The Nebula II-class destroyer Starless had spent over thirty years in service to the Alliance Navy. There were newer and bigger ships in the fleet, but none of them had ever meant as much to Syal Antilles as her first command. It had been Jagged's flagship too once, for another mission against Sith and Yuuzhan Vong before his sons had even been born. He was surprised how good it felt to be standing on its bridge again after so much time. Against all reason, it made him feel confident.

Confidence shattered when Starless was torn out of hyperspace one-point-five seconds before the calculated re-entry time. Even before Syal's crew confirmed it, he knew they'd hit an artificial gravity well erected around the entire Malador system, and that meant they were too late.

The readouts told the full story. A small Mandalorian fleet was moving away from the second planet in the system. Closer to the third and populated planet was the Yuuzhan Vong worldship that was the source of the interdiction field.

"The planet's still intact, Admiral," one of Syal's officers reported.

"How long until it's within range of the weapon?" she asked.

The officer shook his head. "I'm not sure. We don't know much about its capabilities."

"We're right where they want us to be," Jag seethed. "Twenty ships stuck too far away to do anything except watch and record."

"Do you think Savyar knew we were coming?" asked Syal. They'd done everything to keep this mission secret; most of the Alliance navy brass didn't even know. Still, moving twenty ships without anyone noticing was always a hard task.

"It doesn't matter, does it? We can't stop them. We can only hope the Jedi can."

"Do you know they're aboard?"

"I haven't talked to Jaina since we left the Core. Comm black-out."

"Of course." Syal sighed. "Tactical, what about those Mandos?"

"Holding position, sir."

"Not moving toward us?"

"Negative. Wait… That worldship is shifting position."

"Is it moving closer to the planet?"

"No, distance is steady… It seems to be changing angle."

Jag knew what that meant but Syal got the order out first. "Order all ships to break formation right away! Put as much distance between ships as possible!"

As Starless' engines hummed to life, Jagged said, "That grav-punch has to lose strength with range."

"Maybe, but the focus of the beam might spread wider too. We just don't know enough about the weapon."

"Then we're going to find out. How much longer until it can angle to fire?"

"Should be less than two minutes, sir," the tactical officer said.

At that moment the comm officer said, "Admiral, we're being hailed."

"By the worldship?" Syal frowned.

"No. They identify themselves as an Imperial warship called Voidwalker."

Jag's jaw dropped. He must have misheard; he couldn't fail to hope. He had to know for sure. "Put them on, Lieutenant."

Jag and Syal reached the comm station in time to hear a voice Jagged had never thought he'd heard again. His son said, "Alliance flagship, this is the captain of the Voidwalker. That worldship is going to fire its gravity weapon. It's going to try and tear your fleet apart"

"Davek!" Jagged's voice quaked. "This is your father."

A stunned silence, then: "Dad?"

Syal put a hand on Jag's shoulder to steady him. "I'm sorry, Davek, but we don't have time for a reunion. We know what it's doing and we're trying to spread our ships as far apart as possible to minimize casualties from the blast."

"No, you don't understand. When it charges the weapon the dovin basals supporting the gravity well will weaken. You're on the very edge so you'll get a chance. Turn your ships and be ready to jump away."

"What? Davek, no! We can't leave you. Not when you-" When he'd just come back from the dead, somehow, through some miracle Jag couldn't begin to understand.

Syal squeezed his arm. "We'll micro-jump the fleet out at different vectors. We'll wait past the edge of the system and keep watching."

"Mom's on that worldship, trying to disable it," Davek said. "So is Arlen. We have to give them time."

"What about you?"

Syal let go of his arm and started barking orders to the other ships. His son went on, "We're hiding behind Malador's moon. We can't run but they haven't spotted us yet."

"Be careful, Davek! Don't-"

"That grav well is weakening!" the tactical officer called. "We're out of the drag field!"

"All ships jump!" Syal called. "Jump now!"

Davek started to say something else, but the comm line burst to static and broke. The bridge shuddered and the stars turned to white lines. They jumped.

-{}-

Things got a lot harder after they hit the first neural node. Wharn still wasn't sure how Gorsat knew where to find the next one, but somehow he did. It was located beneath some kind of arena, a great big open bowl of space with benches around the curved tiered sides. He didn't even want to think about what kind of entertainment the Vong might have gathered to watch. The node was deep beneath the bottom of the bowl and the only way to get there was to dig. All seven Jedi had to ignite their lightsabers and hack their way through the layers of yorik coral. Wharn didn't know how much time they wasted, but eventually they got through. Gorsat and the two other Yuuzhan Vong carrying the poison agent descended into the pit to do their work.

That was, more or less, when the enemy found them. It wasn't just Vong warriors this time. Grand Master Skywalker ignited his saber just in time to catch the first attack: a streaking blaster bolt sent out by armed gunmen in the upper tiers. Thud bugs began arcing through the air too and everyone scrambled for cover. The Wookiees jumped into the pit to defend Gorsat but the rest ran for the tiers.

Jade stayed in her father's heels; Wharn was about to go with them when he saw Jodram staggering in indecision. He grabbed the human by the arm and pulled him to the nearest riser, away from the Skywalker. He and Jodram threw themselves against the hard stone floor, beneath the closest bench. Laser blasts still rained down on the center of the arena. He heard Yuuzhan Vong war cries and he didn't know if they were friendly or hostile. Everything had become chaos in an instant and he didn't even know where the enemy was.

