STAR WARS - THE NEW JEDI ORDER - Destiny's Way

by Walter Jon Williams

  Jaina was frantic beyond thought. Her frigate was sweeping directly toward the enemy, and one enemy squadron, led by two frigates her own size, had altered course so as to pass right by her— headed not for Trickster, she hoped, but for an element of the New Republic fleet.

  Missile tracks began to fly through her displays. Again, none aimed at her.

  Madurrin's presence floated into the Force-meld, alerting the others that Farlander was going to try another maneuver at the last second.

  Jaina ordered her frigate to scatter weapons as the enemy squadron approached. As if they were shadow bombs, she used the Force to shove them toward the Yuuzhan Vong warships, but these weren't shadow bombs, nor would they cause damage to the enemy—at least not directly. Each contained a dovin basal that, when attached to an enemy vessel and triggered, would identify the ship carrying it as an enemy of the Yuuzhan Vong. In the past she had used these devices to cause the enemy to fire on one another, but now she had no confidence in the tactic: if the Yuuzhan Vong had worked out how to counter the yammosk jammer, it wasn't very many steps from there to being able to counter every weapon in Jaina's arsenal.

  The enemy squadron flashed past, several of the decoy dovin basals attaching to each ship. Jaina felt a surge in the Force as the order was given for the New Republic fleet's last-second maneuver. She held her breath as Farlander's squadrons turned and accelerated, an attempt to cross the bows of the oncoming Yuuzhan Vong squadrons, shifting their target back from Shimrra's flagship to the enemy fleet elements. And then Jaina's despair deepened as she felt, through her connection with Trickster's dovin basals, another series of commands raining out from the distant yammosk. The enemy ships all turned, once again, to counter Keyan Farlander's maneuver.

  The Yuuzhan Vong hadn't even been delayed this time. They had responded to the maneuver the instant they detected it.

  Jaina's blood ran cold. The yammosk jammers had been countered. The single greatest contribution to the war, the keystone of Jaina's plan for winning the battle—and it was useless.

  Out of pure despair she triggered the dovin basal decoys she had fired at the enemy craft. Despite her impulsiveness the timing was perfect: the decoys switched on just as the enemy craft opened their main attack on the New Republic squadron. All the missiles and bolts that would otherwise have poured into the New Republic ships were fired instead at the two frigates and a few other smaller craft, which in their turn furiously fired at each other. Jaina watched as the elements of the Yuuzhan Vong squadron began maneuvering against each other with the same uncanny precision they had always shown under the guidance of a yammosk.

  Yuuzhan Vong pilots and gunners were shrouded by the living hood that fed diem information, and they knew only what the hood told them. When it told them a ship was enemy, they fired at it.

  "It worked," Jaina said.

  [Of course,] Lowbacca answered.

  But why? The question floated to Jaina from Corran Horn. Think. Something's. . .going on.

  Fire spattered the flanks of the two enemy frigates as projectiles and missiles struck home. Their dovin basal shields had been aimed to repel the attacks of the New Republic squadron, not their own fire, and they were taking heavy damage. And then, once the enemy were fully engaged with one another, New Republic concussion missiles and bolts from New Republic laser cannons arrived, followed by Kyp's Dozen and two other flights of starfighters. Smaller enemy ships were vaporized. The two frigates staggered to repeated hits. Muffled by her hood, Jaina gave a cheer. Through the Force she could feel Corran, Kyp, and Madurrin as they fought together, bringing separate elements of the fleet into a synchronization similar to that granted to the Yuuzhan Vong by their yammosk.

  But they flew only three ships, and led only three elements of the fleet, two of them fighter squadrons. The rest of the New Republic fleet was forced to communicate through more conventional means. And only one of the five enemy squadrons was in trouble, the squadron that Jaina had seeded with decoy basals. The rest were engaged with New Republic forces in a far more standard give-and-take, with the Yuuzhan Vong still maneuvering with the eerie simultaneity given them by their war coordinator.

  The New Republic forces were presumably firing more decoy dovin basals at the enemy, but the missiles would have to get through in order to have any effect, and so far none had.

