--Hey look, it's a space battle. Ain't that nifty? Short post.
--I'm still searching on eBay
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"Glad you could make it, guys," Nym called over the comm rather sarcastically. "Not too late for the party, either."
Jaina rolled her eyes, already rethinking her decision to become part of this squadron. She wasn't sure she could put up with Nym for too long.
"Fill us in then, Three," Kyp replied.
Jaina pulled her fighter in line with Kyp's as Nym's voice drifted over the comm again. "OK, well, the Vong seem to be sticking in formation by the sixth moon just now, but we've had a couple of gatecrashers. As you can see, there are ten more ships in system; Peace Brigade."
"Who have just spotted us, apparently," Kyp noted, and Jaina grimaced as she glanced at her scanner.
Further out, on the other side of Yavin 4 from the Yuuzhan Vong, were ten assorted ships in various states of repair. Unlike the ones from the week before, most of these were medium and larger size ships, with the smallest being a lightweight freighter about five times the size of Jaina's X-wing. Though none of the ships were in brilliant condition, they would undoubtedly be harder – and take longer – to get rid of than the fighters from last time. Unfortunately, some of the ships were already in the atmosphere of the jungle moon, and it was clear that they would land before the Dozen could take care of them.
"So what do we take care of first, Lead?" Adi's calm voice asked over the comm.
Jaina could just about sense Kyp's thoughts, even through his shields, all muddled as he tried to work out what to do. "Right," he started, "we need to take care of those Peace Brigaders first… We can't let them all land, otherwise the kids don't stand a chance."
"Two have already landed, though," Dozen Five, Dayvie, pointed out.
"Then we take care of the rest," Kyp told him, a confident edge forced into his voice. "Get to it, Dozen. Anakin, you're with Jaina and me."
Jaina reached out with the Force for her brother, ready to work together like they had before, but realised with a jolt that she couldn't sense him where he should be. She tried to reach out further, but all she could sense was Kyp, the other pilots, and the weak minds of the Peace Brigaders further out. Warily, she extended her senses to the surface of the moon that filled her viewports, and closed her eyes in exasperation when she found him – still in the temple.
"I can't see Anakin's fighter on my display," Kyp's voice said in Jaina's ear as it came over a private comm link. "Can you sense him?"
"He's still on the moon," Jaina told him quietly. "He didn't come with us."
Kyp swore loudly. "Is he always so vaping determined like that?"
Jaina stared at Kyp's X-wing in disbelief, then laughed. "You're one to talk, aren't you?"
"OK, so-" Kyp's voice cut off as he swerved suddenly to avoid a shot from one of the Peace Brigade ships, and Jaina juked to the other side to avoid another. "So maybe that's a little hypocritical of me," Kyp continued as he fired his own round of laser bolts at the smallest of the corvettes. "But it's still annoying of him."
"Agreed," Jaina replied, adding her own fire to Kyp's and smiling grimly when a lucky shot hit the fuel tank, blowing the corvette's hull apart. "But he can't be down there himself. He's hardly got the best track record for getting out of trouble easily. I'll go back-"
"No," Kyp cut in quickly.
Jaina glared out at his X-wing for a moment before having to turn sharply to avoid another ship's lasers. "Why not?"
"Well, because…" Kyp seemed to be at a loss for words, and Jaina felt another flare of annoyance. "Because you can't just now anyway, in the middle of all this."
That made sense, she had to admit. No point trying to re-enter the atmosphere and land, while several enemy ships were doing the same, and even more were covering them. Best wait until they were all either occupied, or destroyed. "All right," she conceded reluctantly. "When we're finished with the Peace Brigade, then."
"Yes… Which we better get a move on with, before they all realise it makes sense to land rather than hang about in space."
Jaina nodded to herself and fell in line with Kyp's fighter again. A second of silent nothingness passed, and then her brow creased in confusion and surprise as she felt Kyp reach out to her through the Force. Nevertheless, she reached back, and sensed something like a grin from him.
