A Prelude to War

[Crayz9001]

Moving right along:


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE




Jacen tried to calm himself inside the cockpit of the TIE Advanced as he
watched the spinning asteroid field in front of him. They had been on
Lando's latest crazy moneymaking scheme, a space station appropriately
named /Belt-Runner I/ located on the edge of Dubrillion's asteroid belt,
for almost a week now. Of course, that part hadn't surprised Jacen since
asteroid mining was a fairly common industry in the galaxy.

What had surprised him was that Lando had plotted a course along a
certain area of the mostly stable asteroid belt, named it "Lando's
Folly," and gone about selling the chance to fly through it in a TIE
fighter to anyone willing—and insane enough—to pay.

Naturally Lando insisted it was perfectly safe, explaining that the TIE
fighters were protected by brand-new repulsorlift shields projected from
/Belt-Runner I/. Jacen, however, had his misgivings despite the so-far
perfect track record that Lando said the course had.

Jaina had been the first to jump at the chance, and had been trying to
convince Lowie, Tenel Ka and himself for the whole week they'd been
there to try their hands at beating the lowest time, which ironically
enough had been set by Kyp Durron himself before the Dozen-and-Two had
been utterly trashed at Helska.

Finally Jacen had agreed, at which point Lando put them through a
roughly hour-long training that had included the fighter controls, a
simulation of a crash into an asteroid (which felt to Jacen as if he was
inside one of the largest pool balls ever) and how all the craft had a
limited on-board hyperdrive set to take them back to a recovery area
outside the belt.

Not that it made him feel any more confident.

Jaina of course had wanted to take the course first, despite her only
having a single good eye, and right now she had just passed the first
marker. Over the comm, he heard her whoop as he assumed she narrowly
avoided some asteroids. Several seconds later, it was his turn to launch.

He gritted his teeth, and the TIE fighter shot out of the launch
catapult in /Belt-Runner I/'s hangar with a howl that reverberated
through the whole craft as the engines kicked in. Jacen hung on to the
controls, keeping the TIE within the envelope displayed on its
simplified targeting displays.

The numbers on the screen counted down to zero, and it was time to go
in. He punched the throttle, rolling the fighter in between a couple of
large asteroids that were only gently spinning. The craft shook a little
as it was pummeled with smaller fragments, but none actually hit the
ship thanks to the repulsor fields.

Keeping his attention only partially focused on the course map shown on
the targeting computer, Jacen let himself slip into the Force as he
continued to twist and jink among the asteroids. Dimly, he could feel
Jaina doing the same as she neared the end of the course.

A particularly large and jagged asteroid loomed ahead of him, and he
reached out to get a feel for what surrounded it. Quickly, he brought
the TIE almost straight in at the asteroid, diving into a large, shallow
canyon on its surface a moment later. As he did so, several other
asteroids spun through the place he had been just a moment before.

With a triumphant shout, he pulled the TIE hard out of the canyon and
back onto the course, weaving his way through a series of smaller rocks.

He suddenly hit the reverse thrusters as he saw the corridor he'd been
planning on taking close suddenly. Thinking quickly, Jacen spun the TIE
hard on its axis and punched upwards, finding another corridor—

Then a rock, strangely fast-moving compared to the rest of them, slammed
into the repulsor shields, sending him careening off course. He focused,
firmly grabbing at the stick and trying to keep firing the thrusters to
get back on track, but the impact had been too hard for him to correct
immediately. He saw the next one coming, and tried to spin the TIE
around to point its powerful engines at the rock before he hit. This
time he managed to minimize the effect of the impact, although when he
hit, it effectively canceled out the sideways momentum he'd built up and
he simply hung, momentarily stunned and drifting, as the asteroids
drifted past him.

/Jacen?/ Jaina's thoughts hit him suddenly. /Are you all right/?

/Yes,/ he responded after several seconds, trying to re-compose himself.
/I think I've blown any chance I had at the record though./

He felt her wanting to laugh but not wanting to break her concentration.
Meanwhile, he re-oriented his TIE, taking care to not slip backwards in
the belt (which would immediately disqualify him), punching the throttle
and again accelerating against the orbit of the belt.

This time, he was much more cautious, having already blown his chance at
beating Kyp's record. As he passed the first marker, he felt Tenel Ka's
apprehension behind him as it was now her turn to navigate the belt.
Thankfully for her, the TIEs had a single control stick, which she could
easily use with her hand.

He emerged untouched another twenty minutes later, letting out a
relieved sigh now that it was over as the TIE's autopilot kicked in,
taking him back to the station.

As the station's tractor beams snagged him and began to draw the fighter
in, he could already feel Jaina's excitement, which unfortunately he
didn't share. Exhausted and slightly dizzy from the trip, he climbed out
of the TIE's cockpit up the extended ladder, where Jaina was waiting for
him.

"Gimme five!" she shouted, obviously happy. "You should have seen it, I
even managed to beat Kyp's record!"

He gave her the lopsided smile he'd inherited from his father. "Great
work, sis," he said as he turned to find a monitor.

"Hey, you didn't do half bad yourself, except for that spill you took
past the first marker," she replied. "At least you're in the top 10."

Finally he gave up. "Where are the monitors? I want to see how Tenel Ka
and Lowie are doing."

"Oh," Jaina exclaimed. "Come with me, they're in the waiting area with
Lando."

As they reached the waiting area, he could see multiple screens tracking
a large number of pilots, with names below each screen. After scanning
the wall for several seconds, he finally saw Tenel Ka's fighter as it
rounded the last marker.

While he was watching, Lando walked up to him and clapped him on the
back. "That was a pretty good recovery you did there," he said. "I'm
sure Han would be proud."

"I still got hit," Jacen replied half-heartedly. "Any other place and
I'd be dead."

Lando nodded. "True, but you still made it. Hey, did you see the
maneuver your sister pulled toward the end? They're still talking about
it in the control room."

"No," Jacen admitted. "What did she do?"

Lando tapped some buttons on his wristcomm, and one of the blank screens
came up with a recording of Jaina's run. He could see her in the
distance, shooting through the field. Almost like what had happened to
him, Jaina's corridor closed up unexpectedly, and he saw the lettering
on the bottom of the screen boldly stating that the computers did not
see a way out. He saw Jaina hesitate for the briefest of moments before
heading straight for the near-wall of asteroids. The recording
illustrated the invisible repulsor fields as she punched them, causing
the fighter to ricochet through an impossibly small gap between two of
the asteroids. At the end of the run between those asteroids, one of the
TIE's wings just barely missed a protrusion, and suddenly it went out of
control into another asteroid. Just as Jacen would have thought that
she'd leave the belt, disqualifying her, the timer stopped and declared
that she had reached the end of the course. The fighter bounced off that
last asteroid and she was clear, tumbling into space.

"You sure can fly," Jacen remarked to his sister, impressed.

As they were waiting for Tenel Ka and Lowie to finish their runs,
suddenly the alarms in the room went off and Lando frowned as he held
his ear, listening to the commlink bud.

"There's about fifty ships that just appeared off Destrillion," he
finally said. "The /Falcon/'s in the lead. I don't know what happened
but it sure looks bad, they're hailing on all the distress channels."

Jaina and Jacen immediately were focused on what Lando was saying as he
hit his wristcomm. "Guide the /Falcon/ in for a landing here, see if the
Dubrillion government can escort the rest of them to the surface for
triage."

"What's happening?" Jacen asked.

"Your mother's flying the /Falcon/, she says that Sernpidal was attacked
and those ships are all that's left."
"What about Dad and Chewie?" Jaina immediately asked.

"She wouldn't say, only that they had wounded on board."

The twins exchanged a worried glance. "Which hangar are they coming in to?"

Lando pointed to the exit. "Come with me, I'll show you where it is."

Together they rushed through the station's corridors, taking several
turbolifts until they were at the correct docking bay. They walked out
just in time to find the /Falcon/ settling down into one of the berths.

"Mom?" both Jaina and Jacen said in unison as the /Falcon/'s ramp
lowered and Leia walked down. "What happened?" Jacen asked as they
rushed up to meet her.

Leia just grabbed both and hugged them in response. "Go see your father,
maybe you can help him. He hasn't spoken since Sernpidal."

They turned, walking up the ramp as the passengers started to come down.
Once inside, they started walking around, trying to find him.

"Dad?" Jaina asked as they rounded the corner, seeing him kneeling in
front of the medical berth. Chewie was just lying on the berth, and it
wasn't until they approached closer that they could see he wasn't
moving, blood having pooled around him.

"Go away," Han snapped.

Taken aback, they stopped in their tracks for a moment. "Dad?" Jaina
asked again. "What happened? You can always tell us..."

"It's not that," he said, quietly this time. "They attacked us and he
did what he always did, he went to defend us. I saw him take down almost
a dozen of them before their leader went after him." Han's voice rose to
a crescendo. "He fought so hard—and I couldn't do ANYTHING to help him!
Not until it was too late!"

"Dad," Jacen said after a moment had passed, "I'm sure you did
everything you could..."

"It wasn't enough!" Han shouted, almost in tears. "I would have gladly
traded places with him... What am I supposed to tell Mallatobuck... and
Lumpy... and Lowbacca? That he died pointlessly, fighting against a
faceless enemy?"

"Tell them," Jacen suggested, his voice cracking from the emotions,
"that Chewie died valiantly, a true Wookiee warrior, defending you as
per the life debt he had freely offered to you." Chewie had been a
fixture of their household ever since he could remember, always
protecting them when they were children, always there to fix things when
they broke them...

Now he would never be there again.

The thought struck Jacen suddenly at the same time as it did Jaina.
Tears began to flow freely down his face although he fought to retain
his composure, and if he had looked over at Jaina he would have seen her
reacting the same way.

"Dad," he said, fighting to get the words out, "there's more where they
came from, right? We need to start evacuating other planets, otherwise
millions could die right now."

Han let out a long sigh and tried to lift himself to his feet, but the
hours he'd spent on his knees in front of Chewie hadn't helped his aging
joints. "A little help here?"

Jaina and Jacen both grabbed his arms, helping him to his feet. As they
walked out and down the ramp, Han spotted Lando and his face formed into
a scowl.

"You," Han said accusingly, marching right up into Lando's face. "You
told us Sernpidal would be a good spot to settle down, so far out of the
way that nobody would care."
"Han," Lando protested before getting cut off again.

"What cut did you get from that deal, huh, 'old buddy'? Did you get any
satisfaction out of knowing that Chewie died because of your arrangements?"

Lando put his hands up. "Whoa, hold it right there. Chewie's dead?"

"Yes," Han's voice had dropped in tone to something barely above a
growl. "He was cut down by the invaders, I couldn't do anything to stop
them. I had to watch as he died right in front of me!"

"Dad," Jaina said, putting her hand on his arm as she fought back tears.
"I'm sure Lando didn't know a thing about it. He told you about
Sernpidal long before any of us knew about this invasion."

"That doesn't mean I have to talk to him," Han said sullenly.

"No," Jacen jumped in, "but if we want to help all the other people out
there, since the Republic's not doing anything, we need to work together."

Han twisted himself free. "Then find somebody else to help. I've done
enough to save the galaxy."

The twins watched Han storm off before turning to Lando. "I don't know
how long it'll take him to get over losing Chewie," Jacen finally said.
"I've never seen him this mad before."

Lando was silent for several minutes before responding. "Well, you're
right, we need to act fast to save these people. Dubrillion can take at
least several million refugees, I'll have to go talk to the government
about it but I'm sure they'll help. As far as defenses go, I've pulled
some strings and there are some warships on their way in, in addition to
the Dubrillion defense forces. We've also got more laser cannons here
than people to operate them."

"How are we going to get the word out?" Jacen asked. "The /Rock Dragon/
is only one ship..."

"You can use my ship too," Lando said, pointing to the /Lady Luck/ where
it sat adjacent to the /Falcon/. "I'll try to talk Han into helping as
well, but knowing him it might take a while before he's willing to talk
to me again."

"What about the refugees?" Jaina asked.

"We have a couple dozen heavy transports that I'll send with you," Lando
replied. "They should be able to take at least several tens of thousands
each, maybe more if you pack them in. Won't be pretty but it'll help."


The first trip to Dantooine, Jacen reflected the next day, had been very
uneventful. Since it had taken most of the previous day to go there,
load, and return, they had slept as soon as they had arrived back at
Dubrillion. Now, once again they were on their way to Dantooine. So far
Jaina and Lowbacca hadn't made it back yet from Jorrkona, where they had
taken the bulk of the transports since it was a larger, more populous
planet, but it made sense – it took a long time to even take one load
from Dantooine, most of the time spent convincing the local authorities
(such as they were) that there really was a genuine threat to the
planet. Of course, once Tenel Ka had explained the pattern of attacks,
and the fact that so far the invaders had apparently been avoiding the
most populated and well-defended worlds, they had quickly agreed to the
plan.

Jacen still wondered about his sister's reasoning that Dubrillion, which
was further Rimward than Dantooine, would make a safer location for
refugees, although he had to agree that its superior defenses and close
proximity to the Imperial remnants made a certain amount of sense.

He watched, lost in thought, as Tenel Ka expertly pulled the ship out of
hyperspace and began the descent into the atmosphere. There was
something about the way she moved that had always struck him, although
it had taken him a while to figure it out. Neither was that the only
thing he'd noticed. Whenever she turned her head, the golden reddish
braids that she usually wore flipped back and forth almost as if they
were alive. Then there was the skin-tight lizard hide suit that she
almost always wore...

"Jacen?" she asked, causing him to involuntarily jump. "Is everything
all right?"

"Uh, yeah," he replied with a sheepish smile as he turned back to the
instruments. He hadn't realized that he had been staring at her for that
long.

Minutes later, they touched down on a grassy field that was somewhat
flattened from their last landing, and Jacen unbuckled himself and
jumped up.

"Threepio?" he asked as he found the passenger compartment empty. He
continued down through the ship, opening up different compartments until
finally he was aft in one of the mechanical compartments. C-3PO was
standing against a wall, apparently hooked up. "Threepio? he repeated.
"What are you doing?"

"I decided to hook myself up to the ship's computer since there was
no-one to talk to," Threepio replied. "Master Jacen, did you know that
this ship speaks an Imperial language? The Hapans must have recovered
the computer from one of their battles with the Empire."

Jaina might have found that interesting, but Jacen certainly didn't.
"No, I didn't," he replied. "Look, Threepio, I need you to go to the
cockpit and keep an eye on the ship. Look for anything odd on the
sensors and warn us immediately."

"Certainly, Master Jacen," Threepio replied. "I would be more than
obliged to. Would you also like me to scan for communications?"

"Go ahead," Jacen sighed. "Just remember to warn us if anything happens."

"Of course." C-3PO disconnected himself and shuffled off to the cockpit.
Jacen, meanwhile, returned to the landing ramp where he found Tenel Ka
waiting for him.

"So what's the plan this time?" he asked.

"The transports will land in the same two locations as the last time. We
should split up again and supervise loading."

As they walked down the ramp and through the now mostly deserted city,
Jacen again couldn't help but watch the way she moved as she walked.
Actually, he corrected himself, she /flowed/ more than walked. Then,
finally, they reached the middle of the city and split off on the
different roads that led to the two landing sites.

When he approached the gigantic transports, he could see this time that
the authorities had lined up the locals this time for faster loading,
rather than the mob that had attempted to board the first time. It was a
pretty interesting mix of humans and Dantari, the lanky figures and
simple handcrafted clothing of the latter making them easily
distinguishable. Of course, other aliens were mixed in here and there,
he noted as he spotted a Rodian sticking out like a sore thumb with its
green skin.

"How many do we have this time?" he asked the local leader, a human who
he'd already forgotten the name of.

"We collected most of the Dantari from the nearby villages, but many of
them didn't understand the concept of invasion and refused to leave.
There are probably still thousands more scattered across the planet."

"If we have room," Jacen asked, thinking, "we should probably fly around
and pick as many up as we can."

"I doubt many will even want to come," the leader replied. "The ones
here, near the city, have learned Basic through trading with us although
they're pretty limited in vocabulary. The ones further out speak a
number of different dialects and tend to be very wary of strangers. Even
worse, due to what Admiral Daala did a few years ago, they view the
Imperials as gods. Some of 'em even paint stormtrooper armor on their
chests!"

"Well... we have to try," Jacen insisted, somewhat surprised. "We'll
bring our protocol droid along to translate."

A shout made Jacen turn around, and he saw a short, stocky human
gesturing wildly at a Dantari that had apparently cut in front of him.
Jacen quickly turned and jogged over to the line.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking down at him.

"This stupid brute doesn't even know what a line is!"

Jacen turned around to face the tall Dantari. "Can you understand me?"
he asked.

The Dantari grunted, and the short man harrumphed. "Could have told you
/that /doesn't work. Can you just make him move or something?"

Jacen thought for a moment, then decided that perhaps the best tactic
was the same one that he'd used during his years at the Praxeum on Yavin
IV. He projected his thoughts into the Dantari's head, showing him
images of the death and destruction the invaders had caused, and their
scarred, grim visage. Then he thought of the blowing grasses of
Dubrillion's plains, of the clear skies and open oceans, and showed the
Dantari walking through the plains.

The Dantari grunted, turned, and walked away.

"What did /I/ do wrong?" Jacen asked aloud, knowing that even he
couldn't answer the question much less anyone else present.

"I dunno, you didn't say anything and he left," the short man replied.
"Thanks."

As Jacen stood watch, the line of thousands continued to move past. He
watched as people of all different ages walked past him. They ranged
from women carrying their young infants to old men and women who could
barely walk. He shook his head at the gall of the invaders. It wasn't as
if the galaxy had had enough turmoil due to the Empire's atrocities, no,
there just had to be some other species hell-bent on undoing everything
that they'd worked so hard to rebuild just to gain control of a galaxy.
He didn't even know what they wanted with the galaxy besides territory...

He wasn't sure what was more unsettling, the fact that the galaxy was
being invaded or the fact that nobody knew anything about them. The only
thing he did know was that as a Jedi, the responsibility that came with
the power he had meant that he, and all the other Jedi in the galaxy,
had to do everything they could to protect those living in it.


Several hours later, as the line was finally beginning to taper off,
Jacen's commlink beeped and he heard Threepio's tinny voice from the
position in his pocket.

"--some ships inbound" was all he heard as he pulled the commlink out.

"Threepio, I didn't hear you," Jacen said.

"Master Jacen, the ship's computer tells me that it has detected a
number of small ships inbound for the city."

Jacen frowned. "What do they look like?"

"They are almost the same as the ones that attacked us at Sernpidal."

/Kriff/, Jacen thought. "Is there anything in orbit?"

There was a pause as Threepio consulted the computer. "Only one of the
moons."

"They must be on the far side of the planet," Jacen finally said. "Maybe
that will give us a bit more time." He turned and shouted toward one of
the local authorities. "You have to get everyone on quickly, there are
hostiles inbound and there isn't much time!"

The man's face went ashen as he realized what Jacen was saying. He
quickly turned and ran down the line, shouting at those in line to leave
their belongings and get on.

In the meantime, Jacen switched the channel on his commlink. "Tenel Ka?"

"I'm here," she replied.

"Did you hear Threepio?"

"I did, what's worse is I can see them now, and it looks like they're
landing."

Jacen looked up and around, but couldn't see anything. Then again, he
was standing in front of the transport... He quickly walked around the
giant clamshell-shaped transport and suddenly wished he hadn't.

"They've landed here too," he said. "There's some sort of giant snail
coming towards us, and I can see their shock troops running alongside it."

Suddenly the snail-like creature recoiled, and Jacen instantly could see
the globe of glowing plasma it had vomited up (which was the only
explanation that made any sense to him at the moment) flying through the
air towards the transport.

"Kriff, they're firing on us!" he shouted as he grabbed his lightsaber
and ran back to the boarding ramp, where there were only a few people
still outside. "Get the ramp up and take off or you're going to be dead!"

"What about the others?" one man said, gesturing to the people still
outside.

"I'll take them!" Jacen shouted. "Get out of here!" As if to punctuate
his statement, one of the strange rocky fighters flashed past, the only
warning of its arrival the slurping sound of its own plasma launchers as
it strafed the field. Fortunately they didn't hit anything but Jacen
could feel the heat sting his skin as the plasma went by.

He pointed with his lightsaber toward the /Rock Dragon /on the other
side of the city. "Run!" he shouted as he ignited it, the blade glowing
with an emerald hue even in the bright daylight. The small group of
humans and Dantari wasted no time in following the instructions. As he
followed them, he heard the transport blast off, and he could only hope
that they would make it through the fighters. Lando had sent several
fighters along with them for escort, but Jacen wasn't sure just how they
were faring since even Kyp, probably one of the most able Jedi pilots
that Jacen knew, had had trouble against these fighters.

