voice responding wasn't any language Tamar had heard of.
"I need to speak me my mother, okay?" Arlen was already exasperated. "Can you do that? Jaina Solo Fel. Jedi. Jee-dai. Jee-dai. Please!"
The voice gabbled back and went silent. Tamar asked, "Who the hell are you comming?"
"A Yuuzhan Vong. I'm trying to get in contact with my mother."
"Why?"
"Because that sithspitting Vong worldship just dropped into the system," Chance said grimly. "If the Jedi can't knock it out from inside it's going to blow Malador to hell. And, you know, us."
As Tamar wrapped her mind around it, a static-broken voice, female, came over the comm. "Who is this?"
"Mom, it's me, Arlen! Are you on the worldship?"
"Yes. We just got hung up. We're on the move, but they're sending more after us."
"How many nerve clusters have you hit?"
"Just two. We still have four more. I don't know if it's working."
"Do you need help? Mom? Should I help?"
"Arlen? Where are you?"
"In the Malador system, just like you. They've got the grav well up. We can't run but maybe we can help. I'm with Davek. He has troops."
For a moment there was only static. Then the woman said, "We've lost a lot already. They keep coming."
"I can bring reinforcements. Have your ship light a beacon. Ben too. I'll see what I can muster." He killed the connection and looked up at Chance and Tamar. "Get the engines warmed up. We've got a mission to fly."
"What mission?" Chance gaped. "You're going to fly into that huge karking worldship all by yourself? You?"
"You mentioned your brother's troops," Tamar said skeptically. "Do you think he'll just give them to you?"
"Only if I ask nicely. Listen, the only way any of us are going to survive is if we stop that worldship. Helping Mom helps all of us. And think, forty stormtroopers saving a couple billion lives? Sounds like a big PR win for the Empire."
"What about the Mandos?" asked Chance.
"One thing at a time and right now I'm more worried about the superweapon." Arlen popped out of his chair.
"We were supposed to be going home!" Chance bleated with frustration, disbelief, and despair all rolled into one. "This is one of those billions-of-lives-depend-on-us heroic Jedi things! I didn't sign up for that!"
"Come on, Chance, what happened to having lofty goals?"
"I have a goal already! It's to die filthy stinking rich."
"You're already rich."
"-er. Richer."
"Just trust me and I'll make sure you get the opportunity," Arlen said as he hurried out of the cockpit.
When he was gone Tamar rolled her eyes. "And you say he flirts with me."
-{}-
Just when he thought everything was over, Lukas got into the white again. While the five-day crawl through the nebula had dropped everyone else aboard Voidwalker into a pit of despair, it had given him enough time to properly heal from the fight on the Mando frigate. When they'd finally escaped the Shroud he'd joined the rest of Razor Company for a celebratory (though unfortunately dry) congregation in the old barracks. He'd gotten a hero's welcome and hadn't been ashamed to bask in it.
And suddenly they were all about to die again. He still didn't understand what was happening, only that Major Sligh had ordered everyone to get in their armor, stock their kits, and hurry down to the hangar for deployment.
Once he got there he saw the ship that he'd heard that guided them out of the Shroud. Prince Fel's Jedi brother's, Leila had said, and as gossip went it was so ridiculous it had to be true. He was, therefore, unsurprised to see a man in brown robes with a lightsaber at his belt standing next to Major Sligh near the two drop ships.
"Attention!" Sligh snapped, and the stormies fell into ranks. Forty-one stormtroopers were all that was left, barely half their company.
The Jedi raised his voice. He was bigger, taller, and louder than his brother. "Right now that Yuuzhan Vong worldship's heading for Malador. We can't run so when it vapes the planet it's gonna vape us too! Right now there's two teams of Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong aboard that thing, trying to sabotage it. You're going to be reinforcements!"
Every stormie stood straight and silent but Lukas could imagine the thoughts going through everyone's heads. The Jedi still weren't popular on most Imperial planets, especially the backwaters ground-pounders tended to come out of, and nobody liked or trusted the Vong.
But if what the Jedi said was true, there wasn't much of a choice. It was do-or-die with billions of lives at stake. Or, Lukas thought, it could be do-and-die. That was a fate half of Razor Company had already met on the Mando frigate.
"We're going in two teams!" the Jedi called. "Twenty in each drop ship! I'll be going with you in my ship. They say the worldship has no active external defenses and the Mandos are still by the second planet so we should have a clear shot. Once we're aboard, protect the Jedi and the Vong without scars on their faces. Everything else is fair game. That's it!"
That was all. No briefing on the terrain, what enemies to expect, nothing. Sligh called, "All troops, fall out! A Squad, B Squad in transport one! C Squad, D Squad in transport two!"
The columns started to move and the Jedi darted for his ship. As they marched Lukas heard Leila's voice in his helmet saying, "You still want to be a karking hero, Briggs?"
"Not really, but it sounds like we don't get a choice this time."
"We never do. But what the hell. It's what we wear the white for, isn't it?" Honest pleading cut through her usual sarcasm. He remembered how his father and grandfather had told him that the stormtrooper's role was to serve the Empire's will above all things. Saving Malador wasn't an Imperial thing to do exactly, and fighting with a bunch of Jedi and Vong sure as all hells wasn't either.
"We do what we have to," he told her. "Only what we have to."