Chapter 23
[=][=]
Palanhi
"Jacen, Tenel Ka, stay on my six," Jaina called out, glad to be back in the cockpit of an X-wing once more. Even though the X-wing had been sitting under a tarp and was poorly maintained, it was a starfighter nonetheless.
Her fighter had been one of six in the Palanhi Mining Corporation's lunar hangar. A hold-over from when the Palanhi Defense Fleet had owned the lunar buildings. With the defeat of the Empire, the Defense Fleet downsized and sold off its assets to the various businesses on Palanhi to help kick-start the economy. Thanks to the stability of the system, the mining corporation had never had any use for the fighters. But at the same time, it hadn't wanted to get rid of them either.
"Copy, lead," Tenel Ka called out.
"Copy," Jacen acknowledged.
"The three of you, be careful and may the Force be with you," Luke said solemnly. His own X-wing broke off from their formation and headed planet-side.
"You as well, Uncle Luke." Jaina flicked a series of switches on and double-checked her fighter's status. Without any astromech, she didn't trust her dust-covered fighter completely. "Two, Three, divert all power to the engines. We're going to hit them at full throttle."
"Without any warheads, will we even be able to make an impact?" Tenel Ka asked.
"Just watch us," Jaina smiled as their X-wings accelerated. "Sync your targeting computers to mine. We'll use the meld to coordinate our shots."
The three fighters looked like mere specks in the vastness of the void of space, but their presence wasn't missed by the Yuuzhan Vong landing force. When one could move faster than light, the moon wasn't all that far away from the planet. And thus the X-wings weren't all that far away from the invasion force. Though the theatrical fireworks had crippled the heavy cruisers and frigates, the Yuuzhan Vong taskforce still had fighters and troop transports to spare. Two squadrons of coralskippers veered away from the transports to meet the incoming trio.
"Ganner, I estimate we have one, maybe two passes before we're forced to land," Jaina relayed. "Do you want us to blast anything in particular?"
"Anything that looks Vong and is flying?"
"Copy," Jaina laughed at Ganner's incredulous, why-make-me-say-the-obvious, voice.
"You heard that, right, Tenel Ka? I didn't imagine my sister laughing."
"Not unless we are both hallucinating."
"Har, har, both of you," Jaina's gaze darkened. "Throttle to full on my mark. Three, two, one…mark!"
The X-wings performed a corkscrewing spin right through the center of the coralskipper formation. A barrage of plasma and deadly molten projectiles flew through the void of space, but none found their targets. The three X-wings blew past the coralskippers and didn't even stop. The alien fighters performed sharp turns to pursue the Jedi.
"We're going vertical," Jaina called out. The X-wings, their S-foils still locked close, suddenly bounced up and veered away from Palanhi. The action caught the pursuing coralskippers off guard, but the yammosk soon had them correct their course. Like a murmuration of birds, the coralskippers contracted their formation and moved as one. They shot upwards after the X-wings in a bloodlust. But by then, the X-wings had pulled out of their climb and entered a sharp dive.
"Get ready to deploy S-foils," Jaina called out, her fighter glowing red as it hit the upper atmosphere of the planet at a very sharp angle. Alarms blared in her cockpit and her steering yoke wanted to vibrate out of her hands, but Jaina ignored both. "Mark the target I'm pointing out in the meld."
"You mean the giant, important-looking transport?" Jacen said glibly, the distant alarms of his own fighter blaring in the background.
"If you look hard enough, the coral pattern on top looks like a giant target," Jaina chirped with a smirk. "Lock S-foils in attack position now!"
The sudden deployment of the S-foils slowed the X-wings at a critical moment. The drag created decelerated their fighters just enough to keep them from burning up. It also caused the newly deployed S-foils to emit the shrieking sound of tortured metal. Nevertheless, they somehow managed to not tear away from the trio of starfighters.
The coralskippers had been in such mindless pursuit that not all of them entered the atmosphere at a survivable angle. More than a handful cooked off, turning into blazing meteors that streaked past the rest. The rest had to break off or slow down to avoid a similar fate.
Meanwhile, the X-wings screamed down through the sky, their quad-laser cannons toasted but still functional. Ruby-red bolts of energy flew out in rapid succession. Twelve cannons firing at once, all at the exact same target. The void defenses of the transport flared to life, swallowing the first wave of bolts. But the concentrated barrage on the same location quickly overloaded the singularity. The following bolts plowed straight into the 'head' of the transport. Coralline armor evaporated, organic tissue superheated, and a powerful explosion tore the front section of the transport apart. The rest of the transport pitched forward and plummeted from the sky, parts of it on fire.
The X-wings continued their steep dive without stopping. The coralskippers that had renewed their pursuit howled down after them. On an unspoken signal, the X-wings closed their S-foils and pulled out of the dive with centimeters to spare and shot upwards again. Several craters were left in their wake as coralskippers plowed into the Palanhi country-side. The ones that survived the perilous maneuver began firing barrage after barrage of plasma.
The trio of snubfighters wove in and out of the barrage, before splitting off in three different directions, rolling as they did. The X-wings drew out the surviving coralskippers for several intense seconds, and then abruptly changed course and headed for one another. In an act of precision flying that would make performing fighter squadrons envious, the three Jedi passed within a hair's breadth of one another at several hundred kilometers an hour.
The room for error was practically non-existent.
A massive fireball appeared in the sky and debris flew every which way. Streaking away from the fireball were three X-wings. Their figures glinted in the bright sunlight as they formed up once more.
And then streaks of plasma rained down from above as a few surviving corvettes and picketships targeted the trio.
"I think we angered them," Jacen remarked.
"That is definitely a fact," Tenel Ka sounded amused.
"Not our fault they have such poor pilots," Jaina sounded as if she had been wronged. She changed frequencies even as her fighter vibrated violently from a near miss. Enduring a bombardment in atmosphere was a lot different than one in vacuum. "General Drado, where the heck is your Defense Fleet?"
"Inbound, standby."
"Right, like we're in a position to do that," Jaina muttered grumpily. She steered towards another large-sized transport. It was much larger than the one they had downed. By then, the trio of X-wings was close enough to the ground that they could see a legion of Yuuzhan Vong forces heading towards the heavily populated capital city. "Jace, T-K, we're going to pebble-skip for this next attack."
"I am not familiar with the term," Tenel Ka announced, her voice terse as another close call with a plasma barrage charred her fighter.
Jaina broadcasted the basic idea through their meld.
"You see, this is why I leave all the fighter-piloting to you," Jacen sent back immediately.
"Just do what I do."
"Is that advisable?" Tenel Ka asked dubiously.
"Tenel Ka, now is not the time to discover your sense of humor," Jaina said drolly.
Despite the banter, the trio of fighters had changed their approach vector to a very odd angle. The only benefit of this new angle was that the orbital forces had to stop firing or risk hitting their own people. This, however, put them squarely in sight of the defensive cannons on the transport.
The X-wings opened fire once more, their lasers converging and overloading localized defenses. Unlike the previous attack, they simply aimed for the center of the transport. The heavy armor plating took more punishment before giving out. But because of the non-vital nature, the transport remained in one piece and continued to head for the ground.
"Are you sure you got the calculations right?" Jacen asked his sister.
"We're about to find out," Jaina laughed, reaching over to the ejection handle with one hand and continuing to squeeze the trigger with the other. "What's that saying, let's put our trust in the Force."
"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that," Jacen returned wryly.
"Five, four, three, two, one…. Punch it!"
Jaina jammed the throttle on full and pulled the ejection handle at the same time. Tenel Ka and Jacen copied her movements. The trio launched from their cockpits and their fighters continued on their course. The beleaguered void-defenses had no answer for three X-wings slamming suicidally into the transport. But that wasn't all. Due to the angle of the impact, in addition to blowing out the underside of the transport, the debris deflected downwards. A rakamat siege beast on the ground was sliced in two by a cartwheeling S-foil. The conical nose-cone of another X-wing squished a plasma-spitter in mid-fire, causing it to explode and wipe out the Yuuzhan Vong forces around it. Smaller pieces of debris leveled warriors below, skipping and pinwheeling across the ground like a ball.
And then, the large transport pitched forward, Jacen's X-wing having impacted where the dovin basal had been located. The warriors on the ground all looked up in dread as the titanic vessel overshot its landing target and headed towards them, lower decks aflame.