"Are you okay?" He shook Jodram shoulder.

"I can handle it," the human assured him, though Wharn wasn't so sure. He'd taken a hard hit to the head at the last fight and though he claimed he was fine he kept moving slower. In a sane situation they'd retreat back to the flier but they had to press forward, especially now that the worldship was apparently bearing down on a densely-populated planet.

Wharn dared peek out from beneath the bench. He spotted a cluster of two or three shapes that kept spraying laster blasts. As he watched something arced out from the cluster, a small black dot, probably not a thud bug. He traced its fall with its eyes until it dropped into the pit they'd dug.

"Grenade!" he shouted, but he hadn't needed to. As soon as the thing dropped into the pit it flew up again, hurled with the Force by one of the Wookiee Jedi back to those that had thrown it. The explosion sent tremors through the entire arena, and chunks of coral from the ceiling fell and cracked open the tiers below.

Wharn grabbed Jodram's shoulder again. "How's Jade?"

"Safe," the human said firmly. He'd feel if she'd been hurt.

"Want to get a better look?"

"Fine by me," Jodram grunted, and both of them rolled out from beneath the bench.

They scrambled up three more tiers before drawing enemy attention: two arcing thud-bugs. Wharn spotted them right before they hit and cut through one with his saber. Jodram dodged the other. A Yuuzhan Vong warrior fell on them from the tier above, amphistaff swinging. Jodram ducked beneath him and went for his legs. Wharn's saber crackled against his back. The warrior snapped his staff back like a whip and Wharn barely evaded; that gave Jodram and opening to thrust up under Vong's arm, through a gap in the Vonduun armor and into his shoulder. The warrior cried out and dropped his staff; the weapon still writhed back and forth and Jodram barely jumped out of the way of its snapping jaws.

Wharn saw an opening and lunged for the same spot. The Vong tried to block him but Wharn stabbed his saber in deeper, shifted his grip and tilted the blade down through the chest of the Vong' s flesh, searing through lungs and heart. As the warrior toppled, Jodram speared his saber-tip through the amphistaff's face, finally killing it.

They didn't have time to congratulate each other on teamwork. A rifleman spotted them from the far side of the arena and sprayed laser-blasts at them. They ducked under a bench and used their sabers to deflect anything that got too close.

From this higher level Wharn could get a better view of the fighting and it wasn't encouraging. The Wookiees might have been deflecting attacks on the pit well enough but the enemy still held all the higher tiers and had forced the defenders under cover. He spotted the Skywalkers' sabers on the opposite side of the arena, pinned down by laserfire from two directions.

Then, out of nowhere, Wharn felt a familiar and encouraging presence in the Force, one he'd in no way expected to feel here and now.

Jodram didn't sense it. Gritting his teeth he said, "It's no good if we can't take the higher tiers! We need help!"

"Don't worry," Wharn told him. "It's on the way."

When help came it wasn't what he'd expected. It first announced itself with the pang of additional laserfire. The gunners in the upper tiers turned around to fire at new enemies entering through the high-level access tunnels. There was a flurry of laserfire and then relative silence as the attacking Vong on the mid-levels hesitated, uncertain who the enemy was.

Then twenty Imperial stormtroopers in white armor flooded into the arena. They spread out with martial precision, taking tier by tier, shooting any Vong that tried to attack. One of the friendly warriors started bellowing and all the Ganner-sect Yuuzhan Vong dropped stomachs to the ground, making it clear to the stormtroopers who was friendly and who should be killed.

The enemy Vong, after the initial shock, rallied and began to put up a fight. Wharn and Jodram rose from their hiding places and charged the nearest warrior as he started attacking a trio of stormtroopers. Before they could attack Wharn felt another touch in the Force and skidded to a halt. He grabbed Jodram by the sleeve, throwing the human off-balance, and his yelp of surprise grabbed the attention of the Vong they'd been about to attack. He turned to the two apprentice Jedi and snarled.

That was when Arlen Fel appeared. He jumped off a higher tier and slammed boots-first into the Vong. They both went clattered down to another tier. The Jedi Knight came to his feet with his saber blazing and forced the Vong into a defensive stance with a trio of hard blows. Arlen wielded a blue saber, not his usual green one. The Vong whipped his staff out, forcing Arlen a step back.

Then a single laser-blast fell from above and took off the top of the Vong's skull. The warrior collapsed like a dead droid and Wharn looked up to see a Mandalorian in blue and black armor bounding down to Arlen's tier.

Arlen sensed his alarm and called up, "Hold up! She's friendly!"

The Mando jumped down to Arlen's level and kicked the Vong's corpse. "You're back to owing me, Jedi!"

Arlen snorted. "Please, I was about to take him!"

Wharn jumped down to their level and Jodram followed. By now the battle was almost over; the Wookies had emerged from the pit to help the stormtroopers finish off the last attackers.

"Master," he called, "Where did you come from?"

"Long story, but Chance parked the Champion at the nearest airlock and we forced our way in. Glad you guys are safe. Where's Jade and Master Skywalker?"

"We're down here!" Jade called as both Skywalkers emerged on the arena floor. By the time everyone converged there, Gorsat was climbing out of the pit. If he was surprised to see a bunch of Imperial troopers had joined the party he hid it pretty well.