As he reached the /Rock Dragon/ and started urging the people aboard,
his comm beeped again.

"Jacen!" Tenel Ka's voice sounded frantic. "They're too close and we
still have a lot of people on the ground here! I need you to help me
hold them off until we can take off!"

He quickly grabbed the comm. "I'll be right there." After making sure
the /Rock Dragon/'s controls were locked so that nobody could panic and
leave them stranded, he ran outside and started toward the other transport.

When he was about halfway there, he felt a sudden cry of pain in the
Force, almost the equivalent of an ear-splitting scream. He had heard
the same cry once before, almost six years before in fact, when in the
middle of a sparring match Tenel Ka's newly constructed lightsaber had
exploded in her hand, causing his own lightsaber to slice her arm
cleanly off. It was the sort of cry he could never forget.

The world seemed to slow down as Jacen's focus narrowed on one goal:
getting to Tenel Ka before anything happened. He continued sprinting,
only barely conscious of how fast he was moving, until he finally
rounded the last building that separated them.

Immediately he saw her, vainly trying to hold her own against two
hideously scarred warriors. Like Yomin Carr, they were both intricately
tattooed with evidence of many broken bones, and they both carried the
same dangerous staff.

Jacen didn't even slow down as he approached, charging straight for the
one on the right. He pulled his lightsaber and ignited it in one swift
motion, aiming it straight at the warrior as he collided. The sudden
impact of the lightsaber, driven forward by a hundred-kilo Jedi moving
at impossibly fast speeds, was too much for the obviously surprised
warrior's armor. The lightsaber burned straight through its chest as
Jacen's momentum carried the two about a meter forward.

As the world returned to normal, Jacen picked himself up off the
now-dead alien and pulled his lightsaber out. Remembering the danger the
alien's staff weapon posed, he quickly stabbed its "head" as it writhed
on the ground near its former master's hand.

Before he could turn around, however, he both felt and heard another
sharp cry of pain from Tenel Ka. Spinning around, he saw the other
alien's staff bite with its fangs deep into her forearm, causing her
lightsaber to fall from her already weakened grip. As the warrior
withdrew his staff, Jacen sprung into motion, reaching out with his
lightsaber to block a killing blow.

Both combatants stepped back and circled, staff and lightsaber raised in
defensive positions, as they studied each other. Despite seeing the
warrior as a sort of blank spot in the Force, Jacen could tell by its
stance that he was not as experienced as Yomin Carr had been.

"Why wait, /Jeedai/?" he suddenly asked in passable Basic, its voice
coming out in hissing tones. "Why do you not strike to save her?"

As tempted as Jacen was to do so, he waited, studying the alien's
posture. He knew from the fight with Yomin Carr that the alien's armor
had weak spots in the armpits, although his killing the first of these
two warriors was more a stroke of blind luck than anything else. Yet the
way it held its arms, they were relatively tight to its body so striking
there would be very hard.

Suddenly the warrior lunged, and Jacen saw an opening. He dove hard to
the ground, his staff passing dangerously close to Jacen's head, and
kicked out at the warrior's knees. There was a loud /crunch /that Jacen
knew was his kneecap breaking, and suddenly off balance, it moved its
arms out to keep from falling. That was when Jacen stabbed upwards with
his lightsaber, driving it straight through the joint in the armor.

The warrior grinned and laughed, a reaction that Jacen hadn't exactly
been expecting, as it staggered backwards. It awkwardly regained its
footing, putting the weight on its now broken leg, and moved its staff
to its good hand. Jacen, meanwhile, jumped to his feet and held his
lightsaber at the ready in front of himself.

"You'll have to try harder than that," he shouted at the warrior, noting
with a sinking feeling in his chest that the rest of the troops were
getting closer far too rapidly.

As the warrior awkwardly moved closer, Jacen reached out and about
thirty kilos of dirt and rocks launched towards the alien, temporarily
blinding him. He charged forward and with a well-aimed kick, took out
the alien's other kneecap. The warrior fell backwards, unable to support
himself anymore, and hit the ground hard. Jacen batted the staff aside
with his lightsaber before pointing it at the warrior's throat. "Do you
surrender?"

"Yuuzhan Vong do not surrender!" he half shouted, grabbing Jacen's ankle
and twisting. Now it was Jacen's turn to land on the ground, the
warrior's action sending intense daggers of pain through his old wound.
Gritting his teeth, he tried to jump back to his feet, making an awkward
landing when his newly aggravated ankle hit. The Yuuzhan Vong was
already crawling back toward its staff, so Jacen limped past him and
struck at the coiled staff, causing it to spasm uncontrollably.

"Surrender!" Jacen shouted, standing out of the warrior's reach and
pointing his lightsaber at him.

It made a growling cry. "Kill me."

"No." Jacen snapped the lightsaber off and backed up toward Tenel Ka.
"That is not the Jedi way."


Still in intense agony due to his heel, he limped back to Tenel Ka and
knelt down next to her. Her arm had become very pale already, and as he
moved closer he could barely hear her muttering about poison. He looked
back at the approaching Yuuzhan Vong forces and grunted as he reached
under her and picked her up, using the Force to give himself greater
strength. Then he set off as fast as he could for the /Rock Dragon/.

As he was almost to the ship's ramp, his leg muscles began to cramp and
spasm. He almost dropped her but several of the people inside the ship
had rushed down the ramp to help. Finally they set her down in the /Rock
Dragon/'s medical berth, and Jacen finally had another chance to look at
her arm. It was now a sickly greenish tint, and he could now see it
spreading further up almost to her shoulder.

He knelt close to her. "Tenel Ka? Can you hear me?"

She moaned and coughed weakly. "The poison... you have to stop it..."

/If only Cighal was here/, he thought to himself. But he was not a
healer like her, and while he knew how to use some purification
techniques on himself he had no idea how he could use them on her.
Besides, her arm was much, much worse than his leg had been that day...

"I don't know what to do!" he cried in despair, suddenly noticing that
her chest was now barely moving. The only thought that came to his mind
as he watched the greenish tint spreading up her arm...

/NO!/ he thought, frantically trying to come up with some other way. No
ideas presented themselves to him, so with a heavy sigh he drew his
lightsaber.

"Stand back," he finally said to the people around him. He leaned close
to Tenel Ka's ear. "I'm sorry... I couldn't think of anything else," he
whispered as tears started to run down his face.

Then he ignited the blade and delicately used its tip to slice through
her upper arm, above the discolored area. The blade cauterized the wound
as it passed through, and although Jacen knew it would cause intense
pain Tenel Ka hardly moved at all, her breath still coming out weakly.

After he placed her arm in one of the small stasis chambers at the rear
of the ship, he stood in front of her for a while just watching. She
seemed to be sleeping peacefully, and as Jacen reached out with the
Force he could feel her immune system struggling to respond to the
venom. Things seemed to be in her favor at least, he thought, or for the
time being anyway.

He was snapped out of his reflection by Threepio, who came rushing down
from the cockpit as fast as his shuffling gait allowed him. "Master
Jacen, there are more on the way!"

Jacen turned and looked out the ramp, seeing a horde of Vong troops
coming for the ship. He quickly raised the ramp and ran to the cockpit,
unlocking the controls and lifting the ship off on its repulsors. He
spun it around to point its powerful engines at the onrushing horde and
punched the throttle, knowing that the full blast of the engines would
at least knock them down if not outright kill them from the heat and
radiation.

As the ship shot upwards through the atmosphere, Jacen spotted several
of the coral-like fighters changing their course to meet him.

/I knew this was too good to be true, /he thought to himself as he
grabbed the ship's comm. "If anyone aboard knows how to use a turret,
we're going to have to blast our way out of here. The turrets are in the
middle of the ship."

After almost a minute had passed, Jacen felt the thumping of the turrets
opening fire. Most of the shots missed completely or were sucked up and
vanished, but a few got through. As the fighters closed in, he started
evasive maneuvers, twisting, rolling and jinking the ship to try and
avoid being hit. For all his maneuvering, however, the simple fact
remained that the /Rock Dragon/ was only a transport, and that fact was
literally pounded in as the whole ship shook from multiple hits.

As the sky turned black and the /Rock Dragon/ shot out into space, Jacen
frantically started looking for any sign of warships, like the ones that
had prevented his parents and the rest of the Sernpidal refugees from
going to hyperspace. That was about the last thing he needed right now,
what with the fighters hot on his tail.

After he had confirmed that there were no warships waiting in ambush,
Jacen quickly double-checked the coordinates in the navicomp to make
sure they were set for Dubrillion. His eyes remained focused on the jump
countdown as he kept flying evasive, and the second the alarm sounded he
pulled back on the controls, launching the /Rock Dragon/ forward into
hyperspace and leaving its pursuers in the dust, so to speak.



* * *



When the reversion alarm sounded several hours later, Jacen was sitting
at Tenel Ka's side, watching over her. She was still breathing but
nothing he had tried had woken her up. He ran forward to the cockpit and
watched the countdown—

When there were about twenty seconds left on the chronometer, there was
a sudden jolt and the sky of hyperspace exploded into a dizzying swirl
of lights. The inertial dampers prevented him from feeling the worst of
it, but just looking out the viewports made him feel sick.

There was, of course, only one explanation, he realized as he tried to
bring the wildly spinning ship under control. The Vong had arrived, and
they wanted to prevent anyone from escaping.

Jacen frantically considered his options. He didn't have any other
routes calculated in the navicomp yet, unless he wanted to jump back to
Dantooine. There was a war fleet surrounding Dubrillion, and if his
displays were reading correctly, the planet's shield was active which
meant he could not get through unless they opened it for him

The decision was quickly made for him as a swarm of the rocky fighters
appeared from behind. He punched the throttle, diving straight through a
heated exchange of fire between /Belt-Runner I/ and a Vong warship and
prayed they wouldn't take any hits as he grabbed the comm. "This is the
Hapan transport /Rock Dragon/ to anyone on Dubrillion. We have wounded
on board and are under heavy fire. Need a shield entry vector ASAP."

Seeing an opening ahead, Jacen rolled and flew around /Belt-Runner I/,
only to come out on the other side facing another group of Yuuzhan Vong
ships. "Blaster bolts," he muttered as frantically looked for an exit.
They were so spread out that there really weren't any angles they hadn't
covered, leaving him with not much else he could do except head straight
for them. Hopefully for him, that would present them with the smallest
target and give them very little time to lock on. So far the poor Hapan
transport had managed to survive the beating that the fighters had been
giving it, but Jacen had no doubts that whatever it was the capital
ships packed could surely overwhelm it.

As he rocketed towards the Vong ships, a fusillade of orange glowing
orbs emerged from the launchers. Luckily, they weren't aimed for him,
and instead went sailing past to the station. Sporadic turbolaser fire
came in return but Jacen noticed that it seemed to be weakening.

"Jacen?" He couldn't have been more relieved to hear Lando's voice.
"This is Lando. I'm working with Dubrillion control right now, they're
swamped down here. Look, kid, just give us a few minutes to get the
shield ready to open and we can let you in. I'll send you coordinates as
soon as we're ready."

Not daring to take his eyes off the viewports, Jacen silently thanked
Lando. Soon enough, he was in the middle of the Vong formation, again
trying his best to dodge plasma orbs—but this time ones that could
easily obliterate the ship.

After several harrowing moments, he was clear of the warships and
punched the throttle for Dubrillion. Several more fighters detached
themselves from the capital ships and started chasing him, at which he
rolled his eyes. /Don't they ever give up?/

In between maneuvers, he reached up and switched the displays to show
the range to Dubrillion. The planet was still only a glowing dot in the
distance, and moments later the computer confirmed it was about a half
million klicks out.

"Hurry up, Lando," he whispered as he dumped every spare joule of energy
into the ship's engines, pushing them well past their recommended
limits. He was immediately pushed further back into the seat, and he
quickly adjusted the inertial compensator so the passengers wouldn't get
too sick.

After several minutes he saw that the fighters were starting to gain on
him once again. Dubrillion was now distinguishable as a blue-green orb
although still horribly far off.

"Jacen," Lando's voice finally came through again, "we have a vector and
timing for you. Let me know when you have it."

Jacen glanced down and saw the information displaying on one of the
transport's screens. "Copy, Lando, I have it. It'll take me at least a
few more minutes to reach the shield and I have fighters hot on my tail,
request escort if possible."

"Negative on the escort," Lando replied. "We're short on fighters now,
we lost a lot before we got the shield up. We're going to time the
shield opening very close so hopefully we can get your tails to smash
into it, any that do make it through we should be able to handle."

/Just don't time it too close,/ Jacen thought although he knew Lando was
usually very good at keeping his word.

When they finally got close to the shield, Jacen simply corrected his
course without touching the throttle, making sure that they were
hurtling in as fast as possible. Lando had barely given him a second to
get through, he needed to make sure he had plenty of time to clear.

"Lando, I'm on approach," he said as he hit the comm. "I hope you're
ready down there or this is going to look really bad."

"Believe me, we're ready," Lando said. "Standby for opening."

He mentally counted down the seconds, trying to reach out with the Force
and /feel/ the shield surrounding the planet... and in comparison the
tiny pinprick of an opening that they were creating. They were
approaching it at a sickening speed, some fraction of the speed of light
that Jacen didn't even want to think about...

Then the hole opened, the /Rock Dragon/ slipped through, and almost as
quickly as it had opened it was once again gone. He could feel the
explosions in the rapidly increasing distance as most of the fighters
collided, but apparently one had been lucky enough to make it through.

Well, not for long, Jacen thought. In one swift move, he killed power to
the engines, which stopped him from accelerating any more but kept him
moving at the same suicidal velocity toward the atmosphere that was now
almost on top of him. Then he dumped the now suddenly freed power
directly into the repulsors and inertial compensators. The /Rock Dragon/
suddenly rebounded off the planet's mass and came to what might as well
have been a full halt compared to the pursuing fighter, which went by so
fast that Jacen's eyes didn't even register it. Moments later, he saw
the fireball as the c-fractional fighter hit the atmosphere. He only
hoped that the fighter wasn't designed for ballistic re-entry as he
started a slow descent toward Dubrillion's main city.


Sirens were wailing through the city as he touched down, although the
only people to greet him were paramedics.

"How many wounded?" the lead tech asked him.

"Just one, and you'll need a stretcher, she's poisoned and unconscious.
I think everyone else has severe motion sickness."

He followed them back up the ramp and showed them to the medical berth.
The lead tech frowned when he saw her. "What happened to her arms?"

Jacen had to admit he'd been expecting /that/ one. "The left one was a
training accident years ago. The right one she was bitten in and hit
with a fast-acting poison. I got a dose of the same stuff a few weeks
ago but it must not have been nearly as much, her arm started
discoloring almost immediately and she went unconscious." His voice
started to crack. "I had to amputate it."

The tech picked up the stump and inspected the cut. "What did you use?
I've never seen anything this clean or anything that cauterized this well."

"A lightsaber," Jacen replied.

"Oh. I'd heard about that, never actually saw one though. Do you still
have the rest of the arm?"

"I put it in stasis to keep the poison from destroying it," Jacen said.
"Kriff, I hope you guys can put it back on..."

By now they had her loaded on the stretcher and were starting to walk
her off. The other passengers, still obviously dizzy, had lined up
behind them as Jacen followed the paramedics down.

"What's your relation to her?" the tech asked as they loaded her up.

Jacen was a little dumbfounded by the question. "Uh..." He paused for a
few seconds. "We're Jedi, we were working together to evacuate Dantooine."

"Guess you're the lucky ones then," the tech replied. "The other
transports ran straight into these invaders as they were arriving. Only
one made it through. One hell of a mess on board that ship, too."

Jacen's stomach sank at the news. All that time he and Tenel Ka had
spent trying to protect them... The universe just wasn't fair sometimes.

The ride to the hospital was downright quiet. Only the beeping of the
life support equipment disturbed the silence, until Jacen finally
couldn't stand it any more. It was just maddening, he wanted to be able
to hold her hand at least but he couldn't even do that, thanks to his
own actions! He leaned forward and put his head in his hands, then just
let the tears flow.

[JEKrug01]

*mutters* Oh boy, just wait until they figure their way into our own galaxy, things will get much worse then!

[Crayz9001]

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX



Mara and Anakin were rather impressed when, over a week after Commodore Shimazaki had left to discuss their offer with his superior officers, he was now returning with a group of ten senior Admirals and the Federation President himself.

"I'm sure you want to know what our answer is," the President said after introductions had been made all around the room.

Mara simply nodded. "Of course."

"The Federation Senate was very divided at first," the President supplied. "There were many arguments on both sides, but cooler heads prevailed and I am pleased to say that we accept your offer." He extended his right hand.

She took his hand and shook it, breathing a sigh of relief. She had been half afraid, after talking to C'baoth about how the negotiations had gone earlier, that they would try to change the terms and be stuck in negotiations for weeks if not months on end.

"I'm glad to hear that," she finally said. "Have you picked a representative yet?"

"That was one of the points of contention after we had made our initial decision, and since Starfleet represents our collective interests without prejudice, we concluded it would be best served by a Starfleet officer. As such, I am appointing Commodore Shimazaki here, given his excellent diplomatic skills, to be our representative. Commodore, do you accept this?"

Shimazaki's mouth simply hung agape. He was certainly expecting that one of the senior Federation politicians would be appointed, or at the very least one of the senior Admirals. "Uh," he hesitated for a moment, "Yes, Mr. President, I do."

"Now," Mara said, "there is one more option that I need to discuss with you. As part of becoming a Republic member, it is important for members of both of our navies to familiarize themselves with the different technologies. Therefore, our Navy has a crew exchange program in place which will allow selected members of your Starfleet to serve on Republic Navy vessels for a standard tour of duty, and the same for Republic Navy crew to serve on your vessels. Is this offer agreeable?"

One of the admirals, Vice-Admiral Edward Jellico, spoke up. "Actually, we were about to ask you the same thing. We already have a number of crew selected that we would like to have go with you."

Mara smiled. "Perfect. I've been told by our engineers that they've finished the modifications to the Outbound Flight and it should be ready to leave in the next two days."

"In that case," Jellico replied, "have your forms and paperwork ready for us to look over tomorrow, and we will make the necessary arrangements on our side. We should have everyone ready to leave as soon as the paperwork is signed."

As Mara, Anakin, and the other Admirals left, Jellico clapped Shimazaki on the back. "Great work, Kaz," he finally said. "You know, this could be the start of great things to come. Don't let me down now, I've put far too much time into getting you where you are."

"You have my word," Shimazaki replied.


* * *


"Any news?"

The sudden question interrupted the quiet beeping of the life support equipment in the small room deep inside the Dubrillion military hospital. Jacen looked up to see his sister walk in and immediately jumped up to give her a hug. "She's still in a coma," he finally said, gesturing to Tenel Ka's bed, where she was hooked up to life support equipment. "They managed to make an antidote for the venom, but they told me they're not sure how far the extent of the damage is. Apparently it's a really horrible cocktail but the worst part is that it's a potent neurotoxin. They're worried it may have caused brain damage. I guess I was lucky I didn't get more of it on Belkadan."

"That's horrible," Jaina said, reaching up to touch her eyepatch at the memory. "How's her arm?"

Jacen sat down and shook his head. "She's going to kill me when she wakes up, I just know it," he said. "At least this time her lightsaber's still intact, but... She took such a large dose of the poison that in the time it took me to get her to the ship and put the arm in stasis, it had already started decomposing... the smell was just unbearable. They told me the only option is prosthetics. I told them to wait, since I remembered her reaction the last time someone tried to put prosthetics on her."

"What was that?"

"Well, you remember at the Academy, when her lightsaber failed and I accidentally chopped her other arm clean off?"

"Yes?"

"Ta'a Chume tried to force her to get a prosthetic arm installed. As soon as it made contact, she just freaked out and sent the arm flying. Luckily she didn't hit anyone with it."

"But what good is a Jedi without any arms?" Jaina protested.

Jacen snorted softly. "Tell me about it. I don't think she has any real choice, but I would just rather let her make her own decision this time. The last thing I want is to let them put new arms on her, only to have her strangle me with them when she comes to..."

Jaina put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Jacen, look, at least you made the right choice. If you hadn't done what you did, she wouldn't even be alive right now. I'm sure she'll see that as more important than the fact you had to amputate her only good arm."

"I hope you're right," Jacen finally admitted, leaning back and resting his head against the wall. "So, I haven't seen you in a while. You never told me what happened on Jorrkona."

Jaina took a seat across the room and stretched. "Well, I guess I didn't tell you, but Lowie and I have been working at cleaning up the mess left over from the battle, ever since the Navy showed up and chased the invaders off."