The impact a few seconds later caused the entire ground to tremble. The rear of the transport snapped free, flipping over the front half and disintegrating into a hailstorm of pieces. Bodies and debris were thrown everywhere. As the Yuuzhan Vong lines were thrown into disarray, three teenagers landed at the initial landing zone with grace and poise.
"You know that shouldn't have worked," Jacen casually said to his sister.
"It did." Jaina answered, but seemed taken aback by the damage.
"Maybe we should trust in the Force more often," Tenel Ka offered.
"Jeedai!" Furious warriors closest to the landing zone roared.
"We didn't even activate our lightsabers, how did they know?" Jaina asked the other two.
"Do you really think anyone else would have done that?" Jacen pointed to the carnage in the distance.
"They're equating Jedi with successful acts of insanity," Tenel Ka stated, activating her lightsaber.
"Someone should tell them that stereotyping Jedi is wrong," Jaina protested, her amethyst blade flaring to life.
"We'll add that to our list of things to do," Jacen chuckled, green light shimmering in his brown eyes.
The number of warriors charging them was in the hundreds, but the trio showed no fear. Despite the odds, they were together, and that was all that mattered to them.
Sensing a change in the Force, Jaina casually held her lightsaber in one hand and raised her other in the shape of a gun. "Pew."
A green turbolaser streaked down from the sky right in the middle of the charging Yuuzhan Vong formation.
The rest of the warriors skidded to a halt, their war cries dying off, eyes wide in terror.
Jaina pointed at another group. "Pew."
Another turbolaser streaked down from the sky.
Jaina made a show of reloading her finger-gun.
Jacen bantered with Tenel Ka behind Jaina's back. "I don't know her."
"It is a nice change." Tenel Ka replied.
"Remind me to give Ganner a nice gift later."
"Please do the same for me," Tenel Ka agreed.
Jaina turned and pointed her finger-gun at the duo.
Nothing happened.
"It was worth a shot," Jaina said dryly.
The warriors all began massing again. Some of the survivors from the downed transport had joined the others.
Jacen and Tenel Ka looked at one another again, shrugged, then mimicked Jaina's finger gun and simultaneously aimed at the warriors.
At first, nothing happened.
"You have to make the sound-effects," Jaina pointed out.
"Pew," Tenel Ka's voice contained zero enthusiasm and emotion.
"Pew," Jacen said with equal joy.
The syllable had scarcely left their mouths when a storm of turbolasers decimated the remaining Yuuzhan Vong warriors. The lucky few who had survived looked at the trio of Jedi in abject terror, threw down their weapons, and promptly surrendered.
"Great timing, General Drado," Jaina called out into her comlink.
"Happy to be of service. If you could please continue into the capitol, I am receiving reports of platoons of Yuuzhan Vong warriors wrecking havoc."
"We're on our way," Jaina remarked with a sigh. "Solo, out."
With a shared sigh between the three of them, the Jedi then headed towards the capitol, walking past the prostrated Yuuzhan Vong warriors.
Parts of the downed transport blew up.
Trails of smoke curled up into the air.
In orbit, the Palanhi Defense Fleet engaged the remnants of the Yuuzhan Vong taskforce.
In the capital, blasterfire could be heard.
And the battle for Palanhi continued to unfold.
[=][=]
While his niece, nephew, and Tenel Ka were taking on Yuuzhan Vong with insane acts of Jedi daring, Luke slipped his X-wing past the Yuuzhan Vong landing force and ghosted through the cloud layer. In no time at all, he was over the capital city, angling for the New Horizon Media Group's headquarters. He slipped into the upper hangar and shut down his X-wing's systems.
Waiting for him were Lando, Tendra, Ymile, and a very reluctant Dominic Raynor. Also waiting was a smug-looking Ganner Rhysode.
"Welcome back, Master Skywalker," Ganner said respectfully.
"Ganner," Luke greeted with a faint smile. "You're back in Jedi robes?"
"Felt a bit too pretentious with the Peace Brigade stuff," Ganner nodded. "It was fun though."
"You people are crazy," Dominic protested. "The Vong are going to turn this world into a blazing inferno and you want to stay on it?"
"Relax, old buddy," Lando clapped Dominic on the shoulder. "We've got things under control."
A distant boom sounded outside the hangar, and power to a part of the city went out.
"Clearly," Dominic grumbled. "I didn't live this long by trying to be a hero."
"Clearly," Tendra rolled her eyes in response.
"What's the situation?" Luke asked the group.
"We estimate several thousand Yuuzhan Vong are running amok in the city. We're getting reports of at least twelve organized offensives, mostly targeting civilian targets," Tendra said in her usual sophisticated accent. "We also have a couple of blastboulders and a squadron of coralskippers making a mess of things with indiscriminate bombing runs. Local militias and security forces are focusing on protecting the civilian areas."
"Peace Brigade forces are doing their best to protect the civilians too," Ganner added, causing the others to smirk.
"How'd you manage that?" Luke asked the unconventional Jedi.
"Before I resigned, I made a big rah-rah speech about how we must stick to our principles, and that's protecting the people of this galaxy. They cheered and happily went out into the streets to blast Vong."
"Uh huh," Luke raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"I may have done that after killing our Vong observers, leaving them no choice but to fight for their lives," Ganner scratched his head, as if having trouble remembering the series of events. "Oh, and I might have also live-streamed my broadcast to you across the entire system."
"Luke, if your Order doesn't want him, Tendrando Industries has a few open positions…."
"Sorry, Lando," Luke shook his head. "We definitely want him."
"So, Grandmaster Skywalker, what's the plan to save the system?" Ymile asked brightly.
"You guys didn't come up with anything?"
"You're the Skywalker," Ganner pointed out. "I'm just pretending to be an amazing Jedi. Lando is just pretending to be a successful business man. Tendra is pretending to be a dirty scoundrel. Ymile is pretending to be reformed. And Mr. Raynor here is pretending to cooperate."
"Can I pretend to be an all-knowing leader?" Luke asked.
"Not allowed," Lando laughed. "One of us has to actually know what we're doing."
"Fortunately for you, stopping the invasion's not exactly why we called you to be here," Tendra finished.
"Dominic, go and tell him," Lando said seriously.
The long-time conman developed a sour expression. "The Vong are going to unleash a bioweapon on Palanhi."
Luke sobered immediately. "A bioweapon?"
"I don't know much," Dominic confirmed. "But I had an agreement with Sub-Commander Cha before the whole nonsense about the vote began. A week before you got here, I helped him bring in eleven outside mercs on the down-low. The invasion is a wild bantha chase meant to draw everyone's attention away from the real plan. And before you ask, I don't know where the weapon is, what it'll do, or even when it's set to be deployed. I was supposed to be far away from this world by the time that happened."
"Ganner? Do you know anything more?"
"The Peace Brigade were just as in the dark about it," Ganner shook his head. "You know that the Vong view us as untrustworthy traitors anyway. We're disposable to them."
"Tell him the rest, Dominic," Ymile appealed to her former lover. "We're the only chance of you getting off this planet alive."
Dominic glared, but continued. "The plan is to blame the release of the bioweapon on you Jedi. Like the Vong did on Ithor. New Horizons Media Group has prepared segments ready to air the moment the weapon takes effect. This time, with the Grandmaster present, there won't be a doubt in anyone's mind that he was the one that escalated things."
"If the Yuuzhan Vong have it all prepared, why haven't they used it then?" Luke asked.
"Like I'm supposed to know what the Vong are thinking?" Dominic scoffed.
"The people you brought in…"
"All human. Don't know much other than that. All I did was bring them to the planet and they went their own ways," Dominic said. "I thought they were Peace Brigade people."
"But the pictures he showed me didn't match up with any of the fanatics I had to play with," Ganner filled in.
Lando cocked his head. "What are you thinking, Luke?"
"The Yuuzhan Vong wouldn't trust just anyone with their technology," Luke was pensive. "If they didn't even use the Peace Brigade for this, then the people they brought in would have to be extraordinary. Are you sure they were human?"
"Dead sure," Dominic confirmed. "Before we arrived on the planet, one of them wasn't listening to my instructions and I had to make an example of him before he blew the others' cover. He was human through and through."
"The others didn't care?"
"No, they didn't say anything."
"Then it is more than likely that the group of 'humans' you brought to Palanhi were Yuuzhan Vong agents of some sort," Luke concluded. "Similar to the people my niece and nephew encountered."
