Star Wars 396 - The Dark Nest Trilogy III - The Swarm War

by Troy Denning

  “Working on it!” Leia’s hands were flying over the control board, adjusting static filters and signal enhancers. “These sensors don’t calibrate themselves.”

  “Okay, take it easy,” Han said. “I didn’t mean anything.”

  He hit the reset again, and again the alarms reactivated themselves. The repeats could mean that more hazards were appearing, or that the original hazard was drawing rapidly closer. Seeing nothing between them and the planet, he began to accelerate. Tenupe swelled rapidly to the size of a Bith’s head, and the azure blots of hundreds of cloud-free inland seas began to mottle its creamy disk.

  “Is it wise to accelerate while we’re sensor-blind?” Juun asked from the navigator’s station. At Luke’s request, Pellaeon had arranged for him and Tarfang to serve as the Solos’ guides to Tenupe. “We still don’t know where—”

  “You see something in front of us?” Han interrupted.

  “Only Tenupe.”

  “Same here.” Han reset the alarms, then cursed as they instantly reactivated. “So whatever keeps triggering those alarms is coming at us.”

  “And we are running?” Saba was incredulous. “We do not even know from what!”

  “Think of it as getting out of the way,” Han replied. He activated the intercom so he could speak to the Noghri. “Get into the cannon turrets and let me know if you see anything suspicious.”

  Tenupe had swollen to the size of a bantha’s head now. Hanging to one side of the planet, Han could see a shadow-pocked lump that might be a small red moon. On the opposite side, a cluster of tiny, wedge-shaped specks were circling above the clouds.

  “That doesn’t look good,” Han said. “Leia, how are those sensors—”

  Han’s question was interrupted when Meewalh and Cakhmaim announced that there were ion trails closing on the Falcon’s stern from all directions.

  “Chisz?” Saba asked.

  Tarfang chuttered something sarcastic.

  “Tarfang believes so,” C-3PO translated helpfully. “He points out that Killik fighters still use rocket propulsion.”

  “Of all the luck!” Han complained. “The Chiss are already here—and we enter the system in the middle of a patrol!”

  A trio of crimson bolts flashed past barely a dozen meters above the canopy. Then a gruff Chiss voice came over the hailing channel.

  “Millennium Falcon, this is Zark Two.” The woman’s Basic was thick-tongued and awkward. “The Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet demands that you bring to a dead stop your vessel. Stand by for boarding.”

  Han activated his comm microphone. “Uh, just a second.” He glanced over at Leia, then pointed at the control panel and raised his brow. When she gave him a thumbs-up and began to bring the sensors online, he continued, “Sorry. You’ll have to say again. Your Basic is a little—”

  Another flurry of energy beams flashed past the cockpit, this time so close that they left spots in Han’s eyes.

  “That is clear enough, Falcon?” Zark Two asked. “This is a war zone. If you disobey, we fire for effect.”

  Han’s tactical display came up, and he saw that the Falcon had an entire squadron of clawcraft on her tail. The fighters were escorted by two heavy gunboats and an assault shuttle—a standard package for a boarding company.

  But it was what Han saw near the planet that really alarmed him. As he had suspected, the wedge-shaped flecks circling above the clouds were a huge Chiss battle fleet, clustered together over one tiny area of the planet.

  “Leia, see if you can—”

  “Working on it,” Leia said.

  A moment later, the image from a cloud-penetrating sensor scan appeared on Han’s display. Most of the planet’s land surface seemed to be covered by lowland jungles or mountain rain forests, but the area directly beneath the Chiss fleet was a brown smudge. A huge river ran through one edge of the smudge, and a tiny area along one bank shined red with thermal energy.

  The lock-alarms began to chime incessantly, announcing that the Falcon was being targeted by her pursuers.

  “Millennium Falcon, this is our final warning,” Zark Two commed. “Bring your vessel to a dead stop.”

  Han pushed the throttles to the overload stops and dropped into an evasive corkscrew. Laser bolts instantly began to streak past on all sides, and the cabin lights flickered as the Falcon’s shields began to take hits.