Want to try something, he told her. Did this with Miko once, but he wasn't very good at it.
As the connection strengthened between them, Jaina realised she could sense Kyp's thoughts and decisions fairly clearly. He turned his attention onto one of the enemy ships, and she knew almost before he did that this was their next target. Flying was left to the back of her mind as she concentrated on the bond and the target she sensed through it, but she still evaded the ship's lasers smoothly and easily. In the same instant as Kyp, she fired her own lasers, and the two X-wings' fire combined to overwhelm the freighter's shields, scoring a direct hit on the hull. The dirty-white surface was scorched black, but not quite breached.
It was like the asteroid field at Dubrillion, linked to her brothers and fighting the Yuuzhan Vong for the first time. But somehow, the bond was even stronger than hers and Anakin's; almost equal to the one she had with her twin. It was comfortable and easy, but it almost scared her how comfortable it was.
Before she could even register it, the enemy freighter had been destroyed by the two X-wings' lasers and a torpedo from Nym, and Kyp was looping round to target the next ship. Jaina brought her own fighter round in the same direction, once again sensing the target through this new, but strangely familiar, bond.
On her HUD, Jaina could see that two of the Peace Brigade ships had already escaped unharmed and landed on the surface of the moon, probably near the temple. She vaguely sensed Anakin as he worked to distract the ships and defend the Academy, but most of her attention was taken up by the space battle.
Target after target was designated through the Force, and Jaina hit them all in a synchronised rhythm with Kyp, barely registering the minimal effort required. Together, they managed to shoot down four of the original ten ships, while the rest of the Dozen took care of three more between them. Three freighters in all managed to get past and land on the surface of the moon, all of which seemed to be in the area of the Academy. Jaina tried to reach out and check to see if Kam, Tionne and the students were safe, but after a moment she realised that would involve breaking the bond between her and Kyp, and she wasn't sure she wanted to do that just yet.
All finished, Sticks.
I know… But the Yuuzhan Vong will be here soon.
Jaina felt a grim determination, and it took a second to realise it was Kyp's feeling, not her own. Another second passed, and then he slowly, carefully retreated from the bond, leaving Jaina confused for some reason, and almost disappointed.
"I'm going back to the surface," he said decisively over the private comm link.
"What? No way!" Jaina was suddenly annoyed again, and the familiar reaction to Kyp was reassuring, after the almost disturbing comfort of their bond. "I'm going back, since it's my brother. I have to look after him."
Instead of arguing with her, Kyp simply asked, "And what experience do you have fighting the Vong on the ground?"
"Huh?" Jaina was suddenly confused.
"Fighting. On the ground. Not in space."
"Uh…" And with a jolt, Jaina realised that no, she didn't have much experience against the Yuuzhan Vong outside of her fighter. In every conflict with the warriors so far, she had been in the familiar setting of her X-wing, out in the cold black of space. "Well, almost a little, on Duro…"
"None," Kyp answered his own question firmly. "You're better out here in space. I've fought the Vong before on the ground; you haven't. I'll go down to the moon and get Anakin; you stay with the Dozen."
Jaina frowned and glanced out of the X-wing's canopy towards the sixth moon, where she could just about see the organic ships of the enemy clustered. "The Yuuzhan Vong aren't even on Yavin 4 yet-"
"But they will be. Hopefully not until after Anakin and I get back out, but the chances of that are fairly remote."
"But-"
Kyp sighed. "We can't both go down, Jaina, but one of us has to, because neither of us want to leave Anakin alone down there with the Peace Brigade and the Vong, right? So I'll go down, hopefully getting out again quickly, and you get out of here with the Dozen, and go and update Master Skywalker on what's happening. Besides," he added, "Karrde's in system and so long as the Vong don't move much closer just yet, he'll land before them."
Again, Jaina had to admit – however reluctantly – that Kyp made sense. Whatever they decided to do, though, they had to do it quickly; the Yuuzhan Vong already seemed to be sending scouts out from their temporary base of the orbit around the sixth moon. "OK. I guess. But you better not get yourself killed. I mean, when you're supposed to be looking after my brother," she added quickly.