"We still don't know anything about them," Lando voiced. "The autopsies on the ones Jacen and Tenel Ka brought in were inconclusive. They were biologically human. The only thing odd about them was that their brains showed a degradation of their gray-matter that didn't match their physical age."
"What do you mean?"
"According to Palanhi's med-tech, their bodies were between twenty and forty years of age. Their brains were that of someone in their nineties or hundreds. He couldn't come up with any explanation for it."
Luke stroked at the faint beard on his chin that had developed during the past few days and walked to the edge of the hangar to look out over the capital. "Mr. Raynor."
"Yes?"
"No offense to Lando, or my brother-in-law, but I know that characters like you do not just blindly enter into a deal without some sort of security measure," Luke began softly. "You would have never agreed to just release Yuuzhan Vong agents with bioweapons onto Palanhi without knowing for sure that you'd be able to get off the planet before the weapon was unleashed. If you have any way to track those people, now is the time to come clean."
"I told you, I don't…"
"Dominic," Ymile whispered in a half-plea.
Dominic glanced at her with a slight sneer, but then he looked away from her gaze. "I may have placed trackers on the speeders I gave them. Before you ask, though, I had already looked at the data. They stopped using the speeders after only a single day and only went to one location, the capitol building. The men I had trailing them said all of them went inside and never came out."
"The capitol building did have a lot of Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators in it," Lando said slowly. "But at the same time, it makes little sense to sneak in infiltrators that can't be sensed by Jedi and have infiltrators that can be sensed by Jedi in the same place."
"Hey, I'm just saying what my people saw," Dominic drawled. "The people we brought in went to the capitol building, brought a bunch of large canisters with them, and never left. I have no reason to lie."
"I can think of a few, actually," Tendra pointed out. "The points you'd get for leading the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order into a trap. Your habit of saving your own skin. The fact that you're less trustworthy than a Hutt. Should I go on?"
"You wound me, my dear," Dominic placed a hand over his heart.
Tendra produced a vibroblade from her purse, as well as a holdout blaster, and placed them on the crate she was seated on. "Was that a request?"
Dominic's eyes flicked over to Lando. "Where'd you find such a violent woman?"
"Tendra, use the vibroblade," Lando directed. "The blaster's too quick for a charming man like him."
Dominic scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry, he'll be coming with us," Luke got the conversation back on track. "If the agents he brought in truly went to the capitol buildings, then that is where we have to go."
"They did," Dominic held up a hand as if he were swearing an oath. "I've avoided that place like the plague since they did."
"Interesting choice of words," Ganner drawled as the group started for the turbolift.
"If we do go there, I want your Jedi to guarantee that you'll keep me safe," Dominic scowled at Luke and Ganner. "And I want a blanket pardon from the New Republic for anything I might have done in the past."
"We'll discuss it on the way there," Ganner gestured and levitated Dominic, floating him along.
"Hey! Isn't this against your Jedi Code? An abuse of power or something! Do you even know who I am, young man…" A blue glow suddenly engulfed Dominic, and the man went limp. Ganner dropped him in surprise.
Eyes tracked the blue glow back to its source, and saw Tendra casually putting her holdout back into her purse. Seeing their gazes, she blinked. "What? I have certain sensibilities that he was disturbing. If you'd rather listen to him blather on, be my guest and use your divine powers to wake him up. I personally have had enough after listening to him for the past few hours."
"She's definitely a great match for you, Calrissian," Ymile's smile was eight parts happy, one part nostalgic, one part regretful. In the background, Ganner levitated Dominic and brought the unconscious man into the lift.
Lando chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, I'm just the luckiest guy in the galaxy. She's the one taking a loss for putting up with me."
"It's an acceptable loss, dear. I'm pinning my hopes on the future gains," Tendra smiled, gave her husband a chaste kiss, and then joined Luke and Ganner in the turbolift.
"The future," Ymile sighed.
"Any plans?"
"To get as far away from here as possible."
"Tendrando Industries has a few job positions open if you're interested," Lando offered. They stepped into the lift and the doors closed behind them.
Ymile's eyes flicked over to Tendra. "Your wife won't mind?"
"We appreciate talent and sharp minds," Tendra answered. "Especially if they're coupled with a strong sense of morality. You've proven all of that so far. If you need additional education, Tendrando Industries provides scholarships for those in our employ."
Ymile bowed her head. "If we make it out of this, I'll definitely take you up on your offer then. Thank you."
"'If'?" Lando laughed softly. "We're definitely making it out of this."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Ganner, why don't you tell her how the Force says it's not our time yet," Lando turned to Ganner with a winning smile and a very aggressive raise of his eyebrows.
"Huh? Oh, yes, of course. Trust in the Force to get us through this," Ganner cleared his throat. "As a great and powerful Jedi, I can definitely tell you that it's not our time yet. I'd be the first one to run away if I knew that this would lead to our deaths."
"Somehow, I don't think that," Ymile grinned fondly, shaking her head. "And you really can't fool someone who's been arm-candy to a conman for the better part of three decades. But thanks for trying."
Ganner blinked in shock. "That's the first time that hasn't worked!"
"Like I always say, Ganner, there's always room for improvement," Luke chuckled.
"Yeah, but I thought you meant that in terms of Force-stuff. My abilities already rival yours. I didn't want to hurt your feelings by surpassing you. I mean, it's a good thing we're Jedi and not Sith, otherwise…" Ganner made a finger-across-the-throat motion.
Ymile giggled. "Master Skywalker, where'd you find him?"
"I'll go ask Kam that the next time I see him," Luke deadpanned.
Lando mouthed 'thank you' to Ganner over Ymile's head, and Ganner inclined his head slightly in acceptance. Tendra took over the conversation from there, asking Ymile about her interests and skills.
At the same time, Luke whispered in a voice only Ganner could hear. "You're worried about something…no, someone."
"Your niece," Ganner murmured back in turn.
"Jaina? Why?"
"It took me ages to find balance," Ganner explained softly. "It helped that I have years of experience living too. Jaina…she doesn't have the time, nor the experience."
"I saw hints of your influence on the lunar base. Thank you."
"It's too early to thank me," Ganner shook his head marginally. "Like in all things, it takes practice to find balance and stay there. Yes, I got her out of her gloom-and-doom funk. But I'm afraid she might bounce too far in the other direction."
"What do you mean?"
Ganner ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Do I truly believe the things I say? Even I don't know. All I know is that I'm no teacher, hero, Jedi extraordinaire or anything remotely close to it. You're well aware that I put up my act because I'm too scared to face reality. Yet, at the same time, I know my act is an act and not the truth. With Jaina…there's a chance she can become more broken than ever before. I taught her to see the fun side in things, to try to take whatever enjoyment she can out of any situation, no matter what. She's currently living in the ridiculous and relegating the seriousness. But say something happens that pushes the rest of reality into her face in a way her brain isn't yet ready to accept. She can potentially snap back to being that stormy cloud of hurt, or worse, suffer a break from reality, and this time even I won't be able to reach her."
"My niece is resilient," Luke said gently, at the same time mentally reaching out to check on her. He found the emotions surrounding her to be bright and peppy. Tenel Ka and Jacen were both very amused and Luke even caught a thought fragment from the meld they shared, 'I want whatever drug Ganner gave her,' 'I do not think the galaxy can handle the both of you being like this, my friend'. "And she has Jacen and Tenel Ka with her."
Ganner bit his lower lip. "That's probably the only reason why I'm not more anxious than I am. I know firsthand, Master Skywalker, just how low a low can feel if you drop down from the highest of highs. She might not be my official apprentice, but if I stop Jaina from learning exactly how that feels, I just might have done something good for this galaxy for once."
[=][=]
"Ever feel we're in some sort of holovid?" Jaina murmured as she, Jacen, and Tenel Ka knelt stock still in the middle of a wide-open street. All of them still had their lightsabers clipped to their utility belts, but were staring down the street towards a group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Only moments earlier, some of these warriors had been in a fierce shoot-out with a group of Palanhi security personnel and Peace Brigade members who had been defending a group of civilians. The Yuuzhan Vong had been on the verge of victory when Jaina had shouted out to get their attention. Said warriors then stopped, and calls of 'Jeedai' brought in Yuuzhan Vong from other nearby areas. "Or is it just me."
"No, I think that's just you," Jacen said mildly. He was still getting used to this upbeat version of his sister.
"Jaina is correct in pointing out that we live very hard-to-believe lives," Tenel Ka added her two-credits.
The Yuuzhan Vong, probably numbering around fifty or so, began walking casually down the street towards the trio, snarling and yelling intimidatingly.