"The second node is neutralized," he said, "But you should know the worldship just fired its gravity weapon."

High spirits immediately fell. Grand Master Skywalker asked, "Do you know the target?"

"No. They haven't lowered that interdiction field, which indicates they're not done with whatever they had planned."

"When is the toxin supposed to take effect?" asked Jade.

"I know Mom's group took out at least one," Arlen said. "We've sent her another stormtrooper team to help."

"If we've got more manpower we can move faster," Gorsat said. "Jedi, did you see if our landspeeders are still up top?"

"They are. They didn't look damaged."

"Then we should split into teams." He threw a thumb at the two Yuuzhan Vong behind him who were also armed with the toxin. "They know the way as well as I do."

Master Skywalker looked around and did a quick count of heads. "Three speeders, three groups. I say two groups of ten stormtroopers each with the Yuuzhan Vong in the third group."

"Agreed," said Gorsat. "I'll go with a stormtrooper unit. Master Skywalker, you should go with the Yuuzhan Vong one. They know you, they'll respect your orders. I recommend splitting the Jedi up."

Lowbacca gave a roar and Arlen said, "Good idea, Master. You and your kits go with one stormie team. Tamar and I will go with another."

Wharn had to know, so he asked the Mandalorian, "You're no Jedi, are you?"

"Definitely not," the woman said, "But if this mission comes with killing shabla Sith I'm all for it."

In the adrenaline-rush of these fights Wharn had almost forgotten that Savyar was somewhere on this worldship, waiting to be fought. It eradicated the high of surviving another battle.

"Listen, we need to move fast." Arlen put a hand on Wharn's shoulder. "You should come with me. Jodram? Jade?"

Looks passed between the three apprentices, then hesitation. Ben said from behind his daughter, "Jade, come with me. Jodram, go with Wharn and Arlen."

It was the most sensible arrangement, the best distribution of power. Jodram immediately stepped forward and wrapped Jade in a tight hug. The moment he stepped away Wharn was there to do the same.

"Take care of yourselves, both of you," she muttered. "I want stories when this is over, got it?"

"I'll let Jodram tell them," Wharn smiled as he let go of her.

Lowbacca roared and Arlen said, "You're right, they do grow up fast. Now let's get to the speeders and get going. There's no time to waste."

-{}-

"The gravity beam missed our ships entirely," Jagged Fel said. The comm connection was shaky over this distance but simply hearing his father's voice was enough for Davek. "We've scattered all around the system. We're still watching. If that drag field goes down-"

"Drop in and stop those Mandos first. They're the biggest threat."

"Understood. We'll comm you if anything changes. Hold tight, Davek."

"We will." Davek killed the signal and stepped away from the comm console. He turned back to the bridge and saw many of the crew shift their eyes away from him. Of course his conversation with his father would draw their attention; this unlikely Fel family reunion was shaping up to decide the fates of them all.

Marasiah was waiting at the back of the bridge, dressed in her flight suit but not moving. Davek stepped back to her. It wasn't normal for the CAG to be on the bridge during a red-alert situation, even if they weren't actually fighting, but nothing was normal any more. Nothing had been normal since Karfeddion but Malador was especially ramping things up.

"That was your father," she stated quietly.

"He's got an Alliance fleet out there. I don't know how, since Arlen said the senate voted against intervention, but right now we need what we can get."

"Anything from the worldship?"

"Only that the dropships all landed. Arlen too. Whatever's happening out there is beyond our ability to affect." It was a hard thing to admit. One thing he'd learned over the past six weeks was that there was nothing worse than being in command but not in control.

"Captain," Por Dun called, "You'll want to see this."

With a grim feeling he was about to be proven right, Davek left Marasiah and went to the tactical station. Por Dun pointed to the holo and said, "The Mandos are on the move."

He stifled a swear. "What vector."

"They're heading for Malador-3, sir. We can't tell yet whether they're coming for us or for the planet itself, but..."

"They must have spotted us launching the drop ships. They may not know what we are, but they know we're here. How long will it take them to reach us at max sublight?"

"Those Mando ships are fast. I'd say… Twenty-minutes. Twenty-five max."

Whether the Mandos were coming for them specifically or not, they'd find them once they close enough to the planet. "What happens if we start running now, dead opposite vector? How much time will that buy us?"

"With our bad engine? You'd have to confirm with Helm, but I'd guess… Forty minutes."

"Forty minutes more?"

"No, forty total."

That was it, then. He could only pray forty minutes was enough for Arlen and his mother. He walked briskly back to Marasiah. Whatever was on his face made hers fall.

"What is it?" she asked. "Mandalorians?"

"That's right. We're going to break and make them run after us. Estimate is forty minutes until they chase us down."

She nodded, all duty. "All right. I'll prepare fighters."

Twelve pilots wouldn't do much good against two capital ships and dozens of Beskads, but they might be able to buy the few minutes needed for the rest of Voidwalker to survive. One last time, after losing four-fifths of its number, the air group was going to have to take the brunt of the enemy attacks.

He reached down and grabbed her hands. "A lot can happen in forty minutes. Arlen and my mother-"

"I know." She squeezed hard. Their eyes held. She rose up on her toes and kissed him once: soft, warm, quick. Then she dropped, released, and hurried away.