  “Captain Solo, the squadron leader’s accent must be confusing you,” C-3PO said. “She ordered us to stop.”

  “I heard.” Han’s eyes remained fixed on the image of the riverbank. “But that looks like a battle down there. A big one.”

  “How do you know that?” Juun sounded more amazed than doubtful. “I thought it was a jungle fire!”

  “A jungle fire? With a fleet to provide space cover?” Saba reached over from the comm station and slapped the Sullustan’s back. “So funny!”

  Tarfang rushed to help Juun off the floor, then whirled on Saba and chittered so angrily it made the Barabel’s scales ripple.

  “Sssorry,” she said. “This one did not know he was serious.”

  A depletion buzzer activated as the Chiss continued to pound the rear shields. Realizing he would never escape a dozen clawcraft with fancy flying alone, Han activated the intercom again.

  “Are you two taking a nap back there?” he demanded. “Shoot something!”

  The Falcon shuddered as the Noghri immediately cut loose with the big quad cannons.

  Leia’s eyes widened. “Han, I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said. “Killing Chiss is only going to aggravate—”

  “Look, I’m not the one setting the stakes here,” Han said. “If I know my daughter, she and Zekk are in the middle of that battle down there, and that means the Chiss are trying to kill them. So pardon me if I return the favor.”

  “Han, I feel the same way,” Leia said. “But we have to think of the mission. Luke wanted to do this without killing more—”

  A damage warning began to scream, and suddenly the yoke felt like an angry snake, snapping from side to side and forward and back, twisting right, whipping left, then kicking and bouncing like a kid on his first bound-stick. The Falcon went into a shuddering vortex, and more alarms screamed as delicate systems began to take secondary damage from the violent shaking.

  “Sh-sh-shut down n-n-number four n-nacelle!” Han ordered. At least he thought it was number four—with all the quaking and shaking, it was hard to be sure which status light he was seeing. “And if that doesn’t work, try the others!”

  Leia’s fingers were already stabbing at the control panel, trying to catch the correct glide-switch. In the midst of it all, a synthesized boom reverberated from the control panel speaker, and Han glimpsed a Chiss designator-symbol vanishing from the tactical display. Even with all of the shaking and spiraling, one of the Noghri had hit a clawcraft. Han was not that surprised.

  Leia finally managed to shut down the number four nacelle. The Falcon stopped shuddering, but her acceleration slowed and the yoke grew stiff and sluggish. Han struggled to bring the ship’s wild spiral back under control.

  “Han?” Leia’s voice was brittle with fear. “You know what I was saying about aggravating the situation?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Forget it,” she said. “They’re already mad.”

  “Yesssszz.” Saba’s hiss had an air of thoughtfulness. “Master Skywalker did not know how far the situation has deteriorated.”

  “Thanks for your opinions,” Han grumbled. “Now could someone get back there and disconnect the number four vector plate? We’re handling like a one-winged manta right now!”

  “Mantaz can fly with one wing?” Saba gasped.

  “No, Master,” Leia explained. “That’s the point.”

  “Oh.” Saba jumped up and tapped Tarfang on the shoulder, then started toward the back of the flight deck. “Why did you not say it was so bad?”

  A jolt ran through the Falcon as they took another hit, and Han saw on the tac
tical display that the clawcraft were beginning to close the distance more rapidly.

  “Jae, how long before we’re in the clouds?”

  “We won’t reach them,” Juun announced immediately.

  “What are you talking about?” Han demanded. “Of course we’ll reach them!”

  Juun shook his head. “I’ve done the calculations. By the time we decelerate to enter the atmosphere—”

  “Who says we’re decelerating?” Han demanded.

  Juun’s voice grew even more nasal. “We’re not going to decelerate?”

  “Captain Solo never decelerates in these situations,” C-3PO reported. “He seems to enjoy seeing how close we can come to crashing without actually doing so. I can’t tell you the number of times that we have been statistically doomed, only to escape at the last possible mo—”

  Another boom reverberated from the control panel speaker, announcing the destruction of a second clawcraft.

  “You see?” C-3PO continued. “But I am pleased to report that our odds of survival have increased by three one-thousandths of a percent.”

