His hand was steady as he slid the throttle forward quickly. Kyp's x-wing responded as it should and shot forward. "J4, find me a Vong vessel that meets this description."
The astromech unit obediently flashed a series of coordinates at him.
"Now find me those headed in our direction and with some damage to their weapons systems."
The list changed again as the astromech sorted through them again using Kyp's revised criterion. Kyp used the few seconds it took the droid to focus on the fight around him. With lasers blasting away he fell in behind two skips chasing a TIE fighter. With practiced ease Kyp overwhelmed the first skip's dovin basals with laser fire and then sunk a torpedo into it.
The second skip showed no signs of breaking off because of the fate of its wingmate. Instead it kept firing on the TIE, which Kyp knew had already taken quite a bit of punishment from the skip and most likely couldn't handle more. Making his decision quickly, Kyp let out a short harsh laugh. It was ironic that he, Kyp Durron, was doing this to save an Imperial fighter.
Kyp pressed his throttle forward again quickly. As his x-wing shot forward passing the skip, he left his hand loose over his control stick, waiting for precisely the right moment. When it came, he reacted swiftly, without any hesitation. His move now put him directly between the skip and the TIE. If the skip was irritated at being denied its original target, it took it out on Kyp, sending a barrage of plasma missiles at him.
The TIE responded more to Kyp's actions than the skip, however. Once it was free of its pursuer the TIE slipped off of its trajectory and cut power to its engines momentarily, allowing it to slip in behind the skip. In a matter of moments, the only thing between Kyp and the TIE was a cloud of superheated and rapidly expanding coral dust.
A crackle of static came over Kyp's chanell as the TIE pulled off from the pursuit. "Thanks for the assist, Dozen Leader," the mechanically distorted voice sounded in his ear a moment later.
"Anytime," Kyp responded, as he glanced down at the list his astromech had finished compiling.
There were three likely choices, but one would suit his purposes the best. The vessel was identical to Jaina's and it was on the opposite side of the battle from his harried and injured goddess. If he could provide what seemed to be a friendly escort to that vessel . . . Kyp laughed. Maybe he had spent too much time with the Trickster goddess herself.
Jacen, watching the larger battle through the cognition hood while Jaina piloted them ever closer to the Star Destroyer, was the first to notice the Insider ships either pulling back or escaping to hyperspace. He quickly pointed it out to Jaina.
She nodded with instant understanding. "Kyp's waiting on us. As soon as we get aboard, he'll take us out of the system," she explained.
Jacen nodded, "But first we have to get there." He gestured at the biodisplay in front of them where Yuuzhan Vong vessels were converging on the Star Destroyer.
Jaina spared a glance at Jacen. "You don't think I can get us there," her voice was calm and focused, but held a definite edge of indignation.
Jacen laughed softly, sounding almost like his old carefree self, the focused on her more seriously. "You know you're one of the best pilots I've ever met, Jaina. If anyone can make it there, you're the one I would trust the most to do it."
A smile curved over her lips. "Thanks." She rolled the coral ship tightly around another Vong vessel, edgeing towards the Star Destroyer as quickly as she dared, weaving her way through the massed Vong ships.
The Force flared brightly in her mind with such suddenness that she almost jerked into a skip passing by them. She steadied their vessel easily and then jerked around to face Jacen and Mara, "Did you feel that?"
"I did," Jacen responded quietly. "It felt like an extreme concentration of the Force, centering around a specific point-like another Jedi," he suggested.
"Kyp's the only other Jedi here with the Insiders," Mara reminded them quickly.
The reminder sent Jaina into a flurry of motion, calling up displays that showed a wider portion of the battle. "What are you doing?" she murmured softly, almost to herself, as she searched the large biodisplay for Kyp's location, overlaying her mental map of the area onto it.
Jag spotted him a moment before she did. "He's there."
She followed his gesture quickly. There in the center of the massive board, Kyp's x-wing dove in and out, vaping skips with impressive efficiency.
"He's pushing that Vong ship towards the Star Destroyer!" Jag's exclamation startled her enough to make her momentarily lose her composure.
"What?!"
"Fel's right," Mara said, quickly catching onto what Jag had already seen. "All of his flight patterns are centerd around one point. He's actually hearding that Vong vessel towards the Star Destroyer and making look like he's defending it."
"Shimrra knows what type of vessel we're in," Jacen's voice added quietly, as if he didn't wish to risk attracting the Supreme Overlord's attention even from their distance. "By guarding that vessel, Kyp created a decoy for Shimrra."
"Punch it!"
Even as Mara spoke, Jaina was encouraging the vessel to use ever ounce of its strength to fly faster. Kyp's diversion wouldn't last long and thy only had one shot. Jaina wasn't about to waste the opportunity that Kyp had created for them. As she dove for the Star Destroyer all out now, forgoing stealth and evasion for speed and sending gouts of molten plasma at any Vong ship that passed between her and their safe haven, Jaina sent a burst of warm emotions and thanks towards Kyp. As their connection momentarily strengthened, she was shocked at the strength Kyp suddenly shown with through the Force and the way that it seemed utterly right. When all of this was over, she and her...partner had much they needed to discuss.