Davek realized where he was again. Slowly and cautiously, he turned back to the crew. None of them were looking at him now, not a one. What they'd been looking at ten seconds ago, he couldn't know. What they'd thought of it, whether it had even been a surprise-

He pushed those thoughts out of his head. In forty minutes it wouldn't matter at all.

-{}-

When their Yuuzhan Vong guide- the one with the unmarked face and unaccented Basic- announced they'd have to ditch their speeder and through some tunnels on foot to get to the next node, Tamar was less than thrilled. They went ahead anyway: Arlen and the guide at the front of the line, the two apprentices at the back, Tamar and ten stormtroopers in the middle. She felt weirdly encouraged by the presence of the Imperial soldiers: at least now there were other people who must have been as weirded out by this crazy Jedi/Vong co-op mission as she was.

They met only light opposition in the tunnels, nothing a couple grenade-tosses from the stormtroopers couldn't take care of. Things changed when the tunnels fell away and suddenly they were crossing a great bridge, over a hundred meters long, that spanned a landscape that looked like it belonged on a crater-pocketed moon. The beings down below the rims of the craters were some Vong but mostly humans, Savyar's partisans, and they immediately started opening fire with their rifles and blaster-pistols. The stormies had no place to cover on the bridge and all they could do was clump together and make their stand. The Jedi used their sabers to block shots but they only had three swords to shield with and in the first thirty seconds two stormtroopers tumbled off the bridge,

There was another way to do this. Tamar lurched over to Arlen, grabbed his arm, and shouted, "Cushion my fall, Jedi!"

Then she jumped off the bridge and dragged him with her. To his credit, he didn't let shock slow him down. As they plunged she felt him reach out with the Force to slow their descent. She felt the Force flow through her as well, flow through them both at once, and together they landed side-by-side on the chamber floor.

After that it was a free-for-all. The enemies on the ground forget about the stormtroops up above and vectored toward Tamar and Arlen. Arlen deflected shot after shot with his spinning blue blade- much better, Tamar admitted, than she herself could have done- while shot after shot panged off her black beskar armor. She let them come, let them shoot and hit and do nothing; she dropped partisan after partisan with well-aimed shots from her rifle. At the same time she knew where Arlen was without even looking. They let the Force connect them and moved in sync, always facing away from each other, always far enough away to move freely but close enough that no enemy sneaked in between them and got a shot at their backs. They could focus their attention dead ahead at all times and take attackers as they came, Arlen with his saber and Tamar with her rifle. All the while, stormtroopers on the bridge sniped enemy after enemy with well-placed shots.

Then, suddenly, it was over. There were no enemies left to fight. Tamar turned around, finally, and saw Arlen looking at her. He was panting and slick with sweat from the fighting but the smile on his face was relieved, almost peaceful. She realized it matched her own and realized Arlen knew it, even if he couldn't see it.

She hadn't felt that connected to someone in the Force since her grandfather had died; maybe not even then.

Then Arlen shifted his gaze away. Tamar followed it to see the eight remaining stormtroopers and the Vong guide lowering themselves from the bridge on long fiber-cables. The two Jedi apprentices dropped too, using the Force to soften their fall.

She and Arlen trotted over toward them. "What's going on?" he called.

The Vong said, "The node's down in one of these craters. We'll have to go inside."

"Are you sure these are craters?" asked the Chiss apprentice. Tamar hadn't even known there were Chiss Jedi, but she was learning all kinds of things lately. "From above they looked more like really deep pits."

"He's right," the human one added. "They almost looked like mine-shafts."

Tamar had a bad feeling about this. Arlen had it too. He asked the Vong, "Do you know which way to the node once we get inside?"

"I think so." He had some kind of weird organic Vong instrument in his hands. How he tracked their neural network they were disabling, apparently. "I think I know which crater to go down too."

"Which one?" asked one of the stormtroopers.

"Wait, hold on," Tamar interjected. "These craters, pits, shafts- what are they supposed to be?"

The Vong gave a small shrug. "I'm not sure exactly. Every worldship has differences. These tunnels look like they were newly-created, though."

"We know what these are," said Arlen grimly. "This is where they're growing the spice."

"What spice?" asked the human apprentice.

"Glitterstim," Tamar pronounced. "That's how Savyar paid for all those Mando mercs and her other toys. She's been making glitterstim and selling it."

"Glitterstim comes from the webs of energy spiders," Arlen added. "Nobody's been able to transplant them from the tunnels on Kessel until now."

"So wait a karking minute," one of the stormtroopers said, "You're telling me there's energy spiders from Kessel down in those craters."

"That's what I'm saying. They only live in places where it's totally dark. You have IR scopes in your helmets, don't you?"

The stormtrooper nodded. Tamar said, "I've got IR too, but what are you Jedi going to do? Wave your hands and let the Force show you around?"

"They have lightsabers. I have a glowlamp." The Vong patted his utility belt. "If anything we need to keep our lights on. Running into an energy spider in the dark is the last thing we want."

"Do you know how far it is to the node?" the sergeant asked.

"Not exactly. It should be about fifteen, twenty meters under ground level." He pointed to a crater. "Down that one, I think."

"Then we'd better get going," the sergeant gestured to his soldiers and they immediately began filing for the crater. Tamar and the Jedi trotted after them. As she jogged with Arlen she said, "They've got good hustle for people who should've been dead six weeks ago."