"Thank you, Tenel Ka."
"You are welcome."
The warriors broke out into a jog, holding up amphistaffs and all other manner of Yuuzhan Vong weaponry.
The trio of Jedi combined their strength and the speeders lining the streets beside the trio began rising up into the air.
The warriors broke out into a sprint, but quickly came skidding to a halt.
A good six speeders were now swirling like drill-bits above the trio.
"Friend Jaina, are we holding this pose for any particular reason?" Tenel Ka asked under her breath, eyes closed in concentration. "Even if you feel we're in a holovid, it is rather uncomfortable kneeling on duracrete."
"Oh, right, sorry," Jaina breathed out again.
The six spinning speeders shot out like missiles towards the horrified ranks of Yuuzhan Vong warriors. The angry mob frantically began running back the way they came, explosions rippling all around them. A gas-main was jarred by the strength of one of the impacts, and the blast lifted up a large section of the center of the street into the air and created a vortex of fire. Black smoke filled the street and reduced the visibility.
A trio of snap-hisses was drowned out in the chaos. A warrior who had thrown himself to the side to avoid one of the deadly projectiles was in the process of getting up when a purple saber beheaded him. Two warriors in another part of the street charged at Jacen as he dispatched a third. But Jacen held up the hand not holding his lightsaber and a hail of shrapnel rose up off the ground and turned the charging duo into pin-cushions. An almost rhythmic beat was emanating from Tenel Ka as her saber zoomed, hissed, and then slashed, dispatching one warrior after another.
When the Yuuzhan Vong managed to regroup further down the main street they did a head count. Expressions fell when they realized that there was less than half their original number present. They looked back at the cloud of black smoke almost fearfully, some still believing that the missing warriors would appear at any moment with dead Jedi in tow. When the three Jedi emerged very much alive, the warriors all took a reflexive step back.
Tenel Ka gestured almost gracefully, and two speeders were lifted off the ground.
The surviving warriors promptly took off running, scattering in every direction. Despite the display of power, the trio were secretly grateful that the warriors had scattered when they did. Said display had been very taxing on them, even if they were high-caliber Jedi. The rescued civilians, only seeing the sheer fighting prowess that had been displayed, all looked at the trio worshipfully.
"Jedi!" One of those they had rescued called out.
"It's okay," Jaina said reassuringly.
"No, the spaceport!" A man in the uniform of a Palanhi law-enforcement officer emerged from a ruined storefront. He was panting heavily and clutching his side. It was clear he had been badly injured. "The Vong are about to overwhelm the officers protecting the spaceport. There are tens of thousands of civilians in it. If it falls…"
"What's the quickest way there?"
"Head down this street, make a left and go straight. The highway is one kilometer ahead. Follow the signs after that."
"Here," the surviving Peace Brigade leader threw the Jedi several keycards. "Use our speederbikes. Otherwise you'd never get there in time."
The speederbikes sitting behind the makeshift barricade the defenders had set up were obviously racing models.
"Thank you." Jaina blinked.
"I know, I never thought I'd be helping Jedi either," the Peace Brigade leader grumbled. "Don't make me regret this."
"We'll do our best," Jacen acknowledged.
"Kick their asses, Jedi."
"Will do!" Jaina used the Force to carry her voice back to the crowd.
Despite the racing nature of their speederbikes, the streets and byways were packed with people trying to flee the chaos of the capitol. It seemed like everyone with a speeder or wheeled vehicle was trying to make their escape. Not all escape routes were equal. More than once, the trio had turned onto another road to escape the jam-packed traffic, only to find that route jammed with the flaming wrecks. Whether it was the Yuuzhan Vong ground forces, or the occasional coralskipper zooming through the sky, the gridlocked traffic had been too rich a target to pass up.
If the streets were bad, the highway was worse. It had been one of the first places people had fled to when the invasion began. But with it being out in the open, it was an impossible-to-miss target. When the trio steered up the on ramp and saw the sight before them, the last of their high from their earlier successes faded. There were rows of charred metal frames as far as the eye could see, the remains of some of the vehicles still smoking.
Jaina's expression tightened, her grip on the handles of her speederbike becoming white-knuckled. She didn't say anything, but both Tenel Ka and Jacen felt her emotions undulate like waves on a stormy sea. The three started up their speederbikes once more and navigated the blackened highway as quickly as they could.
A half-hour later, the mushroom-like building of Palanhi's primary civilian starport could be seen. Most foreboding were the columns of smoke rising from several holes in said mushroom-like structure. A quartet of coralskippers were making dive-bombing runs on the civilian structure, distant explosions blossoming from every plasma barrage. As fast as the trios' speeders were going, it just didn't seem fast enough. They wove in and out of the skeletal remains of the speeders on the highway in a single-file line.
As they grew closer, the sounds of terrified screams became audible to their Force-enhanced hearing. The coralskippers saw the speederbikes coming and broke off their attack on the burning building. Instead, they made a beeline for the speeders, plasma cannons blazing. The barrage ripped apart the highway and sent pieces of duracrete flying every which way.
One particular plasma round sent the burnt out skeleton of a speeder tumbling through the air. Jacen was forced to leap off his speederbike, the vehicle becoming a blazing ball of fire as it collided with the charred metal projectile. He used the Force to launch him clear and free of the explosion, but this had the unavoidable effect of leaving him in mid-air. A second coralskipper lined up its guns on him before he even began his downward descent.
"Jacen!" Tenel Ka, on the bike behind Jacen, yelled out with a touch of panic. She revved the engines of her own speederbike to their fullest potential and used the remains of a heavy transport as a makeshift ramp. She took off into the air, standing up on the seat of her bike as she did. Her muscular legs coiled and she propelled herself even higher. Reaching out with the Force, she used the Force to change Jacen's trajectory just as a blaze of plasma super-heated the air with a screeching roar.
Her speederbike flew outwards in a ballistic course and exploded against the coralskipper's void defenses. At the same time, both Jedi landed in painful rolling stops on the pitted freeway.
"Jaina! Go! We've got this!" Jacen yelled out, seeing that his sister had frozen just before the off-ramp.
Jaina nodded once, and gunned her speederbike towards the spaceport without another look back.
The four coralskippers completed their loop and were on course to return.
Jacen moved to Tenel Ka's side and helped her to her feet. "Thanks for the save."
"It was for purely selfish reasons. I prefer you weren't a blazing ball of fire," Tenel Ka responded dryly, grey eyes tracking the coralskippers. "Ideas, my friend?"
"A couple," Jacen said, gazing around their surroundings. Both he and Tenel Ka had sustained several cuts and scrapes upon landing and looked more than a little worse for wear. Yet, during the trip, they had both recovered a vast majority of their Force-reserves.
Tenel Ka, sensing his thoughts, arched a single eyebrow. "Truly?"
"Well, we're out of giant Massassi trees, but it worked for Anakin and Tahiri," Jacen smiled a lopsided Solo smile as he took Tenel Ka's hand in one of his.
Tenel Ka squeezed his hand and nodded. "And like them, we are in a rather desperate situation."
"Here goes nothing," Jacen said to his childhood friend as he returned her affection squeeze.
The four coralskippers began their sharp dive, like hawks going after a womprat.
Tenel Ka and Jacen, standing side-by-side and staring down the coralskippers, simultaneously dropped every single mental barrier they had. They exhaled as one, and their heartbeats thumped as one. The Force pushed out from them in a silent gust, sending dust and ash blowing outwards. Tenel Ka raised her lone arm. Jacen raised his opposite arm so that their hands were nearly touching. A segment of highway as long as three X-wings standing nose to nose began trembling. It had been damaged during the earlier attack runs, but now its cracks were widening even further. A giant snapping sound followed as it was ripped free of its position.
The coralskippers were in a diamond formation, a sonic-boom pulsing from them. When they saw that neither Jedi was fleeing, they held their fire. No doubt they wanted to either terrify or capture the duo.
And then the highway segment shot up into the sky like gravity had disappeared. Like a dagger, the massive fragment of duracrete lanced into the lead coralskipper. The event unfolded so fast that the coralskipper was turned into a crumpled wreck before its pilot even knew what had happened.
Jacen and Tenel Ka closed their outstretched hands, and the highway segment blew apart like an overripe melon. Duracrete shot out in all directions, one of the fragments punching through the cockpit of another coralskipper and sending it into a death dive. The remaining two coralskippers aborted their dive and veered off in two different directions.
