One of the Chiss guards shouted something in his native language before he replaced his commlink in his pocket and continued to fire against the Killiks around him with his brethren and the Solos helping him.
"What did he say?" Leia asked Formbi as she dueled Kolir Hu'lya and Jaips Greeq simultaneously.
"He said he can't contact anyone in the blockade!" Formbi answered as he continued to shoot down the Killiks that tried to kill him. "Our signal's somehow being jammed!"
"How can these bugs manage to do something like that when they barely have anything to survive from?!" Han asked, holding back Marr Idi-Shael and Rigall Brarun with his blaster while also managing to shoot down some Thuruht that encroached his area.
"Signal jammers from these Knights' StealthXs, no doubt," Leia managed to answer just before she dismembered Greeq, causing him to fall to the ground in utter pain. Leia, meanwhile, continued to duel Hu'lya singly.
Immediately seeing that the Bothan needed help against the human's superior skills, Brarun disengaged from blocking off Han's shots and flipped across the room to aid Hu'lya. That left Han to deal with Idi-Shael and the number of Killiks remaining around him as he joined Formbi and his guards, side-by-side, as they fended for themselves.
"Grandma, I thought we weren't supposed to hurt the Knights!" Allana shouted in the midst of battle as she was being beat back in a lightsaber duel against Qwert.
"No, honey, we just don't have to kill them!" Leia answered as she managed to twirl out from between Hu'lya and Brarun before dismembering the former's left leg, sending her screaming to the floor with Greeq. "We can bring them back so they can be healed up later!"
"Oh!" Allana exclaimed. "Well, if that's the case..." She deliberately trailed off before she dropped to her back to send a Force wave against her Rodian opponent, blasting him off his feet to knock him unconscious against the wall behind him. Allana then performed a backward rollover straight to her feet and turned to engage Zierra Zuban, the only other hive-minded Knight left, taking the stout Sullustan away from blocking off Han and the Chiss's bolts.
Eventually, as Han's blaster and the Chiss's charrics began overheating from the constant shooting, the first sign of a weapon frying up from overuse came from the same guard who declared that their comm signals were being jammed. Once smoke arose from the top of his gun, it seemed to herald the end of his life as a mid-sized Killik dodged one of his shots to tackle him in the legs, sending him collapsing to the floor before that same Killik used its thin yet powerful arms to break his neck.
One of that guard's fellows turned and shot the Thuruht member straight in the head, but in turn, a slightly smaller Killik managed to sneak past his attention to snatch the weapon out of his hand and used it to shoot him point-blank in the torso. The Chiss collapsed against one of his fellow guards, sending him to the floor was well, where one of the nearby Killiks took the opportunity to spear him in the head with a a sharp, golden staff.
It took the death of his fourth guard, who was also speared by that same staff in the femoral artery, for Formbi to recognize that he would not live, given the circumstances. So the ambassador exclaimed, "There's too many of them! We must retreat!" He repeated that quickly in Cheunh for the sake of his two remaining men.
"But what about the Knights?!" Allana asked.
"We'll come back for them later when we have the opportunity, time, and the means!" Leia said as she twirled her blade against Brarun's and dismembered her by the hand, sending her collapsing to the floor in pain with the pained Hu'lya and Greeq. "The Killiks can treat them in the meantime!" Then she leaped across the room where Allana was still engaged with Zuban, twirled the lightsaber out of the Sullustan's hands, then kicked her up her jowls to knock her unconscious. "Time to go, sweetie!" Leia said as she grabbed Allana by the arm and led her to the exit of the throne room with Han and the three Chiss; by now, C-3PO and the Chiss's own protocol droid were mechanical heaps on the floor.
We'll come back for you, Threepio, Leia thought before turning her full attention to the door ahead.
The Solos and their Chiss allies managed to leave the throne room with an entire mob of Killiks at their heel. Leia and Allana decided to help Han and their blue-skinned fellows shoot down their pursuers, lightening the firing load on the near-fried blasters of the males in the group as they intended to depart the Celestial Palace.
But just when they were only several meters from the exit of the palace, Formbi abruptly stopped and grasped one hand at his chest with a look of utter agony as his expression. He collapsed first to his knees, then fell prone to the floor while the rest of the party continued ahead of him for several steps before they stopped and turned back to him. One of the guards shouted something, but Formbi replied in his native tongue with a wave of his hand, which prompted the two remaining Chiss to turn back and continue running. The Solos joined them without hesitation.
Outside, the Solos and the Chiss continued running for their vessels, the surviving members of Thuruht from the Celestial Palace scrambled out of the exit in a large pile like the insects they were. The Killiks' charges didn't stop firing, but they did stop in their tracks when the largest member of Thuruht rose from the ground to tower over the party of five individuals.
That large member then dove for them, coercing the party to move off to the sides, the Solos on the one side, the Chiss on the other. Unfortunately, one of the guards was too slow to react, and ended up crushed by the large Thuruht member as it burrowed itself back into the ground. Regardless, the Solos and the sole remaining guard didn't break stride as they continued to hurry forward. Unfortunately for the last Chiss, when the large Thuruht burst from the earth again, it took the guard with him in its gaping maw, where he was surely eaten.
Now the Solos were on their own as they ran for the Millennium Falcon.
"Why do you think... they didn't destroy the Falcon... so we won't be able to leave?" Allana asked in between hard breaths from running for so long.
"Maybe... it's because... they know I'll... kick their... collective asses... for that," Han managed to rasp as he tried to to keep pace with his Force-powerful wife and granddaughter.
