The Republic needed to know what was happening; they needed to send help. And for that to happen, the comms tower had to be up and running. At least it was something Ram could actually do, was good at even.
He wiped his eyes and took a deep breath. “If we go rooftop to rooftop, we can make it to the lakefront. From there it’s not too far to the edge of town.”
Lula nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Zeen Mrala.
Farzala Tarabal.
Qort.
Lula ran across the uneven gravel of another Valon rooftop, stepped up onto the short wall at its edge, and leapt.
Master Sy.
Master Yoda.
Vernestra Rwoh.
Each step was another name; each name was a prayer.
She sailed through the air over a small side street, ignored the fighting below, the sounds of yelling, blaster fire, explosions.
All that mattered was each moment as it came—the rooftop swinging up to meet her, her boots landing on the ledge, her legs bounding across it, Ram up ahead leading the way. Each moment, and each friend she held dear to her heart and hoped was okay as the galaxy fell apart around her.
Ram led her along a narrow walkway between two buildings, then around a shining dome. A burning starship careened past and exploded in a park nearby.
Balance, Vernestra had said. Balance.
There were so many lives at stake, so many already lost. Lula had to stay focused. But the names kept cycling through her mind, even as she hurdled across a wider avenue, lost her footing on the far ledge, and slid down, saving herself only by grasping a stone gargoyle.
Zeen Mrala.
Farzala Tarabal.
“Lula!” Ram called, gaping down at her from above.
Qort.
“I’m okay!” she yelled, though her fingers were slipping.
Master Sy.
Ram was already climbing down the wall. “Hold on! I’m coming!”
Master Yoda.
“No!” Lula insisted. “I got th—”
The gargoyle cracked and leaned dramatically forward, and then Lula felt the wind swoosh up around her as she plummeted.
“LULA!” Ram threw his arm up over his head, and Lula was suddenly swinging through the sky, toward the wall. She landed on it feetfirst and ran upward as the gargoyle smashed into the pavement below and shattered.
Lula pulled herself onto the rooftop with a groan. She was on her feet and dusting herself off when Ram reached her, panting. “You okay?”
She blinked, still reeling, then nodded. “You saved my life.”
He waved her off. “Ah! I just gave you the assist—you did all the hard work.”
She looked around, her heart finally slowing as the burn in her scraped palms seemed to roar to life. She had to focus. Yes, balance was possible. And right now balance meant not being attached to outcomes she had no control over. Especially because the one she could do something about was so important.
“You ready to keep going?” Ram asked. “We’re getting close to the—”
The drone of an engine revved into a sudden roar, shaking the rooftop they stood on. Lula and Ram whirled around as a bulky class-three asteroid hopper sank out of the sky until it was eye level with them.
Lula could make out the horned head of a Devaronian inside. A grinning human woman sat beside him. The ship had a spherical cockpit up front and two bulky wings stretching to either side. A whole battery of cannons peered out from each wing.
“Down!” Lula yelled, tackling Ram as she lunged for the ground. Laser fire splattered across the rooftop, singeing the air just above where they huddled. At the first pause Lula stood, lightsaber extended, and braced herself for the next round of firing. It would only take one deflected hit, angled just right, to take out one of their engines or a wing. She could do this.
Ram got to his feet beside her—unhurt, thank the Force—and lit his own saber.
The attack never came.
Instead, a high-pitched caw sounded, and a long shadow swooped across the rooftop where they stood.
Lula squinted up just in time to catch a flash of purple scaly flesh and two immense wings swinging overhead and then barreling directly at the asteroid hopper. The creature wrapped its long muscly tail around the ship and yanked it backward. Lula barely had time to react to the spray of laser fire that erupted in an upward arc from the wings—the gunner must’ve panicked. She and Ram raised their lightsabers just in time to send each shot blitzing into the rooftops around them.
The cockpit window cracked, then shattered completely, and the huge flying lizard spun upside down and whipped the wrecked ship straight up into the air, then swatted it once with its tail, demolishing the whole thing. The flaming wreckage smashed into a building and then clattered to the street below.