Despite any terror the pilots may have felt, their creed prevented them from retreating. Not when killing two Jedi would instantly turn them into heroes. The coralskippers once again swung back around. This time, they didn't hold their fire. But Tenel Ka and Jacen were already ready for them. With another pulse of Force-energy, the highway all around them shattered like a giant fist had slammed into it. The fragments shot up into the air as if shot from a scattergun, bombarding the coralskippers in a deadly storm of shrapnel. One coralskipper was ripped to pieces as its void defenses failed. The other tried to maneuver away, but like rain, the fragments of highway continued to fly every which way. After several successful turns, the coralskipper pilot ran out of luck. It pitched forward and crashed into a distant hillside with an audible 'boom'.
The reverse rainstorm immediately ceased, the shards of metal and duracrete once again under the control of Palanhi's gravity. The noisy clatter was followed by a deathly silence, with not a single being or thing moving.
Two Jedi were sprawled out next to each other on the only piece of intact highway within several hundred meters. Any energy they had regained had been used up, and then some. Where the Force had infused everything around them only seconds earlier, there was now a dearth of it.
"It worked." Tenel Ka's statement was more out of surprise than anything. She was completely exhausted and barely had enough energy to turn her head to look at Jacen.
"It did," Jacen grinned weakly, looking for a moment like his younger-self when said self had just solved some conundrum that had puzzled him.
Jacen's smile disappeared, however, as he suddenly felt a tidal wave of emotions from his twin. Despite his own exhaustion and the fact that it was taking everything he had to keep his eyes open, he sent what support he could.
"Jaina," he breathed out. Jacen felt his vision blur, images flashing through his mind as whatever had caused the wave of emotion completely destabilized Jaina's mental barriers. "Oh, no."
[=][=]
Jaina wondered if she had just stepped into a nightmare as she dismounted from her speederbike. Five Yuuzhan Vong troop transports had landed in the promenade leading to the spaceport. The alien, coralline crafts, each capable of carrying nearly a hundred warriors, were completely empty. On the wide staircase that led up to the spaceport's main entrance were the bodies of some of those warriors. Far more numerous were the corpses of the Palanhi security forces. But if the dried blood was any indication, the battle that had taken place at the front of the spaceport had been over for some time. A faint breeze fluttered across the clothing and blood-matted hair of the dead. The torn and burned banners that draped the sides of the spaceport swayed and twisted in the wind.
Apprehensively, Jaina ascended the steps, her senses stretched outwards and her hand on her lightsaber. She couldn't hear anything. Could only feel the lingering terror and fear left behind by the dead. And worst of all, the only lives she could sense were the presences of many Yuuzhan Vong. She rubbed the modified slave seed burrowed in her forearm and clenched her teeth. The warmth in her eyes faded with every step she took. When she reached the top of the staircase, the irises of the Jaina reflected off the shattered transparisteel door were so dark they were almost black.
More bodies greeted her. The defending security forces had put up a tremendous fight. Jaina was familiar with the carnage of war, but she mostly saw it through the cockpit of an X-wing or from the safety of a capital ship. Even on Coruscant, it had been mostly ruined buildings, the bodies long gone. But there was something about stepping in puddles of blood, of seeing the sightless gazes of those who had died with their eyes open, that reminded her that she was fighting a war that had taken people she cared about.
She stepped through the shattered transparisteel door, trying to prepare herself for the worst. More carnage and dead awaited her inside. The security forces had apparently made a final stand, and the number of Yuuzhan Vong bodies was great in number. But the makeshift barricades that had been set up had all been breached. Char marks from erupting blastbugs were everywhere.
Jaina went around one of the barricades and then froze. A young-looking Yuuzhan Vong warrior was crouched over the corpse of one of the security officers. The warrior had been in the process of trying to remove the officer's utility belt and saw Jaina at the same time she saw him.
For a moment, both froze.
"Jeed…" the young warrior began to shout.
In a rush of Force-augmented motion, Jaina darted past the warrior, lightsaber flashing to life for an instant. The warrior's head fell from his body, and the body slumped over shortly after.
"Yaga?" a confused Yuuzhan Vong called out a moment later, then followed the word with a string of interrogative-sounding Yuuzhan Vong words.
Jaina leaped up onto one of the support girders and waited.
Shortly after, five other young-looking Yuuzhan Vong emerged from a side-passage. One of them had a Palanhi Security Force jacket draped over him like a cape. Another was wearing a beret-like hat, while a third had affixed a badge of the Palanhi Security force onto his vonduun crab armor. They saw their dead comrade's head on the ground and immediately abandoned their carefree attitude.
Jaina dropped back down, saber igniting and decapitating the two at the back of the group. The three turned at the snap-hiss of her blade, but it was clear they had no experience fighting a Jedi. Or rather, Jaina just had way more experience fighting Yuuzhan Vong. She blocked one, turned off her lightsaber so that the attacker was met with a sudden lack of resistance, then reactivated her lightsaber on the opposite side of the amphistaff, impaling the young warrior. The remaining two cried out in anger and sadness and attacked Jaina at the same time. But Jaina dropped low, lopped off the feet of one of the warriors, then cartwheeled backwards on one hand to avoid the retaliatory strike of the last mobile youth. She exchanged several blows with the warrior before gaining the upper hand and dispatching him.
Jaina then turned her attention to the lone survivor, stalking over to him with slow, deliberate movements. The warrior stiffened as her furious gaze bore down on him, the purple glow of her saber reflected in his pupils. "Do you understand me?"
The warrior said nothing. Instead, he glanced about at his fallen companions, and then tilted his chin back as if he was determined to go out without fear.
Jaina stared long and hard at the young warrior. She wasn't an expert on Yuuzhan Vong age, but she doubted the warrior was any older than herself. Slowly, she shook her head and deactivated her lightsaber.
"You're not worth it."
She then turned away from the warrior and continued down the concourse. The warrior yelled something at her in his native tongue, but she didn't turn around or acknowledge him in any way. She might not have understood the words, but she recognized the tone and the emotions behind them. The pain and anguish was something she was all too familiar with.
But she was walking past the corpses of dead Palanhians, however, and felt no sympathy. The deeper into the spaceport she went, the more bodies she found. There were also no Yuuzhan Vong among the dead, indicating that these civilians had been unable to put up any resistance.
Her own emotions now completely locked away, Jaina headed towards the nearest cluster of Yuuzhan Vong life. It was another group of six young Yuuzhan Vong warriors. These ones were dragging corpses to the center of a rotunda to form one large pile. The six didn't even have time to sound the alarm before their bodies fell among their victims'.
Jaina pressed on, unaware of the tears falling down her cheeks as she walked along the blood-soaked and burned out passageways. The power in this section of the spaceport had gone out; the morning sunlight streamed through broken windows. Another group of warriors in one hallway encountered her, and she cleaved through them without remorse.
Eventually, her path took her to a wide-open hangar bay. There, the true atrocity of the Yuuzhan Vong attack was laid completely bare. There had been several thousand people who took refuge in the hangar, and none of them had survived the onslaught. Their killers were still in the hangar, setting up a shrine of sorts to their pantheon.
Jaina stood silently in the doorway, her mind unable to fully comprehend the horror before her. There were stacks upon stacks of bodie arranged in a ritualistic manner around this shrine. Many children were among the dead; as were the old, and those who hadn't stood a chance against the remorseless warriors of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire. She felt something break within herself, as red and black encroached upon her vision. Her entire body went unnaturally still.
The majority of the warriors in the hangar were prostrated before the shrine as several higher-ranking Yuuzhan Vong placed bones and skulls on a makeshift altar. From the looks of it, the prostrated warriors were all young, while the group on the dais made of dead civilians were upper echelon warriors and a lot older. The largest of the upper echelons—and the apparent oldest if the wrinkles on his face were anything to go by—saw Jaina's slender figure in the wide doorway.
He raised a single hand in greeting. "Gadma dar, Jeedai. Tchurokk Yun'tchilat. Tchurokk Yun'zhaetor-zhae."
Jaina said nothing. Instead, an invisible breeze swirled around her and caused her pony-tail to flutter.
"There are over two hundred of us," the lead warrior said in Basic. He stepped down from the raised dais and started walking down the aisle between the prostrated warriors. "Even if you wished it, you would fall before besting all of us. Your powers have no effect on us."
"You can understand Basic. Great," Jaina said, without inflection. "Then you can die knowing that you've paid for what you've done here today."