"Got to love Imperial discipline. I could almost-"

He skidded to a halt and turned around, looking up. Tamar stopped, turned, and followed his gaze. There was a single figure standing in the center of the bridge above, shrouded by a night-black robe. She felt icy fear in her gut, then disbelief as she felt that vicious predatory mind in the Force.

The cloak furled off. Even from the distance Tamar could see the Sith clearly: its reptilian face striped in red and black, its thick tail encased in black, its claw-tipped hands. She watched as a half-meter blood-red blade of light extended from either wrist.

The two apprentices had come to a halt beside them. The Chiss said, quiet but angry, "A Sith. Another Sith."

"It can't be," Tamar hissed. "We killed the buir'shabuir."

Arlen ignited his blue blade. "Looks like we didn't."

"How? How did it survive?"

"Doesn't matter now." Arlen looked over his shoulder. "Go on without us! I'll hold him back."

"That thing killed my sister, jeti. I need a piece of it." She hefted her rifle.

Arlen didn't argue. The Sith dropped off the bride like a rock and impacted on the ground below in a cloud of dust, but Tamar knew it was unharmed. It would be on them in seconds; she could see the dust-trail it kicked up as it ran toward them, probably on all fours.

Arlen snapped, "Jodram! Wharn! Fall back now!"

"I'm not running from another Sith, Master," the Chiss snarled and ignited his saber. Jodram did too.

"That's an order!" Arlen shouted. "Go help the stormtroopers! They-"

"Too late," Tamar said, and the Sith was on them in a storm of red and black.

-{}-

Lukas Briggs decided if that they survived this, he was going to write a book. Or a holo-drama. Or go on a speaking tour. Something. He could do it in two installments. The first would be How I Rescued a Yaga and Saved My Ship. The second, How I Rescued a Karking Yuuzhan Vong and Saved an Entire Damn Planet. The thing was, it was all so outrageous nobody would believe it.

Fear was making him giddy. He tried to concentrate on the tunnels ahead but blood and adrenaline were pounding through him. The Vong and Sergeant Malkin had their glow-lamps pointing forward, casting bright white against the tunnels walls that would hopefully scare off any ferocious Kessel energy spiders that were lurking around. So far they hadn't run into any live opposition, though they'd had to repel down two ten-meter shafts to get to their current depth, which meant they should be getting closer to this node thing the Vong had to poison.

They reached the end of a slope in the tunnel and the Vong came to a halt. He looked at his portable instrument thing, then ran his hands along what looked to Lukas like a plain yorik coral wall.

The Vong turned to Malkin. "Sergeant, do you have a charge?"

"You want to blow the wall? That would bring the entire tunnel down on top of us."

"I'd prefer a Jedi's lightsaber, but they're occupied at the moment," the Vong said. That was putting it mildly; if that lizard with the red sabers got past the Jedi and into this tunnel he could make short work of all eight stormies.

"Marsh!" the sergeant called, "You still have directional charges?"

"One left, boss," Leila slipped to the front of the line.

"Lay it down," the Vong ordered. "Directional charge. Angle it upward, this direction. That should keep the thing from coming down on top of us."

As Leila got to work Malkin said, "We're still clearing back before we blow this thing."

"Understood. Hopefully we won't run into any trouble on the way out."

After Leila set the charge they fell back. Lukas had his helmet switched to night-vision and followed the green-white beacon of the Vong's glowlamp until they reached the place they'd repelled down from. This time they grabbed the same fiberchord ropes and puled themselves up, boots against the incline for purchase. When they all got to the top, Malkin decided they were clear enough and had Leila set off the charge.

There was less rumbling than Lukas had expected. The tunnel around them didn't even quake. He hoped that did the job. They went back down the ropes and the Vong led the way back to where they'd set the charge. The whole cavern wall looked it had been exploded outward. The Vong clambered over the rubble into what looked like another chamber, spherical, with some kind of fleshy pillar running from floor to ceiling.

"Excellent!" the Vong said. "Give me just a minute."

He got forward two steps before something reared out of the darkness of the chamber. A long multi-joined limb swept the Vong aside, slamming him into the wall. The energy spider filled the blown-open portal; it released some horrible hissing wail and flailed out with what seemed like a dozen legs at once. Lukas joined the others in unleashing a volley of laserfire that edged the spider back into the chamber without seeming to do major damage.

"Sarge, what do we do?" Lukas shouted. "That Vong's still inside!"

"Keep shooting the damn thing!" Malkin shouted, which wasn't helpful. Imperial stormtrooper academy had never trained any of them to fight energy spiders from Kessel.

The creature backed further into the cave. Lukas ducked low and barely spotted the Vong lying prone on the floor. He would be lucky if a spider-leg didn't spear him through in the next thirty seconds.

Ignoring the pain coming back to his side, Lukas squatted down and rolled beneath the spider's belly, though the gap blown in the tunnel wall. His shoulder slammed hard into a slab of rubble and knocked him into the standing leg of the energy spider. The creature picked up the leg and Lukas rolled out of the way just before it speared down into where he'd just lay, crunching through the top layer of coral. He fumbled with his rifle and pumped three shots into the spider's belly. The creature let out a wail and Lukas scrambled on all fours for the Vong. He grabbed the alien with both hands and pushed the both of them to the edge of the chamber away from the spider's flailing, stabbing limbs.