"By the way," Jacen said, "I finally found out what they call themselves."

"Really?"

"They're the Yuuzhan Vong," he said. "Apparently their honor prohibits surrender, or some crap like that."

"Well, I expected that much at least from our run-in with Yomin Carr," Jaina admitted. "Anyway, when we reached Jorrkona everything was very calm, but once we were in the middle of loading the transports the, uh... what did you call them?" She half-grimaced at forgetting the name already.

"Yuuzhan Vong," Jacen filled in.

"Right. So we were in the middle of loading the transports when the Vong arrived. We took pretty heavy casualties. I organized some of the local militia to hold them off while we tried to finish loading as many as possible."

"The same thing happened to us on our second trip from Dantooine," Jacen said. "But there wasn't any local militia so Tenel Ka and I were the only ones to hold them off."

Jaina shook her head. "It was a slaughter. Sure, we got a few, but they attacked with so much force it just overwhelmed us. We finally cut our losses and retreated, only to run into some warships in orbit. I think they followed us here, which is why you ran into the middle of the battle."

"So I take it the Lady Luck survived?"

"Yes," Jaina replied. "We took pretty heavy fire in it though. The hull plating is still scarred and pitted from all the molten rocks and plasma."

Jacen nodded. "Same here. So, are Mom and Dad still here?"

"Yes, and pretty badly shaken up, too. Lowie and I are going to go with them after we finish the cleanup and testify before the Senate. Sometime after that we're all planning on meeting up on Kashyyyk for Chewie's funeral. If Tenel Ka recovers by then, you should come too."

"I'm planning on it," Jacen said. They sat in silence for several minutes before Jaina got up. "Hey, would you mind coming with me for a while?"

Jacen looked across the room to where Tenel Ka lay, her unconscious form slowly rising and falling with every breath. The nurses had undone her braids and her hair, slightly kinked and messy, was was pulled back behind her head to keep it away from her arms. A feeding tube ran into her mouth, and fluids were dripping through IVs into her. She just looked peaceful, and Jacen didn't want to leave her in case she woke up...

Seeing the hesitation in his eyes, his sister took his hand. "Jacen, it's only for a few minutes. The doctors here are good, they can watch her in the meantime. It's just that we captured some of the Vong biotech and I wanted to show it to you, since you've always had a touch for that sort of thing."

He let out a heavy sigh, looking back at Tenel Ka's peaceful face, framed by the brilliant red locks that hung down over her ears. Jaina gave him another tug, and finally he turned. "OK, let's go, but make it quick."



A short walk and drive later, they were at a nondescript warehouse building that was surrounded by armed troops. When they saw Jaina, they opened ranks to let them pass inside.

"I think this is probably the best of the finds," Jaina said, obviously excited as she pointed to one of the enemy fighters, its cockpit shattered but otherwise intact. Test instruments were set up all around it but the technicians seemed frustrated.

"Of course you'd think that, you're a fighter pilot," Jacen joked as they walked up to the strange fighter. It was more aerodynamic than Jacen had realized, its texture only appearing rough from a distance but in actuality it was just a trick of the light and a property of whatever material it was made from, since the surface was actually almost polished smooth.

Jaina pointed at a hood that rested in the middle of the cockpit. "Apparently they used that to control it, I'm not sure how.

"There's only one way to find out," Jacen said, jumping up onto the fighter and looking inside the cockpit. It seemed to be made to normal humanoid dimensions, so he climbed in and picked up the hood.

"Wait!" Jaina shouted. "How do you know it's safe?"

Jacen shrugged. "They wore it, didn't they?"

As he held the hood, he could feel it seeming to pulsate with life. With some hesitation, he raised it up and slipped it over his head and heard... voices. It was hard for him to describe them, it sounded like whispering heard miles away underwater. Whatever language they were speaking sounded remarkably like what he had heard the troops on Dantooine speaking.

Struggling to concentrate because of the voices, Jacen tried to reach out to the fighter and find some way to communicate with it. After a few false starts, he finally had a feel for what the fighter was thinking—it was hungry, he realized, but he had no idea what it ate. He considered the environment that the fighters operated in, the cold depths of space...

"Jaina," he said, pulling the hood off, "it's telling me it's hungry. I think it wants to eat rocks and ice."

"If it wants to eat," Jaina said, walking around the fighter, "where's its mouth?" She momentarily ducked out of sight, and he heard her shout out "Found it!" from somewhere he couldn't see.

He climbed carefully out of the cramped cockpit and down the side, looking underneath when he reached the ground. Jaina was lying on the ground, pointing to a spot roughly in the middle of the craft.

"Can you find me a rock?" she asked.

Jacen walked outside and grabbed the first rock he saw, which was about the size of his fist. Then he returned and handed it to Jaina, getting down on his hands and knees to see under the fighter.

She took the rock and held it up to the opening in the fighter's bottom. There was a slight crunching noise and it grabbed the rock from Jaina, crushing it and letting small pieces of gravel fall to the ground.

He walked over to one of the guards. "Where can I get some ice around here?"

The guard turned to point to a place behind him. "Through those doors, next building, go to the cafeteria."

"Thanks." Jacen ran off, returning with a heavy bag of ice several minutes later. He handed it to Jaina, who fed it into the fighter. In the meantime, Jacen went outside again and picked up another bunch of large rocks, lugging them back to Jaina and handing them to her one at a time. When she was done feeding it, she climbed back out from underneath and looked at him expectantly.

"What?" he asked.

"After all that, aren't you going to find out if it's still hungry?"

"Oh." He shrugged and climbed back up the ladder to the top of the fighter. "I'll go check." He again squeezed himself into the cockpit and put the hood on, trying once again to get a feel for the fighter's bizarre biology...

"Get back," he finally said to Jaina. "I think I've figured out how to control this thing."

Silently, without the usual whine of generators that most repulsorcraft produced, the fighter rose up into the air about a half meter. All the instruments near the fighter suddenly went wild with alarms, and about a dozen technicians ran into the hangar.

"...the hell?" one of them exclaimed. "Hey, what are you guys doing?"

"It's a living fighter," Jaina explained. "If you don't feed it, it won't do anything!"

"Huh," he said. "Well, that makes sense. What does it eat?" he asked, as he walked over and started to check the instruments.

"So far, it looks like rocks and ice," Jaina replied.

"Minerals and water, then," the tech thought out loud, pausing for a moment to step back and look at the fighter. "Raw materials for... repairing damage? Water, fuel for some sort of fusion process, and oxygen for the pilot, I'd guess."

He continued examining the instruments, his brow furrowing as he did. "Interesting... it distorts gravity almost like a repulsor, but it's far more focused." The tech turned toward Jaina with a quizzical expression. "Is there anything else you can make it do?"

Jaina pointed to the cockpit. "My brother Jacen is flying, you should ask him."

Before the technician could say anything, the fighter settled back down onto its stands and Jacen pulled the hood off. "That was..." he started to say as he began to climb out. Not realizing that the ladder had been pushed back when the fighter had risen into the air, he tried to put his foot on the top rung and slipped on the slick surface of the fighter instead. The misstep was followed by a loud crash as Jacen plunged headfirst into a pile of cables, knocking down several instruments in the landing.

Jaina rushed up and began pulling the cables off him. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah," he replied, sounding a little woozy. "I think I was starting to say that it was a bit disorienting in there..." Jacen slowly came to his feet. "Look, why don't you give it a try, I really need to get back to Tenel Ka."

"But you've come so much farther than anyone else has with this thing," she protested.

"What's the difference?" he asked, starting to get upset. "It's not that hard to work, just listen to it and think about what you want it to do."

"Jacen, you've always been better at making living creatures respond to you than I have," Jaina almost pleaded. "I've always been better at flying and fixing stuff, although not as good as Anakin is at fixing. But when I try to work with animals or anything like that, I just have trouble getting through..."

Jacen took several steps forward, his head bowed. "Jaina, listen to yourself. What difference is understanding this one fighter going to make in this war?"

She started to say something, but Jacen raised his hand.

"OK, fine, so it can strip an X-wing's shields. Do you have any idea where to start looking for whatever it is makes it do that?"

"No, but--"

Jacen cut her off. "Exactly my point! Look, I really didn't need to be here to get the damn thing to come to life. All it would have taken was someone willing to get over their damned fear and stick that hood over their head, and it would have done the same thing. Maybe it would have taken them a bit longer to figure it out, but it would have happened. All I'm saying is that we're Jedi. While we're sitting here, screwing around with this fighter, we could be out there fighting these bastards, saving more lives, anything really to stop them from gaining a foothold here."

She put her hands on her hips. "Jacen, listen to me. The sooner we figure them out, the sooner we can start driving them back, and the more lives we save."

Jacen rolled his eyes. "Then maybe we should start by trying to figure out what the kriff is motivating these aliens. We have no clue who they are besides a name, no idea where they're from, and most importantly no idea why the hell they're attacking us." He paused. "Well, I take that back, it's obvious that they want planets. But why do they want them? Aren't there enough stars in the universe outside this galaxy?

His tone softened. "Besides, Tenel Ka is sitting several miles away in a hospital. There's nobody else there to protect her. She needs me now, more than ever."

Jaina looked at him and couldn't help but notice the anguish the thought was causing him, the water that had suddenly appeared around his eyes. "You're right, Jacen. It was really selfish of me to drag you out here like that." She paused as if processing a thought. "You know, with everything the two of you have been through, the way you've stood by her... Have you thought about telling her how you really feel? That you love her?"



* * *



Kathryn Janeway looked at the rope in front of her with a detached, analytical gaze. It had been a month and a half since she had been relieved of command of Voyager by Starfleet. After that news, she had moved back to her native Bloomington, Indiana, into a small farmhouse about a mile from her family's long-time homestead.

Since then, she had heard nothing from Starfleet, not that she had expected anything after the dressing-down they had given her. Her family's track record in space was less than exemplary, too. Her father, Vice-Admiral Edward Len Janeway, had become trapped under an ice cap while on an expedition on Tau Ceti Prime and drowned. Her 20th century ancestor and sometime role model, Shannon O'Donnell, she had once believed to be a successful NASA astronaut. Later she had found out from Seven of Nine that Shannon had never made it into space, that instead she had been an engineer who hadn't even been able to work at NASA.

She sighed; she hadn't been any better than them. She had been the only Captain in Starfleet who had managed to get her ship lost in the Delta Quadrant. She had missed numerous opportunities to get her crew home in the interest of gathering scientific data, ignoring the fact that it would all be in vain unless they could return to Earth. Then, when a real opportunity to get home appeared, she had freaked out at the concept of human telepaths and blindly refused to deal with them. Her crew had relieved her of command and gotten Voyager home, without her help.

The worst part of it was, after having explored the stars, she just couldn't live with a grounded career.
It was with that sentiment that she lifted the noose, which she had attached to a sturdy overhead beam in the farmhouse, and placed it over her head. She let out her breath, and was about to kick the chair out from under herself when there was the ground-shaking rumble of a sonic boom, followed by the familiar whining sound of a shuttle landing.

Janeway paused, her analytical mind shifting into high gear. First, since this was rural Indiana, Starfleet shuttles didn't land here very often. Second, the nearest house was her mother's at about three miles away, meaning that whoever it was from Starfleet had come here specifically for her.

She quickly took the noose off, reaching up and frantically untying the knot that secured it to the beam. A knock on the door startled her as she stretched to reach the rope above the beam, and she slipped off the chair, crashing awkwardly on the floor. Her head hit and that was the last thing she remembered.



An indeterminate amount of time later, she came to in a sickbay. As she lifted her head to look around, she realized that she had no idea where she was. Other than herself, the bay was deserted, and there were no clues aside from the styling to tell her where it was located.

"Ah, Captain, I hope you're feeling better."

She turned her head to see the new arrival. "... Captain Jellico?" she asked, slightly confused. She remembered his face, but his uniform and rank pips were that of an... "I'm sorry, Admiral, I didn't realize you had been promoted."

"You've been out of the loop for some time now, so I can excuse the lapse in protocol," Jellico replied, his face becoming more serious. "I hope you weren't really intending on hanging yourself?"

Had Janeway been standing, she would have looked down with shame. As it was, she turned to look away from the Admiral. "It's hard, losing your first command like that. I felt like I had nowhere to go, and after being out there, there just wasn't anything interesting about being on the ground anymore."

"I can understand that," Jellico said. "Which is why I'm here. Now, let's get you off that bed, we have a lot of things to talk about on the way."

Janeway slowly sat up to avoid having all the blood run from her head instantly, then swung her legs out and came to her feet. Jellico was already out, marching down the corridor at a brisk pace.

"I have a shuttle waiting," he explained as they stepped into a turbolift.



Several minutes later, as they came out to the shuttlebay, Janeway noticed one of the signs. "You brought me all the way to Utopia Planitia?" she finally asked.

"Of course. Once the medics verified you were stable, there was no sense in wasting time. It's not like we don't have medical facilities up here."

They boarded the shuttle and sat down across from each other. Janeway, still slightly uneasy, spoke up. "Am I getting Voyager back?"

"Unfortunately, no," Jellico replied. 'For you, maybe,' was the part he didn't add. Realizing that she was a potential hazard no matter where she went, Starfleet wanted to keep her as far away as possible from any possible First Contact situations. In most cases, that meant a token promotion to Commodore or Rear Admiral and assignment of a desk job in San Francisco. However, Jellico had long been fed up with the decisions coming out of Starfleet Command, and the idea of having Janeway as a potential superior officer was just too horrifying to even think about. He had quickly put in a special request to have her assigned at her current rank to the Advanced Projects Division at the fleet yards, where she would safely be kept away from anything even remotely involving tactics, strategy, or first contact. Surprisingly, Command had actually agreed with him.

"Voyager will be here for refitting for probably close to a year. That ship took one hell of a beating, not just from the Borg and Krenim. The different drive systems you tested overloaded the structural integrity system and stressed the spaceframe past its design limits. Our engineers are still not sure what effect going to hyperspace with that Republic cruiser had, but I don't think it helped anything. There was so much crystallization and micro-fracturing in the tritanium spars that it's a wonder the ship could still go to warp without suffering massive structural failure." He turned to face her. "I'm surprised Starfleet didn't just decide to scrap it altogether."

Janeway suppressed a shudder. If that was the case, she had never realized just how close her crew was to sudden death. If the ship had come apart around them, at warp speeds, or in the three week hyperspace trip with its repeated jumps... She stood up to look out the forward viewport. "If I'm not getting Voyager back, then why am I here?"

"You'll see in just a moment," Jellico said. "We're almost there."

The shuttle swept past a number of docked Nebula and Galaxy classes, most of which had large sections of their hull plating removed as dock workers inside their small yellow 'worker bee' craft welded new pieces of spaceframe into place. "Is this all because of the Dominion?"

He pursed his lips and nodded. "We have over two hundred ships in here right now for refitting because of the damage they took trying to retake Deep Space Nine – and these were the ones that survived. In fact, we're having trouble making enough duranium alloy to repair them. An explosion shut down one of the foundries out in the Belt, which took out about forty percent of our production here in Sol. We're shipping some duranium in from Alpha Centauri, but at this point we're competing with all the other yards for resources. I think we'll only be able to get a dozen of these ships back out on the line within the next month, but there'll be many more than that coming in if they keep fighting this war the way they've been doing."

"That doesn't sound very good," Janeway remarked. "Also, you said trying to retake Deep Space Nine? I thought we still had control of it."

"No, we don't, and the situation is not very good," Jellico admitted. "Brass decided that we would need to launch a counterattack to prevent the Cardassians from disabling the wormhole minefield. I argued for a quick strike with what we had available, to preserve the element of surprise, but I was overridden and we waited until we had what Starfleet felt was an overwhelming force.

Jellico took a deep breath as he turned to look back out the window. "Trouble is, by then the Cardies had disabled the minefield, and when we showed up, a massive Dominion fleet—about four times the size of our fleet—popped out of the wormhole and the whole situation just went to hell. I ordered the destruction of Deep Space 9 to prevent the Cardies and Dominion from fortifying it again, but most of their fleet is still here in the Alpha Quadrant and they've been gathering strength while using hit and fade attacks as far as Betazed to keep us from doing the same. Starfleet, naturally, blamed me for their logistical failure and stuck me here." He let out a heavy sigh, as if the weight of the world had been dumped on his shoulders. It was at that point that Janeway realized just how many more lines had appeared on his face since the last time she had seen him. "As they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade..."

"I'll say. Have we had any luck finding their homeworld?"

Jellico shook his head. "No. The Defiant ran a number of missions deep into their territory before we mined the wormhole but all they turned up were outposts and minor installations. The Cardassians weren't very good at providing information either, right up until they were annexed by the Dominion. As a matter of fact, shortly after you left, around four years ago, a joint Romulan-Cardassian fleet was wiped out when they ran into an ambush at what they thought was the Dominion homeworld."

"I heard about that one," Janeway commented. She noticed that the shuttle had begun to slow, and she looked out the viewport again. She gasped slightly as she saw what the drydock held.

"The Prometheus?"

"The one and only," Jellico replied.

She now had a clear view of the ship. It was surrounded by construction framework and many of the hull plates were missing, but the shape was instantly recognizable. "You know, I never did understand why its registration number was so low," she finally said.

"NX-59650 was reserved almost two decade ago for a technology demonstrator of the Prometheus project," Jellico answered. "The only problem was, there were two competing designs. One was a straightforward starship with advanced features. If I'd been in charge here back then, that's the one I would have pushed for, but... The other design was the one that finally got built, but its keel wasn't laid until ten years after the number was reserved. The multi-vector assault mode took far too long to come up with a workable implementation."

"So what's happening to it now?"

"We've removed its multi-vector capability," Jellico replied "That mode was only useful against individual targets, and with the fleet actions against the Dominion it made no sense – it was really designed to combat a new Romulan or Klingon threat that hasn't appeared. I doubt that either of them are going to be a significant threat to us for years."

"But we rescued this ship from the Romulans not even a year ago," Janeway protested. "How are they not a threat?"

"We've negotiated some new treaties with them due to the Dominion war. Since the Dominion now controls all of Cardassia directly, we're fighting a defensive battle against them. And they're wearing us down. The Romulans and Klingons know it, and I think that in the background they're probably planning to backstab us when this is all over and we're at our weakest, but right now the thought of the Dominion running over us and focusing on either one of them has them shitting in their pants. So we all agreed to stand by each other as long as the Dominion is a threat."

Janeway nodded. "That makes sense. But what about the Borg?"

"The Borg adapt so quickly that attacking from many sides at once would be an exercise in futility, if you would pardon my pun. We've already tried attacking a Borg ship with a number of normal ships at Wolf 359 and I think you know what happened there. You can only coordinate strikes up to a point. Sooner or later, you just need to increase your firepower."

The shuttle came to a stop in the Prometheus's bay, and Jellico came to his feet and gestured for her to exit. "After you."

As she walked down the rear ramp, she turned to look at him. "So what exactly are you doing to it?"

"We've removed all of the armor, phaser banks, and latching mechanisms that are now hidden inside, since they was only wasting space. I personally like the redundant power systems so we're leaving it with four compact warp cores and four nacelles." He pushed the call button for the turbolift. "I'll stop first in Engineering, I think you'll appreciate this the most."

The turbolift ride was very brief and soon they were in engineering. Janeway's mouth dropped open as soon as the doors opened.

"You... didn't..." she finally said as she contemplated the glowing sphere that sat in its own area in front of one of the warp cores.

Jellico smiled. "Yes, it's a quantum slipstream drive. We weren't really sure what to do with this ship after refitting it, and the Daystrom Institute needed a ship more sophisticated than Voyager to test the technologies you brought back. So we chose this ship and they've been modifying it for the past several weeks. They don't expect to have it operational for another month, however."

What Jellico didn't have the heart to tell her was that the systems reintegration had scrambled everything so much that Starfleet had given up hope of using her as a ship of the line and instead had just handed her to the Daystrom Institute to figure out.

Janeway, still dumbfounded, walked around the slipstream drive core as the Daystrom Institute technicians watched.

"Starfleet wasn't sure who to pick as captain, since nobody's ever used one of these before. It just seemed to me that you were the obvious choice, given that you have been the only Starfleet captain to have used a slipstream drive." He let his remark hang in the air for nearly a minute before continuing. "Of course, that does depend on your mental stability. The business with the noose aside, there were some rather disturbing reports from the examining psychologists on your return from the Delta Quadrant. There is no way that Starfleet will ever let you command again without being certified stable by a psychologist. I'm sure you don't find the possibility of life inside a padded cell on New Zealand appealing."

Janeway shook her head. "Of course not, who would? I understand that I've made my share of mistakes by now. I've learned from those mistakes and I'm ready to do whatever is expected of me by Starfleet."

