The Unifying Force

by James Luceno

  It was immediately clear that the warriors had merely been practicing up until this point. For now, trapped in the Place of Hierarchy was a crowd into which they could wade like thrashing biots. Before them stood those responsible for keeping the Yuuzhan Vong from total victory at Zonama Sekot. These were the ones who would pay, against whom the warriors could exorcise their fear and confusion— even if those they put to death were as innocent as they were Shameless. But the horror had scarcely commenced—with war cries answered by agonized screams—when fires began to break out in many of the quake-damaged structures that walled the place, including the prefec-tory and the Temple of the Lovers, Yun-Txiin and Yun-Q'aah.

  For a moment Nom Anor was certain that the sudden blazes were the result of firebomb strafings by Alliance starfighters that ha punched through Coruscant's dovin basal voids. From his vantage a the top of the flight of yorik coral stairs that fronted the prefectory h could see that similar conflagrations were raging in all precincts or t city, and beyond. Flaring from the vegetation that cloaked the bu

  , re the tops of buildings and towers, the flames were being car-d bv the wind to all quarters

  r the hot swirling wind also brought the foul odor of marsh gas

  • T Anor's flattened nostrils, and he swung around in disbelief to

  cavalcade of firebreathing Yuuzhan Vong beasts bobbing over

  "the cityscape.

  Quickly he lifted his gaze.

  There were too few starfighters in the sky to account for so many

  and no evidence of orbital bombardment, turbolaser bolts, or

  ton torpedoes. Then he understood, and his heart filled with such

  neuish that he dropped to his knees and remained there until he had

  caught his breath and regained his senses.

  Shimrra was responsible!

  Beyond reason, beyond madness, the Supreme Overlord had struck a deal with the dhuryam to destroy Coruscant—Nom Anor's Coruscant! With the same ruthlessness that had allowed him to dispatch Warmaster Nas Choka's armada on a suicide mission to poison Zonama Sekot, Shimrra had decided to eradicate all things Yuuzhan Vong. He had become the Yuuzhan Vong-specific poison he had fabricated for the elite—if only to spite gods he had once professed not to believe in!

  Nom Anor railed and shook his fists at the smoke- and ember-filled sky.

  / should have killed you when I had the chancel

  He struggled to his feet, his expression growing more grave with every centimeter of elevation. His fists were balled, and his one eye blazed. His near-lipless mouth was drawn back, and his muscles were bunched under his thin garments. His sloped forehead was as inflamed as the city itself.

  He stiffened his arm, catching in the windpipe a warrior too dis-

  acted by blood lust to see the blow coming. The warrior fell to the

  s ePs gurgling, clutching his throat, eyes squeezed tight in pain. Nom

  lQr summoned the warrior's amphistaff to come to him, and with

  e strike put the choking soldier out of his misery. He descended the

  1 °ad staircase in a stupor, shucking out of the green robe and turban

  that identified him as an intendant. At the foot of the broad ci- •

  stains K grabbed the tattered robeskin of a slain Shamed One and, domy

  began to shoulder his way into the Place of Hierarchy, ignorin "" bloodshed occurring on all sides and aiming for a tall rubble pi]e ? center of the square. Short of the pile, a warrior rushed him, fo • ? him to step back and fight, amphistaff against amphistaff. Pan-vine* 8

  y ii& t\"o blows, Nom Anor ducked down and slashed his opponent across

  knees; then rose, bringing the sharp end of the serpentine wean diagonally across the warrior's face. The warrior screamed and rai his hands, and Nom Anor speared him through the neck.

  With bodies falling all around him, he scrambled up the njle There, alone at the summit, he loosed a bloodcurdling scream and raised the arm around which the living weapon was curled.

  "I am Yu'shaa, the Prophet!" he yelled at the top of his lungs "Our hour is at hand! I will lead you to victory!"

  A long moment of stunned silence fell over the Place of Hierarchy. Then a roar went up from the oppressed, and they surged against the warriors, crude weapons cleaving, black blood streaming and misting into the air, fiery embers cycloning about them like a sacrament from the gods!

  From one hundred thousand kilometers out, Coruscant was a vortex of destruction, lanced from all directions by turbolaser bolts, mottled by yawning dovin basal singularities, lit from within by flaring explosions.