"You act as if we have done something taboo," the Yuuzhan Vong warrior said coolly. "That we of Domain Cha are the first to kill your people."
"They were defenseless," Jaina growled out.
"And that makes any difference?" The Yuuzhan Vong warrior gestured to the corpses. "Why is it wrong for us to invade and conquer your worlds, to prove our superiority, when your galaxy has been doing it to each other long before we arrived? You Jeedai act like we have offended you in some way, but have you ever stopped to realize that this is the way things have always been? That it is you Jeedai who are the ones out of place? If anything, you should be grateful we have stopped the endless cycle of war and destruction among your kind. Should be worshipping us as your saviors, liberators. How many worlds were ruined due to your war-like ways? How many planets destroyed?"
"That's rich, coming from you," Jaina whispered, seething. She felt a burning on her hand where the modified slave-seed was located, but instead of suppressing the sensation, she opened herself up to it. The burning pain was a welcome contrast to the ice cold that had encased her heart. "You make it sound like we should be grateful for everyone you've murdered and all the lives you've shattered."
"If you believe in the Yun'o, you will see that the Yuuzhan Vong are the truly superior race, chosen by the Yun'o themselves. It is they who have granted the Yuuzhan Vong this galaxy, and it is they who have tasked us to civilize your kind. Without us, you'd be killing each other over meaningless reasons, believing in nothing but your godless existences. If we have to kill thousands, millions, even billions of people to please the gods, it is a small price to pay in the long run. We are doing the work of the Yun'o. And the Yun'o is superior to all. That is why we are protected from your sorcery."
"Protected," Jaina repeated with a tilt of her head. The Force continued to swirl around her unabated. If she had looked at her saber-wielding hand, she would have been surprised to see that the modified slave-seed—initially the size of a small bead—had become even smaller. It was as if it was dissolving.
"So, Jeedai, tell me," the warrior continued confidently. "Just how many of us do you think you'll kill? Is it not better to walk away knowing that you have lost, yet live to fight another day?"
Jaina started to laugh a dry, almost manic laugh. Her laughter echoed in the spacious hangar, and more than a few prostrated Yuuzhan Vong turned to look at her in alarm.
"How many of you do you think I'd kill?" Jaina repeated, between mirthless laughs. The almost deranged note in her voice made the lead warrior frown and take a reflexive step back. She stopped laughing, her gaze suddenly razor sharp and focused on him. "How about, all of you?"
"You can't be…" the warrior trailed off as it suddenly became hard for him to breathe. He let out a rasping gasp, hands flying to his neck.
"Oh, I'm serious," Jaina whispered murderously. One of her gloved hands was outstretched, fingers forming a 'c' shape as she channeled her will out towards the warrior. She didn't know how she was doing it, and didn't care at all. One moment, she went from sensing the Yuuzhan Vong, to truly being able to feel them in the Force like any regular denizen of the galaxy. And she delighted in that fact as her desire to avenge the dead became her one guiding purpose.
"Im…poss…" the warrior choked out, legs kicking out as he was held up in the air. There was a snap before the warrior finished his words, and the large Yuuzhan Vong went limp.
Jaina gestured, and the body flew through the air and smashed through the altar that had been set up. This caught the attention of all the other Yuuzhan Vong in the room.
She entered the hangar with slow, deliberate steps. "You know, I think my brother was right. There really are no gods."
"Blasphemer!" One of the other upper-echelon warriors roared out.
Jaina held up her hand again, and the warrior was lifted off the dais and sent flying towards her, much to his disbelief. A hissing noise marked his demise as he was pulled directly onto Jaina's purple lightsaber blade. Jaina then discarded his body with a flick of her wrist.
The crowd of a couple hundred young warriors got to their feet, disbelief clear on their faces.
Jaina held her gloved hand into the air and the durasteel crossbeams that supported the hangar's roof began groaning ominously. They had already been weakened by the strafing runs of the coralskippers, and just like the highway, were unable to resist the power Jaina was bringing to bear on its many shatterpoints. The warriors all gazed skyward, as if fearing divine retribution.
Rivets snapped, metal creaked and distorted, and then giant metal girders came crashing down. Shouts of alarm and panicked cries rose up as duracrete-encased durasteel girders smashed into the area where the warriors had gathered. Following that, the duracrete ceiling panels likewise began to fall, the entire roof of the hangar bay crumbling.
A group of warriors tried to escape the falling debris, only to have an invisible force slam into them and push them back into the danger zone. Another group managed to avoid the worst of it, but then blinked when they found a petite, human female standing right in front of them. The now familiar sound of a lightsaber activating was the last thing this group registered.
"Die Jeedai!" one of the last upper-echelon warriors roared, dodging the falling ceiling panels and charging Jaina with amphistaff extended.
Jaina thrust a hand out and the warrior was blasted backwards. He had only a moment to scream in defiance and rage before a falling ceiling panel beheaded him. The faux-blonde Jedi danced amongst the storm of falling debris, pouncing on the warriors without mercy. Her saber was in constant motion, and limbs and heads flew with every sweep. She killed without expression, without hesitation. The blood of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors pooled on the ground and mixed with the blood of those they had killed. Those who were able to fight back didn't last long against her fury. Yells and shouts rang up from all around as the warriors tried to rally in the chaos.
The thunderous din of the collapsing roof climaxed when the floor of the hangar gave way after a particularly large piece of debris slammed down onto it.
Several minutes passed, and then silence reigned.
A short while later, at the entrance of the spaceport emerged one Yuuzhan Vong warrior who had managed to crawl his way across the floor to the spaceport doors. He had heard the distant booms and felt the building shudder from the titanic battle, but had no idea what was unfolding. He pulled himself half out of the building and breathed deeply as fresh air washed over him.
And then he heard the steady sound of footsteps behind him. He felt a chill down his spine and hesitantly looked over his shoulder. A single figure walked with an unsteady gait from out of the main concourse. When the morning sunlight passed through the windows to illuminate the character, the young warrior wondered if he was seeing a walking corpse. It was the Jeedai from before, but it wasn't.
The blonde woman's hair, face, hands, pants, torso, everything was splattered with blood. There didn't appear to be one part of her body that wasn't blood-soaked. Most of the blood appeared to be from other sources, though she was not without her own injuries. The woman swayed left and right as she limped, one of her arms very obviously broken.
The maimed warrior immediately looked away and held his breath.
The eerie fall of her footsteps continued and then stopped.
The warrior moved his head a fraction and saw the blood-covered boots of the Jeedai right next to him. He gulped audibly, his previous bravado no longer present. It was one thing to die staring at a Jeedai defiantly. It was quite another thing altogether to be scared out of your wits as an undead thing ended your life.
The undead Jeedai took another step, and the warrior exhaled.
"When you return," the Jeedai spoke in a low, dark voice. "Tell everyone that there are no gods."
The warrior would have retorted, but the Jeedai then stretched out her good arm towards the five transports. Her arm shook violently, and to the young warrior's disbelief, one of the transports was lifted off the ground. It continued to rise, the Jeedai guiding it until it was positioned over two others. The Jeedai's arm then dropped, and the transport dropped with it. The coralline vessels shattered from the impact, the crunching noise causing the warrior to flinch.
"And if they think otherwise, I will be waiting to prove them wrong," the Jeedai finished with a weary whisper.
She descended the stairway without even looking at the Yuuzhan Vong once, leaving the young warrior completely petrified where he was.
[=][=]
They had just gotten out of their speeder in the underground parking lot of the capitol building when the emotions rippled over them. Ganner closed his eyes and let out a breath, his face twisting in pain for a moment before he regained control of his own feelings. Looking in the Grandmaster's direction, he knew that his senses hadn't betrayed him. Though his bond with Jaina might not have been the strongest, if what was coming through was any indication, she wasn't trying to shield anyone from her emotions.
"Emperor's Black Bones," Ganner breathed out, holding his head in his hands. The raw pain and distress coming through made him want to develop teleportation powers and teleport himself to her side. He reached out to the teen using the Myrkr bond, and the misery he had been feeling was suddenly amplified many times over. How am I supposed to smile at this Ganner? It hurts so much! You told me that it was okay to feel! "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"Ganner."
Ganner stirred when he felt a different Force-presence dampen the connection. He looked through his fingers and saw Luke standing next to him, a hand on his shoulder. Ganner forced himself to smile. "What the kriff was I thinking, thinking I could be a teacher? I'm not even qualified to teach a womprat."
