The Unifying Force

by James Luceno

  "Copy, Twin One," Harona said. "They're ramping up to make

  the jump to lightspeed."

  Jaina reached for the throttle. "They're not leaving without our permission. All flights, move in to intercept and obstruct. Target hyperspace drives and shield generators. Be precise with your shots. We don't know where the prisoners are being held."

  Jaina watched Peace Brigade ships break formation, the lead freighters veering to either side, and midline vessels angling for cover behind Selvaris's moon. Elements of Kyp's Dozen and Blackmoon swept in to cut off the enemy ships.

  Jaina pulled back on the yoke and sent her craft into a predatory bank that would have knocked the wind from her in atmosphere, but,

  i t -t

  re, with the inertia! compensators enabled, felt like nothing more

  i slow glide. Laser beams and molten projectiles streaked from

  convoy escort ships, tearing into the ranks of starfighters. Two

  ngs disappeared in globular explosions. Kyp's Dozen broke into

  'eld trios, accelerating in an attempt to overtake the fleeing

  freighters.

  n

  e of the Peace Brigade ships were faster than they looked.

  Thrusters blazing, they raced Rimward, even with Blackmoon aricj Scimitar starfighters hanging on their tails, raking fire across their hulls and engine nacelles. But the pursuit was ill timed.

  "I count one, two, three Brigade ships away," Harona said as the freighters made the jump to hyperspace and vanished. "Should we g0 after them?"

  "Negative," Jaina said quickly. Their orders were to rescue as many prisoners as possible, not chase the enemy clear to Coruscant "Just make sure no others get past us."

  Kyp's Dozen hurtled forward to make sure that none did, paying out concussion missiles and torpedoes as necessary to corral the fleeing freighters. Poorly shielded, the unwieldy ships heaved to, one of them already immobilized.

  The carriers, however, were quick to react.

  "Skips away!" Harona's voice boomed in Jaina's headphones.

  Jaina slewed to starboard in time to see the enemy fighters drop from the undersides of their carriers and form up in clouds around the remaining freighters and Yuuzhan Vong gunships. Pearlescent red wedges of yorik coral, the enemy fighters were nimble and lethal. The sight might have sent her heart racing had she not grown accustomed to the enemy's tactics. Still, she knew from personal experience not to underestimate the vitality of the coralskippers or the single -mindedness of their pilots.

  She allowed her sense of exhilaration to run its course, then eased back into the Force-meld. Lowbacca, Alema, and Kyp acknowledged their readiness.

  "One Flight," she said, "change to course one-zero-one ecliptic. Set lasers for out-of-phase fire. Remember to toggle your grab-safeties if dovin basals pull your shields."

  Lowbacca and Alema touched her briefly through the Force as their separate four-fighter contingents altered vectors accordingly and began to accelerate toward the tethered carrier.

  Following the rout of Tsavong Lah's forces at Ebaq 9, and almost a year of modest victories in Remnant space, the Koornacht Cluster, Bakura, and elsewhere, the war should have long been over. Galactic Alliance commanders Sow, Kre'fey, Brand, Keyan Farlander, Garm

  .. and others were certain that they had dealt the Yuuzhan

  death blow, and that subsequent engagements would be lim-

  3 mop-up operations. All the while, though, Yuuzhan Vong

  had been busy cooking up ways to reestablish parity, and

  *7~ rhey had discovered the means to counter the weapons the

  -e had grown to rely on: laser stutterfire, yammosk jammers,

  dovin basals, shadow bombs, and the rest.

  Then the Yuuzhan Vong had gone a step farther by unleashing a

  rde of specially designed dovin basals to gobble up or otherwise

  acitate j-joioNet relay stations throughout the galaxy. While the

  Alliance had tried valiantly to reinstate instantaneous communica-

  • ns resorting to stationing warships in deep space to double as

  transponders—world after world had fallen to the enemy, conquered or surrendered without a fight. Finally there had been the disastrous attempt by combined Alliance and Imperial Remnant forces to reclaim

  Bilbringi.

  The title of Trickster was back in the hands of Supreme Overlord Shimrra, and Jaina was only "the Sword" she had been named on Mon Calamari, in the Jedi Knighting ceremony that had preceded the battle at Ebaq 9.