A few more stormies had used his opening to crawl into the chamber beneath the spider. They were firing more shots upward into its belly, and those finally seemed to be having an effect. The creature flailed, screaming, and finally collapsed on the ground. Malkin staggered through the gap, right up to spider's face, and began emptied his rifle into the thing's head to finish it off.

Lukas heard the alien beneath him groaned and shifted off of him. "Thank you, soldier," said the Yuuzhan Vong wincing through his pain. "You saved my life."

Lukas helped him to his feet. "Believe it or not, it's turning into a habit."

-{}-

Escaping from the pack of fero xyn had been hard. Five more Yuuzhan Vong had died before they'd made it back to the speeders, and even then the animals had tenaciously chased them until running out of energy. On the way to the next neural node the cavalry arrived: almost twenty stormtroopers who seemed very confused but ready to battle.

The one in charge, a major named Sligh, had insisted they scout the area around the next node before moving into to neutralize it. That had been a good decision, because the scouts quickly came back with the news that at least two dozen Yuuzhan Vong warriors and their fero xyn pets had laid camp right atop the hill under which the node was supposed to be.

Allana joined Sligh, Kodra Val, and Jaina as they crawled closer for a better look. They were inside another one of those big open habitats, and to spy out the hill they nestled behind the crest of a chalky lower ridge. Sligh passed around a set of macrobinoculars so they could all have a look.

Kodra Val took the instrument uncertainly, and Jaina showed the Yuuzhan Vong how to zoom in its scope. Allana had already seen her fill. The Vong seemed to be plying trenches in the dry earth, making ramparts for defense. They clearly intended to make their stand.

Kodra Val sucked in breath. "It is him."

"Who?" asked Jaina.

"Vilath Dal." She handed off the binoculars. "Tall, with robes and shaper's headdress. He is unmistakable. I know this weapon was his creation."

"I have snipers I can lay along the ridges," Sligh told them. "We can pick him off for you."

"If you want to do that you should do it quickly," Allana said. "Those ramparts are getting thrown up fast."

"Try it," Kodra Val said.

As Sligh commed his soldiers Allana asked the shaper, "Is there another way to get to the node? Maybe from below?"

Kodra Val shook her head. "They were never meant to be easy to access."

Jaina sighed. "Any idea how many more we have to shut down before we can kill the weapon?"

"I wish I did. The poison should be spreading from the other nodes we've injected but the more we poison the faster it will work."

"Well, they've clearly decided to make their stand here." Jaina looked through the binoculars again. "Stang it, I don't see Vilath Dal. He took cover somewhere."

"We're going to have to charge this thing," Allana scowled. "Major, what kind of heavy weapons do you have?"

"Grenades, mostly. One minute." Sligh went quiet, talking to someone in his helmet again. Then he said, "I've got three snipers ranged along the hills. Good cover and angles of fire. Can't see the shaper. Do you have any other targets?"

Jaina shook her head. "Have them hold position. They can give us covering fire when we advance."

Allana looked to Sligh. "You're the soldier. How do you charge a hill?"

"If possible, you don't," he said. "But if you're going to do something stupid you can at least try and do it in a smart way. I would say… Come from the spots where the slope gradient is lowest. There, there, and there. Split into three divisions with equal distribution of assets."

"You mean rifles, amphistaffs, and lightsabers,"

"That's what I mean," Sligh said dryly. "Use grenades and thud bugs to clear space for the initial charge, then send melee assets in with ranged weapons to cover. Let's get back. The longer we dawdle the more time they'll have to set up defenses."

So that's how it would go: they'd charge the hill with a combined force of Jedi Knights, Yuuzhan Vong, and Imperial stormtroopers. Allana was pretty sure nobody, not even her aunt or mother, had fought a battle like that before.

They went back and split divisions. Three Jedi meant one per group, and Tanith followed Allana with their mix of stormtroopers and warriors as they crept around to the best attack point. The enemy had to have spotted them by now but they made no move to defend themselves. They would wait for the suicidal uphill charge to unleash all they had.

Allana lay down next to Tanith behind a ridge and closed her eyes. She could sense her aunt and mother with their divisions, felt the single thought shared between them: ready to go.

They went. Allana waved the stormtroopers forward, then followed them after they raced for the hill. Thud bugs arced toward them and Allana did her best to knock a few out of the air with her saber. At the same time the Yuuzhan Vong in their group through their own thud bugs, and when they got close enough four of the stormtroopers dropped to one knee and hurled grenades that burst atop the hill, sending smoke and clouds of white ash into the windless air.

The enemy regrouped quickly and the attackers were still at a disadvantage. The Yuuzhan Vong hurled down more thud bugs that burst in the sand or plunged through stormtrooper armor, dropping soldiers as they ran. The warriors behind Allana let out a war cry and surged ahead, past the stormtroopers struggling to climb the dusty, unstable slope of the hill.

By the time Allana and Tanith mounted the crest the battle atop the hill was fully joined. Blood and bodies were everywhere, mostly Yuuzhan Vong. War cries, scream of pain, and howls of fero xyn rebounded from every direction. Allana spotted her mother's silver blade on the opposite side of the hill, waved back and forth as Tenel Ka battled some enemy occluded by all the pal dust through in the air. The dust was enough to clog Allana's throat and she was bent over by two hacking coughs. Before she rose Tanith knocked her to the ground, right before a Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff could take off both their heads. Tanith fired shots into the warrior's Vonduun armor but he kept coming.