"Good," Jellico said as he turned to the doors. "After you. Speaking of Starfleet, I believe you have an appointment with Command..."

[MrEmperor]

Nice chapters. This will be interesting. I'm just wondering what contribution, if any, the Federation gets to make.

[Crayz9001]

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN



As they waited for their turn in the Senate, sitting in the Corellian delegate chamber, C'baoth thought back to the arrival at Coruscant. It had been, he reflected, an almost religious moment for the weary crew of the Outbound Flight. After sixty years spent drifting millions of light-years from home, they had actually managed to accomplish their mission and return. Admittedly, to the crew it had appeared to be less than a year, thanks to the suspended animation, but the wear and tear on the ship was certainly showing.

Tears had run down more than one crewman's face as he or she saw the glittering jewel of the galaxy hanging in front of them. C'baoth recalled looking out the bridge viewports at the sight before him, and observed at the time that although sixty years had passed, little had changed in Coruscant's appearance. It was still a glowing orb, crisscrossed with the grid lines of skyways that ran between of massive blocks of towering, multi-kilometer skyscrapers. Still other parts of the planet were patterned with massive concentric rings of light. Some of the lights were so bright that even the reflected light of the system's star barely diminished them.

Then there had been the crew's reaction to the welcome by Coruscant Space Control. Likely owing to the Outbound Flight's almost legendary status, the traffic controllers had probably broken more than a few rules by giving them a very warm welcome. Somewhat more disturbing were several small anti-Jedi protests that C'baoth and the Federation entourage had run into outside the Senate rotunda. The Federation representatives had been understandably confused by the protests, and so had C'baoth to a lesser extent.

The longest part of the process, like any bureaucracy, involved paperwork. While it wasn't paper in this case, there were still hundreds of forms that had to be filled. The Federation delegation had already spent an entire week on Coruscant filling out forms and creating reports on various aspects of the Federation.

Finally one of the spotlights came to rest on the Corellian chamber, signaling it was their turn to speak. Senator Sal-Solo stood up.

"Representatives of the Galaxy, it is my deepest honor to introduce to you the crew of the Outbound Flight Project, which departed this galaxy sixty years ago and has just returned thanks to our efforts. They have with them a delegation from the United Federation of Planets, one of the largest governments in the galaxy they visited."

Thrackan made a somewhat theatrical turn before opening his hands toward the Federation representatives. "Not since the worlds of our satellite galaxy, the Rishi Maze, were admitted to the Old Republic thousands of years ago has the Republic had the opportunity to expand beyond this galaxy." He turned to face the center of the Senate. "Mr. President, I move the following resolution to allow this Federation membership in our great Republic."

There was a slight murmur as the Senators talked it out among themselves. After several minutes, Viqi Shesh stood up in the Kuat delegation chamber.

"On behalf of the people of Kuat, I am proud to second the Corellian senator's motion."

C'baoth quietly snorted. Some things hadn't changed in the thousands of years of the Republic's existence. A new territory meant ship contracts, and if there were ships to be built, Kuat Drive Yards wanted a piece of the action. This was especially true if they could get the contracts at Corellia's expense.

"The floor is now open for discussion of this resolution," Fey'lya announced. "Senator Sal-Solo, you may present any additional information at this point."

"Thank you, Mr. President," Sal-Solo replied. "The chief diplomat sent by the Federation, Commodore Kazuaki Shimazaki, will now be presenting a political and economic report on his government for your consideration and discussion."

As Commodore Shimazaki and the diplomats came to their feet, C'baoth stifled a yawn. He had heard their report a dozen times already while they had rehearsed it in the waiting room. As they started on how the Federation consisted of over a hundred member worlds and twice as many colonies, he began focusing on other members of the Senate. The attendance today, he observed idly, wasn't terribly high but since they had already voted on a number of issues already, they were certainly beyond any question of quorum.

One thing that had caught his eye immediately, even when he had first walked in, was that this wasn't the Republic Senate he had been used to. Sure, it was still the same building from the outside, with a few cosmetic differences, but the interior had been completely remade (in particular, the repulsor pods had mostly been eliminated). He considered the new decor rather ugly compared to what he remembered.

His gaze moved to some of the other delegations. What he found most interesting was that none of the faces he remembered, human or otherwise, remained. He would have at least expected some of the longer-lived races' delegations to still be at their seats, but considering that the Empire had come and gone and in the meantime had abolished the Senate, it wasn't too surprising.

Of course, the part that still surprised him was that Palpatine, who he had served as Jedi advisor to for a number of years, had actually been the Sith Master the Jedi Order had been looking for but kept failing to find. He supposed it actually made sense. Palpatine had been advised by the Jedi ever since he became Chancellor, and was considered by many of them to be beyond suspicion, merely a bright politician who kept the best interests of the Republic at heart.

He still wondered how he had pulled it off. To most Jedi, the Dark Side stood out like a beacon. However, in Palpatine's case, he just seemed like a normal person. Of course he knew the Force could be used to cloud one's vision, but normally a person had to be rather susceptible for mind tricks like that to work.

C'baoth thought back to all the times he had spent with Palpatine. Of course, he had been rather relaxed; after all, he was the Supreme Chancellor, so why would anything happen? That's it, he realized. The fact that he was the Chancellor made them relax around him, and therefore that much more susceptible to deception. Still, he had thought he would have at least been able to tell that something was wrong...

He looked over at Mara and Anakin, who were sitting beside him in the chamber and listening to the briefing. He had never been a strong believer in the strict interpretation of the Jedi Code, so the fact that Mara was married to Luke Skywalker and Anakin was her nephew hadn't been much of a shock for him. In places such as his home planet, the Jedi had been established for generations and unless they did something really stupid, the Council did not bother them too much or really care what they did.

In fact, he had been seeing a girl when he had been picked to go to Coruscant for a diplomatic scholarship with the Jedi Order. He had been forced to say his good-byes and then had never seen her again. In the time since, he had spent time with a number of different women, but never more than once. He laughed inside; that had been one of the hypocrisies of the Jedi Order, the fact that Jedi were allowed to sleep around as they saw fit, yet love and emotional attachment were expressly forbidden. It actually reminded him of the Vulcans he had met in the Federation, suppressing their feelings completely in favor of cold logic. There had been a not insignificant number of Jedi over the millennia that had tried to detach themselves completely. All of them had snapped eventually, usually with catastrophic results.



Shimazaki finished his presentation and the background chatter of the Senate rose as the various senators began to discuss. Aduro Solari, the senator from Euceron, came to his feet and cleared his throat.

"Commodore, you mentioned that your Federation is currently in a war with another power in your galaxy. I also could not help but notice that your government sent you, a Commodore in your starfleet, to represent them. What is your goal with this? Do you expect that upon joining the Republic, we will fight your battle for you?"

"Of course not," was Shimazaki's outraged reply. "While any assistance from your Navy will of course be deeply appreciated, Starfleet so far has held their own and will continue to do so barring unexpected setbacks. We are far more interested in partnering with the defense contractors of this Republic to build stronger, faster ships that will allow us to better defend ourselves against outside aggressors such as the Dominion."

The senator nodded. "Then you do realize that once your government joins the Republic, there is no going back."

"Of course," Shimazaki affirmed. "The ideals of the Republic are very similar to the Federation's ideals. We feel that as a member nation of the Republic, we have much to offer in many different scientific fields. I grant that our two hundred worlds may be minuscule when compared to the millions of members of this Republic, but just because we are small does not mean we have nothing to contribute."

Apparently satisfied, the senator sat back down.

Fey'lya stood up at the central podium and addressed the Senate. "For the resolution of membership for the United Federation Planets, the vote is now open."

Despite having so many representatives, the process of voting in the Senate actually went very quickly, and Fey'lya read off the results. "With 71 percent in favor, the motion passes. This Senate will now recognize Commodore Kazuaki Shimazaki of Earth as senator pro tempor, representing the United Federation of Planets."

There was a roar of cheering, something that was almost unheard of in the Senate rotunda.



Some time after the Senate had concluded its business for the day, Viqi Shesh locked her office, checked for bugs per her usual routine, and removed a villip from its hidden compartment in her heavy desk. She began stroking it, and soon it unfolded to reveal a hideous face.

"I have some new information that you may find intriguing," she began.


* * *


"Jacen!"

Jacen turned around suddenly to see his sister, Lowbacca, and Lando running up to him in the hospital.

"Oh, good, you're OK," Jaina said as she hugged him. "I was worried that something had happened with that last earthquake. What about Tenel Ka?"

Jacen turned around to look at her in the bed and sighed. "Still nothing. I've tried everything I could think of and so have the doctors. Anyway, what's going on with all the earthquakes? I thought Dubrillion was stable."

"Bad news," Jaina said with a sigh. "Looks like the Vong left a present for us. They managed to pull the moon out of its orbit with some sort of gravity-manipulating creature."

"What?" Jacen asked incredulously. "Are you kidding?"

"I wish she was," Lando said. "The Dubrillion government sent a strike team out there earlier today and killed the creature, but the damage was already done. According to the astrophysicists, the moon's orbit is decaying rapidly and there's barely two days left before it hits the upper atmosphere."

"We can't boost it back up, maybe attach some repulsors to it?"

"We don't have anything strong enough," Lando sighed. "You know, now would be a good time to have the old superlaser testbed here working. Pity the Empire gutted the place when they realized they weren't winning."

Jacen let out a nervous laugh. "I never thought I'd actually be wishing there was a Death Star around."

"Tell me about it," Lando said. "Anyway, they've already started the evacuation, although I doubt we're going to be able to get everyone off in time. Worse, with all the chaos this is causing it would be the perfect time for the Vong to strike and take out the refugees."

"You said it, not me. If that happens, I'm holding you responsible," Jaina said, mustering as much humor as she could under the situation. "Look, Jacen, with Tenel Ka knocked out you need to get her out of here before the real panic starts. Lando's already talked with the doctors here, they'll let you take one of the stretchers and the life support equipment with you."

Jacen sighed. "I don't know where to go. Cighal's a great healer, but the Praxeum doesn't have much in the way of medical equipment so I'm not sure that would be the best place to take her. I can't think of any other places that would take her without asking too many questions, either."

Jaina thought about the question for a while. "What about Hapes?"

"After what Ta'a Chume tried to do last time?"

She frowned. "True. But you weren't there last time, and I think you are more than capable to standing up to an old hag like her. Besides, Tenenial Djo is the Queen Mother, not Ta'a Chume, and I think she knows to let her daughter make her own decisions by now."

Jacen hung his head. "And just how am I supposed to explain myself? Should I look her mother in the eye and tell her that I cut her daughter's other arm off and, oh, by the way she's in a coma?"

"Well, you said it. The Praxeum doesn't have much in the way of medical facilities. Doesn't leave you with much choice now, does it?"

"Not really," Jacen sighed again. "All right, I'll take her to Hapes. I'm going to need some help getting her loaded."

Lowbacca chuffed something.

"Lowbacca says that he would be much obliged to assist," Em Tedee translated, then after Lowbacca let out a low growl, replied "No, I did not embellish that."

Jaina shook her head at the exchange. From being around Chewie and Lowie for so long, she guessed that the gist of what Lowie had said was more along the lines of 'I'll help.' "All right then. Lando and I are going to get back to the command center and see what we can do. Good luck." She gave both Jacen and Lowbacca a hug, then added, "And may the Force be with you."

"You too, sis," Jacen responded.



* * *



Jaina watched from space in the copilot's chair of the Lady Luck as the disaster unfolded. Two days had already passed, and Lando had pulled every favor he had with every single trader and company he knew. Around two thousand transports of different sizes had been called in from systems within a roughly hundred light-year radius, picked up as many people as they could pack on, and left. The orbiting stations in the system, damaged as they were from the previous Vong attack, were packed with as many as they could hold. Even so, from the last count there were still millions left crying for help.

Someone on the ground the day before had a great idea. Since the planet still had a working shield generator network, a remnant of the Empire's superlaser test installation, he had proposed dumping something like three quarters of the total available power into the generators closest to the moon, to create a bubble that it would bounce off of. They had set everything up, and activated it. For perhaps a fraction of a second, the shield held against the moon, vaporizing large portions of its lower surface – then the generators exploded, creating over a dozen massive waterspouts where they had been located. The trick had given Dubrillion perhaps another six hours of life.

For the first time since she had become a Jedi Knight, Jaina felt truly helpless. The sheer injustice of the situation burned inside her; these were innocent people, who had committed no crimes deserving of this fate.

'So this is what it must have felt like for Mom to watch Tarkin blow up Alderaan,' Jaina mused.

She wanted to scream, to shoot something, but what was the point? Her uncle Luke, of course, had told them many times during their training about the mindset it took to move something. "Nothing is too big for the Force," he had said, echoing Yoda. Yet, looking at the massive moon, already causing shockwaves in the atmosphere as it descended, she felt as insignificant as an atom floating in space.

Jaina closed her eyes and focused on the moon, trying to put out of her mind the fact that it massed more than even the second Death Star. She tried to imagine it weighing nothing more than a feather, and then she pictured blowing the feather away. As she focused, she felt a great, almost crushing weight, bearing down on her chest... Finally she couldn't take it any more, and opened her eyes.

The moon was still there. If she had moved it, the change had been so insignificant that she couldn't tell.

"KRIFF!" she shouted, pounding her fists on the nearest console in frustration. "Why won't it move?!"

On the other side of the cockpit, Lando sighed. "Look, kid, don't beat yourself up. There's only so much a person can do."

"But I'm not just any person," Jaina protested. "I'm a Jedi Knight. I can't just let those people down there die for no reason..."

"What are you trying to say?" Lando asked. "Do you think this is your fault? Because it isn't. If anything, this is more my fault because I was the one who convinced the government here to accept all those refugees you guys brought here. How do you think that makes me feel?"

Jaina choked out a nervous laugh. "It's not your fault either, Lando. The only reason Dubrillion is dying is because of those Vong bastards." She gritted her teeth. "We're going to make them pay for this."

"That's an understatement."

They had been orbiting loosely for several hours, recording everything from the Lady Luck's sensors. As they spoke, another shockwave passed through the atmosphere below, causing thousands of small explosions as buildings, power generators, and other installations were obliterated. As every shockwave had passed, the effects hit Jaina like a dagger, since thousands of people were dying each time. So much pain and suffering was radiating off the surface that it was almost unbearable, but there was no escape.

The increased tide from the moon had caused Dubrillion's wide, shallow oceans to surge across the landmasses, further destroying anything that the shockwaves hadn't already demolished and drowning anything underneath.

'At least the Death Star was mercifully quick,' Jaina thought. 'The people on Alderaan probably never realized what happened. This... This is just barbaric.'

As the moon dipped closer, the planet's crust itself began rising to meet the pull of the moon. Cracks opened and water met molten rock. The resulting thick clouds of burning steam had soon drifted to cover much of the planet, obscuring most of the view.

All Jaina could see now was an angry reddish glow from the combination of the shockwaves and volcanic activity. The shockwaves intensified, finally igniting in a solid wall of plasma that surrounded the moon. It was now locked into a rapidly tightening spiral, which ended before their eyes in a flash so bright that the viewscreen dimmed for several minutes as it subsided.

A massive conical spray of molten rock began to reach skyward, already larger than the moon itself had been. Within minutes, the plume had become wider than the planet.

"I'd heard of this happening in some of the active star clusters in the mid-Rim arms," Jaina said breathlessly, shocked at how beautiful the sight was yet horrified by the entire process, "but I never thought I'd actually see it happen in front of me."

They stayed to record for several more hours before finally making the jump to Coruscant.


* * *


Jaina was not sure how much time had passed since she'd fallen asleep to the time she woke up on Coruscant to present their findings to the Senate. Given that her head felt as if a herd of banthas had trampled across it, it had probably been only a few hours.

They had managed to get an audience with the Defense Council to explain what had happened on Dubrillion and in the Tingel Arm. Hopefully they would listen this time, she thought.

The Defense Council was far more focused on the proper operation of the Republic's armed forces, particularly the Navy, than the Advisory Council was. Because of this, both senators Sal-Solo and Shesh were already seated at the council's table, along with Fey'lya and quite a few other senators that Jaina didn't recognize when she and the rest of the family walked in.

"I'm sorry to hear of your loss," Thrackan said as he came to his feet.

Han bristled. "Why should you care now? You sure didn't give a damn back on Corellia when you and your thugs trapped Chewie and the kids in that repulsor."

"I'm trying to make amends here, Han. I've changed since then," he replied.

Han just gave him a glare strong enough to melt durasteel.

"In the interest of maintaining order," Fey'lya said with mock disdain, "what are your findings?"

Jaina stepped forward and inserted a datachip into the holoprojector on the table. "Let the evidence speak for itself," she said.

They watched silently through the recording of Dubrillion's destruction. For several minutes after the recording had ended, the room was still quiet. Then, finally:

"While I can see the effect in graphic detail, what caused this?"

Lando stepped forward. "As you can read in the report, attacks in the Tingel Arm by a previously unknown force known only as the Yuuzhan Vong had increased dramatically over the past month. Jaina Solo and several other Jedi Knights volunteered to evacuate several worlds that they deemed in severe risk of attack. As they were doing so, they fell under attack and retreated to Dubrillion. Somehow, the enemy force followed them. We managed to fight them off, but at some point during the battle they dropped some sort of gravity-manipulating creature on the surface of Dubrillion, which pulled the moon out of its orbit before it was killed."

"Do you know why they were attacking?" This time, it was Senator Shesh.

Everyone shook their heads. "No."

She frowned. "Did you attempt to communicate with them at any point?"

Jaina replied. "We received no response to standard hails, or any other sort of communication from them. There were no warnings before any attacks. Also, when Jacen fought one of their foot soldiers on Dantooine, he discovered that they have knowledge of the Jedi."

Shesh paused for a moment and looked down at her datapad. "Now, am I to understand that you, Jacen Solo, Tenel Ka Djo, and Lowbacca traveled without any state sanction with Kyp's Dozen-and-Two to the Belkadan system to investigate the disappearance of an ExGal society outpost almost three months ago?"

Jaina nodded. "That is correct."

"And after encountering the lone surviving member of the outpost, you alleged that said member was an infiltrator of a previously unknown race, who then tried to kill you?"

"That is also correct."

Shesh nodded. "You then went on a hunch and traveled to the Helska system, which you claimed was the main base for this race. The Dozen-and-Two then engaged in combat against this force and suffered severe losses before retreating to Yavin Four. Is this also correct?"

"Yes."

"Now, finally I understand that Corran Horn and Ganner Rhysode, over three months ago, encountered another member of this race on the planet Bimmiel, and discovered evidence that they have been in the Tingel Arm for at least seventy years."

Jaina nodded. "Also correct."

"Then are you aware that the Republic does not hold any claim to either the Helska or Belkadan systems? Would it have been possible for this race to have inhabited both systems since at least one hundred years ago?"

"I suppose so..."

Senator Shesh leaned back in her seat. "Well, I find it far more likely that this race had been in the remote region of the Tingel Arm for at least a hundred years and not been discovered yet. Then, instead of approaching diplomatically, as we should have done, a bunch of hotshot Jedi go in guns blazing. This race believes that they are being attacked, and responds in kind."

Jaina's jaw dropped in disbelief. Was she really hearing this? "Senator, with all due respect, we never fired a single shot in anger. We only responded with force when we were attacked."

"How am I supposed to believe you, when the information from your little 'trip' to Helska was not made known to the Senate until just now? How are we supposed to know that this threat exists, and is not just your 'Order' covering up a huge mistake?"

Jaina was now indignant. "That is not the Jedi way."

"Then what is the truth about this?"

"I just told you!" Jaina all but screamed.

Shesh paused for a moment. "Fine. Let's assume for now that I believe your story up to this point. Then several questions appear. First, why does this alien race know about the Jedi? Second, why can this race only be killed by skilled Jedi wielding lightsabers?"

"I never said that," Jaina said, resisting the urge to roll her eye.

"Yet, looking at what is written here, the only alleged kills of these aliens were done by Jedi. It almost sounds like you are grasping at this to try and make the Jedi useful to the Republic again."

"I lost the use of my eye. My brother's friend lost her only good arm and is still in a coma because of them," Jaina half-shouted, finally lowering her voice, "and she's a Jedi. The Vong can be killed by normal beings, Dubrillion's defense forces took down hundreds of them, and suffered thousands of losses in return. So no, you don't have to be a Jedi to kill them, but they have armor and defenses which are particularly well-suited to defending against most conventional tactics. We were only out there because we recognized the threat," Jaina's voice rose again, "and we were the only ones who did anything about it!"

"So," another Senator slowly said, "had you not been there, do you feel the outcome would have been any different?"