  The boom had barely died away before the hailing channel grew active again.

  “Captain Solo, that is quite enough!” The voice this time was male…and very familiar. “Come to a dead stop at once!”

  “Sorry—someone’s shooting at us.” Han continued to corkscrew toward Tenupe, which was now so large that its cloud-blanketed face filled the entire forward viewport. “Is that you, Jag?”

  “It is,” Jagged Fel confirmed. “And I will not tolerate any more casualties.”

  “Then I advise you to order Zark Leader to stop pursuit,” Leia retorted.

  “I am Zark Leader,” Jagged replied coolly. “And I am not at liberty to end this pursuit. If you do not stop immediately, there is only one way this can end.”

  “You’re a squadron leader now?” Han asked, ignoring Fel’s threats. “What’d you do to get busted down that far?”

  “Nothing.” The cockpit speaker crackled with Jagged’s indignation. “My rank remains intact. Bring the Falcon to a—”

  “You’re the same rank?” Leia broke in. “Are you telling me a commander is leading this squadron?”

  “Captain, actually,” Jagged replied.

  “Captain?” Han began to feel sick to his stomach. The Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet used the naval system of ranks, so captain was a command-grade rank—the equivalent of colonel in terms of Galactic Alliance ground forces—and Han could think of only one reason a command officer would fly a patrol mission. “You’re here because of us! You knew we were coming!”

  “I should have thought that was obvious, Captain Solo,” Jagged said.

  Han did not respond. He was too busy trying to bring the Falcon out of her spin…and silently promising a painful death to whoever had betrayed them to the Chiss. Only a handful of people outside the Jedi order had known of the Solos’ destination, so it would not be difficult to track down the spy and put a blaster bolt through his head.

  “But now that you understand,” Jagged continued, “perhaps you see how hopeless your situation really is.”

  “Hopeless?” Han scoffed. “I’m not even worried!”

  He shoved throttles one through three past the overload stops. The Falcon began to spiral even more wildly, and a slight tremble returned to the yoke.

  “Han,” Leia said.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m a little bit worried.”

  “Rel-l-lax.” The yoke was vibrating so hard in Han’s hands that it made his teeth chatter. “Those are rain clouds down there.”

  “So?”

  “So when we pull up under them,” Han explained, “they’ll put out the entry burn.”

  “You’re entering a gravity dive?” Juun’s voice was filled with awe. “May I have permission to record? We should document how you pull out—especially given the damage to our controls.”

  “If we pull out,” Leia groaned. She hated gravity dives. “But go ahead. What can it hurt?”

  “We’ll pull out,” Han said, “assuming Saba and Tarfang get that vector plate disconnected. And we’ll need to know if there are any mountains in that mess. Better run a terrain scan.”

  “I’ll try,” Leia said. “It’s difficult to get a reading while we’re spiraling out of control to our deaths like this.”

  “Who’s out of control?”

  Leia began to activate the imaging scanners, struggling to keep her hands on the appropriate switches as the Falcon bucked and shook. Zark Squadron continued to zing cannon fire at their stern, but the Noghri’s accuracy seemed to have a chilling effect on the Chiss. Despite the renowned speed of their clawcraft, Fel’s pilots were closing the distance much slower than Han had expected—and not nearly fast enough to keep them from reaching the planet, as Juun had calculated.

  “Wait a minute!” Han said. They were so close to Tenupe now that all they could see ahead was pale mass of green clouds, marked here and there by a blue blob of cloudless sea, spinning past the forward viewport ever more quickly. “Something’s not right.”

  “You can say that again.” Leia sent the terrain scan to his display. “Look at this.”

  The map showed a rugged jungle planet of high mountains and vast drainage basins, with no large oceans, but rivers wide enough to see from orbit. It also showed a dozen cruisers converging on the Falcon’s point of entry, their course and original locations clearly outlined by the huge vapor trails they were leaving in their wakes.

  “Get a tactical readout on those—”

  The data appeared on Han’s tactical display. As he had expected, they were drop cruisers—terrible in space combat, but ideal for supporting planetside operations. And the energy blooms on their hulls suggested they all had fully charged tractor beams.