Even as the resistance around Kyp began to increase rapidly, he remained calm and focused on the fight before him. It was almost...fun. The Force might not have been able to help him sense a skip's move before it had been made made, but it did quicken his refleces and send strength flowing through him, allowing him to never tire.
It hadn't taken long for Shimrra to catch onto his ploy and for that Kyp was grateful for precisely the reason that he hadn't actually gone to protect Jaina. There was no way once Jaina's ship had been pinpointed for Shimrra that he wouldn't throw everything at the ship to capture them or destroy them and Kyp knew that no matter how powerful of a Jedi Master he was, he was also just a man. He wouldn't have been able to protect Jaina, just as he soon wouldn't be able to protect this decoy vessel from all of its attackers.
His hand tightened on the trigger mechanism, sending a dangerous spray of turbolaser fire out around him. He rolled his x-wing under the decoy and came up firing. He was using every tactic available to him without touching his torpedoes. Kyp simply had a feeling that it would be the end of the fight when he would need them the most. His focus was intense now, as he tried to keep up with all of the threats coming at him. There were so many now, he could only focus on the most immediate.
Kyp almost risked a glance at his other console to check Jaina's position, but a quickly incoming plasma missile caught his attention again before he could. He would have to get out of here soon, but he would try to sustain the deception as long as he could. There were six coral skips now acting as immediate threats. Two of them were targeting him personally while the other four were trying to attack the vessel that he was "protecting."
KYP!
Jaina's mental scream cut through his mental defences and startled him out of his trance-like state. He searched his threat board quikly, looking for whatever Jaina was warning him about. He didn't have a chance to find it, however as several plasma missiles impacted his x-wing, punishing him for his inattention. In the next moment, he found himself down to only three engines and missing his rear shields. He cursed and slipped his x-wing into an inverted roll that was brought up short an instant later by the sight in front of him.
With no warning the vessel he had been "defending" was crushed into coral dust. The fragments that remained shooting outward as if they had been the product of an explosion that Kyp knew hadn't occurred. He only had an instant to realize that this was what Jaina had been trying to warn him about as he saw the carnage spreading out around him. It was the large monstrous vessel that Kyp had seen leading the Vong reinforcements and no doubt carried Shimrra.
In one last act of defiance before the powerful tentacles could crush him, Kyp fired his remaining torpedoes.
The astromech unit obediently flashed a series of coordinates at him.
"Now find me those headed in our direction and with some damage to their weapons systems."
The list changed again as the astromech sorted through them again using Kyp's revised criterion. Kyp used the few seconds it took the droid to focus on the fight around him. With lasers blasting away he fell in behind two skips chasing a TIE fighter. With practiced ease Kyp overwhelmed the first skip's dovin basals with laser fire and then sunk a torpedo into it.
The second skip showed no signs of breaking off because of the fate of its wingmate. Instead it kept firing on the TIE, which Kyp knew had already taken quite a bit of punishment from the skip and most likely couldn't handle more. Making his decision quickly, Kyp let out a short harsh laugh. It was ironic that he, Kyp Durron, was doing this to save an Imperial fighter.
Kyp pressed his throttle forward again quickly. As his x-wing shot forward passing the skip, he left his hand loose over his control stick, waiting for precisely the right moment. When it came, he reacted swiftly, without any hesitation. His move now put him directly between the skip and the TIE. If the skip was irritated at being denied its original target, it took it out on Kyp, sending a barrage of plasma missiles at him.
The TIE responded more to Kyp's actions than the skip, however. Once it was free of its pursuer the TIE slipped off of its trajectory and cut power to its engines momentarily, allowing it to slip in behind the skip. In a matter of moments, the only thing between Kyp and the TIE was a cloud of superheated and rapidly expanding coral dust.
A crackle of static came over Kyp's chanell as the TIE pulled off from the pursuit. "Thanks for the assist, Dozen Leader," the mechanically distorted voice sounded in his ear a moment later.
"Anytime," Kyp responded, as he glanced down at the list his astromech had finished compiling.
There were three likely choices, but one would suit his purposes the best. The vessel was identical to Jaina's and it was on the opposite side of the battle from his harried and injured goddess. If he could provide what seemed to be a friendly escort to that vessel . . . Kyp laughed. Maybe he had spent too much time with the Trickster goddess herself.
Jacen, watching the larger battle through the cognition hood while Jaina piloted them ever closer to the Star Destroyer, was the first to notice the Insider ships either pulling back or escaping to hyperspace. He quickly pointed it out to Jaina.
She nodded with instant understanding. "Kyp's waiting on us. As soon as we get aboard, he'll take us out of the system," she explained.
Jacen nodded, "But first we have to get there." He gestured at the biodisplay in front of them where Yuuzhan Vong vessels were converging on the Star Destroyer.