"Yes," Jaina said with conviction. "I can say for a fact that had we not been out there, there would have been casualties numbering at least in the hundreds of millions, not including those captured or enslaved."

"How curious," the same Senator replied. "Yet with you there, Dubrillion was completely destroyed, with millions of lives lost. How do we know that was not just due to your foolish actions in evacuating several neighboring worlds to it?"

Jaina's anger flared briefly, and she found herself wanting to punch the Senator's mouth so hard it would come out his backside. Somehow she managed to control the impulse. "The Dubrillion government freely offered to take the refugees from the neighboring systems. The fact that the Yuuzhan Vong had access to weaponry with destructive abilities similar to the Death Star was not something any of us had planned for."

The room was again silent for several minutes. Finally, Fey'lya spoke up. "It is my opinion that further discussion along these lines will not take us anywhere. The information gathered by the Jedi may have a bias to it, but I cannot say for sure until we investigate ourselves. Therefore, effective immediately, the Navy will dispatch recon forces through the Tingel arm to determine the intent of this race."

"But-"

Fey'lya banged his gavel on the table. "You will not mention this to anyone outside this room. This unsubstantiated speculation could cause untold panic if the holo networks get a hold of it."

Jaina slammed her fists down on the table in mockery of Fey'lya. "Then tell me, if one planet has already died, how many more have to die before this poor excuse for a defense committee will admit that a problem exists?"

Fey'lya glared at her. "It is only out of respect for your mother's reputation that I have not called security in. However, I strongly suggest you leave Coruscant, along with the rest of your corrupt Order. You are no longer welcome here."

Jaina turned and stormed out of the room, leaving the rest of her family standing in complete and utter shock.

"I'm disappointed in you, Fey'lya," Leia finally said with disgust. "Disappointed in you, and this Senate for allowing things to go on like this."

Fey'lya bared his lips in a thin smile. "Whether you like it or not, the Republic is democratic. And the people do not want you, or the Jedi, in power. They have already spoken, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"We'll see about that," Leia snarled.

The Bothan leaned back. "Is that a threat?"

"Do you want it to be?" she said bluntly.

Fey'lya's ears twitched in response. "Let us not forget the last time that the Jedi attempted a coup against the Republic."

Now it was Leia's turn to blink in disbelief. "You did not just make that comparison." She took a step backward. "The Jedi were entirely justified and completely within the bounds of their jurisdiction by attempting to remove Palpatine from power. I sincerely hope that you are not trying now to style yourself as a new Emperor."

Fey'lya snorted. "I was merely playing the devil's advocate."

"Let's hope so, for your sake," Leia replied as they were leaving.

[Crayz9001]

Thanks to Rob Dalton for graciously allowing me to adapt one of his short Rogue Squadron stories for use in this chapter.


CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT



When Jaina arrived back on Yavin IV, still steaming with indignation from what had happened on Coruscant, she entered the Temple to find a dozen chairs arranged in a circle in the center of the Grand Hall. While she recognized most of the faces, including Master Dellen, she didn't recognize the other five.

"Am I interrupting anything?" she asked, pausing.

Luke came to his feet and shook his head. "No, come in. We were just discussing current events."

She began walking up. "So, I guess you heard that Fey'lya and Shesh think that we're responsible for causing the destruction of Dubrillion?"

"They ... what?" Mara, who had been sitting immediately next to Luke asked, hearing perfectly what Jaina said and yet not quite believing. "Why would they think that?"

Jaina shrugged. "They think that since we held the information back from them, we were trying to cover this up, and now that it's convenient, we want to try and regain influence."

"Do they know nothing of the Jedi?" Corran asked.

Jaina sighed. "Probably whatever lies Shesh has been feeding them. I don't know what it is with her, but something's not right."

"Well," Luke finally said, "Master C'baoth and I were just discussing the best way to re-organize the Jedi. I agree that the situation has gone somewhat out of control. Jaina, during the days of the Old Republic, according to Master Dellen, the Jedi were governed by a High Council composed of twelve of the most respected Jedi in the order. The Council answered directly to the Chancellor, and ultimately all Jedi answered to the Council. We think that re-establishing the Council may go a long way toward restoring order."

Jaina looked around at the twelve chairs. While she still couldn't name off the Masters from the Outbound Flight, she noticed that Tionne, Ikrit, Corran Horn and Kyle Katarn were the other Masters seated in the circle... and suddenly it made sense. "So this is the Council then?"

"Not yet. Before we do anything like that, I'm going to call an assembly of the Jedi."

"That's good," Jaina remarked. "We need to talk about the Vong anyway. They've been very quiet since Dubrillion, and I'm worried about what they're planning next."

Luke sighed. "Jaina, I don't know what we can do. The Navy is—was the only group friendly enough to us with enough power to take them on. The Imperial Remnants would probably laugh in our faces if we asked them. We don't have the ships, or the manpower, to fight them."

"Really?" an unknown voice behind them said. Jaina reflexively jumped before turning around, coming face to face with Kyp Durron and...

"Admiral Kre'fey?" she asked, confused.

"Hello, Jaina," he said, smiling. "Greetings, Masters. I understand we have something of a problem here in the Tingel Arm."

"Understatement of the month," Kyp remarked under his breath.

Luke frowned for a moment in thought. "Admiral, is this an official visit or personal?"

"Personal," Kre'fey quickly said.

"I thought as much. Did Fey'lya give you the information we found?"

The Bothan's ears flattened. "We may be cousins, but we are by no means friends. I wanted to see for myself."

Luke played the recording back for Kre'fey, who was silent in thought after witnessing the horrific account.

"They did not want to take any action after seeing that?!" he finally exclaimed with fury, shaking his head. "I am not sure what it is, but something is very definitely wrong here."

Jaina nodded. "That's what I thought, too."

Kre'fey swept his gaze over the assembled Jedi Masters, before sighing heavily. "Much of the Navy is also fed up with the current bickering in the Senate. We currently have orders to patrol thousands of systems, both important Core worlds and unimportant backwaters—whatever systems had influence over the Senators drafting the legislation. We simply don't have enough ships or crew to do it all.

He paused before resuming with another sigh. "A fairly large portion of the Navy respects me enough that they would ignore the Senate's orders if the circumstances were severe enough. I think this qualifies."

"Wait, what are you saying?" Kyp asked, suddenly confused.

"I'm saying that based on what I'm seeing here, the heart of this mess is Helska. If we strike fast and hard, we might be able to stop this cancer before it consumes us." He turned toward Luke. "General Skywalker," he said, referring to him by his old Alliance title, "the fleet is at your disposal."

Luke stared at him for a moment, completely dumbfounded, before reminding himself that the Force tended to work in mysterious ways. He looked over at the rest of the Jedi Masters before focusing on C'baoth. "What is your opinion?" he finally asked them generally.

C'baoth was the first to reply. "It has always been my philosophy that a fast, accurate reaction saves lives in the long run."

"Jorus, don't forget history," Dellen remarked with concern. "The Great Sith War was filled with half-baked reactionary responses that ultimately caused more death than would have happened otherwise."

The older Master shrugged. "That might be true, if we were fighting Sith. But we are not. As much as I might admire the ideals that this New Republic was created with, the politicians have already succumbed to the influences that caused the fall of our Republic. We must act now to stem this before more life is lost."

Seated across the circle, Tionne leaned forward. "Are you then implying that it might be necessary to use force to make changes to the government?" Having had many in-depth discussions with Master Dellen over the last several days, she was very concerned about the effects of such manipulations.

"Yes," C'baoth answered bluntly. "As protectors of the Republic, we ultimately answer to the principles it was founded on, primarily the equality of all life. If the current government has subverted the ideals, then it is our responsibility to set them right by whatever means necessary."

Mara groaned. "Master C'baoth, I understand that you've spent the past sixty years in hibernation, but the Jedi Order today is not chartered as a part of the Republic. Any actions we take against the legitimately elected government will be seen as some sort of coup."

Luke nodded his agreement. "Mara's right. In fact, if the Senate finds out that we essentially commandeered the Navy, they are going to want our heads."

Kre'fey waved his hand dismissively. "I can take care of that. We have ways of getting around legislation, ways like creative accounting and ship work orders. Officially, close to half the fleet is at the drydocks for repairs. In reality, only about a quarter are actually deactivated, the rest would be ready to go with a a day or two's notice."

Luke furrowed his brow in thought. "How many ships could you pull together within a week, without raising suspicion?"

"Without any suspicion? Including Lusankya, probably about two hundred capital-grade ships plus support craft. That should be enough to blast through whatever defenses these Vong have at Helska."

Kyp, who had still been standing toward the back, coughed. After everyone turned to look at him, he spoke. "While I fully support the idea of going in guns blazing, Miko's still alive. I know he was captured. He's probably on Helska right now, and we should at least try to rescue him first."

"How do you suggest we do that?" Luke finally asked. "You no longer have your squadron to support you..."

Kyp just looked straight at him. "Well, I was kind of hoping..."

Luke returned his glance in disbelief. "You want to fly with Rogue Squadron?"

"I was kind of hoping you could put in a word for me..."

"Hey!" Jaina objected. "You're not the only one who wants to fly with the Rogues."

Luke put his head in his hands and shook it. "Great. So we have two volunteer pilots and a squadron that isn't here."

There was an awkward pause. "That's not quite true," Kre'fey quietly remarked. "Colonel Darklighter is waiting outside, along with Wedge, Tycho and the rest of the old guard. I just couldn't discourage them from coming."

None of them were prepared for what happened next. Kyp and Jaina suddenly began racing for the exit in a manner completely unbecoming of Jedi Knights. Luke and the rest just stared for some time after they had left.

"I suppose," Luke finally said, "if Rogue Squadron agrees to go along with Kyp, that we could give them some extra time to mount a rescue mission."



* * *



The next day, Jaina walked down from her quarters to the Strategy Room below the Temple to find it in a state of semi-organized chaos. Naturally, a very bored Rogue Squadron had agreed to go along with the crazy mission (then again, given their penchant for taking the craziest missions, she wasn't at all surprised.) However, Rogue Squadron itself already had a full staff of pilots, so there wasn't room for Kyp or herself to join. What had surprised her was that Wedge and the rest of Rogue Squadron's now-retired "old guard" had expressed their desire to get back into action; pushing paper for several years evidently hadn't turned out to be as interesting as they had originally thought.

Then, Admiral Kre'fey had walked in with news that he had managed to procure enough T-65H starfighters to form a second squadron. As he explained, the fighters had all accidentally been lost in a shipment, then, after they had been written off, were found again. Of course they were never put back into the inventory. While the H-models weren't quite up to the same level as the newer (eXperimental)J models, they were still far superior to the old A through C series models that all the former Rogues owned.

The only question now was what to name the officially unofficial squadron.

"Kyp, we are not naming this Avenger Squadron!" Wedge objected loudly. "You're not in charge, anyway. Remember, I'm the senior ranking officer here."

Next to him, Luke coughed.

"OK, you old farmboy. Since you're the only former Rogue to have a whole Death Star painted on your fighter, I'll concede that last point." Wedge, after all, only had half a Death Star painted on his – since Lando had flown the Falcon in with him and assisted with the kill.

"How about Shadow Squadron?" Tycho suggested.

"Already been used, plus it sounds too dark," Luke replied.

"Mynock squadron?" someone else piped up.

Wedge rolled his eyes. "Seriously, guys. Try a little harder."

Luke finally spoke up. "Look, how many of us can trace ourselves back to Tatooine?"

Several hands were raised, including Gavin. "Then how about Twin Suns Squadron?" he finished.

There was some murmuring and nodding. "Twin Suns it is, then," Wedge finally said. "That just leaves the problem of exactly what we're doing on this mission. Jaina, Kyp, since you two both have been to Helska, what are we looking at?"

Jaina walked forward to the holotable and popped in the disk recording of the Rock Dragon's sensor logs. A out-of-scale representation of the Helska system appeared over the table. She reached over the table and pointed to the fourth planet in the system, which zoomed in. "We believe that both the ExGal ship and Miko's fighter crashed on the fourth planet, a completely ice-covered world that it seems the Vong are using as their primary base. When we attempted to get close, we were attacked from range first by the massive warships that they have orbiting the world, and then by small fighter-scale craft which managed to strip our shields. These fighters then released silicon-based lifeforms which attached themselves to our ships, resulting in the loss of most of the squadron."

Tycho whistled. "That's not going to be easy. Do you have a plan to get past all those... ship-things, monsters, and who knows what else?"

"We're open to suggestions," Luke replied, looking around the room. Janson caught his eye, and he nodded. "You, Janson, you got an idea...?"

Wedge, Tycho and Hobbie, apparently in tandem, sighed and rested their foreheads on their hands in the universal sign for exasperation.

Janson stood up military straight, trying mightily to suppress what could only be called an evil grin. "General Skywalker, sir! I suggest we try a 'Yellow Snowball', sir!"

Luke stared strangely at Janson for a couple of seconds before finding his voice again. "So what's that, then? Something from your days in the 'Yellow Aces?'"

There some muffled snickering from the back of the room. Janson’s face was twisted in conflict. "Y-yes," he said, trying not to laugh. He failed.

"Janson! Seriously, if only for a couple of minutes?"

"Sorry, sorry!" Janson got up and pointed to a small dot on the holotable. "Comet," he said. "Essentially a dirty snowball. What we do is tether the squadron to it and use an ion engine to give it a little nudge, then just ride it in-system. If we heat it up just enough, the vapor shroud should hide us."

Tycho grimaced. "How sure are you that this will work? Do we know what kind of sensors they use?"

"No," Jaina finally replied. "The Rock Dragon has a military-grade sensor suite, and it didn't pick up any emissions at all. Whatever they use, it's a mystery."

"Well, they can’t track every damn particle in the galaxy," Kyp countered. "If we play our cards right, it just might work."

"He’s right," Wedge said. "It’s worth a shot. Janson, consider yourself an honorary Corellian for a day."

Janson’s lip twisted. "Aww, what did I ever do to deserve that?"

"None of that," Luke said. "So what do we need to make it work?"

Janson considered. "Well, we’ll need a few hundred gallons of yellow paint..."

"What for?" about half the squadron replied in unison.

"Well, you can’t have a yellow snowball without the yellow." He was trying hard not to break out laughing again.

Wedge glared at him. "Alright, consider yourself /not/ an honorary Corellian for a day."

Janson breathed a mock sigh of relief. "Oh good, I can show my face in public again," he said. "I can’t even /spell/ 'ryshcate.'"

"All right guys, knock it off," Luke said after the laughter had died down. "There's one big problem left, and that is the planet's a pretty big place to hide one or two people. Also, Kyp, how do you plan on getting down there and back again?"

Kyp stood up. "If Miko bailed, then chances are that he was captured. Jaina gathered enough information that we know where their main base is. The bad news is it's beneath almost a kilometer of ice. The good news is that I talked to Lando, and he's bringing two ice-boring ships he had stored at Destrillion over here for us to use."

"I think I've heard of those," Jaina remarked. "But aren't those sublight-only?"

"... Yeah," Kyp finally said. "Luke, do you mind if we borrow the Jade Sabre for this? I need something big enough to carry it..."

Luke turned around to look at Mara, who groaned. "If you insist," she said, "I'll fly. You just keep any of those bug-things away from my ship."

"Good, then it's settled," Gavin said. "Twin Suns will go in with the Jade Sabre for the insertion. Since any hope of stealth will be gone when Kyp blasts off the surface, I'll come in with the Rogues and provide cover for the retreat. We'll then rendezvous with the task force at a point 3 light-years outside Helska, re-arm and drive these bastards back to wherever they came from."

The shout of agreement was deafening.



Naturally, Jaina was very excited to be behind the controls of an X-wing in an actual combat situation, as opposed to mere simulator training or flying Luke's old X-wing for practice. What excited her less was the prospect of being stuck as a wingman instead of a leader, but she supposed that was pretty normal for a new pilot. She had been picked to be Hobbie's wingman, at least, since the former Rogues had agreed to take the greener pilots as their wingmen for training.

"Twin Suns Twelve, reporting in," she called in after the rest of the squadron had reported. They had formed up at a rendezvous point outside the system while Mara had corrected for the location of the comet from the Jade Sabre. She was calculating the small hyperjump now, and would soon be sending all of them the navicomputer data. The rest of the Rogues would be staying at this point, waiting for the signal to jump in and cover the escape.

At the same time, she knew that Admiral Kre'fey was organizing the unofficial task group in the outskirts of the Yavin system. He had given them a twelve-hour window to complete the mission. Of that time, most would be spent gliding into the system.

The only bad thing about a long-duration mission such as this in an X-wing was that they had limited facilities on board. All of the pilots were living off nutrient packs, rather than any sort of solid food, since their flight suits could only dispose of liquid waste. The concept still grossed her out, but she supposed that was one of the tradeoffs it took to be a pilot.

Then again, Kyp probably had it worse off. The iceborer that he was riding in, currently carried inside the rear bay of the Sabre, required him to lie prone in the forward compartment. There was just enough room behind that for two people to sit, provided that they tucked themselves into as tight of a ball as they could. The borer also carried no weapons to speak of besides the two shaped charges to jumpstart the ice melting process. It most definitely did not have combat grade shields, only basic micrometeor protection.

The small jump was fairly uneventful, as the ships formed up in the small tail of the comet. Dumping all the power to the forward shields to protect against the small bits of rock and ice that the comet was shedding, they all cycled their blasters to the lowest possible power setting and began warming the comet up. When that was done, each member of the squadron fired a "boost pack", a small, high-powered ion engine that would attach itself to the comet and burn for about an hour before it ran out of power. The boost in acceleration that the packs provided would bring the comet up to almost half the speed of light for the cruise in-system.

The next several hours were spent uneventfully waiting, as all the ships cruised in tethered to the comet with their systems powered down in standby. As they neared the fourth planet, Jaina watched the passive sensor display of the system. There was actually more activity than she remembered from the last time. The one gigantic ship was still in orbit of the planet, while what appeared to be a second ship was partially embedded into the surface. 'That's one way to make a base, I suppose,' she thought to herself.

By the time the comet made its closest approach to the planet, the ship's sensors were registering some sort of energy field, not unlike the magnetic field the Death Star would have generated. Jaina noticed small sparks of static electricity dancing over the instruments, and felt her hair begin to rise. That was strange, she thought.

Whatever it was, it was acting like a jamming field as well. She could see the Jade Sabre turn. Then the thin stylus shape of the ice borer slipped out from behind the ship, and firing its engines it curved away, down toward the planet below on a ballistic trajectory. Kyp knew that to avoid detection, he would have to try to look as much like a chunk of comet as possible, so from here on out he would have to rely on that initial targeting burn; any further burns could result in the alien fighters tracing his way back to the comet.



In the cramped cockpit of the ice borer, Kyp was sweating. Not so much due to the silvery environmental suit that he wore, which was constantly regulating his body temperature, but more from the anxiety of the mission. He silently prayed that the aliens hadn't noticed his departure from the comet. So far, so good... The planet's surface was now rushing up at him at breakneck speed. As soon as he hit the atmosphere, his view forward became obscured as the forward cone started to glow cherry red, and he could feel the heat waving off even through the layers of insulation inside the borer.

Almost as soon as it had appeared, the plasma disappeared and he was falling through the thin, icy clouds that ringed the planet. He turned his head to look at the horizon, and fear suddenly gripped his stomach as he saw black specs begin to rise in the distance, no doubt alerted to his presence. Hopefully they would just mistake him for a meteor, but in order for that to work he had to burrow into the ice before they reached him...

The surface was now rushing up to meet him. Lifting the safety cover, he mashed the large red button that would do two things. First, it fired a shaped charge penetrator missile directly ahead, which would punch a hole at least a quarter kilometer deep into the ice. Second, it fired braking repulsors to slow his suicidal velocity down to a more manageable speed. As the repulsors engaged, Kyp could almost swear that his stomach met his brain and said hello in spite of the inertial dampeners aboard the small craft.

The nose of the borer was still glowing red-hot from the re-entry when it impacted. Kyp's head suddenly got much heavier, and his vision darkened as all the blood in his body rushed to his head for the moment of impact, before slow draining back. He cursed whoever designed the borer; clearly that person had never experienced a head-first stop before. He made a mental note to track down the designer of the ship and introduce him to the fastest roller coaster on Coruscant.

Fortunately, melting through the ice went faster than he had expected. Evidently it had already been fractured from the impact of the alien ship, and when the shaped charge detonated, it had vaporized a tunnel along one of the existing fracture lines. When the borer had finally reached the lower surface of the ice, it came to a stop with the exit hatch pointing out at open water. Kyp's suit began to pressurize in preparation, and the cockpit started sealing up so that the hatch could be opened. Then the almost freezing water washed over him.