  "This party's just the way we left it," Han said as the Falcon streaked for the embattled galactic center.

  "I missed that one, Dad," Jaina said flatly from the copilot's chair.

  "Me, too," Jacen said from behind her. Peripherally, Han saw his son glance at the Yuuzhan Vong priest in the adjacent chair. "Harrar and I were on a worldship over Myrkr."

  Regretting his facile statement, Han went back to attending to the Falcon's instruments.

  The fall of Coruscant had been among the worst days of his lire-" almost as horrible as when Chewbacca had died at Sernpidal. images of the evacuation were burned into his memory: luuz

  hurling themselves and hostages against the planetary shields, a 1 in of flaming spacecraft, he and Leia trying to flee Eastport kv Ben, C-3PO, a YVH droid, and a potted ladalum . . . Their sabotaged at the Falcon's docking bay by a disguised Senator Shesh and an innocent twelve-year-old kid named Dab Hantaq— _-vho happened to bear a likeness to young Anakin. The death of Adarakh, Leia's bodyguard, at Shesh's hand. The sky dazzled by plasma balls.

  Towers crumbling, people stampeding for the few starliners and vernment yachts that remained on the surface . . .

  And light-years away at the Inner Rim world of Myrkr, Anakin dving Jaina fleeing in a stolen enemy ship, Jacen in the clutches of Vereere—captured or rescued, depending on how you looked at it. Han squeezed his eyes shut in recalled despair.

  "•Party" Harrar said abruptly. "Many of our warriors use that term to describe combat engagements. You have the makings of a Supreme Commander, Han Solo."

  Han laughed shortly, recalling that Jacen had said that the priest was fascinated with him. "Thanks for thinking of me, Harrar, but no matter what anyone says about it, I happen to like my face just the way

  it is."

  Jacen and an uneasy Harrar had taken the cockpit's rear chairs after Leia and Luke had climbed into the quad laser turrets. Mara, Kenth, Tahiri, Cakhmaim, Meewalh, and the droids were in the forward compartment. At the cost of some discretionary power, Han planned to keep the Falcon's artificial gravity enabled for as long as possible, if only to prevent everyone from being bounced all over the ship.

  Alliance capital vessels were concentrating fire along the transitor

  P well into Coruscant's bright side, but the battle was raging plan-

  We. Star Destroyers, cruisers, and frigates were still vectoring in

  °m hyperspace routes rarely used since the days of the Old Republic,

  enemy forces were blasting up the gravity well to reinforce the

  'nse flotilla. The Yuuzhan Vong were widely dispersed but consol-

  d over the equator, above What had been Imperial/New Republic

  w> in the western hemisphere. The Alliance had yet to press any

  capital ships through the blockade of kilometer-long w studded vessels, but hundreds of starfighters had penetrated lines and were attacking the arrays of dovin basals in orbit at th of Coruscant's atmosphere.

  Now it was the Falcon's turn to try to slip past.

  It was the opposite of what Han had had to do to get the fre'

  safely off Zonama Sekot. There the upper reaches of the envelon K been a dizzying clash of coralskippers and Sekotan fighters P what Luke had been able to gather from Kyp and the other Jedi n'l the sight of living ships had thrown the skips into disarray. But th' Jedi had also discovered
that Magister Jabitha hadn't been understati anything when she had said that the Sekotan ships were for defens only. As often as not, the fleet fighters wouldn't fire unless fired upon and for all their astounding alacrity, they weren't flying circles around the coralskippers so much as matching them maneuver for maneuver

  Two hundred thousand kilometers from the living world drifted the enemy task force that had delivered the coralskippers, along with the yammosk-carrying clustership that was guiding them.

  It was still anyone's guess why Warmaster Nas Choka had sent a splinter group to Zonama Sekot, but it stood to reason that the Yuuzhan Vong wouldn't wait long before bringing their capital ships to bear on the planet. Although Errant Venture and Tenel Ka's flotilla of Hapan Battle Dragons and .Nora-class cruisers were reported to be on the way, it was unlikely that they could prevail against the task force. Engaged in a ferocious battle near Muscave, Wedge Antilles and Keyan Farlander wouldn't be able to lend support until Kre'fey's First Fleet arrived to relieve them.