Jaina spared a glance at Jacen. "You don't think I can get us there," her voice was calm and focused, but held a definite edge of indignation.
Jacen laughed softly, sounding almost like his old carefree self, the focused on her more seriously. "You know you're one of the best pilots I've ever met, Jaina. If anyone can make it there, you're the one I would trust the most to do it."
A smile curved over her lips. "Thanks." She rolled the coral ship tightly around another Vong vessel, edgeing towards the Star Destroyer as quickly as she dared, weaving her way through the massed Vong ships.
The Force flared brightly in her mind with such suddenness that she almost jerked into a skip passing by them. She steadied their vessel easily and then jerked around to face Jacen and Mara, "Did you feel that?"
"I did," Jacen responded quietly. "It felt like an extreme concentration of the Force, centering around a specific point-like another Jedi," he suggested.
"Kyp's the only other Jedi here with the Insiders," Mara reminded them quickly.
The reminder sent Jaina into a flurry of motion, calling up displays that showed a wider portion of the battle. "What are you doing?" she murmured softly, almost to herself, as she searched the large biodisplay for Kyp's location, overlaying her mental map of the area onto it.
Jag spotted him a moment before she did. "He's there."
She followed his gesture quickly. There in the center of the massive board, Kyp's x-wing dove in and out, vaping skips with impressive efficiency.
"He's pushing that Vong ship towards the Star Destroyer!" Jag's exclamation startled her enough to make her momentarily lose her composure.
"What?!"
"Fel's right," Mara said, quickly catching onto what Jag had already seen. "All of his flight patterns are centerd around one point. He's actually hearding that Vong vessel towards the Star Destroyer and making look like he's defending it."
"Shimrra knows what type of vessel we're in," Jacen's voice added quietly, as if he didn't wish to risk attracting the Supreme Overlord's attention even from their distance. "By guarding that vessel, Kyp created a decoy for Shimrra."
"Punch it!"
Even as Mara spoke, Jaina was encouraging the vessel to use ever ounce of its strength to fly faster. Kyp's diversion wouldn't last long and thy only had one shot. Jaina wasn't about to waste the opportunity that Kyp had created for them. As she dove for the Star Destroyer all out now, forgoing stealth and evasion for speed and sending gouts of molten plasma at any Vong ship that passed between her and their safe haven, Jaina sent a burst of warm emotions and thanks towards Kyp. As their connection momentarily strengthened, she was shocked at the strength Kyp suddenly shown with through the Force and the way that it seemed utterly right. When all of this was over, she and her...partner had much they needed to discuss.
Even as the resistance around Kyp began to increase rapidly, he remained calm and focused on the fight before him. It was almost...fun. The Force might not have been able to help him sense a skip's move before it had been made made, but it did quicken his refleces and send strength flowing through him, allowing him to never tire.
It hadn't taken long for Shimrra to catch onto his ploy and for that Kyp was grateful for precisely the reason that he hadn't actually gone to protect Jaina. There was no way once Jaina's ship had been pinpointed for Shimrra that he wouldn't throw everything at the ship to capture them or destroy them and Kyp knew that no matter how powerful of a Jedi Master he was, he was also just a man. He wouldn't have been able to protect Jaina, just as he soon wouldn't be able to protect this decoy vessel from all of its attackers.
His hand tightened on the trigger mechanism, sending a dangerous spray of turbolaser fire out around him. He rolled his x-wing under the decoy and came up firing. He was using every tactic available to him without touching his torpedoes. Kyp simply had a feeling that it would be the end of the fight when he would need them the most. His focus was intense now, as he tried to keep up with all of the threats coming at him. There were so many now, he could only focus on the most immediate.
Kyp almost risked a glance at his other console to check Jaina's position, but a quickly incoming plasma missile caught his attention again before he could. He would have to get out of here soon, but he would try to sustain the deception as long as he could. There were six coral skips now acting as immediate threats. Two of them were targeting him personally while the other four were trying to attack the vessel that he was "protecting."
KYP!
Jaina's mental scream cut through his mental defences and startled him out of his trance-like state. He searched his threat board quikly, looking for whatever Jaina was warning him about. He didn't have a chance to find it, however as several plasma missiles impacted his x-wing, punishing him for his inattention. In the next moment, he found himself down to only three engines and missing his rear shields. He cursed and slipped his x-wing into an inverted roll that was brought up short an instant later by the sight in front of him.
With no warning the vessel he had been "defending" was crushed into coral dust. The fragments that remained shooting outward as if they had been the product of an explosion that Kyp knew hadn't occurred. He only had an instant to realize that this was what Jaina had been trying to warn him about as he saw the carnage spreading out around him. It was the large monstrous vessel that Kyp had seen leading the Vong reinforcements and no doubt carried Shimrra.
In one last act of defiance before the powerful tentacles could crush him, Kyp fired his remaining torpedoes.