Kyp reached out for his apprentice, trying to locate him in the midst of the nothingness. What he felt instead was an overwhelmingly malevolent presence, and a weak, faint cry for help. His stomach sank as he considered the implications of that, but he switched on the small propulsion pack and guided himself toward the source of the cry.



As the comet continued its stately course past the fourth planet, Jaina and the rest of Twin Suns watched with apprehension as the ice borer streaked down and impacted. They saw some of the fighters fly past the impact spot, but so far they seemed to be passing it off as a meteorite.

All they could do until they heard back from Kyp was wait, and hope that their cover didn't take them too far away by the time he was done. Jaina watched the clock count down to the fleet's arrival; it was down to slightly less than two hours now.



Under the ice, Kyp slowed down as he approached the massive underwater structure, and began looking for a way in. Apparently they had carved tunnels into the ice, and at one point, some sort of massive, living tube went from the ice caverns down to a strange growth at the seafloor. He steered his propulsion pack up toward a thin spot he saw in the ice, then, thankful that he had the forethought so long ago to build a waterproofed lightsaber, ignited the blade and began carving a small hole in the ice.

He could sense the cry for help was much closer now, as he climbed up through the hole into the air of the cavern. The caverns were dimly lit with a soft greenish glow that he guessed must have been phosphorescence. He didn't dare unclasp his helmet since he wasn't sure when he would need it again, and reached out with the Force to try and see if anyone was nearby. The malevolent presence was even stronger here, and he had to concentrate to be able to sense anything past it.

Kyp rounded a corner in the twisting tunnels and ran straight into one of the strange warriors, who instead of wearing the armor that Corran, Jacen and the others had described, was covered in some sort of strange form-fitting semi-transparent creature. A star-like appendage obscured the lower portion of the alien's face, and after a moment Kyp realized that it was some sort of breathing device.

The alien, naturally, was just as surprised to see Kyp as Kyp was to see it. He also realized that in his silvered suit, he probably looked as alien to the creature as it did to him. After the brief moment of recognition, the creature let out a muffled cry and lunged, tackling Kyp and sending him to the ground.

Kyp punched and shifted his weight to throw the alien off, then as soon as his hand was free took out his lightsaber and stabbed upward, catching the alien in the center of its body. Fortunately the creature covering the alien offered no protection from lightsabers, as the blade went through without any resistance.

He stood up and checked his suit for punctures. Theoretically, Lando had told him, the suit was puncture resistant and self-sealing, but Kyp didn't fully trust that. After all, neither the ice borers nor the suit had been used in at least seven years.

The brief encounter reminded him that for whatever reason, he couldn't rely on the Force for warning of attack from these aliens. He continued cautiously down the tunnels, part of his brain telling him that the dim green lighting was sort of clichéd. I need to lay off the holovids, he told himself.

As he rounded another corner, the tunnel widened into a domed chamber and the scene inside was instantly etched into his memory. Miko was lying in the center, bruised and bloodied, surrounded by at least four warriors. Across the chamber, a blond-haired woman was curled up into a ball, trying to stay as far away from the violence as possible.

Kyp screamed, the sort of savage, primal scream that tended to send chills down people's spines, and charged at the nearest of the warriors, cutting him down before the rest had much time to react. Then he dove and spun as they begin to swing for him; several brought out primitive-looking clubs which offered no resistance to his lightsaber.

The entire battle was over in less than a minute, with pieces of the aliens scattered over the chamber. Kyp, who hadn't realized how hard he was breathing, ran himself through a calming technique so he would conserve his resources as he pulled Miko to his feet.

"More... coming," Miko said. "Not... worthy."

Kyp shook his head and pressed the spare suit and lightsaber into Miko's shaking hands. "Get these on! We have to go now!"

Miko just stood there, almost catatonic. "Move!" He rushed over to the woman, who was rocking back and forth. "I'm Kyp Durron," he said to introduce himself. "Come on, we need to get you out of here. I don't have another envirosuit, do these aliens have something here you can use?"

The woman, who Kyp suddenly realized would be very attractive if it were not for the bruises and scars on her face, looked up at him. "I'm Danni Quee," she finally said as she took his hand to stand up. "You're going to have to take one of the ooglith cloakers from the next warrior that comes, if you press at a point here," she reached up and pressed a spot next to Kyp's nose, "they'll release and you can then kill the warrior without damaging the suit. But I need to get the breathing thing too, they call it a gnullith."

Walking back to Miko, he asked her, "How long have you been here? You seem to know a lot of their terminology..."

"No idea," she replied. "I don't know why, but they never tortured me like they did with your friend there."

Kyp shrugged. "I don't know either. Miko, do you need help?" The other Jedi was struggling to get his suit on, taking several missteps whenever he tried to lift one leg. He was evidently in severe pain, and Kyp could now see that his left knee was broken. He grabbed Miko and held him stable long enough for him to get his legs into the suit.

"Over here!" Danni whispered loudly. "I hear one coming!"

Leaving Miko to finish putting the suit on, Kyp ran over and pressed himself against the wall next to the tunnel entrance. Sure enough, another warrior emerged. Kyp ran into him with full force, toppling the warrior over, and grabbed at the spot near its nose that Danni had indicated. Sure enough, the suit began to peel itself back, partially immobilizing the warrior in the process.

Even so, the warrior forced Kyp backwards. He narrowly missed a punch to the face, and in response grabbed at the starfish-like creature on the warrior's face. With a sick slurping noise, the creature slid out, causing the warrior to cough heavily. By now, the cloaker had finished coming off, sliding to the floor in a heap. Now freed, the warrior grabbed a wicked-looking knife and swung at Kyp.

The swing was stopped by a glowing blade, and Kyp looked up to see Miko standing over him for a moment before he collapsed.

"Hey, uh... what was your name again? I've got one, hurry up and get it on!" Kyp shouted over at the woman as he ran the stunned alien through with his saber to make sure it was dead.

"It's Danni," she shot back as she ran over and scooped up the heavy creature. She quickly ripped off what was left of her tattered clothing and started to pull the creature upwards on her legs. Apparently understanding the motion, it then continued slithering up her partially naked body. Kyp wasn't sure whether he should have been turned on or grossed out by the process.

Once the creature had finished wrapping itself around her, she grabbed the gnullith off the ice. By that point, Kyp had hauled himself up and was struggling to keep Miko on his feet. Danni quickly grabbed his other arm, and the three of them began walking back toward the hole Kyp had cut in the floor.



"It's been two hours already," Mara said over the comm with concern, "and still no sign of him."

"Maybe he forgot where he parked?" Janson said in a poor attempt at humor.

"That's not very funny," Wedge shot back. "You try being stuck under ice. It's not pleasant."

"Look, I'm just worried because we're running out of time for the rendezvous, and he's still down there."

"So are all of us," Luke finally said. "He'll make it, I know it."

"He's out!" Mara shouted over the comm, sending the signal to the Rogues waiting outside the system. Sure enough, a small plume marked where the ice borer was doing its best impression of a primitive chemical launch rocket as it arched skyward.

"Detach tethers and form up on my mark," Wedge called out. "Hostiles inbound... Mark!"

The dozen X-wings released themselves from the comet, which was now several light-minutes away from the planet. Jaina dialed her inertial compensator up to the maximum possible setting and punched the throttle to stay in formation off Hobbie's wing. The entire squadron was now accelerating as fast as possible toward the fourth planet. In the meantime, Rogue Squadron had completed their jump much closer to the fleeing ice borer, and was already in the middle of a furball with the alien fighters.

The only bad thing was that they still hadn't figured out a way to keep the shields from being stripped away, so the comm was full of frantic cries as the Rogues struggled to maintain order.

"Lock your S-foils now. Hobbie, Janson, and Tycho, you guys split left. The rest of you, follow me," Wedge ordered. "We're going to slice that Vong formation wide open."

Anticipating Hobbie's move, Jaina split left with him and the six X-wings swung wide, still dumping full power into the engines. While the X-wings couldn't accelerate quite as fast as A-wings, with several light-minutes of distance between them and the furball the fighters were already going at a significant fraction of lightspeed. As they closed in, she nudged the inertial compensator down a fraction to get a better feel for the fighter's handling.

In the position that the Yuuzhan Vong fighters were in now, most fighter pilots would have been so focused on the dogfight that they would not have noticed the c-fractional fighters barreling in on them, which is what made A-wing and TIE Interceptor slash attacks so effective. However, somehow the alien pilots knew what was happening, and turned to meet the new threat as well as they could. Still, that now left them open to attack by the Rogues, and several of the strange craft blossomed into fireballs in the seconds that followed.

"Where's Mara?" Luke suddenly asked. In the mad dash toward the planet, he had suddenly realized that while the Jade Sabre had powerful engines, it still wasn't quite capable of matching an X-wing in acceleration.

"Back here," she said. "I'll have Kyp in a minute. You guys just keep these freaks off me."

Luke peeled off, his wingman following as he looped back to escort the Jade Sabre.



"Hobbie!" Jaina shouted suddenly. "You've got one on your six, hang on!" He began jinking randomly to throw off the alien pilot's aim, but that didn't help much.

"Kriff, he got my shields!"

"I'm on him," Jaina said as she rolled the X-wing over and behind the fighter, then began pulsing her shots at it. The first shot grazed the surface doing no significant damage, then the rest of the shots were swallowed up.

"Shield's back," Hobbie said. "Did you get it?"

"No," Jaina said quickly, "but I'm keeping it occupied. Looks like they can't take shields down when they're protecting themselves."

Hobbie pulled a quick loop, swinging his fighter around so he could get a clear look. "Watch your back!" he suddenly shouted as he saw one of the fighters take a pass at Jaina.

Alarms flashed in her cockpit as her R5 unit tried to warn her that she had suddenly lost shields. Instinctively, she jerked at the controls, only to see several plasma orbs flash past the cockpit. But apparently it wasn't enough as the fighter then lurched abruptly. More alarms began ringing and for a moment she could have sworn that she smelled smoke. She quickly began looking at the readout from the R5 unit – and breathed a sigh of relief. At least the shields were back up.

"Nothing major, I just lost one of my cannons," she said in between maneuvers as she turned her head to look. Sure enough, the tip of the upper S-foil as well as the cannon was a melted mess of durasteel. "R5, make sure that's disabled, I don't want to pump power into it and blow something up." When the droid warbled an acknowledgment, she switched the trigger to sequential-fire mode, and seeing an opening, fired a burst at the fighter ahead of her. The first and second shots were absorbed by the small gravity wells before vanishing harmlessly in bursts of light and energy, but the third shot clipped the rear of the fighter, sending it into a spin. She took her time to line up the still-spinning target again, then mashed the triggers and held her fire on the fighter until it was a cloud of rapidly expanding plasma.

"Got one!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

"Great," Hobbie replied dryly. "There's only another 3,783 on the way."

"I hope you just pulled that number out of your ass," Jaina said, checking her sensor readouts just to be sure.

"Take it easy, of course I'm kidding," Hobbie replied, then suddenly became more serious. "Looks like trouble over by the Jade Sabre. Let's go give them a hand."

Jaina tugged hard on the stick to keep up with Hobbie's maneuver, slamming her throttle to full to match his sudden burst of acceleration. When they got to the Jade Sabre, they found it under attack by a swarm of the fighters. Kyp's iceborer was hanging back with several Rogues formed up around it for protection.

"Follow me, we're going to slice through their center," Hobbie barked, his X-wing's engines flaring brightly as it continued its rapid acceleration.

"Roger that," Jaina acknowledged as she gripped her stick tightly. She thought briefly about the kill she'd scored only minutes earlier, how the sequential fire seemed to work more effectively than the burst fire mode, and then triggered the internal comm. "R5, see if you can increase the sequential fire rate."

There was a negative blatt as the droid argued the idea.

"I don't care if we lose firepower, they don't have shields anyway. What good is maximum power if I can't hit them?"

The droid twittered for a moment before the result came through. "Thanks, R5," she remarked. "Let's see if this works."

Seconds later they had reached the formation, and both fighters began spitting out a hailstorm of red bolts. Several of the alien craft went up in puffs of plasma as the volatile chemicals on board vaporized. Jaina didn't have time to count how many she had killed as they had cut through the middle of the formation in about as much time as it had taken her to begin firing her cannons. Not surprisingly, several of the alien craft peeled off in pursuit of her and Hobbie.

She gritted her teeth and dialed the inertial dampeners up to the maximum level, then cut engine power and rammed the stick hard forward to make the X-wing's powerful maneuvering thrusters flip the craft around as it hurtled forward. A normal powered turn wouldn't have worked at the velocities she was traveling at, since it would have given her pursuers plenty of time to follow before she was able to loop back on them.

Jaina almost felt sick as the planet below suddenly rolled in her view, probably because her other senses were telling her that she was sitting still. She then realized that she had been holding the stick for too long, since the fighter did another 360-degree flip before pointing backward again. She quickly tried to correct for the spin, finally getting it stabilized in time to see the plasma blasts from the alien craft chasing her. It was a rather strange feeling, she reflected, to see the orbs sitting so lazily in space as they slowly gained on her.

"R5, give me full reverse on the engines," she barked as she aimed the targeting reticles at the nearest of the fighters. As soon as she had a lock, she mashed the trigger and a barrage of red bolts lanced out toward the fighter.

"Jaina, what are you doing?" Hobbie asked.

"Trying to cover our six," she shot back.

He sighed. "Don't act like such a hot-shot, you'll get yourself killed pulling stunts like that. I'm heading back to the Sabre, try to stick close this time."

One of the pursuing fighters vanished in a cloud of plasma. Jaina reversed the throttle, dumping full power and slowing herself down relative to the oncoming Vong fighters, which suddenly blazed past her, almost colliding in the process. She was still grating from the not so subtle putdown that he had given her.

She quickly checked her displays to find out exactly where Hobbie had gone, and then set her fighter on a course that would take her back alongside him quickly when the comm crackled with a broadcast.

"This is Wedge. Objective is secure. All craft, break off and return to the rendezvous point immediately."

[MrEmperor]

Interesting. If the 'next' civil war breaks out sooner due to the presence of the old republic Jedi masters, things will be... interesting.

[Crayz9001]

Note: This will be the last chapter for a while. I'd planned out one more chapter to tie up some of the loose ends in this book, but at the moment I'm editing the beginning chapters and that's going to take a while. After the final chapter, the story will pick up again in the next book, Twilight in Two Galaxies.



CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


"What do you mean, the jeedai escaped?" The question sounded more like a roar than anything else, Prefect Ma'Shraid reflected. Fortunately, the rant was not directed at her; rather, it was directed at the commander responsible for guarding Helska.

"Belek tiu!" the commander began, snapping his fists against his opposite shoulders as a sign of apology. "By the time my warriors arrived, all they found was a hole in the ice and three dead warriors. We do not think it was possible for him to escape by himself, especially since he was almost broken by the yammosk."

"He was not alone!" Prefect Da'Gara roared. "What of the woman?"

"She escaped also," the commander replied. "But they only took one ooglith cloaker and one gnullith. It would be impossible for either one of them to survive without one. They must have been rescued."

"Then it was that infidel construct that escaped the surface of this planet? You told me that our defense is impenetrable! How could they reach us, let alone escape from us?"

"Enlightened one," the commander started to grovel again before Da'Gara, "I am ashamed to admit that we were unaware of the presence of infidels among us until their blasphemous craft left the surface of this planet. We believe they disguised themselves as a meteor, of which this planet has many strikes each day."

Da'Gara snorted. "Find the warrior responsible for this lapse – and bring him here. I wish to make him realize his error... personally." He spun about to face a subaltern. "Prepare the Embrace of Pain immediately."

Had the commander been human, his face would have gone white; fortunately, after years of self-mutilation, there was no skin left to suffer such an embarrassing change of color. "As you wish," he said as he quickly turned and marched out. Ma'Shraid found that she couldn't blame him for wanting to leave as quickly as possible.

"Prefect," she finally said, "it is obvious that the infidels now know our location, and our defenses. Do you not believe it would be wise to move to a new, unknown location?"

"Would you have us follow the ways of Yun-Harla?" Da'Gara responded. "This world is a fortress; the infidels' constructs do not stand a chance against it. It would be shameful to flee when we are strong."

Ma'Shraid shook her head. "It would be good to remember Nom Anor's reports. The constructs the infidels sent against us were light, one-man craft much like our coralskippers. According to Nom Anor, those craft are usually used for scouting and recon for their larger war-constructs."

"In that same report, Prefect Ma'Shraid," Da'Gara rebutted, "he mentions that these jeedai use such craft, but the jeedai do not have the larger warships you mention. We captured one of them; it is obvious that they came to rescue him. The jeedai are dangerous, Prefect, which is why we should strike to destroy them as soon as possible. Nom Anor has already told us they are in the system they call Yavin."

"What do you propose we do?" she finally asked.

"Dubrillion had the most defenses of any planet in this region, yet we were able to overwhelm it. A dozen of our best cruisers should suffice."

She nodded. "I will contact one of our commanders and instruct him." What she didn't want to say was that she still had misgivings about the idea.



* * *



Several hours after they had returned to the Lusankya, Jaina found herself, along with the other pilots, Kyp, and the ExGal scientist he had rescued in a debriefing room. Miko had been pulled out of Kyp's ice borer, barely alive and completely insane, and rushed to sickbay.

While normally an Admiral would never take part in a debriefing of fighter pilots, the magnitude of the situation combined with the absolute unfamiliarity of the enemy seemed to have convinced Kre'fey to participate. Danni Quee, as it turned out the ExGal scientist's name was, had also turned out to be an unlikely trove of information on the Yuuzhan Vong. For some reason that completely escaped Jaina, they had apparently tried to convert her to their cause, and in doing so, she had become very familiar with their setup.

"First off," Kre'fey began, "tell us what you know about them."

Danni looked across the table at him. "They're called the Praetorite Vong, and from what I could tell, they're looking for a new home because their original galaxy was devastated by war."

"I thought they were called the Yuuzhan Vong?" Luke asked.

"Well," Danni began, "they call themselves that name too. Frankly, I'm not sure which one is correct, but they use Praetorite Vong more often when they talk. Maybe the Yuuzhan Vong are a different faction?"

"It's possible," Luke said. "Go on."

Kre'fey held up his hand. "Wait. Where is this galaxy? Did they give you any idea?"

The blonde-haired scientist shook her head. "Not really. They only told me that it took them around ten generations to cross the void."

"Could be anywhere," Kre'fey eventually said, "since we don't even know how fast their hyperdrives are."

"/If/ they even use hyperdrives," Kyp added. "But at least we've ruled out the Rishi Maze as a possibility."

"Well, only an idiot would even consider that possibility, given that it's on the wrong side of the galaxy and it's mapped out better than Wild Space..." Wedge concluded.

Kre'fey stood up and began walking around the table. "So we have confirmed what we already mostly knew. What don't we know about them? Force composition, number of combatants, capabilities, and fixed defenses. Danni, what can you tell us about that?"

She shrugged. "They're pretty much turned the fourth planet into a fortress. They've got thousands of turrets all over the surface, and the base is carved deep into the ice. Their yammosk apparently controls the whole thing, and it's actually down in the subsurface ocean."

"What's a yammosk?" the Admiral asked.

"It's their war coordinator," she replied. "At least, that's the rough translation they gave me. I'm not particularly sure how, but they use it to link all their forces together."

"Kind of like a communications ship?" Wedge asked.

"Something like that," she replied. "I'm not sure, but I think it might use the Force, or something like it."

"Couldn't be the Force," Kyp replied. "I was down there, and the only thing I felt was Miko. Even their soldiers felt like blank spots!"

"I'm sure we can continue the theological discussion later," Kre'fey stepped in. "Would it be worth trying to capture this thing?"

"Absolutely not," Kyp said, with Danni nodding in agreement. "That thing broke Miko. There's no telling what it could do to regular troops."

Kre'fey turned to face Danni. "Then why didn't it do the same to you?"

"I always felt that Yomin Carr treated me differently from the other scientists at ExGal4."

"Wouldn't have anything to do with your hair color, would it?" a voice piped up from across the room.

"Stow it, Wes," Wedge snapped before turning around. "Sorry, Dr. Quee. General Janson's been known to speak before he thinks sometimes."

Danni smiled slightly. "Yeah, I get that a lot," she said. "As I was saying, Yomin Carr treated me differently... not like a lot of guys would, but I think he actually respected me. He didn't treat anyone else there the same way, not even the other women. I guess he told Prefect Da'Gara that I would be a worthy sacrifice to the yammosk because of that."

"Wait—a sacrifice? As in a living sacrifice?" Wedge exclaimed. "What kind of savages are we dealing with here?"

"The same kind of savages that blow up civilian transports and destroy a planet for no reason," Luke finished.