  With so much action in the Coruscant system—from Vandor 3 clear to the Ulabos ice bands—Han had considered staging the Falcon through a series of microjumps. Ultimately, however, he had decide' to jump the ship directly to Coruscant. They had reverted to realspa« behind Alliance lines, but close enough to their target to be staggere by what they saw. Green and white where it had once been a sheen artificial light, orbited by the remains of a shattered moon, its P° caps reduced to icebergs . . . Coruscant might as well have beei unfamiliar world.

  tone sounded from the comm board, and a baritone voice

  A from the cockpit annunciators. "Millennium Falcon, this is

  ^ule control. Your best insertion point is presently at Bacta

  pip-ht-one-seven. gut we'U keep yOU updated on the situation."

  , ei&

  'na leaned forward to study the tactical display. "Copy that,

  . j tg Rule. And thanks for the help."

  V -Millennium Falcon, Grand Admiral Pellaeon wishes you good

  fortune."

  "Tell him the same from us," Han said into the headset mouthpiece.

  pellaeon's Fourth Fleet, which included a trio of Star Destroyers d an assortment of Strike- and Carrack-dzss cruisers, was pounding he Yuuzhan Vong battle group. In several sectors the orbital dovin basals had been overwhelmed by the barrage, but Alliance command was using the debilitated zones only as corridors for the infiltration of troop ships and squadrons of escort starfighters.

  "Your warmaster appears to be deferring to Jacen Solo's report that bombardment will prompt the World Brain to render the planet unfit for habitation," Harrar said into Han's right ear.

  Gazing at the turmoil planetside, Han said, "Looks to me like the World Brain is doing a pretty good job of that without having to be

  prompted."

  The Falcon was closing on the insertion point when two X-wings

  appeared to either side of it.

  "Good to see you, Millennium Falcon" one of the pilots said over the tactical net. "Mind if we ride down with you?" "Who's escorting who?" Jaina asked. "Let's call it a party of three," the other pilot said. "Party," Harrar murmured.

  The spacecraft that housed the orbital dovin basals might have been

  agments of Coruscant's deliberately smashed moon, but the voids

  :Y generated were as large as shock-ball stadiums. With the X-wings

  essing close, Han sent the Falcon on her starboard side to edge

  toeen two gaping shield singularities. The ship wasn't through the

  itra" when a third void yawned.

  reed that thing something!" Jaina said over the net. e starfighter pilots responded by paying out pairs of proton

  thrusters to nuzzle the Falcon close enough so that ^ ^ ^ dovin basals, the powerful guns began to make immecuate

  the frerghter around the void and threw'it de p^^ W v ct P^g away at the sMps' yorik coral hulls. A final burst from

  Bnh,r, w, A;A ^ „_. ,.,.u .L_ .___ ,. PCr mt° ^ atrno. strips,*°PP^ ^^ sent one of the craft colliding into the other.

  ^ice'work!" Han said. "Now see if you can get rid of the other

  torpedoes. Instantly warped off course, the glowing Oru ingested by the gravitic anomaly. With the dovin basal mom distracted, Han called on the sublight drives for a burst of SD rocketed the Falcon past the maw. Yet another singularity On front of the ship, but this time Han made careful use of the K -

  e

  sphere. He did the same with the succeeding quartet of wells the gravitic distortions to sling the ship in an elongated double-S ft one to the next.

  The Falcon shook and shuddered, and the engines roared ' protest, but the gambit worked to keep the ship from being wrench rf off course. One of the X-wings wasn't as fortunate. Even while the pilot was attempting to confuse the dovin basal with stutterfire and two remaining torpedoes, the creature's singularity reached out and grabbed the starfighter, which disintegrated before it disappeared entirely.

  The Falcon swooped lower on a sinuous tail of blue energy, but the gauntlet didn't end with the dovin basals. A matalok cruiser racing up the well caught sight of the freighter and spewed a volley of magma missiles from its starboard-side plasma launchers.

  "Diverting power to the deflectors," Jaina said, without being asked.