"If only... it were that... simple, Han," Leia replied. By then, though, Leia had already gotten it into her head that perhaps the Killiks didn't want to destroy the Falcon so they could use it as a vessel to escape from Reonoq, along with the Jedi Knights' StealthXs and the Chiss shuttle; provided they could even get past the Chiss blockade, of course. But Leia knew she'd run out of breath, even with her Force abilities, if she even began trying to tell Allana that.
The ground behind them erupted from the giant Thuruht member as the rest of its smaller brethren began running around it to continue hunting down the Solos. That was when Allana decided to take the opportunity to briefly turn around, whip out her lightsaber, promptly activate it, and threw it, using the Force, toward the giant Thuruht, where its soaring trajectory brought it to cut its searing blade across the gargantuan Killik's eyes before traveling up to sever its mandibles, literally cutting it off from the hive mind.
And without eyes of its own or of its brethren, the giant Thuruht began stomping around on the ground, blind and in pain, and unfortunate members of its hive were squashed beneath its heels as they continued to chase the Solos.
"Nice move, Allana," Leia commented as her granddaughter recalled her lightsaber to her hand.
"Never thought... I'd ever get to see... a bug squash other bugs... in my life," Han said.
"You like... seeing that?" Leia retorted.
"I love seeing it," Han said. "Just as much as I... love you, honey."
"How sweet," Leia replied sardonically just as they reached the Falcon, where the boarding ramp was already lowering in place thanks to Leia's Force use. The three of them then ran up the ramp and to the cockpit, where it began closing as Allana pushed the retract button for the ramp along the way.
With Killiks still approaching them, it was only slightly more than a quarter of a minute before the Falcon's belly turret lowered into view to began blasting approaching Killiks into either charred corpses or even vapor. It even managed to shoot down the lumbering behemoth that was blind and cut off from its hive, turning it into a flaming, crispy pile of chitin just as the Falcon began lifting off into the air.
Minutes later, it broke Reonoq's atmosphere and soared for the Chiss fleet in the distance.
But on the Falcon's radar, it found that there exactly seven blimps that registered that was coming up behind the ancient YT-1300, their source being Reonoq. Six of them were StealthXs, which the Falcon could detect via a special sensor package installed courtesy of the Jedi Order, and the last was a Chiss shuttle.
"I hate bugs," Han murmured.
Leia then commed the Chiss fleet. "This is Jedi Knight Leia Organa Solo. Is there anyone I can speak to?" She silently prayed to the Force, hoping there would be a Chiss there who could speak Basic; with Formbi gone, the Solos were on their own with the Ascendancy.
"This is Admiral Ar'alani," an elderly feminine voice speaking in passive Basic replied. "What is it, Jedi Solo?"
"The Killiks are hostile," Leia stated. "I repeat, the Killiks are hostile. Ambassador Formbi's entire guard is dead, and his and our protocol droids have been destroyed. The shuttle coming up behind us is now under control of the Thuruht, and it is aided by six StealthX starfighters that your sensors cannot pick up!"
There was silence on the other end of the comm as muted voices, one of them being Ar'alani's, speaking in Cheunh as they tried opening up a transmission that Leia wasn't surprised to find that the Killiks wouldn't respond to. Then Ar'alani came back on the line fully and speaking Leia's language. "Your story has been confirmed," the admiral said. "We will help you. We are sending an entire squadron compliment of clawcraft to aid you."
"Great," Leia said as Han turned the Falcon for the seven incoming vessels from Reonoq. "Thanks."
The clawcraft managed to catch up with the aged YT-1300 before they were halfway to the seven other ships.
"And you said this was the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy," Leia remarked.
"I'm still not giving Jag any credit for their speed," Han said.
Leia smiled at her husband's signature stubbornness before the seven enemy vessels began firing upon them.
The Falcon dove beneath the incoming lasers while the clawcraft squad peeled up and lopped around to continue on course, firing along the way in spite of not finding any targets.
But the apparently-random shots they took resulted in six explosions of vessels that were previously not there, rendering six out of seven of their enemies out of the count.
"Well, that was easy," Han said before he managed to easily blow up the poorly-shielded, poorly-armored Chiss shuttle with a few of his own lasers.
"We just can't seem to find any decent enemies to fight these days, do we?" Leia asked. Then she noticed the clawcraft speeding for Reonoq. "Where are they going?"
"Jedi Solo," Ar'alani's voice returned. "Given your information, we have now sent our squadron to raid Reonoq to exterminate Thuruht."
"No!" Leia exclaimed. "We must recover the seven Knights, including Raynar Thul! And there's still a chance that Ambassador Formbi is alive!"
"We cannot risk it," Ar'alani stated. "Even if the ambassador was still alive, the Phalanxes will no doubt consider him as acceptable collateral damage."
"And the Jedi Knights?" Leia reminded the admiral. "Do you really want to spark another conflict with the Order if you decide to kill those Knights?"
"We had no qualms of going against you or the Galactic Alliance years ago," Ar'alani said. "What makes you think we'll back down now, especially now that both the Order is now weaker without the Alliance, and the Killiks are weaker now that they are isolated in one nest on one world?"
"Don't think the Hapes Consortium won't go against you with the Jedi," Leia said.
"They are lesser in power than the Alliance," Ar'alani said. "Like I said, your Order is weaker for it. And I suggest you don't try to stop us here; even the Millennium Falcon isn't powerful enough to take on a whole squad of clawcraft, never mind this very fleet."
Han looked to his wife as to what they should do. Leia solemnly nodded, affirming that they needed to do what needed to be done.
"Oh, yeah?" Han retorted to Ar'alani. "Well, just watch us."
"This should be amusing," Ar'alani remarked sardonically before signing off.
Han then pushed the throttle and raced the Falcon back for Reonoq.