Part 18: Another One
Sheng Lah's bulky, well-cared-for muscles tensed as his ship's nose pierced a layer of vegetation on the planet once called Coruscant. Pull up! Sorry I upset you! The gray-skinned man commanded his ship. The Spectrum obeyed merely seconds before a jittery feeling overtook it and spread to the owner.
Either Nuren's entire fleet is here, or Sekot took Zonama to the system. Sheng Lah thought as the excitement threatened to swallow his mind. The ship skimmed through treetops and skirted what remained of buildings before penetrating someone's transparisteel window and reducing its speed inside an abandoned building that might have once been someone's warehouse or hangar. I broke and entered I can't believe I'm as bad as the rest of my people. The gray-skinned Jedi thought as he braced himself for the rocky reduction in the speed of his ship.
As expected, the Spectrum shook violently from the pain caused by flying shards of transparisteel and burns from friction with the part of the floor that remained intact in terms of technology.
The owner of the ship was slammed hard into the controls before him as the ship hit a wall after skidding on the floor in circles. The impact would have sent the pilot out of his seat and into the space beneath the controls were it not for his crash webbing. I never knew hybrid means half the common sense of a droid! Sheng Lah cursed mentally as he undid his crash webbing. When all but the hybrid ship's complaints of pain and damage died down, Sheng Lah pried open the hatch above his head and emerged.
The Yuuzhan Vong Jedi sighed a relieved sigh as he realized that his ship deliberately chose to stop and rest in an old hangar. Much to his surprise, the Spectrum was intact save a few bruises to the nose and belly. Sheng Lah carefully sealed the hatch and ordered the ship to 'lock' before going off to prospect his surroundings. The Yuuzhan Vong Jedi smiled slightly, for only ones who could find their way through every lock on his ship were a few trusted Jedi.
As he stared off into the direction of the glaring sunlight, white washed over him and he saw another vision. It was the wall of light again, only that this time, there was a ceiling on top of the wall and the Jedi saw a tall, Yuuzhan Vong warrior who embodied the ideal appearance for a male of his caste on one side of the wall. Unlike most Yuuzhan Vong, the skin was flawless save a scar from a lightsaber burn on his left arm, which identified the man as Sheng Lah. Next to himself Sheng Lah spotted an aging human with graying blonde hair. Sheng Lah saw himself walking in and out of the mysterious place through the walls with relative ease, but the story was different with the stranger next to him. No matter how hard the old man pounded and hammered, he could not walk through the wall. Each branch on the faded, X-shaped mark on the old man's forehead pointed to a brown eye the brimmed with frustration and guilt. With a blink of his eyes, the vision disappeared.
"Vergere, if this is your idea of fun, I'm letting you know I am not half as fond of you as Jacen is." Sheng Lah growled in frustration before sauntering down the nearest flight of stairs. The scouting from the air was complete, and now it was time to put labels to everything in sight by questioning the local Shamed Ones.
-scene change-
"Hey Flames, are we gonna take care of a second basal, too?" asked one of the pilots as the first moon-sized monstrosity spun out of control and drifted toward the star at the center of the system.
"Yes. The one at the north pole of the planet. Guys, be careful because this is looking too easy. I think something's about to jump on us." Ben replied over the com as he wove around the space debris to shake off the skips that pursued him
As Ben spoke, a monstrous worldship arose from the shaped planet and began to release coralskippers.
"All my shields are down! I've lost…" The leader of the Twi'leks screamed in horror as the dovin basal on the worldship stripped her clean. A second later, the woman's starfighter disappeared into the giant, eight-armed ship and every skip on her tail followed suit. The worldship shook as molten metal, coral and plasma spewed from the secret entrance that the Twi'lek used.
Ben wanted to open his mouth to protest, but he shoved the words back down his throat as he remembered that he recruited every pilot for their intuition and unconventional ideas. The Twi'lek knew she was dying, so she chose to bring down as many enemies as she could with her. He hoped that the opening on the worldship led to at least one essential organ.
"Let's go down to the planet's surface and give this thing some obstacles to run through." Ben took his X-Wing down toward the mixture of buildings and plant life. "We should be able to get under and through some of these things. Here's where the real princess and Crest rescue part comes."
"I see one!" Shouted one of the pilots.
"Lead us through, Seven." Ben ordered over the com-link. The other pilot obeyed and the entire group of rogue agents followed in a single file.
"You guys go on and take those dovin basals out. I'm going to get the Hapan princess and Crest. Fuzzy, they're all yours." The rogue Jedi told the Wookiee as he parked his X-Wing on top of a strange plant that grew inside the building through which the pilots flew.
Ben stepped out of the X-Wing and reached out with the Force to locate his cousin and friends. He could feel faint presences in the Force, but from his current position, he could not put a location to any of the signatures. He needed to climb to the top of the building but there were neither working turbolifts nor staircases in sight. Ben glanced around and spotted a small hole in the ceiling above his X-Wing. Perhaps there would be a viewport on the next floor. In a Force-aided leap, the young Skywalker hopped to the top of his starfighter and climbed to the next floor through a hole in the ceiling above him.
"Flames." The com crackled.
"Yes?" Ben answered.
"We're coming back. Those big ships are here and there's these things that look like skips but look kinda like our ships. Fuzzy ordered us to stay, but we'll be caught if we do." Explained one of the Daggers over the com.
"This is the final battle. It doesn't matter if we get caught this time because we'll reveal ourselves anyhow. Go back to Fuzzy and do whatever he tells you. You're forgetting that this is part of our plan." Ben commanded his friend as he used the slick floor as a stool and put his feet back through the hole.
"But…"
"I have my lightsabers and I have the Force. I'm the only person whose chances are even close to moderate on this planet." Ben told his friend.
When his astromech whined and twitched slightly, Ben ordered it to stay and watch the ship. "Don't let anyone except for me touch this." Good thing this is X-Wing is the same color as this moldy wall. Ben thought as he removed the headgear.
-scene change-
"Queen Mother, the Trebuchet is picking up some strange signals. Wait, these are scans of Coruscant." A Hapan Admiral reported to Tenel Ka over the HoloNet.
"Retransmit these to every ship in the Alliance." The Queen Mother ordered. Sheng Lah had obviously done as he was told and crucial sensory data was being passed along the ships via HoloNet like handouts in a classroom.
According to the scans, six dovin basals orbited the planet, but from the viewport of the small Rock Dragon, Tenel Ka could only count five gravity-generating creatures plus a cluster of various starfighters around the area of the sixth basal. The warrior queen squinted and managed to differentiate a deteriorating dovin basal from the glare of the planet's sun.
Tenel Ka's finger neared the button for the holo-transmitter as the time came for her to give the orders to spread out, but a disturbance in the Force stopped her. Sekot, or at least something similar in size and Force signature, had decided to follow the fleet that it grew and the Hapan fleet needed to make room for the planet in addition to the task of halting any Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements.
Almost adjacent to Tenel Ka's Rock Dragon was a large, living ship of Sekotian design.
-scene change-
"Sla Tsun." Nuren Lah growled as she recognized the worldship of domain Tsun through the viewport of her flagship. Sure enough, one of the former Supreme Commander's villips took the shape of Sla Tsun's heavily scarred visage.
"Nuren, I missed you. Shamed can only command the Shamed, and not even a Shamed One would follow one who is like me in every respect save that she was dishonorable." The leader of Domain Tsun grinned sarcastically as she drew out her words. Sla Tsun intentionally left out the domain name as an affront to the other Yuuzhan Vong woman.
"And I thought you would improve over the years, old friend." Nuren Lah growled in a low tone, her voice slightly oily from her old age.
"What you think is what you think, old Shamed One. Rrush'hok ichnar vinim hok! Perhaps Yun-Shuno will forgive you after that." Supreme Commander Tsun waved as she spoke in her irreverent tone. "Oh, and I'm being nice."
With a parting gesture, the villip reverted and the worldship of Domain Tsun opened fire on the Sekotan ships.
"Blast this worldship out of the way. It's past time to teach Sla Tsun some manners. Doro-ik vong pratte, my fighters!" Frustrated at being confined to the command room by her failing body, Nuren Lah merely wished luck to the Shamed Ones and Ferroans whom she had trained to fight the battle for Coruscant.
Just as Nuren Lah shouted the battle cry, sensory data that originally came from the Spectrum of Insight's scans began to pour into the ship's displays. Her lips twitched into the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a grin. "You have a good start, Sheng."