Lula realized her mouth was hanging open. The serpent swung into a graceful arc above them and landed with a mighty thud a few meters away. Someone was riding it, she could now see. A woman.
“Greetings, Younglings,” Ty Yorrik said, sliding easily off the creature and stretching her shoulders like nothing particularly exciting had just happened. She had an impressive gilded face guard covering her mouth and chin, and Ram noticed she’d gotten her lightsaber back.
“We’re Padawans, not Younglings,” Lula said, caught somewhere between amazed and slightly annoyed.
“Yeah, yeah. I brought you a gift.”
“Is it your flying serpent thingy?” Ram asked a little nervously.
Ty let out a raspy, humorless chuckle. “Heh. No.”
Another shadow passed overhead, this one much bigger.
“It’s her mom.”
As it turned out, Ty Yorrik had brought them two surprises. The mysterious Force user took off on her own ride as the gigantic sanval landed on the rooftop with a skull-rattling thud, those long claws carving deep gashes into the tarmac. Ram took a few steps back—he knew it was exactly what they needed to get to the tower, but also: yikes.
Lula gave a gasp of joy, though, and ran forward.
Ram realized this sanval had a rider, too—a girl Lula’s age with magenta skin and slowly swaying tendrils on the back of her head—a Mikkian. “Zeen!” Lula yelled. “How—”
The girl flashed a winning smile and shrugged. “Master Sy and I were fighting off some Nihil by the main pavilion, and we helped this Ty here out of a jam. She offered to help me find you.”
“Is Master Sy—”
“They’re okay!” Zeen said. “Headed off to help protect the Chancellor.” She extended a hand and helped Lula up.
“This is Ram,” Lula said, settling into place behind Zeen. “He’s a Valon Padawan. He knows where the comms tower is and how to fix it, so we’re heading out there.”
Ram tried to smile and do what he thought people were supposed to do when they met someone new, but he wasn’t even sure what that was. And anyway, what if he couldn’t fix the comms? Or what if something else had gone wrong that they didn’t even know about? Amid everything terrible going on, the sudden pressure to live up to expectations felt impossible. “Hey,” he said with a wave he was sure was awkward.
“Good to meet you,” Zeen said, and Ram could tell she meant it—she didn’t seem like the type to say things idly. “I’m Zeen Mrala. You coming?”
“Uh, yeah! Definitely!” He approached cautiously, excruciatingly aware of the giant sanval head looming over him, that humongous forked tongue sliding from one side to the other.
He took Zeen’s outstretched hand and tried not to act shocked when she scooted back so he could take the front-most spot. The sanval smelled like soil and swamp; her muscular shoulders swiveled beneath Ram, and then the creature lowered and burst upward into the sky.
“Yeeeeeep!” Ram yelped before he could stop himself.
“I know! It’s wild, right?” Zeen said with a nervous laugh. The rooftop spun away below them, and within seconds the whole city spread out on either side and the sky, still torn by smoke an
d starfighter fire, became their world.
“How do you…?” Ram started, but what was the word? Drive didn’t seem right. “Ask her to go in a particular direction?”
Zeen laughed. “I haven’t been, to be honest. Ty whispered something to her and told me to get on, so…I tried reaching out with the Force, and it kinda worked. Like, she wanted to hear me.”
“Oh, you’re…” She wasn’t wearing Padawan robes, but she just said she used the Force. Anything he said after that would sound rude, so he was relieved when she answered his unasked question anyway.
“Not a Padawan, no, but I roll with Lula and her crew.”
“Long story,” Lula said. “We’ll tell you when we all get out of this alive.”
Ram liked the idea of them sitting around and having an easygoing conversation when they were safe. He wasn’t sure if they’d all survive, though. So many already hadn’t.
Below, the city gave way to shimmering lake and then forest. He closed his eyes, reaching out to the gigantic sanval with the Force. He felt a surge of energy rise within him, like she understood, so he imagined the route through the trees to the comms tower.