  “This is a setup!” Han pulled the three functional throttles back to three-quarter power—not suddenly, but enough to buy a little reaction time. “Jag is trying to drive us into a trap!”

  “Trying, Han?” Leia asked.

  “Trying,” Han growled. “Nobody traps Han Solo.”

  Han waited until the Tenupe’s little red moon showed through the top of the canopy, then jerked back on the yoke. A series of muffled crashes rumbled up the access corridor—the inertial compensators could not quite neutralize the high g forces—but the planet’s cloud-swaddled face vanished from the forward viewport.

  Jagged Fel’s voice came over the cockpit speaker immediately. “I told my superiors that trap wouldn’t fool you. But if you check your tactical monitor, you’ll discover your situation has only grown more hopeless.”

  Han checked his display and had to agree. A pair of Chiss Star Destroyers had appeared on Tenupe’s horizon, eliminating all hope of escaping around the curve of the planet. Zark Squadron was cutting the corner behind the Falcon, approaching at an angle and continuing to fire.

  “Don’t force me to destroy you and the Princess, Captain Solo,” Jagged said. “Things didn’t work out between Jaina and me, but I still remember you all fondly.”

  “Do what you have to, kid.” Han pushed the three functioning throttles back past their overload stops. “I always liked Kyp Durron better anyway.”

  Leia slapped the comm microphones off. “Han! Are you crazy?” she demanded. “Kyp?”

  “Relax.” Han gave her a crooked smile. “I’m just trying to make him mad. I know Kyp’s way too old for her.”

  Leia closed her eyes and shook her head. “Do you really think now is a good time to make Jag angry? He has an entire fleet at his disposal.”

  “Nothing to worry about,” Han said. “He’s bluffing.”

  “Han, Jagged was raised by Chiss. They don’t know how to bluff.”

  “Must be why they’re so bad at it.” Han winked at her. “Send Meewalh and Cakhmaim to help Saba and Tarfang with that vector plate. I don’t think we’re going to need them in the turrets much longer, but it would be nice to have control of this tub again.”
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  Leia activated the intercom and relayed the order. The laser cannons had barely stopped firing before Jagged’s voice came over the comm again.

  “You have stopped firing on us—thank you.” He sounded genuinely relieved. “But I cannot stop firing on you until the Falcon comes to a dead stop.”

  “Jagged, we all know that if you were serious about this, we’d already be space dust,” Leia replied. “What I can’t figure out is why you’re going to so much trouble to save us.”

  “Your confusion surprises me, Princess,” Jagged said. “I should think the reason would be obvious to someone of your diplomatic and military background. You and Captain Solo will be valuable prisoners—and so will Master Sebatyne and Bwua’tu’s master spies, the Ewok and the Sullustan.”

  “You’re very well informed, Jag,” Leia said. “But not well enough. If you knew our mission, you’d know we’re trying to end the war. You would be helping—”

  “I know you and Captain Solo came here to find Jaina and her, ah, companion,” Jag retorted. “I also know you want to help them smuggle a Killik commando squad into one of our command and control centers. I know your brother believes—wrongly—that this maneuver will prove to us how difficult it would be to win a war against the Killiks. He also believes it will make it easier for him to persuade the ruling houses to accept the peace that he intends to impose on the Colony. Is there anything else about your mission that I should know?”

  “No, that about covers it,” Han said, speaking through gritted teeth. He had assumed that some spy eavesdropping in a hangar or briefing room had betrayed them. But clearly, it been someone a lot closer to the Jedi order than that—someone close enough to know Luke’s entire plan. “You think it’ll work?”

  “No,” Jagged said icily. “I’d have to kill you first.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Han said.

  Zark Squadron continued to pour fire after the Falcon. Another damage alarm started to scream—prompting Juun to take C-3PO and rush aft—but the clawcraft began to drift back on the tactical display. The Star Destroyers began to lay barrages of fire ahead of the Falcon, trying to channel her into tractor beam range, or force her to stop and wait for boarding.