  "Make every shot count," she said. "Reserve torpedoes and concussion missiles for the carrier."

  An organic-looking cofferdam still linked the Yuuzhan Vong vessel to a Peace Brigade freighter. Between Twin Suns and the leashed ships, local space was target-rich with coralskippers.

  "Begin your hull runs," Jaina commanded. "Straight down the convoy line."

  The X-wing's sensor screens grew noisy with battle static as bursts of green coherent light streaked from the starfighters' weapons. Singularities fashioned by the coralskippers engulfed most of the bursts, but a few beams pierced the enemy defenses and found their targets. Spherical explosions blossomed, sending asymmetrical masses of yorik coral spinning off into space.

  At the end of the first run, Jaina powered Twin Sun One through a ught turn, accelerated, and rocketed back into the thick of the fighting. Superheated ejecta surged from the coralskippers' volcanolike launchers,

  whipping past her canopy like fiery meteors. She wreathed through 1 tight grouping of enemy fighters, responding in kind. One skip scuddeci clear of her carefully timed bursts, but a second she caught off guarn with steady fire, destroying it completely.

  She boosted power and chased the one that got away, her vjn mate coming alongside her. The craggy lump of dovin-basal-driven coral climbed, then looped and descended, throwing everything it had at them. Twin Sun Three yawed hard to port, but not fast enough The skip's dovin basal lurched for the starfighter's shields at the same time two molten missiles were catching up with it. Overwhelmed, the deflectors failed, and the X-wing blew to pieces.

  One thing Jaina hadn't grown accustomed to was losing her teammates. At this point in the war, with every available veteran leading his or her own squadron, most of the pilots assigned to Twin Suns weren't much older than she was, and each and every death tore her apart.

  Anger flared in her, but only for a moment, before evanescing in the Force. In eerie calm she veered and pounced on the coralskipper while its organic defenses were preoccupied. Two precisely placed shots disabled it, and a third finished it. The skip coughed fluorescent puffs of vaporized coral, then disappeared in a short-lived ball of flame.

  Peeling away from the fireball, Jaina prowled for new targets.

  With the playing field leveled, courtesy of the enemy's aptitude for innovation, fighter engagements had become as ferocious as they had been at the start of the war, before effective countermeasures had come into play. Alliance forces held a slight advantage when coralskip-pers were flying without the assistance of a yammosk, but enemy pilots now had more authority over their ships than ever before, and were no longer as easily outwitted or outmaneuvered.

  Jaina ignored the displays of her range finder and computer-aided sights and relied on the Force to guide her to targets of opportunity-The battle channels were noisy with chatter.

  "We can't clear a path for the transport with those skips hugging the carriers," Harona was admonishing Scimitar Squadron. "Three

  ou've got to take out that dorsal plasma launcher. Two ' see if you can draw those skips away."

  '"We're trying, Scimitar Leader, but they won't take the bait." .Copy that. Then we'll just have to take the fight to them." im saw that the same situation applied to the tethered carrier. -oralskippers were intent on protecting the vessel at all costs — or ! ast until it could detach from the Peace Brigade freighter. Close Tvin Suns' Two Flight salvoed, opening rends in the yorik coral �
�dees that shielded the vessel's drive dovin basal.

  " Jaina had the rest of her squadron tighten up their ragged forma-ion and press the attack. When the X- wings began to score hits, the iroralskippers reacted by dispersing. With patent disdain for evasionary tactics, the lead skip launched itself at Jaina. Then the entire swarm sallied forth from their protective positions.

  "Twin One, single skip at your right wing," Alema warned. "Thanks, Nine."

  Jaina wheeled away from a flurry of missiles, rolled, and came about. She and the opposing flight leader squared off and bored in on each other, their respective wingmates falling back, too busy holding position and adapting to their leaders' actions to do any firing. The skip opened a void directly in front of Jaina, but she managed to twist free in the nick of time. The X-wing bucked, then righted itself. Jaina thumbed the trigger of the lasers, pouring fire into the gravitic hole. The dovin basal rushed to absorb the energy, leaving the coralskipper momentarily unprotected. It was all the time Jaina needed. The X-wing's starboard lasers hammered the skip mercilessly, splitting it down the middle. Long plumes of incandescence streamed from the rend; then the skip vanished in blinding light.