  Han yawed hard to port, and began weaving through the storm of ejecta. The X-wing that had ridden in on the Falcon's tail hung close, but couldn't keep pace with the larger ship. Han tried to swerve back on course to shield the starfighter, but even the Falcon was capable of only so much twisting and veering. Molten rock splashed against the Falcon's screens, but the main body of the salvo flooded over the mandibles and caught the hapless X-wing head-on.

  Han bit back a curse and leaned into the control yoke, dropp"1 the Falcon like a stone, straight for the ascending matalok. Intent c squaring off with the cruiser, he had the concussion missile launcW armed when the proximity alarms began to blare.

  "Four skips to starboard!" Jaina said. "Intercept course!

  Han performed a lightning-fast pushover. "Give your mom your uncle a heads-up!"

  • laving their customary contempt for evasive tactics, the skips nks and came at the Falcon from separate vectors, firing at r^nee Han heard the top and belly quad lasers begin to chuff

  tferfle ^ &

  der and banked slightly to starboard to place two of the hos-

  rhe Money Lane. Outwitting the shield singularities generated h dovin basals, the powerful guns began to make immediate

  ' al hulls. A final burst from

  I "

  two!

  Again the reciprocating guns began to clack, loosing bright green

  Ivos of devastating energy at the Falcon's pursuers. Voids formed instantly at the blunt noses of the wedge-shaped skips, and most of the quad bursts were swallowed, but some of Luke's bolts got through, and hunks of yorik coral flew off into space. Abruptly the lead skip peeled away and tried to attach itself to the Falcon in what would have been the kill zone of an ordinary ship.

  Han merely applied power, rolled, and dived for the surface. Plasma projectiles streamed from the frustrated skip, but all it received for the effort were answering barrages of laserfire. Struck repeatedly, the coralskipper wobbled as pieces of its wide stern were blown away. Crippled, the skip went into a helpless wiggle, then commenced a long fall toward the planet, trailing a plume of smoke and

  yorik coral dust.

  The surviving skip held position through the Falcon's corkscrewing

  dive and continued firing. As plasma ranged closer, Han boosted

  power to the rear shields and narrowed the ship's profile by pulling a

  snap-roll that lifted the Falcon onto her starboard side. Luke and Leia

  tnggered out-of-phase bursts, which began to wear down the dovin

  asal and penetrate the small voids it was managing to produce. Sus-

  aining convergent strikes to the bow, the skip reared up and split
/>
  apart.

  Ihe Falcon flashed out of her evasive maneuvers, then banked l(% and darted for clear space. Raising the bow, Han leveled out and arced for the horizon.

  ^T

  ^et Luke know I'm deactivating the artificial gravity," he told

  Jaina. "If he knows what's good for him he'll climb out of th turret."

  Shortly, the Falcon was wending through forested spires th east of the sacred precinct. Below were villip paddies, intercon ^ orange-tinted lakes, and yorik coral quarries—some containing u in their formative stages. Flames mushroomed and stabbed fro deep canyons, and microstorms carried burning vegetation to distant patches of woodland.

  "We've been spotted," Jaina said. "Coralskippers approach' from the south."

  Han punched the throttle, whipping the freighter up and over burning mound, then dropped down over the expansive plain from which Imperial/New Republic City had grown. He had to keen reminding himself that he wasn't flying over hills but over buried structures; that what appeared to be an escarpment had been a kilometers-long block of residential buildings; that the geometric craters dotting the landscape were the foundations of the great edifices themselves, now filled with cobalt-blue water or lush forest.

  "Better switch us over to the tactical frequency," he said.

  No sooner had Jaina reset the dials on the comm board than a tone sounded.

  "Homing beacon," she told Han. A map of the Yuuzhan Vong-formed governmental district resolved on the terrain-following sensor screen. Jaina tapped her forefinger against a pulsing bezel. "That's our rally point."

  What should have come into view was Mount Umate, highest peak of the Manarai Mountains. But what came into view instead was a massive crater encompassing all of what had once been Monument Plaza. Perched on the protruding permacrete shoulders of the ruined arena were flocks of winged creatures similar to the seabirdlike fuer Han and Leia had seen at Selvaris. At the base of the ancient uplift not far from where the Kallarak Amphitheater should have been, va another immense crater, whose thickly forested floor was in Ham On the steep slopes, herds of six-legged beasts and packs of panic lizard hounds were trying desperately to scrabble to safety.