"Ganner," Luke said solemnly. "If anyone is qualified to teach, it'd be you."
"You two okay?" Lando asked in a worried tone.
"We're alright," Ganner's smile was haunted. "It's just a non-official apprentice of mine that got herself in a mess."
"How is Jaina?" Tendra asked gently.
"Hurting but alive. We can't do anything for her now, though," Ganner answered tiredly. "The others are okay. She's just…encountered the aftermath of a Yuuzhan Vong attack on one of those civilian targets we were talking about earlier."
The others became grim at that. Having grown up in the shadow of Palpatine's Empire, they were all too familiar with the atrocities that had been committed back then. They didn't have to have the Force to guess what the teenage Jedi must have seen. The trip to the capitol building had been sobering enough.
With the destruction of the reinforcements, the Yuuzhan Vong had only several thousand warriors running around in a city with a population of several million. The number of security personnel and mercenaries owned by the media companies already outnumbered the warriors several times over. Apparently, knowing that they couldn't hold the planet, the warriors had instead opted to cause as much damage as they could. Fires were burning rampant through heavily populated regions. Key infrastructure stations such as power, water, and transportation stations were being razed. They avoided hardened targets like military bases and the capitol building, but ransacked and destroyed everything else. Even though the security forces outnumbered the attackers, the attackers used guerilla warfare to great effect. These warriors weren't afraid of dying; they knew that their attack had become a one-way trip, and didn't care in the slightest.
"Master Skywalker," the leader of the pro-New Republic government, Doria Anshal greeted, looking haggard. Her hair was a mess and her eyes showed her lack of sleep. The phalanx of heavily armed guards surrounding her probably didn't make things any less tense for her.
"Ms. Anshal."
"The moment you relayed that there might be a Vong weapon here, I had my people search the entire premises. They're also going over the security feed from that day to try and trace the movements of the people you identified."
"Any luck?"
"Mixed," Doria led them through a side-door in the parking lot and they entered the capitol building. "As far as we can tell, they didn't make any effort to avoid the security cameras and never strayed from the public areas. The cameras tracked each of them entering the restrooms on the first through fifth levels, but doesn't show them leaving. We checked the restrooms in question but found nothing out of place."
"The ventilation ducts, maintenance panels?"
"All checked, nothing was in them," Doria confirmed. "We currently have probe-droids floating through the ductwork now, but the level of dust and grime present makes it unlikely anyone passed through them."
"So you're saying that ten people walked into the restrooms of this building and were never seen again?" Ymile piped up.
"Exactly."
"Those are some scary restrooms," Ganner muttered under his breath.
"Did anyone else leave the restrooms after they entered?" Luke asked.
"We weren't looking at the other people, why?"
"As you know, this building had more than a few infiltrators present," Luke elaborated. "It is possible that they placed a masquer or other method of disguise in those restrooms ahead of time."
"We can check again, but it's unlikely."
"What do you mean?"
"The timestamp shows that all ten people you tagged entered the restrooms shortly before the end of the business day. The custodial droids service the restrooms exactly ten minutes after the building is closed to the public. Between the closing time, and the droids' scheduled tasks, anyone else leaving would have stood out."
The group was led to the first-floor public restroom in question. It was a large room with more than two-dozen stalls. It was brightly lit with plenty of mirrors; two ventilation ducts with fans kept the air fresh.
"As you can see, this is the only way in or out of the room," Doria motioned to the entrance. "And the cameras are located there and there. They do have blind spots, but the bathroom entrance isn't one of them. The restrooms on all levels follow a similar layout."
There really wasn't much else to see.
"Can we see the cleaning droids?" Lando spoke up unexpectedly.
"The cleaning droids?"
"You have something in mind?" Tendra asked her husband.
"Ms. Anshal, given that this is a former Imperial world, does the Palanhi government use A-LT Utility droids for their janitorial services?"
"Yes, of course."
Lando cleared his throat. "Back in my youth, there was a method popular with…budding entrepreneurs like myself, to bring in people as hired help while avoiding the regulations many governments had regarding their immigration status."
"So, back when you were smuggling people," Tendra broke down his flowing words. "Continue."
Lando looked pained. "I was giving unfortunate people who couldn't afford the fees required to…you know what, that's not important. What is important is that I once brought in a team of Ugnaughts in a not entirely-legal fashion by hiding them inside astromechs."
All eyes looked him over as if seeing him in a new light.
"The Ugnaughts on Bespin?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
"Imperial immigration laws were really strict," Lando shrugged sheepishly. "And it was for a good cause. I was helping families reunite with each other."
"So you think that these people hid in the A-LTs?" Doria said skeptically.
"The A-LT series comes up this high," Lando held a hand up to a level just below his chin. "If you hollow out the canister and have a person crouch, two human-sized people can fit into one. It won't be comfortable, but it's possible."
"That seems….unlikely," one of Doria's bodyguards said haltingly.
"Well, the alternative is that they were all eaten by the restrooms, so it's as good a theory as any," Ganner pointed out.
"The maintenance storage is this way," Doria gestured. "The utility and maintenance crew is mostly droids, with three techs to keep the droids functional. I used to play in this area as a child."
Using the lesser-traveled hallways of the capitol building, the group ended up in a garage-like space. Doria turned the lights in the room on. At first glance, everything seemed completely normal. The room was neat and orderly. The A-LT utility droids were all in their docking stations, the custodian droids all powered down. Equipment sat in neat rows on tables and tool-racks. Passenger-carts were lined up at the closed garage door. Nothing particularly stood out.
"Are your Jedi senses picking up anything?" Lando asked Luke in a low voice.
Luke shook his head. "I'm not sensing anyone living in this area. Yuuzhan Vong or otherwise."
"And would Yuuzhan Vong really hide out among droids?" Ganner asked. He stepped further into the room and began examining the powered-down droids.
"It'd be the last place anyone would expect," Lando remarked, doing the same.
Luke went to a nearby computer console and brought it online. "Ms. Anshal, do you have the password for this?"
Doria shook her head. "The tech-team are the only ones that do. Because of the Yuuzhan Vong arriving, they all quit about two days before you showed up. They were so worried about being associated with droids that they didn't even bother to come pick up their belongings."
"I can slice it," Dominic said reluctantly. He moved over to the computer, pulled a computer spike from one of his pockets, and deftly bypassed the login screen. "What were you looking for?"
"Any maintenance requests since the people you brought in got here?" Luke elaborated.
"None," Dominic shook his head as the words 'no results' flashed in red on the holographic display. "Oh, but I did find a work-order to replace five A-LT droids. 'Bad motivators' is the reason listed. It's dated the day after the ten disappeared."
"Uhhh, guys," Ymile suddenly called out, a mix of fear and nervousness radiating from her. She was standing in front of one of the A-LT droids and was peering through its transparent head. "I got a body here."
"There's one in here too," Ganner said grimly, looking into another droid.
"Are they the ones we're looking for?" Tendra asked. The group began to head over to the duo.
"No." Ganner looked into Ymile's droid and shook his head. "Unless I'm mistaken, these two are part of the tech team Ms. Anshal mentioned earlier."
The group clustered around the A-LT section, and Doria's pale expression upon seeing the corpses confirmed Ganner's guess.
"Where's the third member of the team?" Lando asked, glancing at the rows of droids. There were over two-dozen A-LTs present. Doria, her bodyguards, and the others started to peer into the rest.
Just then the door to the maintenance area slid shut and the lights went red.
"Dominic!" Lando swore, realizing that the crafty conman had remained by the computer terminal by the door while everyone had been looking for the body.
"I'm sorry everyone," Dominic said through the transparisteel door. "But I am not going to stick around and wait for the Vong weapon to go off. I have the greatest respect for the Jedi, but they have a very poor track-record when it comes to facing off against the Vong."
An alarm began to ring.
"That alarm you hear is the fire-suppressing system in the maintenance area activating," Dominic continued. "As long as you don't need to breathe oxygen, you should be fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a flight to catch."
Dominic took off down the hallway and disappeared from sight.
In the meantime, nozzles all along the ceiling sprayed out a fire-suppressing gas that began to rapidly displace the available oxygen. Ganner ran to the door to cut it open, only to be bounced backwards by a ray-shield that flickered to life in front of it.
"A ray shield, really?!"
"It's to prevent any fire from spreading!" Doria coughed. "The rolling door is a fire door, those ones aren't. Techs wanted the doors to be made of transparisteel for aesthetic purposes."