  Two and Three Flights were meeting with similar success. All discipline forgotten, the coralskippers were streaking away from the Trier in a flurry of maneuvers, even while crisscrossing lines of lestruction probed for them.

  Off toward what was the head of the convoy, the first carrier had belly-up; off to both sides, Kyp's Dozen and Blackmoon were lng circles around three Peace Brigade ships whose laser cannon

  l

  turrets were smoking ruins. And now Alliance gunships and transpOrt. I were on their way into the arena, keen on filling themselves bursting with liberated captives.

  Jaina ordered One and Three Flights to surround the umhiHca[ J carrier. She asked Lowbacca to drop Two Flight back to field any skiD that might attempt to break through the line.

  Kyp commed her. "Just learned that Alliance agents have sabo taged the hyperdrives on all but one of the freighters. They're our now."

  "That's great news," Jaina said.

  "Here's an even better piece. Your parents are here."

  Jaina smiled. "I felt them."

  Her eyes followed a blip on the display screen that could only be the Millennium Falcon. It was headed her way.

  She hadn't seen her parents in weeks, and had learned only the previous day that they had not only been responsible for providing intelligence on the convoy, but also volunteered for the rescue mission.

  Not that that surprised her in the least.

  She sent a greeting through the Force. Her mother would know who it was from.

  It wasn't long before she could see the Falcon with her own eyes. Her parents were maneuvering the ship as deftly as if she were an X- or Y-wing, top and belly quad lasers dispatching coralskippers unlucky enough to be in the way. A sleek Alliance picket, bristling with weapons, flew in the Falcon's wake. As the two ships closed on the number two carrier, the picket fired a harpoon directly into the nose of the Peace Brigade freighter at the other end of the carrier's intestinelike cofferdam.

  "Knockout harpoon," Twin Suns Four said. "Like a giant hypodermic syringe filled with coma-gas. By the time our people board, the Brigaders'll be out cold."

  r

  JBB ranspa

  ransparent respirators clamped over their faces and C-3PO shuffling behind them, Han and Leia emerged from the crippled freighter's docking bay into the large cargo hold beyond. Everywhere they looked, Peace Brigaders of various species were passed out on the deck or slumped unmoving against bulkheads. The cargo area was already filled with three squads of Alliance strike troops, whose ship had harpooned the freighter and who'd been the first to board.

  The strike troops wore mimetic enviro-suits and black helmets with tinted face bowls. Each was laden with blaster rifles, bandoliers of flash grenades, thermal detonators, half-meter-long vibroblades, and survival gear. Specialists in rapid deployment and infiltration, strike troops were a relatively new addition to the war, and most of the ones in the cargo hold had participated in months of familiarization drills aboard captured Yuuzhan Vong vessels. Han was certain that other squads had already penetrated deep into the ship. Three troopers were slapping manacles on the unconscious Brigaders.

  He and Leia scarcely had time to take stock of the situation when

  1 hatch in the forward bulkhead pocketed itself, and a Klatooinian

  itePped into the hold. Twenty blaster rifles swung to the green-

  c°mplected, scrunch-faced humanoid before he could so much as

  aise his taloned hands in surrender.

  95

  "I'm Hobyo," he said. A breather mask dangled around his thick neck. "The one who sabotaged the hyperdrive! Surprise Party!" h added. "Surprise Party!"

  A human colonel signaled everyone to lower their weapons. "Nev time give the code words first, before you come barging into a secured area," he snapped. "You're lucky you didn't get yourself killed."

  Hobyo relaxed somewhat. "You won't find any prisoners aboard the freighter. They were transferred to the Yuuzhan Vong carrier."

  "Which way?" the colonel demanded.

  The Klatooinian pointed to port. "The umbilical is attached to the cargo hold adjacent this one."

  Leaving several soldiers behind to tend to the stirring Brigaders the colonel motioned the rest into the broad passageway that separated the holds.

