Chapter 13

Even as she shot toward the vast opening in the top of the cavern, Nayanll knew she would not make it. The throw had lacked the angle that the others had had. She saw the surprised faces of Master Skywalker and the others as she peaked her jump and could see over the edge of the crater.

Nayanll knew none of them would be able to react quick enough to change the outcome. Besides, she thought, I need to burn off some steam. The Bothan girl smiled to herself as she used her cat-like balance to right herself in the air. As she plummeted back into the crater, she took in what she saw.

There was a group of vorts standing just outside the tunnel they had broken through. They did not notice her descent, it seemed, because their attention was focused on the first vort as it closed in on Trey Jint.

Nayanll landed silently on the dirt floor, but, as if it sensed her, one of the other vorts turned sharply and looked directly at her. Nayanll assumed it had notified the other vorts, when they all turned to look at her. Nayanll had her lightsaber on before they could even take one step in her direction.

The vorts were not intimidated by the young Jedi's weapon, however as about five of them headed in her direction, and five more took their place at the entrance. The other three tunnels suddenly gave in and more vorts appeared at the mouths of the tunnels, but seeing what was going on, they seemed content to just stand by and watch.

Nayanll tried to look over to see what was going on with Trey, but the first vort completely blocked her view of him. She turned her attention back to her five opponents and took up a ready position. The vorts' amphistaff arms began to snap and hiss. Another step and they'll be able to reach me. Nayanll silently realized.

Nayanll was about to make her move when the air was pierced with a wail of pain. Nayanll involuntarily looked in the direction of the sound. What she saw surprised her. The vort that had attacked Trey suddenly slumped to the ground in a smoldering heap. Then Trey rushed around the corpse and hurried over to stand beside Nayanll, who was too stunned to speak because of what had just happened … not to mention the fact that Trey looked kind of fuzzy. Nayanll rubbed her eyes with her free hand and looked again.

"What?" Trey asked before realizing what Nayanll was gawking at. "Darn it! I knew I should have tested it to see if Force lightning would short it out!"

Without another word, Trey reached inside his mouth and pulled something small from one of the crevices between his teeth, then tossed it aside. Nayanll's view of Trey cleared instantly … except for the fact that it was not Trey who was standing beside her.

"DENZ!"

"Hey, Nayanll." Said the brown- and blond-haired young Jedi that had been severely injured by one of his cousins no more than three months before. "How are you doing?"

Nayanll looked from him to the now peeved vorts that were surrounding them. She estimated fifty, not counting the ones still hidden in the tunnels. "I've been better." She replied.

He nodded toward the hordes of vorts. "What? You mean those things have you worried?" He said as he pointed at one. Before Nayanll could respond to the obvious question, Denz's hand glowed white just before a stream of light shot from his finger and struck the vort. It did not look anything like Force lightning, until it his that is. You could literally see the currents of electricity expand from the point of impact and spread over the vort's entire body before it collapsed, just like the one before it, into a smoldering heap. "They're easier than they look." He said as he blew on his finger like it was a smoking gun.

"Was that Force lightning?" Nayanll asked.

"Yes, but in a controlled state. Once you've mastered the attack, it can be focused into a single beam. It's more accurate and conserves a lot of energy."

Nayanll nodded, having been given some hope by Denz's display of power. Maybe they would survive.

"Get down!" Denz said suddenly as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to the ground. Only seconds later there was a loud crashing sound as three heavy objects landed around them.

Even before the dust and dirt settled, the YVH druids opened fire on the vorts. Chaos ensued as the large group of vorts began to be picked off one by one with the YVH droids' powerful laser canons.

After about the tenth one fell, the alien creations began to get their bearings. They attacked the YVH droids in large groups, only to be repelled by the robots' heavy armor. In addition, those that had escaped the pit began to open fire with their own blasters from above.

More and more vorts continued to spill from the open tunnels, and once their numbers were sufficient, some began to try to exit the hole. Using their powerful legs and clawed feet, they would launch themselves from one side of the cavern to the other, moving slowly upward each time. Luke and the others tried to pick them off as they progressed upward, but there were just too many to handle. One poked its head over the edge of the hole only to receive an eyeful of Jyo's blaster. It fell back into the pit and bounced off of YVH-2's armor with a loud clang.

Jyo turned to Salah as he ignited his lightsaber to take on the vorts that had made it out. "Something's different about these vorts." He said.

"What do you mean?" Salah asked as she tossed her blaster aside and pulled out her lightsaber.

Jyo noticed Master Skywalker and Ben doing likewise. Then it hit him as he sliced through the rough scales on a vort's head. "These are smaller! The one on Myrkyr was easily twice the size of these here."

"You mean these are just children?" Salah asked in disbelief as she ducked a swing from a vort's amphistaff arm before dashing forward, cutting the vort in half in the process.

The roar of an engine drowned Jyo's response out as the Twilight Trekker soared overhead, its blaster cannons taking out a few vorts as it did. The vessel quickly landed, and Jyo was surprised when both Zeek and Tay leaped from the open hatch … not to mention the fact that Tay ignited a lightsaber of her own as they ran toward him. Jyo also noticed Kam setting himself on top of his ship, his "Kannon" ready to take pot shots at any vorts that made it past them.