“Uhhhh, company,” Lula said.
Ram glanced back, and his heart sank. It wasn’t just a fighter or two—what looked like an entire Nihil cell spread out behind them, and it was closing fast.
Worse than that, though, the fog they’d had to fight through back at the zoo—the Nihil’s chaotic battle tactic of choice—was rising over the building tops, so it looked like the whole of Lonisa City was being consumed by a giant smoke monster.
The Nihil were taking over.
And without any way to coordinate a response, the Republic and the Jedi couldn’t strategize a meaningful counterattack.
Hurry, Ram urged, and he was pretty sure the wind whipped harder against his face and the trees blurred past even faster.
“How far?” Lula asked.
“Should be just…over…this…” And sure enough, they crested a small slope, and there was the open field by the tower. Except…“Oh, no,” Ram said. “What happened?”
The tower still stood, which he at first thought was a good thing, but green shrubbery had grown almost halfway up it. Worse—the plant seemed to be writhing along the tower legs. Growing!
This must’ve been what was in that pod the Nihil had dropped the night before. They’d taken out the planet-wide comms, but they knew someone would probably be able to fix them. So they’d left behind a time bomb, basically. One that would sprout and grow and take over Crashpoint Tower entirely by the time the attack was in full swing.
A group of Valon Security Force troops must have had the same suspicion. They approached the plant-consumed tower at a brisk jog, weapons out, then halted a few meters in front of it and consulted with each other.
Whatever kind of plant it was, that movement was more than just rapid growth, Ram realized—more than just a plant’s natural sway with the wind. No…that thing wasn’t any regular plant. It was a creature.
A long tendril bristling with huge, razor-sharp spines whipped out suddenly, just as the first VSF trooper charged toward the base of the tower. Another tendril swished through the air, then another. They converged above the trooper, who didn’t seem to notice them.
“That thing, it’s…” Ram gasped as they sped into a dive toward the tower. “It’s…it’s…”
“Drengir!” Lula yelled.
The spiny tendrils swung down, two scooping up the trooper and yanking him toward the brambly mire while the third slashed at the group standing back. They scattered, sending blaster shots in all directions.
The trooper was gone.
Drengir!
And they’d already devoured at least one Valon.
Lula had heard about the malicious sentient plant creatures that seemed to be spreading around the Outer Rim planets like a carnivorous weed. Farzala and Qort were even now off with a Jedi expedition to destroy them at their root. But those sinister vines wrapping around the comms tower could mean only one thing: the Drengir had allied with the Nihil. And that was bad news for everyone.
Worse still: they had some twisted connection with the Force that no one seemed very clear on. Whatever it was, it was the dark side, of course. Lula could feel the cold, cruel energy coming off of them in waves. It felt like a dirty sponge being wrung out inside her, and all she wanted was to get away.
“I’ll hop off on that platform,” Ram said as the sanval swooped in a low circle, “and see what I can do about fixing it.” From his gritted teeth, Lula could tell he felt that nastiness, too.
“Those plants,” Lula warned him, “they won’t let you near it. You saw what they just did to that trooper!”
“We have to do something,” Zeen said. “I’ll go with him and hold them off while he does what he has to.”
“But…” Lula had hoped she’d have Zeen to help her fend off the fast-approaching Nihil ships. It wouldn’t be easy to take them on single-handed. But if Ram wasn’t able to get near that control panel, there was no point in any of this. The sanval slowed at the uppermost platform of the tower, above the writhing branches of the Drengir.
Lula nodded. “You’re right.” She met Zeen’s eyes. They’d only just found each other again amid this disaster, and already they had to part, each to face off with something that wanted them destroyed. It wasn’t fair. Balance, Vernestra’s faraway voice echoed within. The Force was about balance. And Lula would need all the balance she could get to defeat these raiders. “May the Force be with you both,” she said.
Ram and Zeen nodded and leapt from the sanval’s scaly back to the platform.