  Satisfied that it was safe to do so, Han pulled off his respirator and almost gagged. "What the heck are they transporting?" he asked through the hand he clasped to his mouth. "Rotten eggs?"

  Leia took a quick whiff and snugged her mask back in place. "Is that the coma-gas?"

  Hobyo shook his head. "The stench comes from the Vong cofferdam. Air circulators carry the smell throughout the ship. But you get used to it."

  "Speak for yourself," Han said. He motioned with his chin to the passageway. "You coming?"

  "As soon as I provide identities of the Peace Brigaders."

  Han nodded, and waved to C-3PO. "Let's go, Goldenrod."

  The droid started. "Sir, wouldn't it be best if I remained aboard Millennium Falcon?"

  "Cakhmaim and Meewalh can take care of the Fa-Icon. We might need you to translate."

  "Translate? But, Captain Solo, I'm far from fluent in Yuuzhan Vong. In fact, I'm still trying to comprehend the conditional subjunctive tense!"

  Han made a face. "You've never had trouble making yourself understood, Threepio. Now get going."

  nd Leia led the way into the port-side cargo hold. Han spied ff rdam entrance and ran for it, only to stop short at the mouth, ^e half turn and flatten his back against the bulkhead. theI"You really don't want to see this," he said as Leia approached. She studied him in puzzlement. Han was a bit wide-eyed and v E his head back and forth. "What are you talking about?" she sn*ikif*£)

  "Remember that time on Dantooine when I got the Balmorra flu? , ,, fas thing—" He jerked his thumb toward the cofferdam opening. "__is what I figure the inside of my nose must have looked like."

  Leia smiled dubiously and stepped around him. "It can't be

  that ba—"

  She froze.

  "Why it's an ... oqa," C-3PO said, standing somewhat akimbo at the entrance. "The word derives from the proboscis of a Yuuzhan Vong pack animal. The floor is what is sometimes referred to as a microbial mat. And the viscous liquid drooling from the ceiling actually houses the bacteria that engineered the entire tube!"

  "I told you he'd come in handy," Han said.

  C-3PO disappeared into the organic cofferdam, sloshing along the puddled floor, his voice echoing wetly. "Oh, yes, tiny white arachnids, similar to those that can sometimes be found inhabiting volcanic vents ..."

  Han was staring at Leia. "I hate microbial mats! Maybe there's

  another way."

  "I don't think so, Han."

  He firmed his lips. "All right, you first. Just don't . . . touch
anything."

  They covered the hundred meters in record time, eyes forward and arms straight at their sides. By the time they emerged in the uuzhan Vong carrier, Leia's legs were drenched to the knee in foul-smelling liquid.

  "ey could tell which way the strike troops had gone by the

  f g holes the soldiers had blown in membranous interior bulk-

  and iris portals. Bioluminescent lichen lent a cheerless green

  light to the carrier's meandering internal passageways. Fluids seeped 1 from gently pulsing walls and strands of connective tissue, where pas. sageways intersected. The air was rich in oxygen but pungent. They stepped through a torn membrane into a spacious hold whose yorik coral deck might have been pink ferrocrete.

  Leia ignited her lightsaber.

  From the ship's forward came the sounds of war cries and muffled shouts, blasterfire and the dull thudding of amphistaff strikes.

  "I guess coma-gas doesn't work on the Yuuzhan Vong," Leja said.

  "Yeah, too bad about that."

  They sprinted toward the sounds of battle, rounding a corner to see allies and enemies down, smears of red and black on the floor, refreshment for a host of tonguelike creatures that were gorging on the spilled blood. Han shot from the hip, dropping a Yuuzhan Vong warrior with a coufee dagger in each hand. With a downward slash, Leia cut the legs out from under another who had launched himself at her. Hands pressed to his head, C-3PO issued a litany of mirthless exclamations and laments.

  They followed the strike troops farther forward. The soldiers held their blasters at high port, sweeping them from side to side. They advanced in leapfrogging squads, waving signals to one another, overwhelming amphistaffs with continuous bursts, or concentrating blaster-fire on vonduun crab armor weak points, then searing the exposed flesh beneath. With or without weapons, with or without their living arthropod armor, the enemy warriors continued to attack, always choosing death over surrender where there was an option.