"No worries, Jay. You know by now I'm impossible to get rid of, don't you?"
Didn't she just… "Whatever, Durron. Hurry up, then."
Kyp didn't reply again, though Jaina was sure he would be smirking, and she rolled her eyes.
After another few seconds passed as the Dozen all drifted into position around the two of them – miraculously, this time the squadron had all survived, though Nym's fighter had taken some more heavy damage. Jaina's comm unit crackled with static for a moment as Kyp switched to squadron frequency, then his voice came over the comm.
"OK, Dozen, not a bad job. I have some other urgent business to take care of back on the moon, and it won't be long before the Vong arrive in the vicinity so, lucky for you, Sticks will be in charge for the time being."
"Joy," Nym called sarcastically, drawing laughter from everyone except Kyp, Jaina and Adi.
"Sticks is a better pilot than you, Three," Adi reprimanded him.
"Hmph. Sorry, Four."
"Apology accepted," Adi replied lightly.
"Yeah, yeah, cut the flirting, guys," Kyp interrupted, and Nym coughed indignantly. "Try and be semi-serious for once. I'm giving you a job to do here – get back to Coruscant, report to Skywalker that the kids should be safe, and try not to kill each other before I get back."
"Why? Where will you be?" Davie sounded puzzled.
"Told you, back down there on Yavin 4. Won't be long," Kyp added confidently. "Look after 'em, Sticks. You've had enough experience dealing with unruly kids, right? No, wait… you are one… Forget I said anything. Lead out."
With that, Kyp turned his fighter round so he was facing the jungle moon, and Jaina saw him accelerate towards it. He had switched off his comm, but as he approached the atmosphere, Jaina sent him a feeling of hope through the Force, and the simple message, good luck.
When she could barely see his X-wing against the greens and blues of the jungle, Jaina turned her attention back to her HUD. She realised with a grimace that the Yuuzhan Vong were even closer now, and if they didn't move soon, it would be too late to move at all. Nym hadn't even ventured a guess at the number of ships earlier, but it was certainly larger than any of them could have guessed. Even they wouldn't stand a chance against such a large fleet, she was sure.
"So," Nym started conversationally, "did he insult all of us, or just Sticks?"
"All of us," Dayvie answered decisively. "It was more sort of… friendly at Sticks, though."
"Like Nym and Adi," Dozen Seven – Jak – called out, to laughter from about half the squadron.
"Gods, no," Dayvie replied. "They have to be more successful than those two, surely."
Jaina flushed when she realised what Dayvie meant, and was glad no one could see her in her X-wing. "All right, Dozen," she cut in, deciding to ignore the chatter. She was vaguely surprised at how easy it actually seemed to be to take command of the squadron. "We need to move fast, so set yourselves a course for Coruscant and let's blast our way out of this party and report home."
"Then we come back and rescue Lead, right?" Nym's voice asked, a determined edge to it.
Jaina smiled wryly. "Then we come back and rescue Lead," she agreed. "But he can last a couple days without us."
"Only a couple," Nym muttered, and Jaina was inclined to agree yet again.
"All right…" She glanced back at the fourth moon, sighed, and turned to her controls once again. "Jumps laid in, and go in three, two, one…"
As the stars and ships of the surrounding space streaked into white lines, and Jaina leaned back in the cockpit, she couldn't help but wonder if she'd done the right thing. It had made a sort of sense, the decisions, but… did the right thing always make sense? It never had before, had it? Should she have stayed, gone down the surface with Kyp to get Anakin? Yes, part of her felt she should have… but then, the common sense part of her – small as it was – told her that she would have just gotten in the way, that she was better out here in command of the Dozen, and that at least it meant she could return to help in a couple days, with more support.
She hoped Kyp could keep Anakin alive that long – and himself, too. Because she knew, suddenly, that if he couldn't, she'd kill him all over again.
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