  Contrary to what intuition might suggest, fighter combat generally grew less deadly, not more, as greater numbers of fighters were involved. When fights were large and confusing, pilots spent more time watching their tails than hunting the enemy. The brains of the pilots simply couldn't keep track of all the craft maneuvering against them.

  But that wasn't the case with the Yuuzhan Vong war coordinator. The yammosk kept track of every craft in the sky and ordered those in jeopardy to maneuver while others were guided to rescue their comrades. The New Republic starfighter pilots, brave and well trained though they might be, were simply outclassed by a dedicated intelligence that could process all the data from a large battle at once.

  Jaina's heart lifted when first one, then another enemy frigate blew to bits, both betrayed by the decoy dovin basals she'd fired at them. But otherwise the Yuuzhan Vong were doing well. Flames poured from one of the Corellian gunships, and the vessel was staggering out of formation, out of control, its sublight drives slagged. One of the Republic-class cruisers was taking a lot of hits. And around every formation winked swarms of little fireflies, starfighters and coralskippers dying in battle, their lives flaring away in brief, silent fire.

  Only Jaina, who had flown unmolested clear through the enemy fleet, was in a position to observe it all, and despair. The enemy yammosk gave the Yuuzhan Vong too great an advantage. She could sense Corran and Kyp as they battled against an enemy whose maneuvers were simply without flaw.

  Think! Jaina echoed Corran Horn's command. She led the only crew not engaged with the enemy; she was the only person with time to think. Why was the yammosk working even though it was jammed? Why was the jammer not working while the decoy basals were functioning perfectly, even though they were both based on the same principles?

  Through Trickster's dovin basals, she could distantly sense the commands of the enemy yammosk, the gravity-wave instructions that commanded the Yuuzhan Vong formations. But she could also hear the regular beats of the jammer, the jammer that should be overriding the enemy signal.

  What was going on?

  Think! She answered her question with a command.

  She submerged her awareness into the complex signals, tried to sense the pattern. The rhythms of the densely coded messages patterned through her mind, too fast for her to follow. There were two distinct patterns, she found, not one overlaid atop the other—the jammer and the yammosk seemed almost not to have anything to do with each other. What was the problem?

  And then, beneath the jammer, Jaina began sensing something else, another pattern.

  Her awareness slowed, tried to tune out the relentless beats of the jammer. There . . . Surprise sang along her nerves. What she detected seemed to be the signals of another yammosk.

  Two yammosks?

  The truth came in a sudden flash. Supreme Overlord Shimrra had brought his own war coordinator to the battle, probably on his flagship. But there was a second yammosk in the system, one seeded by the invaders on Obroa-skai, the yammosk that New Republic Intelligence had known about all along.

  Whatever yammosk was first in command had been jammed by the Wraiths. But then the second yammosk, operating on a different part of the gravity-wave spectrum, had stepped in to take control.

  For a moment Jaina's hands twitched in her command gloves, on the verge of ordering the jammer in Trickster to commence operations, but then she hesitated. If the enemy detected the origin of the jamming, then they'd know Trickster was a decoy vessel. Instead she yanked oft" her cognition hood and reached for the comm.

  "Twin Suns Leader to Wraith Leader. There's a second yammosk! You'll have to tune another jammer to
it."

  Face Loran's tone failed to reveal whatever surprise he might be feeling. "This is Wraith Leader. Message understood, Major."

  There was a slight delay before Jaina detected the second jammer begin its hammering beat, and another few seconds before it found the correct signal and began jamming it. Anxiously Jaina scanned the battle scene laid out behind her.

  It was working. The eerie synchrony of the enemy ships was breaking up. Coralskippers hesitated in their movements, waiting for instructions in all the deadly chaos, and the New Republic craft took instant advantage.

  Momentum was with the New Republic now. They were used to operating with less-than-perfect communications and coordination, but the Yuuzhan Vong pilots were bewildered once deprived of the commands of the yammosk.

  Got one! Kyp's triumph floated through the force.

  Get another, Corran Horn sent—had time to send, now that he was no longer so hard-pressed. Jaina could have wept with relief.