Kyp looked up from his seat. "I guess that's what they were going to do to Miko," he said with a sigh.

"Actually, no," Danni replied. "They kept saying he wasn't worthy of being a sacrifice... they just kept torturing him with that until he broke."

Kyp blinked in surprise. "What do you mean, broke? What did he tell them?"

"Well... nothing," she said. "He just sort of went catatonic and started mumbling nonsense to himself."

"To stay on point," Kre'fey said as he continued pacing, "we are about to launch a strategic assault on this system. Is there any other data that would be useful for us to know before going ahead?" Everyone shook their heads, and the Admiral continued. "Comm-Scan, do you have the analysis on the Rogue Squadron sensor logs?"

One of the techs held up his datapad. "Vong system assets are three planetoid-type craft, a total of roughly 200 ships composed of approximately sixty percent frigate analogues and smaller, thirty percent destroyer analogues and ten percent cruiser analogues. There are also several thousand fighter craft deployed from all of the above."

There were several nervous glances around the room. "We can handle that, right?" Jaina finally asked.

Kre'fey looked across the table at the tech. "Lieutenant Getes, what's the estimated firepower rating of the different analogues?"

"Well, that's actually good news," Getes replied. "Their ships are deceptively bulky. Based on the amount of data we presently have, we have estimated that the firepower for each analogue is approximately thirty to fifty percent lower than it would be for the comparable Republic warship."

Kre'fey nodded. "I agree, that is good news. Now... we know they have been conducting raids on many different star systems in this region. Do we have an analysis on what percentage of their force we believe is presently away from base, and could possibly be recalled as reinforcements?"

This time a 2nd Lieutenant, her rank identifying her as part of NRI, replied. "We have a preliminary report on their forces." She plugged a datachip into the table's reader and a simple chart appeared. "Based on the number of reported attacks, their relative strengths, the time between each attack and the similarities between vessels used," she manipulated several controls and the chart on the holo turned into a curve that bulged at the middle, "we believe that the highest probability is a force of 400 ships or less, mostly frigate and corvette analogues."

Kre'fey scratched his ear thoughtfully. "If we assume that their ships are scattered more or less randomly in a thousand-light year radius, then I suspect it would be safe to assume they could have somewhere around two hundred ships here within one to two hours. That's now a total of four hundred ships, and even if we assume the best case – that is, our ships are twice as powerful as theirs – we're still outnumbered in sheer firepower two to one. If they do not call reinforcements, then we're evenly matched, which is still worse odds than I prefer."

"So what do we do, then?" Jaina finally asked. "Won't we lose the element of surprise if we wait too long?"

The Bothan nodded in agreement. "That is also my concern. But this means that we need to strike hard and fast." Standing up, he reached over to the holotable's controls and called up a system map. "Fortunately, Lusankya does have a number of strategic missiles. We'll send in a ferret first to feed targeting data to the missiles, launch missiles, then jump in-system and engage any surviving heavy hitters. Once they are neutralized, the entire fleet will begin a Base Delta Zero operation against the fourth planet. This should decrease the time enough to finish the strike before too many reinforcements arrive. Agreed?"

Everyone at the table nodded; Jaina shuddered inside, but she knew that something like this was coming. Base Delta Zero, after all, was the term for a complete orbital bombardment of an inhabited world. It could be performed by as few ships as a single Imperator-class Star Destroyer, or any of the newer Star Destroyer models, but with only one ship of that class the operation would take all day and only manage to melt about a hundred meters or so of bedrock and boil away any oceans and atmosphere. With more ships, it was possible to melt the entire crust down to the mantle within the same time period. With the task force they had, she figured, they'd probably be able to complete the bombardment in an hour at most with the same effect.

"Good. We'll meet on the bridge in T plus 30. Operations will commence in T plus 1 hour."



On the bridge of the Lusankya, almost an hour later, Jaina watched the ever busy activity down in the pits as the hyperjumps were plotted for the entire fleet. They were counting down to the missile launch, after which the entire fleet would make its jump.

She noticed a black-haired woman in a strange uniform (that looked a little like a rather tight-fitting jumpsuit, or perhaps pajamas) and walked over the bridge to her. "Hi, I'm Jaina Solo, Jedi Knight," she introduced herself.

The woman looked at her for a moment. "Counselor Deanna Troi," she said in a slightly strange accent. "I'm here from the United Federation of Planets."

Jaina tilted her head. "I thought your government was just admitted to the Republic last week. Never heard of a crew exchange taking place this fast..."

"I actually came over with the diplomats," Troi explained. "Part of the preliminary steps for the crew exchange program. I'm here to observe your navy's protocols and deliver a report back to Starfleet. I understand you have some of your own people doing the same in Starfleet." She leaned closer to Jaina. "I have to ask, though... Why do you build such large ships? I think this one is about the size of our largest spacedocks..."

"Well..." Jaina paused. "We didn't actually build this ship, the Empire did. It was part political project and part intimidation. Whatever the reasons, it makes a pretty good command ship that also functions as a mobile drydock for the fleet."

"I suppose that makes sense," Troi agreed. "It's still very impressive."

Jaina nodded, looking around the bridge. "I guess so."



"Ferret is away," a woman called out at the tactical station. "Thirty seconds to missile launch." The ferret that she was referring to, of course, was not an animal but rather a small, stealthy droid recon ship.

Jaina and Troi walked forward to the triangular viewports and looked out at the task force. Right now, the capital ships were clustered together in close formation, but the Admiral had explained to her that the calculated hyperjumps would spread the fleet out over hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The reason for that was to make things harder for the Vong defenses; it would force them to split their fire over a wide area, and would allow each one of the Navy ships plenty of maneuvering room.

"Missiles are away," the same voice reported.

Admiral Kre'fey walked over to the intercom and keyed it. "All hands to battlestations. Prepare for lightspeed."

Troi turned to Jaina. "Is there anywhere to sit?"

"You won't need to," Jaina replied. "On the big ships like this, they have the inertial compensators turned up to the maximum. You'll barely feel a thing during the jump." Which was especially true for the Lusankya, Jaina reflected. The massive command ship had been designed to take heavy turbolaser hits without even flinching. She had also heard the stories about Executor's maiden voyage at the Fondor shipyards, where three Imperators came out of hyperspace and collided with it – its shields hadn't even failed.

Kre'fey walked toward the two women as they stood near the viewports, and turned to Troi. "So, what do you think so far?"

"Of the ship, or the general morale?"

The Bothan blinked. He had nearly forgotten that she was an empath. "Well, I already heard you say that you thought the ship was impressive... so let's hear what you think about our crew morale."

"Apprehensive yet excited, and somewhat angry," Troi finally stated.

He nodded. "That pretty well sums up what I've heard."

"By the way," Jaina interrupted, "what have you heard about Miko?"

"The last I heard," the admiral said, "he was still in intensive care. The doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him; aside from external bruises and cuts, he's in good health."

She felt a dull thrumming resonate through the deck plates and looked up, only to notice that the black vastness of space had been replaced with the strange, distorted sky of hyperspace. Almost as soon as it had begun, the inky blackness of realspace appeared again, this time with a bright star – Helska – visible in the distance.

"Comm-Scan, sitrep." Kre'fey barked.

There was a pause from Comm-Scan and then the intercom went wild with chatter. It was quickly muted as the techs tried to make sense of it. After a very tense few seconds, Lieutenant Getes finally stepped forward. "Sir, about half of the fleet reports that their hyperdrives shut down early due to gravity-well alarms. We appear to have lost three frigates, probably collisions with the enemy, and another dozen ships of various class report collision damage." He handed the admiral a datapad. "Here's the complete list."

Kre'fey took the datapad without looking. "How close are we to formation?"

There was another long pause as Lieutenant Getes checked the displays. "The fleet is currently spread out over... about half of the Helska system." He pointed to one of the displays. "This is the current system chart."

Jaina put her forehead into her palm as she listened to the conversation.

"Send a message to the fleet—continue with battle plans as before, fire from long range if necessary. Do not deploy any fighters."

"Why not?" Jaina asked.

Admiral Kre'fey turned to look at her. "I understand that you're a Jedi and a pilot, but I wasn't finished speaking. I don't want to ask you to leave, so I suggest you keep your questions to a minimum. If I need you for something, I will let you know. Now, to answer your question, I'm not deploying fighters because without any formation, we have lost our firing solutions and need all the firepower we have. I don't want any friendly fire casualties."

"Yes, Sir," Chastened, Jaina managed to get the acknowledgement out before turning and walking back to the viewports. Several of the closest ships were visible, but she could only guess at the position of the rest of the fleet by the flashes of turbolaser fire that could be seen in the far distance. They were at such a long range that she couldn't even pick out the massive worldships she had seen during the rescue mission.

She turned around and walked back over toward where Kre'fey was standing at the pit, talking to Lieutenant Getes, taking care to not get in anyone's way.

"How effective was the missile strike?" the Admiral asked.

"One of the worldships appears to be heavily damaged. I see no signs of damage on the other two." There was a brief pause. "I'm also seeing radiation traces from a small cloud of asteroids. It appears the ferret confused the asteroid with one of the worldships."

"Get a data uplink from the ferret, and have the logs checked. I want to find out exactly what happened."

"At once, Sir." As Kre'fey turned away, Getes spoke again. "Sir, the enemy has opened fire. Plasma shots only, no sign of missile weapons." He paused to read the displays as they kept scrolling. "Elements of the fleet that are closer report that the plasma is strong up close but effectiveness drops off very quickly."

"How far?" Kre'fey asked.

"5,000 kilometers, approximately."

"Inform all commands to increase stand-off distance to 6,000 kilometers."

"Yes, Sir."

When the report of enemy fighters in pursuit came in, Jaina wished that she could be back at the controls of her X-wing, at least doing something to help. However, moments later Kre'fey ordered all the ships to activate their close-in weapons systems, if they hadn't done so already. Usually that meant multi-barrel blaster turrets similar to the ones on the Falcon but with a much higher rate of fire. Some of the older ships also used continuous-beam turbolaser turrets, but the rapid-fire blasters could sustain a much longer firing period before they had to powercycle. Either way, such weapons were murderous for fighters that got too close to a capital ship. However, most CIWS were rarely allowed to go full auto as they often proved lethal to friendly fighters as well.



As Lusankya drew steadily closer to the planet, its heavy guns firing continuously at the damaged worldship, Troi grabbed her head and grimaced. "There's a lot of noise in this system," she finally said. "It's like a thousand conversations running at a mile a minute."

The comment got the Admiral's attention, and he turned to Jaina. "Can you sense anything?"

Jaina shook her head. "Whatever it is, I can't feel it in the Force."

Across the bridge, Danni spoke up. "It's probably the yammosk. The closer you get, the stronger its effect is on you. Sort of like an old radionics kit..."

Jaina's mind kicked into high gear. "But to effectively coordinate anything at these distances, the effect must be supralight. If it is, why can't we detect it?"

"Nobody's ever been able to figure out how the Force works, either," Kre'fey replied. "And not for a lack of trying, either. Just look at the experiments the Empire did, right on this very ship."

"Some of the less... moral governments in our galaxy have done quite brutal experiments on telepaths, as well. We suffered much at their hands before joining the Federation." Troi added.

Jaina shrugged. "You'd still think we would be able to detect something. Maybe we've been looking in the wrong places."

The bridge conversation turned back to the battle at hand, and after several more minutes Lieutenant Getes turned away from his station. "The fleet reports that they're no longer being targeted. We're not quite... oh. /We/ are now the target, Sir."

"Of what?" Captain Durmah asked over the comm from CIC.

"Every cannon on this side of the planet," Getes replied after several seconds of dead silence.

"Intensify forward deflectors!" his voice rang over the comm. Obviously, he didn't want to make the same mistake that Captain Piett made during the Battle of Endor.

"Forward deflectors already at full strength, Sir," the reply quickly came.

"First strike incoming in 3... 2... 1..." Getes read off.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jaina could see Troi tense up as if she was expecting the ship to heave violently. However, there wasn't even as much as a bang, although forward view from the bridge windows looked as if someone had set off a thousand fireworks and laser light shows all at once. There was the golden-colored glow of the incoming plasma, the brilliant emerald green of Lusankya's turbolaser fire, and various red-colored blasts from the smaller emplacements and defensive blasters.

"Deflector status?" Durmah asked.

"Still holding at full strength. Minor fluctuations in some areas. Maintenance is already checking the generators."

Kre'fey turned around to face the tactical station. "How long will the deflectors last?"

"At the current rate of depletion, Sir, they'll last all day." "Excellent. Captain, bring us into orbit of the fourth planet and execute Base Delta Zero. Comm, relay new orders to the fleet. Choose targets of opportunity. Weapons free, fire at will."

"Yes, Sir."



* * *



"The infidel commander is moving directly into our trap," Prefect Da'Gara announced with more than a slight degree of smugness. They had moved into the war room, where a large villip choir was currently showing the position of all the combatants in the system. "We will avenge the /Glory of Yo'gand/ and emerge victorious, with Yun-Yammka on our side!"

Glory of Yo'gand, of course, was the worldship that had been devastated by Lusankya's missiles. It had also been the first one to get hit, and after realizing what was happening the yammosk had used the dovin basals of the other two ships to attempt intercept of the faster-than-light missiles.

The prefect's enthusiasm was slightly dashed, however, when the entire cavern shuddered. Several icicles dropped from the ceiling, shattering harmlessly on the floor.

"That," Ma'Shraid answered the question that was beginning to form on Da'Gara's lips, "is the only flaw in your plan. Do not underestimate the strength of these infidels."

"It is no matter," Da'Gara replied. "At my command, our dovin basals will ensnare that blasphemous construct. Then we will destroy it piece by piece."

Prefect Ma'Shraid looked straight at him, half-wondering if his close connection to the yammosk had made him delusional. She soon decided that the answer was a yes; the prefect's eyes were glazed over and she could tell he was staring off into the distance behind her.

It would be a very bad idea, she finally decided, to stay in the war room planetside. The worldships were at least mobile and she reckoned that she would have a better chance of surviving and ensuring victory against the heretics that opposed them if she was aboard the /Mystery of Harla/.

"I will personally take command of the Mystery of Harla," she said after several seconds had passed. "With it and the Fist of Yammka, we can prevent their escape."

"You do not wish to share in the glory of victory with me?" Da'Gara asked.

She knew where he was going with that question, and didn't like the answer one bit. "I merely wish to ensure a quick and decisive victory."

"Hu sos tchurokk Yun'tchilat!" Da'Gara said, which roughly translated meant 'It is the will of the Gods!'

Ma'Shraid snapped her fists, turned, and began walking to her waiting ship.



* * *



"Message from the Rejuvenator, Sir," Getes called out. "Captain Rojo reports that several enemy warships closed to point-blank range and took down his shields with their gravity devices. He says that the hull is taking the beating for now but would like some help before he loses any more bridge windows or sensor domes."

Kre'fey mentally checked the name against the order of battle of the fleet. Rejuvenator was an Imperator-II class, one of the newer models in fact, and was supposed to have up to date shield generators. In a moment, he made his decision. "Broadcast to the fleet – the Vong can disable shields at point-blank range. Maintain safe distances if possible. All commands are to evacuate primary bridges and transfer controls to CIC."

"Yes, Sir," Getes replied, transmitting the message before transferring his controls down to the Combat Information Center, buried deep within the base of Lusankya's command tower. Soon after, the rest of the bridge crew followed suit and began filing toward the turbolifts.

As the turbolift doors opened on CIC several brief minutes later, it was a scene of barely organized chaos.

"What in the eleven Corellian hells are they trying to do?" Captain Durmah exclaimed in frustration. Kre'fey strode over to the holotable and looked down at it. It was presently showing a bewildering display of multicolored dots. Lusankya was shown iconically next to the fourth planet, with two miniature representations of the Yuuzhan Vong worldships right next to it.

"Sitrep?" he finally asked as the whole ship seemed to shudder.

"Comm-Scan reports that the gravitic readings are off the charts," Durmah summarized. "They yanked us a couple hundred klicks down toward the planet before the repulsors could compensate. It's like we're at the center of a three-way tug of war."

Something clicked inside the Bothan's memory. "Captain, have you ever heard of a particular Mandator-class by the name of Cosmonaut Ijon Tichy?"

Durmah looked slightly puzzled. "Wasn't that one of the ships that fought in the Clone Wars?"

"It was," Kre'fey replied. "In particular, it became known for its very... well, creative use of its hyperspace towing rig."

"And we have four of those," Durmah said, not quite sure where this was going.

"Exactly," Kre'fey said triumphantly. "A hyperspace towing rig is essentially a large tractor-repulsor array... a gravity manipulator, in other words. According to the legends surrounding Ijon Tichy, on several separate occasions, it managed to turn several Separatist warships into pretzels using that array."

Durmah scratched at his chin. "So the Vong are trying to do that to us right now... except they don't realize we can play the same game." He continued scratching at his chin as he thought about the different ways to proceed, before finally turning around and grabbing the comm. "Tractor control, this is the Captain. Lock on to both worldships using the towing arrays and go to full power on my mark."

"Captain, this is Tractor Control. Ready at your command." "Tractor control... mark!"

The entire ship shuddered as its arrays began to draw both Yuuzhan Vong worldships toward itself from opposite directions. To their credit, Kuat's designers had put a lot of effort into making the massive dreadnought incredibly strong, far stronger than traditionally mined and alloyed metals would allow. The tractor-repulsor arrays were likewise tightly braced into the frame of the ship because they had been designed to tow ships at least as large as Lusankya itself. Having said that, pulling two worldships together (each one at least ten times as massive as Lusankya) was still a herculean effort.

As the two worldships slowly drew closer together, Durmah watched the display closely. "Helm, standby to turn off main repulsors on my mark," he said.

"Won't we go crashing into the planet if we do that?" Jaina asked.

"You'll see," the Captain replied with a wan smile. Lusankya had, after all, been able to blast itself free from the surface of Coruscant. The fourth planet had barely a quarter the mass of Coruscant, although the pull from the gravity devices below did make it slightly more dangerous.

One of the Comm-Scan techs looked up from his console. "Captain, worldships are five hundred klicks and closing fast."

Durmah visibly tensed, his fingers drumming steadily against the holotable.

"Two hundred klicks and closing."

He looked across the table at the helm officers, who looked back with resolve in their eyes.

"One hundred klicks and closing."

"Helm, Mark!" Durmah ordered.

The repulsors cut off silently, and in that instant, the dovin basals on the fourth planet that had been trying to drag the majestic ship down suddenly found no resistance. Lusankya plummeted down in an instant, dropping at a rate of dozens of kilometers per second. The worldships by now had realized the threat and started to use their dovin basals in an attempt to repulse each other. The effort, to put it mildly, was a case of too little, too late; they slowed down slightly before colliding together in silence, their brittle calcified hulls unable to withstand the impact and shattering. At the impact point, the spiral arms that extended from the worldships, which served as docking points for the thousands of coralskippers each ship carried, snapped and crumbled.

Lusankya itself had started at a height normally used for a geosynchronous orbit, around 36,000 kilometers up. Unlike a stationary satellite such as the massive mirror arrays that orbited Coruscant, the ship had been traveling in the opposite direction to Helska IV's spin which gave it a view of the entire planet's surface, necessary for a Base Delta Zero bombardment. Under the pull of the dovin basals, and with no resistance from its own repulsorlifts, in the time since the worldships had collided it had accelerated to over one hundred kilometers per second.

"Distance to surface 30,000 kilometers and closing," the helm officer reported.

"Helm, re-activate repulsors," Durmah finally ordered.

"Yes, Captain," the helm officer acknowledged. A low hum resonated through the ship momentarily. "Rate of descent has slowed to 7 kilometers per second."

"Maintain course."



* * *



Deep below even the war room, in the yammosk's chamber, Prefect Da'Gara stepped up to a raised platform carved out of the ice and looked straight ahead. The fighting between his defenses and the infidels had been raging for over an hour at this point, with no end in sight so far.

Ordinarily, this would have been the moment of highest glory, honor and spirituality, the apex of his purpose as a Yuuzhan Vong leader. It would have been the reward for his efforts to lead the Praetorite Vong to victory over the infidels; today, however, it felt more like a necessity.

He looked forward at the bulbous mass of the yammosk and saw its massive eyes staring back at him, boring deep into his entire being. He began to chant the required prayers to Yun-Yammka, the god of slaying, for the strength he would need. He lifted his scarred hand up to touch the creature between its eyes near a large, blue pulsating vein. As he did, he felt his consciousness swept up into that of the yammosk. He felt its ovewhelming presence, its single-minded purpose, and as he was sucked deeper in, he felt the link to his entire force.