Doria couldn't say any more as the lack of oxygen took its toll.
"He destroyed the computer terminal," Tendra was on her knees by the terminal.
"Of course he did," Lando's breaths were coming out in gasps.
At the same time, Luke Skywalker held up both his hands to the rolling metal door and after a moment, the gears shrieked and groaned as the door began inching upwards. The sudden opening had oxygen flowing in and the deadly gasses being sucked out. Luke continued to lift the door ever higher, providing even more relief. The underground passage on the other side was aglow in red emergency lights, but was otherwise empty.
As the group fled into this passage, dragging those that had passed out, they greedily sucked in the fresh air.
"What is this passage?" Tendra asked between pants, hands on her knees. She looked far from a sophisticated business woman at the moment, and more like a woman coming from a very bad date.
"Maintenance corridor," Doria answered, still catching her breath. "There are turbolifts or ladders along either side of this tunnel that lead to parts of the capitol building grounds. The tunnel itself leads to the rear landing pads."
"How about that? Is that normally a part of the tunnel?" Ganner pointed to something on the wall. In ordinary light it would have been really easy to miss, its color and tone matching the well-lit duracrete perfectly. But in the emergency red lighting, it stuck out as a discolored circle. A circle big enough for a person to go through. He activated his lightsaber blade, and the illumination caused the patch of discolored wall to once again blend in with its surroundings.
"That's Yuuzhan Vong biotech," Tendra approached the circle without hesitation, brushing off Lando's cautious hand. "I've seen mention of these in the briefs. Masquers with adaptive camouflage capabilities."
"It's small enough that it didn't trigger my very obtuse Vong-detection abilities," Ganner said with a nod. He tapped his lightsaber blade to the biot, and it retracted as if burned. Behind it was a perfectly circular passageway carved into the duracrete wall. "Master Skywalker?"
"Your abilities in that area are superior to mine," Luke admitted without pause.
"Do we really want to know what's through here?" Lando asked in a low voice. The smell coming from the darkened passageway was one most of those present were familiar with. It was the scent of death.
"I'll go first," Ganner said solemnly. "Master Skywalker, given your position, you should wait out here in case there's an insta-death trap inside."
"Ganner."
"Master Skywalker?"
"Just remember that my niece still needs her teacher," Luke said gently. "The second you sense anything off, don't try to be a hero. This war has consumed enough of them as it is."
Ganner's tough-guy expression wavered and he let out a noisy breath. "I will remember, master."
Lightsaber held at the ready, Ganner crouched down and began to squat-walk his way through the tunnel. The glow of his saber illuminated his progress down the passage. The tunnel bent to the right, and Ganner disappeared from sight. In the meantime, Doria contacted the central control room to deactivate the fire-alarm and suppression system, clearing the maintenance area.
The minutes ticked by. Eventually, everyone could see the glow of his saber once again highlight the tunnel..
Ganner emerged from the tunnel looking a bit grimier than before. "Well, I know what happened to the guys Dominic brought. They're all dead."
"Dead?"
"Yeah," Ganner produced a cylindrical canister. "And there were a bunch of these with them. Some of them were open."
"What was inside?" Doria asked.
"You don't want to know," Ganner grimaced.
Luke's eyebrows rose marginally. "Ganner?"
"My best guess is that they were brains."
"Brains?"
"This one and the others that were open were mostly liquefied. But I've unfortunately had enough experience on the battlefield to know what brains, even parts of one, look like."
Tendra took a pen-light from her purse and shined it into the container. Her expression immediately contorted into one of distaste as she nodded. "That is definitely brain matter."
"Do you know what killed the mercs the Vong hired?" one of Doria's security guards asked.
"From the looks of it, they had a shoot-out with each other or killed themselves," Ganner answered. "That tunnel leads to a single room. It looks very unfinished, and there's the remains of one of their rock-eaters inside there too."
"Any sign of the bioweapon?" Lando asked. "Or was it just brains-in-a-can?"
"Just lots of brains, ten stiffs, and the rock-eater." Ganner shook his head. "I didn't open any of the closed containers, but they were all the same as that one."
"It's obvious something went wrong," Tendra said analytically. "Anything about the bodies that stood out?"
"All the blaster wounds were headshots. Most of them self-inflicted," Ganner answered. "I didn't touch any of the bodies in case they were booby-trapped. But at the same time, I didn't sense any Yuuzhan Vong life, so they're probably safe."
"We'll get a medical team down here as soon as we can then," Doria pulled out her holo-comm.
"Master Skywalker," Ganner met Luke's eyes meaningfully. With the mystery of the bodies on hold until the forensics teams could do their jobs, Ganner wanted to hurry over to Jaina's side. The pain she was feeling was still coursing through their bond, but that wasn't what was fueling his anxiety. It was the fact that the pain was receding that worried Ganner. If Jaina mentally retreated completely, reaching her, convincing her that it was okay to feel, would become impossible.
Luke nodded once. "Go."
Ganner silently conveyed his thanks and then used the Force to sprint out of the tunnel and back towards the garage. He'd never forgive himself if, in a moment of delusion, he actually thought that he could be a true Jedi Master and ended up harming others.
[=][=]
Nom Anor showed no reaction as he walked down the ranks of blank-faced Yuuzhan Vong. Their numbers were such that they easily filled the hangar of the Miid ro'ik. Yet these were not warriors, or from any one specific Domain. Their lack of scarring and stunted nature made it obvious that they were Shamed. But Nom Anor didn't care about that. Shamed or otherwise, they were now weapons of the Yuuzhan Vong. The first batch of what would be millions should they prove successful. None of them showed any reaction as he passed them, their expressions all uniform and empty.
They had all leaped at the chance of redemption, of ridding themselves of their status as Shamed. The Yun'o offered them a way, and they accepted freely, of their own will. Nom Anor mentally laughed at that idea. The Yun'o offering them a way indeed. It was the Jeedai who had provided the perfect excuse for the Shamed Ones to blindly leap out the airlock. The Jeedai who had blasphemed and thus incited the wrath of those normally overlooked by the Yuuzhan Vong society as a whole. The Shamed might not have had much, but religion was the one thing they had clung to. That hope that if they served Shimrra and the priests faithfully, they'd be redeemed upon death.
"Executor," another intendant approached Nom Anor during the inspection. "Word from Palanhi."
"Oh? The team has finally reported in?"
"No, Executor. The Jeedai have apparently found their bodies. They are all dead."
"All of them?"
"No, ten. Add to the one that the human Dominic killed, eleven in total."
"Eleven out of twelve. That's to be expected," Nom Anor didn't show any sign of surprise or concern. "The process hadn't been perfected when they underwent it. The neural degradation occurred at exponential rates instead of linear. What of our overall plan, is it still in place?"
"Yes. The number of dead the invasion force has created satisfies the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium. The twelfth agent reports that the transplant was a success and that we can begin consecration of the world on your signal."
"Then he has my permission to begin." Nom Anor stated. "Furthermore, he no longer needs to report to me and may do as he wishes. Is there anything else?"
"The elders of Domain Cha are furious that their youth are being sacrificed on the planet and wish for Warmaster Lah to step in and save them with his fleet."
"I meant, is there anything else important?"
"The Dread One himself wished me to convey his growing impatience over this project of yours," the Intendant pointed to the blank-faced Shamed Ones. "He allowed you to gather a half-million Shamed for this purpose, but he has yet to see any results."
"You may tell Shimrra, long may he live, that he will not be disappointed with them," Nom Anor ascended a coralline staircase with the intendant in tow. He then stood on a dais and gazed out over the ranks of Shamed. "Your purpose!?"
"To slay all those who blaspheme against the Yun'o." The entire hangar said in emotionless unison. "Only then will the Yun'o welcome us."
"What will you give to prove yourselves to the Yun'o?"
"Our lives," the tens of thousands of voices in the hangar answered.
"And how do you feel about the Jeedai?"
A hint of emotion, a steely inflection, appeared in the tens of thousands of voices. "We must kill them by any means necessary. For the good of the Yuuzhan Vong. For the grace of the Yun'o!"
[=]Chapter End[=]
A\N: So this story is getting closer and closer to an indefinite hiatus. I'm trying to rediscover the muse and my love for the fandom but at the moment am in a 'blah' state of mind whenever I try to work on chapter 25. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I only have one more completed and betaed chapter in the bank and will probably post it December-ish if I can't get any more chapters done.