A silver blade swept horizontally over the warrior's shoulders and his head tumbled to the dust. Allana and Tanith both scrambled to their feet.

"Your Majesty!" the younger woman cried. "Thank you!"

Tenel Ka looked them over. "Are you damaged?"

"We're okay, Mom. Where's Jaina and Kodra Val?"

"Still on the slope. They-"

She stopped and pulled them aside. A pair of fero xyn lunged. Tanith was able to nail one with her rifle but another sunk its jaws onto Allana's armored thigh. She fell and swept out with her saber, cutting through the animal's shoulder-blades, but it only released it vice-grip when Tenel Ka kicked it hard in the side and sent its body tumbling. The third fero xyn circled them, growling, ready to strike. Before it lunged a hail of laser-blasts caught it and dropped it. Allana looked around; she briefly caught a white-armored stormtrooper throwing a thumbs-up sign before he ran after another target.

A unique fight indeed.

The three women were still on the ground, and as they tried to rise Tanith grabbed Allana's shoulder with one hand and Tenel Ka's with the other. "The shaper. We have to kill him."

"Where is he?" asked Tenel Ka.

Tanith pointed. Vilath Dal remained at the very top of the hill. Four warriors stood tight guard around him and he seemed to be constantly giving out orders, directing his men this way and that. Allana heard a grenade burst and stood up. Through all the white dust thrown in the air she saw Jaina's blue lightsaber halfway around the hill and halfway up the slope, bobbing and weaving and thrusting through the haze.

Allana looked at her mother and they thought at once: Now!

They grabbed their lightsabers and charged. Tanith stayed on her stomach and readied her rifle but she didn't start shooting until Tenel Ka and Allana were almost there. Her first shot caught a warrior in the shoulder, knocking him off-balance so Allana could jump down on him and cleave her blade through his head. The one closest to him immediately raised his amphsitaff and began attacking Tenel Ka. The older woman did her best to hold her ground. Vilath Dal stepped aside and waved for his other two guards to take Allana. That was when Tanith got off another shot, one aimed right for the master shaper's face. His guard saw it coming and pushed him aside; the blast seared through the crown of the warrior's head instead.

Allana still had her hands full with the other warrior. She dodged two amphistaff-blows, ducked beneath a third, and scored a glancing his against her opponent's armored waist. The warrior swung down again; she rolled through the dust, came up behind it, and wedged her saber through a gap in its armor.

Allana tugged her saber free and kicked the warrior down, then jumped over the body and went for the warrior fighting her mother. Her saber sliced across the thick armor on its back; it pivoted and whipped its amphistaff back at Allana, giving Tenel Ka an opening, finally, to thrust her saber in beneath its other arm and tear through its chest.

Allan stepped back, letting her mother pull out her saber and knock the warrior down. She saw her mother look up, saw her gray eyes go wide, felt her panic through the Force-

Something colder than ice spread from Allana's lower back. She sucked in breath and her whole body trembled; her saber dropped from a hand she could no longer control.

"You Jeedai," Vilath Dal hissed in her ear and dug his blade in deeper, "You ruin everything."

Tenel Ka screamed and hurled her saber. It wheeled end-over-end, brushing wind and heat against Allana's cheek, then tore right through the center of Vilath Dal's head. His body fell one way, Allana's the other.

The next thing she knew she was being rolled onto her back. Her mother was over her, screaming her name. Tears from her eyes and onto Allana's chalk-coated face. They felt so warm.

Another Yuuzhan Vong face appeared next to Tenel Ka's. Another shaper with another tendrilled headdress. A six-fingered hand stroked her face, gently, and then she felt a sharp pinch at the base of her neck, quickly gone.

Kodra Val leaned very close and whispered, "Stay very still, Jeedai, unless you want the poison to spread."

Allana tried to open her mouth and ask a question but nothing came. Her lips wouldn't stop trembling. She tried to lift her hand; Tenel Ka grabbed it and squeezed so hard it hurt.

"I've injected you with an antidote," Kodra Val said. "Rest. Heal."

Allana's vision started to darken. She saw two more faces appear above her: Tanith's and Jaina's. Someone squeezed her other hand, she didn't know who. The world grew darker but her body felt light. The ground seemed to dissolve beneath her; it was like she was floating. Even the hands grasping hers dissolved to nothing. Allana felt herself rising up, up, up. Even the darkness became nothing in the end.

-{}-

The Yuuzhan Vong guiding them spoke only broken Basic, but he got the message across: they needed to get off the landspeeder and access the next node by a series of tunnels. Even though he was the one to lead them through the empty corridors, the guide always seemed ready to defer to Ben at every turn. The reverence with which these warriors treated the Jedi, and Jade's father in particular, still surprised her.

She'd been bracing for a fight, but when they arrived in the chamber no enemies waited. It was even larger than the arena they'd fought in earlier, a crater big enough to fit a star destroyer inside. Jade's eyes were drawn upward: the dome of the chamber was crystalline and transparent, and through it they could see the stars and Malador itself: a perfect sphere, slightly eclipsed by one moon. She tried to make out any signs of devastation on the surface but all she saw were city lights blazing on its nightside half.