  She relaxed into the Force again. She couldn't affect the battle directly, but she could help her friends, could send strength, love, and support through their Force-link. She sensed their growing strength, their growing triumph. Coralskippers blazed in front of their guns.

  Through the combined Force awareness and the knowledge gained through Trickster's sensors, she watched the progress of the battle. When the two enemy frigates had destroyed each other, the capital ships fighting them had found themselves free and had moved to assist a second New Republic squadron, sandwiching a Yuuzhan Vong squadron between them. Elsewhere, another of the enemy's frigates had been hit with one of the decoy dovin basals, and was being pounded by another Yuuzhan Vong frigate and swarms of Coralskippers under the impression that it was an enemy. The ride had definitely turned, and Jaina quietly exulted.

  My plan. It was working after all.

  [Jaina.] Lowbacca's voice.

  "Yes?"

  [I thought you'd like to know I've just laid Trickster right astern of the enemy flagship.]

  Jaina snapped alert and pulled the alien cognition hood over her head. At once she detected the rounded aft section of Shimrra's ship dead ahead, studded with plasma cannon barrels, launch tubes, and rounded fairings that doubtless held something probably dovin basals used for propulsion or defense.

  And they ordered us to come here! she thought in delight.

  "Right," she said, this time through the comlink that connected her to everyone in her squadron. "I want every cannon and projectile tube on that ship's stern targeted. And those fairings, too, whatever's in them."

  Acknowledgments crackled over the comlink, and Jaina busied herself in following her own orders. Most of her squadron members were dispersed over the frigate, hooded and gloved as she was, in charge of weapons or defense stations. Though she could command the ship with fewer than twelve crew, the efficiency was greater if there were more sentients onstation.

  And her rookie pilots—exactly half of her squadron of twelve— were a lot safer here than piloting their starfighters against an experienced enemy.

  All stations reported readiness. Jama's gloved hands hovered in the air. Through the Force, she sent the message that they were ready to open fire on the flagship.

  After a moment came General Farlander's reply, relayed through Madurrin. Carry on.

  Carry on. Right.

  "All weapons ready? Open fire!"

  Trickster's bow blazed as a host of missiles and projectiles sped for the undefended enemy stern. Fire blossomed over the dark silhouette of the enemy ship, patterns of pinpoint flares marking dozens of hits. Jaina made certain that amid the volley were two of her decoy dovin basal missiles—one primary, one reserve—and as soon as the first volley was over, she triggered the primary, informing every Yuuzhan Vong in the area that their own flagship was now an enemy.

  This encouraged the sixty nearby coralskippers to do their bit, plunging toward their flagship, fire raking along its flanks. The small craft probably couldn't do very critical damage to anything as huge as their target, but every little bit helped.

  There was a pause between the first volley and the second only because the gunners were checking their targets and retargeting those that hadn't been destroyed. And then Trickster's bow blazed again, and this time the blaze didn't stop.

  Jaina was going to keep firing until every gun barrel and every missile tube on her ship was empty.

  The flagship was surprisingly slow to respond. Dovin basal energy was directed aft, sucking incoming projectiles into their black-hole singularities, but the dovin basals were seemingly unable to cover all the stern, so some of the attacking volley struck home anyway, and other bolts from the Trickster arced through dovin basal-warped space over the stern of the enemy ship, only to plunge down somewhere amidships.

  After Jaina's first strike the enemy simply had no weapons remaining that fired dead aft, so missiles were fired out of the broadside batteries. These had to loop toward Trickster on a long arc, however, which made them easy to spot, and Trickster's own dovin basals warped space to pick them off.

  "We're in their shadow!" Jaina cried, and kept firing.

  Through her Force-awareness, she sensed Kyp's satisfaction as he nailed a pair of coralskippers, Corran's grim pleasure in leading his flight onto the tails of a group of enemy skips, and Madurrin's awe as two more enemy frigates were destroyed.

  The stern of the enemy flagship was glowing now, an eerie orange-red as repeated impacts broiled the target.

  Jaina kept firing.

  "The enemy's breaking off, