"Vong!" The word jolted Corran Horn from the empty void of his dreamless slumber. His eyes snapped open to take in darkness.
His wife, Mirax, stirred beneath his arm. "What's wrong, babe?" she murmured.
"Luke just sent the word 'Vong' to me."
"And he was heading to Coruscant," Mirax finished, her voice rising a bit in alarm. "But how could they be there already?"
"Don't know," Corran sat up and grabbed his comlink. "I'll set up an emergency meeting. You should head to the bridge," he said gravely.
Mirax sighed. "Trouble's coming, then."
Minutes later the Jedi Grand Master was sitting in the Errant Venture's ops room, with a few others via hologram. "The Vong have likely been at Coruscant for hours," Corran went on. "I'm sure they already have fleets underway, and we don't their numbers."
"Several hundred if I had to guess," Irisia said, though that wasn't much help. She was clearly worried about Luke, as was Corran.
"But how could they be at Coruscant..." Admiral Bwua'tu began to ask.
Shotel Za looked thoughtful. "This could be done with a pair of Infinity Gates or Hypergates. My people used them, but were forced to destroy them millennia ago. Infinity Gates could also be used as weapons, though that would be impossible without the right expertise. It appears the Vong somehow have a pair of these. Either some of this technology escaped destruction, and was reverse engineered." The Nibu man glanced at Irisia, seated beside him. "Or..."
"The Terran Admiral shook her head. "There's no evidence of such technology in my ancestral galaxy."
"Someone here set the gates up; they knew the True Vong were coming," Corran said. "The Vong sent an advance force, the Praetorites, ahead of their last invasion. We never learned how extensive that network was, but they'd been here for decades, at least. I'd think that would be enough time to construct these gates."
"The invasion started around the Helska system," Bwua'tu noted. "The other gate may be there. If the previous group had waited for the True Vong to arrive..."
"Shimmra and his forces wouldn't fear the True Vong as their ancestors had. They would have joined forces," Irisia said. "Perhaps the first group couldn't wait, due to dwindling resources and internal tensions."
"Perhaps that will be what saves us," Za said hopefully. "It appears that the Ssi-Ruuk did not want us aware of the True Vong's arrival," he commented, donning a puzzled frown.
"It makes no sense," Corran agreed, "but the evidence does suggest the True Vong are working with the Ssi-Ruuk."
"These Vong are using the Ssi-Ruuk," Irisia gently clarified. She shook her head in disgust. "When... If the Vong do conquer this galaxy... What would a race that uses entechment expect to happen to them?"
Corran fought a yawn. "Good question." He groaned as an icy warmth spread throughout his body. The vile stench of the Aether had just appeared near Fondor. Irisia's face echoed his alarm. "They're here."
Shotel Za uttered some sort of curse. "Go."
Corran was already springing from his seat. This was horrible timing. Za's fleet, along with the Golden Emperor, was at Bakura. Bwua'tu's Fifth Fleet, along with the Turk Brand, was at Kuat. Irisia was at Fondor with the Olympus Mons, but that ship was in rough shape. Corran whipped out his comlink as he ran toward the hangar bay. "Mirax, launch fighters. Vong."
...
Yun Yuuzhan sat cross legged, facing the yammosk. Through the great mind they currently shared he could feel the vessels of his fleet. He could feel the minds of the people aboard. The connection grew more powerful each time.
Through Mol Ech's eyes he could see the view skins on the bridge of the Sushchnost Gryzt'ador. One depicted the abomination world of Fondor, surrounded by unholy ships that were not grown. Yun Yuuzhan recognized the crystalline Terran vessels. Among the other ships were golden ones, Tho Yors and Tho Yens according to E'thinaa.
There were thousands of Force users here; these were mostly Terrans and Nibu'im. But there was also a ship full of beings attuned to just the light side of the Force. Jeedai. How ironic that they, who feared the dark side, should be such a threat. Their vessel was well protected. But that would be rectified.
"Open fire on the infidels when in range. Launch yorik-et," Mol Ech ordered. The many needles covering the Leviathans proceeded to vomit out lifeless bursts of amethyst fire, while swarms of coralskippers bled from their carriers. The infidels responded quickly with their own long range weapons, and proceeded to disgorge their artificial fighters. Deflector shields on both sides began to ripple, while the dovin basals on the lesser Yuuzhan Vong consumed the infidels' fire with miniature black holes.
Increasingly shorter range weapons came into play as the two opposing fleets drew closer. The conventional Yuuzhan Vong vessels unleashed balls of magma, and plasma beams. Fondor's defenders unleashed even more wrath, and would be launching torpedoes soon.
His influence greatly magnified by the yammosk, Yun Yuuzhan guided his forces into a loose bowl formation. The infidels appeared to be assuming a somewhat rushed, three clawed formation. Both strategies had their merits. The latter tended to be born from some measure of desperation, used against a force of greater numbers.
A Terran Annihilation cruiser showed itself. The only one of those left, as far as Yun Yuuzhan knew, was the Olympus Mons. The starboard wing, along with its beam weapon was missing. Good. He reached out to the crystalline vessel. Yes, the elf admiral, Irisia was aboard. He would destroy the Olympus Mons, and kill the elf. What a victory that would be.
But first the Mons had to be drawn out. The Sushcnost Gryzt'ador moved to engage a pair of Terran war cruisers. As expected they opened up with their beam weapons. The Leviathan responded with its own sickly looking fire. The enemy vessels quickly added their shorter range weapons. Coralskippers began strafing the war cruisers, while Lightningbirds fell upon the Gryzt'ador.
The Force began to writhe in agony as lives ended, and the Aether assaulted it. Yun Yuuzhan fell into a state of ecstatic fury at all the suffering. His soul was bound for hell; it was only fair to put the Force through hell. He had been made into a devil, and thus a devil he would be. No closer to finding some semblance of peace could he come than to utterly destroy peace.
Yun Yuuzhan could sense the Jeedai ship pulling away from the battle. He'd been hoping to simply be able to destroy the ship. "Launch tu'q-trema, yorik-et escort, to Jeedai ship," he ordered through Mol Ech's voice.
Fires started to blossom from the hulls of the Terran vessels. The Olympus Mons began moving to engage the Gryzt'ador. What choice was there when Yun Yuuzhan was murdering so many of her people? Yes, come to me, elf. I shall slaughter you! He guided a pair of miid ro'ik warships over to the Gryzt'ador. They were similar to the Imperator-class Star Destroyer in both size and color. But miid ro'ik were somewhat fish-shaped, and rounded. They sported crevices which housed most of their weaponry. Lava spewed out from their yaret-kors against one of the Terran vessel's shields.
The miid ro'ik latched onto their victim with their dovin basals, slowly pushing its beam weapon out alignment against the Gryzt'ador. The Leviathan corpse moved in closer, and in short order the war cruiser was aflame and breaking apart. The remaining Terran vessel was destroyed in a similar fashion.
The trio easily dispatched two more war cruisers, and was about to destroy a third when the Olympus Mons opened up with its two beam weapons. The crystalline vessel took up position to the left of its smaller comrade. Pale purple clashed with raging red as the two ancient foes went to battle. Three crimson shafts of light collided with the Gryzt'ador's bow shields. The beams converged on a relatively small section of the sixteen kilometer long vessel's protective energy barrier, turning it almost opaque. Yun Yuuzhan guided the duo of miid ro'ik over to the war cruiser.
...
The bridge of the Olympus Mons throbbed and its crystalline structure rang softly under the Sushchnost Gryzt'ador's onslaught. Given the extensive damage done to the Annihilation cruiser suffered in the previous battle, against the Celestials, Irisia doubted her vessel would survive. The zombified Leviathan, however, showed no signs of damage.
"Ro'iks engaging Hippocrene," her new tactical officer noted.
"We can do nothing for them," Irisia admitted. She felt the war cruiser's captain reach out to her with a grim sense of determination. The Hippocrene surged forward, crashing headlong into one of the miid ro'ik. Fire mingled with crystal and coral. Wasting no time the remaining miid ro'ik fired orbs of lava through the cloud.
A swarm of coralskippers went to the Mons' stern, and proceeded rake the area with purplish energy and magma. The Sushchnost Gryzt'ador lurched forward and pulled to the left. "Helm, turn starboard," Irisia ordered.
"Aye."
"Damage to port engines," the new systems officer announced.
"That'll slow down our turn," the helm officer warned. "They'll be able to stay with us."
"Continue turn," Irisia instructed. "Their intention is clear. We'll delay them. All but helm and systems officer, leave bridge." The other officers eagerly obliged. "Abandon ship," she ordered over the ship wide comm.
The Gryzt'ador easily outpaced the Mons ponderous turn and executed its own, more timely, turn. At the same time the mighty Leviathan corpse hungrily parted its beak. "Out!" Irisia shouted, as the monster charged. She and the two remaining personnel leapt from their seats, and headed out of the bridge. The trio ran toward the hangar bay, joining several others along the way.
The Sushchnost Gryzt'ador slammed into the Olympus Mons, and bit down. Flames and sparks erupted like blood, and dark brown crystal shattered like glass. The monster continued onward, violently turning the Mons, and smashing into it with the horns growing from its left wing.
A monstrous impact slammed Irisia into the wall. She easily pushed herself upright, and ran forward. A piece of debris broke off from the ceiling and landed on her upper back. She felt bones break, and the floor seemed to crash her. A shooting pain tore through her side as ribs cracked. Irisia found it hard to breathe, and her vision began to darken. She really didn't want to die, but she didn't seem to have any choice in the matter. She reached out to Siffia, telling the latter to abandon ship. She then reached out Luke...
...
Even an untrained Force-sensitive could have felt the turmoil, lightyears away, as the Force and Aether battered each other. As light and relative darkness fought together, almost as one, against an impenetrable blackness. The battle was on a vibroblade's edge, and was about to fall that way or the other.
Even the mere presence of Leviathans in high orbit over Coruscant, anguished the Force. There was no place where the Aether belonged. Such a horror should not have existed, yet it did.
Luke Skywalker sighed, and continued deeper into the artificial gray jungle that was Coruscant. The True Vong may have sent out a search party, although he was rather useless stranded down here as he was. The enemy might decide to just wait until Luke was space-born again. And shoot him down for good. Of course he'd have to find a ship first. Luke also needed to know where to take said ship, if he made past the Vong. It had only been minutes after he'd warned Corran about the Vong that they'd shown up. Fondor.
His stomach seemed to descend as another bout of turmoil made itself known; where could this one be? This was a bad sign. The Force shuddered, almost fearfully, at Fondor. The Aether would overcome the Force there. Irisia and Ben were there, and the Venture with the Jedi Academy. Fondor was one of the worst places that could fall...
Luke felt Irisia's gentle caress upon his mind. No, this was not happening. He reached back. There was nothing! The woman he loved had just died. Luke leaned his back against a wall, and slid to the floor. His heart crumbled, and his face seemed to melt right off.
Luke had served the Force so faithfully for decades. How the Void could this clustervape be his reward! He quickly rebuked himself for that thought. It was the Aether that had done this. That had to be the target of his rage and hatred.