"We made it in time," she said, "They still haven't fired."

"We must remove last node," their Yuuzhan Vong guide said. "Must go down."

He pointed. Two wide bridges spanned the gap, intersecting in the center. Running through the intersection was a pillar of yorik coral thick enough to be a transportation tube. As they jogged toward it, Ben asked, "Is the node here or deeper down?"

"Down," the guide said. "Take tube. Get deeper."

"The planet's still okay," Jade said hopefully. "Does this mean the weapon's disabled?"

"We don't know," said Ben, "But we have to keep going. We'll go down there and see if they can get a reading on it."

When they got halfway to the pillar a high-pitched scream rebounded through the chamber. The Yuuzhan Vong stopped and raised their amphistaffs. A pair of flying creatures winged toward them, like the ones the scouts had used earlier but bigger. As they slowed they tilted their bodies and brought their talons low to scrape the warriors off the bridge. Jade and her father jumped to one side but four or five Yuuzhan Vong plunged off the edge.

"Scatter!" Ben called and ignited his saber. "Everyone, scatter!"

The creatures dived in separately. The first knocked another Yuuzhan Vong off the bridge and grabbed a second in its talons. As the creature soared away its partners dove toward Ben. Jade yelled at her father to get away; it was a Yuuzhan Vong creature and Force would do him no good against it. She underestimated her father; right before the creature hit, he used the Force to jump to the side. He brought his saber down, cleaving the creature's neck off, then let himself roll off its wings and land back on the bridge. The creature's wings spasmed and stopped moving and it fell in two pieces to the bottom of the crater.

The second creature wasn't deterred. The remaining Yuuhzan Vong- there was only five of them now- rushed to Ben's side. They hurled their thud bugs as the creature dove, forcing it to slow and falter in its attack. It lunged forward anyway, grabbing one Yuuzhan Vong in its jaws while a second stumbled back and fell into the chasm. Jade lunged in from one side, her father from the other. They plunged their sabers into the creature's skull, right behind both eyes. It didn't cry that time, only went limp and fell.

The remaining Yuuzhan Vong looked around, bewildered. The creature's fast attack and taken out nearly all of them, but the guide still remained with the poison agent slung over his back.

"Come on!" Ben grabbed his arm. "I'm sorry about your friends but we have to keep moving."

The guide nodded shakily, understanding but still stunned. Jade was winded from the fight but adrenaline kept her running fast down the rest of the bridge until they reached the doorway to the lift capsule. The guide called it up, and they could hear a shaking from inside the pillar as their side surged up to meet them. The guide stepped right in front of the doors, eager to get down there and finished his work.

The shuddering stopped, the portal opened, and a horizontal fan of red light cleaved the warrior's head from his shoulders. A blur burst from the tube: green, black, red. Jade hadn't felt it in the Force until this second but it was unmistakable. The blur darted to one Yuuzhan Vong warrior and then another, knocking them both over the edge and into the gap.

"Jade, get back!" Ben cried. He used the Force to leap all the way back to the bridge, pulling his daughter with him.

Darth Xoran stood in front of the still-open doors to the lift. She lifted her half-scarred face, met their eyes across the distance, then let her red saber tilt down at her side.

"There's no reason to hurry," she called to them. Her voice was like her signature in the Force: sharp, bitter, angry. "You've already won the day."

Ben didn't speak, didn't move. He gripped his saber with two hands and waited for her to make the first lunge. Jade could feel all sorts of emotions warring inside her father and knew Darth Xoran could feel them too. She was surprised at how calm she was feeling herself. There she was again, the Sith who'd murdered her mother and so many others.

They'd come this far. They were almost done. Maybe it was the Force or maybe insane adrenaline but she almost felt confident.

Jade called out, "What do you mean, we've won?"

Xoran raised her free hand to the great dome overhead, to the stars and the planet. "You've succeeding in poisoning my worldship. The dovin basals are already too weak to sustain the weapon. Soon they'll be dead and we won't even be able to move or hold the interdiction field. So congratulations, Jedi."

"You're lying," Ben called back.

"Believe me, Jedi, I wish I were," Xoran hissed, and Jade believed her. She bled anger in the Force. "My apprentice is hunting some of your friends now. I can feel him. If we can kill some Jedi between us the day won't be a total loss."

"You're not leaving here alive," Ben shouted. Jade could feel it from her father, all the anger he'd said he'd put aside. She wanted to shout a warning at him but not in front of Darth Xoran.

The Falleen woman started walking toward them, saber bobbing at her side. Almost casually she said, "Vengeance is important to the Sith, as you must know. Claiming the lives of the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and his daughter would be recompense for my worldship."

"You won't get it." Ben hefted his saber edged closer.

"Dad!" Jade shouted. "Be careful. She-"

"He knows what I am, girl." Xoran's free hand, dangling loose, sparked with blue lightning. "I'm the Sith who killed his wife. Tell me, Grand Master, is vengeance the Jedi way?"

Ben glared at her but didn't move closer. "No. It's not."

She looked disappointed. "Well. Perhaps we can change that."

Xoran raised her hand and a current of Force lightning surged toward Jade. She tried to block it with her lightsaber but the energy rushed her, overwhelmed her, and blasted her world away,