Back down in the pit, the fighting had begun to let up. Denz and Nayanll were still being well guarded by the three YVH droids that had surrounded them and were keeping the vorts at bay. "Get ready." Denz said suddenly.

"Why...?" Nayanll started to ask, but her question was answered when sparks started to fly from one of the YVH droids before it fell to the ground and shut down.

Dozens of vorts poured over the downed droid. Denz grabbed Nayanll and leaped over the advancing vorts, landing behind them. He released Nayanll and jerked his right wrist in one direction. This released the lock on his arm clamp causing his lightsaber to shoot out of the sleeve of his Jedi robe and into his hand. He ignited the turquoise blade just in time to block a swing at his head from one of the vorts' amphiarms. He countered with a kick to the head followed by a shot of Force lightning aimed at the vort's midsection. Denz sensed it coming and erected a Force bubble around himself to block the stream of poison another vort shot at him. Denz turned and gestured with his left hand, and the vort flew backward and slammed into the far wall of the cavern with a bone-shattering crunch.

After a quick check to make sure Nayanll was doing all right, Denz crouched down and swung his lightsaber laterally at about knee level. As he did so, he turned a knob on the bottom of his lightsaber, and it grew to almost three times the length of its normal size. As a result, the swing took out a couple rows of vorts' legs at about the point of the reversed joint. Denz quickly shortened his lightsaber back to its original length as he hurried to take advantage of the vorts' confusion. Easily avoiding the flailing amphiarms, Denz ran through the pile of handicapped vorts, delivering a quick slash from his lightsaber to each of the vorts' heads, putting them out of their misery.

Denz sensed Nayanll's pain even before she screamed. He turned to see her left arm hissing like acid was eating away at it. A vort's poison, no doubt. He took out one vort as it lunged for her with a shot of Force lightning, but was not quick enough to stop a second one from crashing into her midsection. Nayanll flew backward, still clutching her left arm, and fell to the ground with a soft thud.

Before the vort could follow up on its attack, Denz dropped it as well with another blast of concentrated Force lightning. Then he positioned himself between Nayanll and the vorts, just as another YVH droid blew under the pressure. Pressing a button on the bottom of his lightsaber, Denz widened the beam and upped the power. With a long, hard swing he dragged the end of the lightsaber along the ground in front of him, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt and steam as rock became super-heated and melted. He turned to see how badly Nayanll was hurt, and was surprised to see a gaping hole where she had been laying.

Before the dirt cloud dissipated, Denz deactivated his lightsaber and slid it back up the sleeve of his robe where the arm clasp automatically grabbed it. As he backed up toward the hole, he pressed a small button on the bottom of the clasp. Denz moved his arm in a semicircle as the clasp fired dozens of small devices through the dirt cloud. When he was satisfied that enough had attached to the vorts on the other side, Denz casually dropped into the hole behind him. He knew a shutter had closed over the opening, but that did not help to muffle the explosion that occurred only seconds after as all those miniature fusion bombs detonated, creating a massive fire ball that engulfed everything in the pit before shooting upward to create a sort of volcano effect.

"Everyone away from the pit!" Luke Skywalker yelled just seconds before there was a gigantic explosion deep inside the pit. The roiling mountain of fire and molten rock burst from the hole, instantly vaporizing the vorts who were unlucky enough to still be within ten feet of it.

As the eruption subsided, the others finished off the remaining vorts. Zeek activated his comlink and attempted to raise Din. The Kamino Jedi Knight answered immediately. Zeek asked him what was going on at his end with the vort infestation.

"Actually," he replied. "It's strange. They reached the first line of defense; a dozen or so automated lasers, and after only a few of them had been taken down … it was as if they changed their minds or something."

"What do you mean?" Zeek asked as the others gathered around to hear Din's explanation.

"Just what I said. They suddenly turned around and started off in the opposite direction." Din grunted in confusion. "I also had Yibin contact Particle City, and apparently the same thing had happened there as well."

"I wonder what's controlling these things?" Salah said as the transmission ended.

"Hmm?" Zeek said.

Salah gestured at the now charred rim of the pit. "Just think about it. I mean those vorts are way too organized to not have someone calling the shots."

"You may be on to something." Jyo said. "They did stage a three-pronged attack, where a multitude of vorts attempted to take out the two major cities and us.

"And it seems as though the other vorts that were attacking the cities, suddenly 'changed their minds' because they had been notified of defeat of so many at our hands."

"Speaking of which." Salah said as she gazed down inside the pit where the charred remains of dozens of vorts lay covering almost the entire bottom.

"But what about Trey and Nayanll?" Ben asked.

"I didn't sense them perish." Jyo nodded.

Zeek cleared his throat. "Um, first of all, Jyo's right. They're still alive; and secondly, this Trey person is actually my brother, Denz."

Even Luke seemed a little surprised by this revelation … and perhaps a little unnerved by how easily Denz had deceived him.

"His cover was blown the moment he revealed himself to Nayanll." Zeek explained. "I easily caught her surprise when she realized who it was."

"But that still does not tell us where they are." Tay pointed out.

Zeek shook his head. "I'm at a loss this time. Something dark is shrouding them both now."

Salah laughed once. "I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count."