Da'Gara thought about his ships and commanders, and was rewarded as the yammosk responded instantly to his unspoken question. He was now able to see through his forces' eyes; what he saw was somewhat off-putting. The largest of the infidel metal-things was still circling the fortress world, still blasting away with waves of lethal energy. In the other parts of the system, his ships faced off against the infidel metal-things, usually two to three against one. The yammosk had realized that the enemy metal-things could be severely weakened if dovin basals were used, and so the three ships would converge, eliminate its defenses, and start pummeling it with everything they had.

However, despite their apparent success elsewhere in the system, Da'Gara could feel the yammosk's growing unease at the metal-thing orbiting overhead. It was dangerous, the yammosk was telling him, and it wanted to reach out and strike it down once and for all.

He nodded in agreement.



* * *



Jaina spun around as she heard a scream come from the other side of the strategy room. Kre'fey had asked all non-essential personnel to wait in the strategy room; CIC was cramped compared to the bridge, with no room for unexpected guests.

As she rushed over, Luke and Kyp had already knelt down next to Deanna Troi, who was lying on the floor clutching her temples as her body convulsed. "What's happening?" she asked.

She turned her head toward Jaina. "Pressure... too much pressure..." she mumbled as she closed her eyes; then they snapped open suddenly. "Do-ro’ik vong pratte!" she screamed in a totally different voice an instant later before closing her eyes again and falling completely silent.

When the convulsions didn't stop, Jaina rushed back and slammed down the comm call button. "We need a medic in the strategy room now! Counselor Troi is down!"

She reeled in shock almost before her hand had left the button. The pressure was so intense, it felt as if a Star Destroyer had landed on her chest. Trying to gather her wits, she glanced back across the room and saw the others gasping for breath.

"What... the hell... is... this?" Kyp asked in between breaths.

"Yammosk," Danni managed to choke out.

Luke pulled himself upright, the strain nonetheless evident on his face. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Whatever it is, we can fight it," he said. "Focus inward, find something calm and anchor yourself to it."

Jaina closed her eyes and reached deep down, trying to find something she could use. As far back as she could remember, she and the rest of the family had barely had any peace and quiet. That was apparently the curse of both the Skywalkers and the Solos, she reflected; the universe just couldn't leave them alone. Yet, in between all the conflicts, there had been some periods that she remembered fondly. Her training at the Academy was one such time; she remembered how much fun it was to go around, exploring the ancient Massassi ruins with her brother and their friends. Then there was the huge pile of electronics she had salvaged from the defunct equipment in the basement of the Grand Temple, and used for various projects. When Anakin had started attending the Academy, he had shared the pile with her – she loved to experiment and build new things, while Anakin loved to fix anything, particularly droids. She began to smile, latching on and pushing back against the immense pressure.

"What about everyone else?" Kyp asked, apparently having found some anchor of his own.

She reached over and pressed the door button; it hissed open, and immediately the Jedi could see that the pressure wasn't limited to them. Admiral Kre'fey was leaning heavily against the holotable, Captain Durmah doing the same on the other side. The command crew likewise were all leaning against their stations, clutching their heads, and basically doing anything to ease the crushing pain they had been subjected to.

"Take my hands," Luke ordered, which Jaina and Kyp did. "Think of the pressure – it's like a river. We need to be like a rock in the river that it flows around. Take the calm that you feel now, and let everyone feel it."

Jaina took a deep breath and focused on the calm she felt, tried to push it out toward everyone. She took in a sharp breath as she did so; the pressure from the yammosk was immense. It was all she could do to push against it.

As the three struggled against it, she could see the crew straighten up, blinking as if they had just woken up from a midday nap.

"TacOps," Kre'fey said, somewhat shaken, "what's the status on the bombardment?"

The lieutenant-commander at the Tactical Operations station looked down at the displays. "Guns are firing sporadically... I'd say the gunners were hit just as hard as we were."

Kre'fey looked over at the three Jedi before turning back. "Override and transfer all guns to computer control. We need to finish this bombardment, fast. How are the shields holding up?"

"Still intact, Sir," he replied. "Forward arcs are depleting faster but we have enough reserve power for several more hours."

The Admiral nodded, and turned around toward the Jedi. "What happened? I heard you talking about the pressure... something to do with that war coordinator?" he guessed.

"Danni seems to think so," Luke replied, his hands still linked with the other two. Their faces were starting to show the strain that the task had placed on them, but their eyes showed the resolve to finish.



Far below them, the weather was beginning to change. Normally, for an icy world, that was almost unheard-of. The atmospheres of such frozen wastelands were typically so dry and devoid of any moisture of any sort that it would frankly be impossible for any weather to form, let alone change. However, after over an hour of bombardment by an Executor-class Star Destroyer, so much of the fourth planet's icy crust had been vaporized and ejected that the planet was now experiencing weather that hadn't been seen in several billion years, since the star Helska had been younger and hotter.

Every turbolaser hit added more turbulence to Helska's atmosphere, the unthinkable energy searing the vapors and turning oxygen into ozone. The volcano-like cannons that had sprung up all over the planet's surface, vomiting glowing golden orbs of plasma at the warship orbiting far above, weren't exactly helping matters much either. Gouts of steam kicked up by each hit rose into the atmosphere, turning into billowing, cotton-like cumulus clouds. Shockwaves from the ongoing battle buffeted the clouds, air fronts suddenly springing up out of nowhere to distort the puffy clouds and send them shooting up kilometers into the atmosphere. At those heights, the gigantic storm clouds acted like a metal wire dropped across two exposed power cables. Kilometer-long tendrils of raw electricity flashed in and out of existence, ionizing pathways through the planet's sky. After another hour of the intense bombardment, the vapor had expanded to the point where it began to resemble a comet's tail.



"Multiple hyperspace reversions," Lieutenant Getes announced. "Contacts are scattered, consistent with our fleet jump. IFF reads Navy."

"What's the flagship?" Kre'fey asked a moment later. His head still ached slightly from the attack; on the far side of CIC, the three Jedi still stood next to each other, eyes shut with concentration as they fought off the strange effect.

Getes paused as he scanned the displays. "NRNS Viscount, Sir."

Kre'fey inhaled sharply. "First Fleet... the Senate must have found out. What's our range?"

"To Viscount, twenty light-minutes. Other ships are spread across the system."

"Get me a breakdown of their forces, I want to know what they brought." A mere hundred ships, of course, wasn't the entirety of First Fleet, which was stationed at Coruscant. In fact, many of the ships that he had managed to 'procure' for the task force had officially been assigned to First Fleet.

"Audio broadcast from Viscount, Sir," Getes announced. "Shall I put it on speaker?"

Kre'fey nodded.

"Attention all commands," the voice came across, "this is Admiral Brand. You are acting without the authorization of the New Republic Senate. If you do not stand down and follow the hyperspace vectors that accompany this broadcast, you will be considered deserters and subject to all legal and disciplinary actions that entail. You have five minutes to make your decision. Message repeats. Brand out."

"Give me that handset," Kre'fey told the lieutenant in an annoyed tone. "System-wide broadcast, all primary frequencies. Let's make sure he gets my reply." He took the comm handset as Lieutenant Getes made the necessary adjustments, and keyed it on. "Admiral Brand... judging by your title, I would guess the Senate suddenly felt motivated enough to promote you. I would also guess that your Senate handler is there, standing right next to you. Admiral, and I use that term loosely, if you have a problem with my actions I suggest we discuss that on a closed channel. In the meantime, leave my men out of this. They have done nothing wrong."

He didn't have to wait long for a reply. "Encrypted holo channel from Viscount, Sir."

"Put it on."

The quarter-size holo appeared on the table in front of them, flickering slightly as the people on the other end were continuously scanned by the holocams. Admiral Kre'fey was immediately able to recognize Brand, and standing next to him...

"Senator Shesh," he addressed her. "I wish I could say I was surprised to see your face."

"I wish I could say the same for you, Admiral," the Kuati senator replied. "The Chief of State is very disappointed with your actions, as is the rest of the Senate. You have engaged in hostile actions against an unknown civilization, without provocation and with no attempts at diplomacy. Not only is this a serious breach of protocol, but a waste of resources and men that we desperately need for peacekeeping across the Republic!"

"Tell Fey'lya that I send my regards," Kre'fey replied sardonically. "As to my motives, I can only wonder what part of the truth you subscribe to. Obviously not the entire truth, or you would recognize that this unknown civilization has already destroyed Dubrillion, attacked over a dozen other worlds, and killed millions for no reason that we know of. And as far as your assertion that we attempted no diplomacy: the aliens have so far not responded to any attempts at contact. We sent a man down to the surface of the fourth planet. He discovered and rescued two prisoners and was attacked in the process. The prisoners had been brutally tortured to extract information. Ask yourself this, Senator, what would you do in my shoes?"

Shesh fidgeted visibly, even in the quarter-size holo. "The fact remains, Admiral, that you did not have the authorization of the Senate to wage war. This is a clear breach of naval protocols. You are in contempt of the Senate, Admiral, and if you do not order your force to return to Coruscant at once, your commission will be revoked by a tribunal."

"With all due respect, Senator, take a look around you." Kre'fey made a chopping motion with his hand, and Getes immediately cut the connection. "Consider Viscount and accompanying elements of First Fleet potentially hostile. Signal all commands to keep enemy forces between themselves and First Fleet elements if possible. TacOps, ETA on the BDZ?"

"Approximately one hour remaining, Sir."

"Sir! More contacts just appeared, looks like Vong. Mostly frigate sized."

Kre'fey looked down at the holotable. The new contacts appeared as purple dots on the display, adjacent to the yellow dots that represented the First Fleet elements. "Well. That should serve as a wakeup call to the Senator," he remarked as he turned back to Comm-Scan. "Signal any nearby ships to assist in bombardment. TacOps, intensify bombardment – overheat the guns if you need to. We have to end this."



* * *



In all of the time that Prefect Da'Gara had spent bonding to the yammosk, it had always been confident in its power, absolutely sure that it would succeed in the mission that the Praetorite Vong had given it. After all, the yammosk that had spawned it had been among the best in the Yuuzhan Vong armada, according to the Executor Nom Anor. Even now, this yammosk was preparing to spawn another, which Da'Gara had promised to Prefect Ma'Shraid for the new fleet they were growing in the ruins of some of the systems they had taken.

However, as Da'Gara observed through his link with the war coordinator, Helska was melting around them. Already very little ice remained of its surface, the massive oceans exposed for the first time in millennia. And, he could feel, that disturbed the yammosk deeply. The yammosk was afraid, he realized, afraid that its efforts would not be enough against the enemy and that it and its yet unborn spawn would not survive.

He immediately lashed out at the yammosk, calling it a cowardly, quivering mass for believing such things. It was, after all, supposed to hold them together! Besides, even if the ice was melting, his worldship was directly above them, its heavy bulk and many dovin basals able to protect them from whatever the infidels could muster.
The yammosk responded with an overwhelming flood of anger. It had realized its error, and it wanted blood. It would bring down the enemy construct that was pummeling their new home's surface, no matter the cost. It had to, if it was to regain Da'Gara's confidence.

Even with that reassurance, Da'Gara couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps the war coordinator was right, and they had been outmatched.



* * *




Jaina let out a gasp as another wave of pressure seemed to slam into the three Jedi. "I think we've really pissed it off," she gasped out as she tried to maintain her concentration.

"No shit," Kyp retorted curtly.

"Concentrate!" Luke snapped. Jaina didn't blame him; after all, she felt herself weakening from the strain and her concentration was starting to lose focus. She closed her eyes again and tried to feel the flow of the Force.

On the other side of CIC, Admiral Kre'fey watched the displays in silence. The first thing that had gone during the psychic attack—what else could it have been?—was the communication. The forward shield arcs were taking a beating from the two worldships, which had apparently recovered control, and damage was starting to bleed through to the hull. Yet none of the damage control teams were responding. Fortunately the ground fire had almost ceased, since most of the strange volcano cannons had apparently been silenced by the bombardment.

He kept his eyes on the countdown timer that signaled the duration of the bombardment. It was down to thirty minutes and counting. Fortunately, Lusankya was a strong ship; the engineers at the Fondor drive yards were second to none and the Empire had spared nothing in her construction. Of course, Lusankya had taken significant battle damage before she had been captured, but the New Republic had sent her back to Fondor and after years of repairs and upgrades, she was now better than ever.

Apparently Admiral Brand wasn't faring much better, he concluded as he looked over the situation table. The newly arrived enemy forces had immediately gone for the nearest Republic ships, which happened to be the Viscount and its retinue. The entire system was pretty much a clusterkriff.

At that point, Lieutenant Getes spoke up. "Report from Captain Rojo, Sir."

"Put it on."

The small holo of the captain appeared in front of Kre'fey. "Admiral, we think we've noticed a decrease in enemy coordination. Our defenses are taking more of their fighters out. Their capital ships are also missing more shots than before."

Interesting, Kre'fey thought. "What's your status?"

"We've been better," Rojo replied. "While our shields were down, their molten missiles sort of solidified on our hull. No real damage but they took out a good third of our guns. Fortunately for us, three other ships came and chased the bogey that was harassing us off. We're on the offensive now."

"Good work," he replied. "I will commend the other captains for their effort. Let us know if you see anything else unusual."

"Of course, Admiral."

Kre'fey turned back to the situation table. The display confirmed that most of the fleet had grouped up into small packs, similar to hunting animals, and was slowly tearing apart the defenders. At least they would be fine. He was, frankly, more concerned about Admiral Brand and what would happen when this was all over. Senator Shesh, who was only in her second term as senator of Kuat, clearly had an agenda or she wouldn't be on the flagship of First Fleet. He snorted softly as he thought about what must have happened. Most likely, as the chairwoman of the Defense Council she had discovered his actions, discussed the matter with Admiral Sovv and had Commodore Brand promoted, and then came out here to... what? Take credit? That didn't make any sense, given what they had said in their broadcast message.

His ears twitched as he continued to contemplate the situation. More than likely, she was acting to preserve her seat on the Defense Council. It wouldn't look very good for her if a ranking Admiral of the Navy defied Council orders to conduct operations while she watched. She had been given access to all the facts and yet...

It still did not explain the full picture, he finally concluded. Her own self-interest was certainly a motivator, but he knew that there had to be more to it. He just didn't know what it was.




* * *



They had been doomed from the start, Prefect Ma'Shraid belatedly realized. Deep in the heart of her worldship, the Mystery of Harla, she watched events unfold through a villip choir in front of her. The villips, which were a different breed than the paired creatures the Yuuzhan Vong used for communication, were capable of emitting light. When a large group of them were put together, they could assemble a picture of almost anything desired.

At the moment, she was watching the fourth planet boil.

Ma'Shraid clenched her hands together, her implanted claws puncturing her palms and drawing blood. She savored the pain, even while her mind raced. Da'Gara is such a fool, she thought. He had trusted in the immature yammosk and concocted what he thought was a foolproof plan to ensure their sect a glorious place in the future of this promised galaxy.

Executor Anor never fully explained how he had obtained the yammosk in the first place.

She knew that the yammosks were the prize of the shapers who attended them. The massive beings could hold entire Yuuzhan Vong fleets together by their sheer willpower. There had also been catastrophic defeats in the past when young, immature yammosks had been deployed in combat. Finally, she knew that the proud members of the warrior caste would never have permitted a yammosk to be controlled by the intendants. The only explanation, she reasoned, was that the yammosk the executor had obtained had some type of flaw, one that had prompted the shapers to dispose of it. Nom Anor had simply saved it from destruction... and in so doing, ensured the defeat of the Praetorite Vong.

Already, she knew, their coralskippers were being slaughtered by the enemy forces. The pilots, all too reliant on the guiding mind of the yammosk, had been thrown into confusion as its concentration had been focused on the enemy construct that she and the Glory of Yo'gand were presently attacking. That, in and of itself, was not necessarily a bad decision – such powerful focus from a yammosk could prove deadly to any Yuuzhan Vong warship.

She narrowed her eyes. Despite all the efforts of the yammosk, and the continued attacks of the worldships, the enemy construct kept up its bombardment. It was almost as if it was mocking their very efforts to silence it.

What had been most embarrassing for her was when her ship had collided with the Glory of Yo'gand. According to the Executor and all of their spies who had been in this galaxy, the infidels possessed a limited ability to manipulate gravity. They were able to create a mimicry of gravity aboard their metal-things, and were also able to use the same techniques to ascend and descend on planets. However, in none of their reports had they mentioned did they mention anything that even remotely approximated the power of a dovin basal.

The prefect found that particularly strange, given that the infidels had done nothing to prevent the destruction of the planet they called Dubrillion. Surely if this metal construct could pull two worldships together, they could counteract the pull of a dovin basal against a moon?

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the psychic equivalent of a blood-curdling scream. She involuntarily grabbed at her head in a futile attempt to stop the incredible agony, which seemed to last for a lifetime. Although she had never felt it before, a quick look at the villip choir confirmed what she had already suspected: Helska IV was dead. The planet dully glowed through the mist, its molten core apparently ruptured. There had been no reports from Prefect Da'Gara, and a glance at the paired villip she had showed no response.

Almost as immediately as the planet had died, the enemy metal construct had suddenly turned its incredible firepower to bear on the Glory of Yo'gand. The wounded worldship attempted to turn and face the spear-shaped vessel, but she could see that its remaining defenses were withering under the hail of firepower.

"Contact the commanders," she suddenly ordered a nearby subaltern. "They are to break off all attacks. We will regroup at the beginning of Vector Prime. Those that have fallen today will be avenged!"

She hoped that they could find a suitable target in time for the arrival of the Warmaster. If not, she fully expected to find herself among the ranks of the Shamed Ones—or worse.



* * *



Jaina whooped in triumph as the remaining ships turned to flee. Helska IV was now a ruined mess of a planet, with its oceans continuing to boil off to space in its greatly reduced gravity.

"Status?" Kre'fey asked.

"Out of the original task force," Lieutenant Getes replied, "we have six ships lost in all, three from the initial hyperjump, and a total of seventeen mission kills, against a combined total of thirty-one enemy warships plus the planet." He turned around as his console chimed. "Another channel from Viscount, Sir."

Kre'fey sighed. "Put it on."

"Well, Admiral," Senator Shesh began, "I hope you're pleased with yourself. Do you realize that you authorized the first Base Delta Zero operation in the history of the New Republic?"

"For the record, I would have preferred to do anything but. My actions were dictated by the circumstances."

"We'll leave the review of your actions to the tribunal," Shesh replied in a smug, condescending tone. "I just spoke to Admiral Sovv and the Defense Council. Admiral Traest Kre'fey, New Republic First Fleet, your commission is hereby revoked until further notice. Furthermore, I have orders for your arrest on the grounds of disobedience of direct orders and misuse of Republic property. Therefore, you are to immediately surrender yourself into our custody, where you will be taken back to Coruscant for investigation and trial. If you do so, we will not pursue disciplinary action against any of your commands. However, if you fail to comply with these instructions, all commands under you will be considered complicit and subject to the same revocation of rank and trial."

"Understood," Kre'fey said as he killed the connection. He looked across the table at the three Jedi and began to laugh sadly. "You see what we're up against? With this Senate, we don't even need enemies!" He continued to laugh, shaking his head the entire time, and then straightened up. "Well, I don't want to see any of you charged for following my orders. Lieutenant Getes, prepare my shuttle."

"Thank you, Admiral," Luke said, locking eyes with Kre'fey. "May the Force be with you."

[MrEmperor]

Well, yay for the win, but yeah. The Senate kinda sucks. However, it's interesting that they now have access~ish to Fed Telepaths who can actually locate the Vong. I doubt this will be an outcome, but Fed telepaths that have been trained as Jedi should be able to deal the Vong one on one. But that also means that they would be more vulnerable to them as well, mentally.

Great chapter.

[JEKrug01]

Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen too much on the Fed-side of late. *shrug* Don't suppose we'll see some of them again anytime soon by chance?

[Crayz9001]

Like I mentioned, I'm actually re-working the first chapters of the book. Everything from the middle of the book on (from about 15 or so) should be about the same, but up to chapter 15 is probably going to change quite a bit. Most of those changes involve the Federation (a bit of an increase in their involvement), and I'm removing some of the plot points that I realize now are unneeded.

I may either edit the earlier chapters once I've done this, or just start another thread if my changes will increase the chapter count.

The Federation is also going to get much more drawn in in the second book.

[MrEmperor]

That sounds good and promising. This feels like the older SW/ST crosses that I've seen around, which is good. Awesome job.

[JEKrug01]

Originally Posted by Crayz9001

I may either edit the earlier chapters once I've done this, or just start another thread if my changes will increase the chapter count.

The Federation is also going to get much more drawn in in the second book.

Definitely look forward to reading the revisions if and when ye get around to doing them.