“Let’s go,” Lula said, forcing herself not to watch her two friends descend toward the Drengir.
The sanval glided in a long, languorous spiral upward. The creature moved through the air like it was water—tiny flinches of her muscular, serpentine body sent her listing to one side or the other, and huge swooshes of those four gigantic wings blasted her forward like a giant scaly torpedo.
Lula didn’t know what Ty had told the sanval, but she could feel the huge lizard’s hunger for chaos, destruction, explosions. “Okay, girl,” she said, patting the cool hide beneath her. “Soon enough.”
Out over the trees, the Nihil ships had fallen into a holding pattern. There were about ten of them; most buzzed around in small circles while others hovered in place, but none got too close to the clearing.
That’s odd, Lula thought, even as the sanval launched toward them, huge jaws wide to release a triumphant roar. There were so many of them. Why would they—“Wait!” she yelled, placing her hands on the sanval’s huge neck to get her attention. “It’s a trap!”
The sanval’s desire to destroy thrummed and shrieked like an electrical current in the air around them. “Wait!” Lula pleaded. She wasn’t quite sure what the trap was yet, but she knew something was off. And rushing into the attack was exactly what the Nihil wanted her to do.
“Swing back around,” Lula said. “There’ll be plenty to destroy, mama, I promise.”
The sanval turned so suddenly that Lula almost slid down those smooth shoulders and tumbled to her death. She saw the first ship burst up over the treetops ahead as she was adjusting her position. Another came soon after it, then another. She narrowed her eyes. The group behind her had been waiting there to lure her attack. That would’ve left Ram and Zeen defenseless, especially since their hands were probably full with the Drengir right about then.
Three more ships rose over the forest, and all six blasted toward the tower. They were small single-pilot fliers—nimble and fast, probably with precision firepower but nothing too heavy. If they’d wanted to destroy the tower, it would be gone already, so clearly they were invested in protecting it. The Drengir were just there to temporarily knock out the comms during the attack, and the Nihil would probably repair them once the Republic reinforcements had been crushed, use them to call their own backup.
At least th
at meant they wouldn’t blow up the tower with Ram and Zeen on it. But they also wouldn’t hesitate to take shots at them if they had the chance.
They wouldn’t get the chance, though; Lula would make sure of that.
Down below, she thought she caught a glimpse of her friends making their way toward the tangled leaves and vines. She couldn’t make out much more than that. She’d just have to trust that they’d be okay and do what they had to do.
Up ahead, the small Nihil crafts were almost at the clearing.
Behind her, the engines of the other ships revved. They would probably come zooming over now that they’d realized their little ploy had failed.
Soon she’d be totally outnumbered.
Lula took a deep breath, the understanding of what had to be done taking shape.
No point in tackling the whole galaxy herself when she had such an eager helping hand available.
“All right, mama,” she said, patting the sanval lovingly and guiding her into a steep climb. “Just swing us right up top of those ships ahead. Then you do whatever you need to with the ones behind, okay?”
A thunderous growl that reverberated all the way through Lula was the only reply. Lula smiled. It was the right one. Down below, the first Nihil craft spun toward them, a few blasts zinging past.
Lula eyed it, timed it, and, as they flew over, slid off the sanval, saber lit, and let the air take her.
“Ummmm…” Ram said, eyeing the tangle of spiny creatures a few meters below. It was hard to tell, but it looked like there were eight or nine of them, all wrapped in a deadly labyrinth around the tower pillars. “What are these things again, and why are they here?”
Zeen laughed, which Ram realized was a nervous habit, not an actual expression of joy. He’d have to remember that. “Drengir. They’ve been causing trouble around the galaxy recently. A bunch of Jedi just rode out to face their main hive on the edge of somewhere. They hate everything that’s not them, from what I understand. And they eat…like…uh, people.”
“They eat people?” Ram boggled. “They’re plants! And do they make an exception for, like, the worst people? They’re here doing the Nihil’s bidding aren’t they?”
Race to Crashpoint Tower Page 8
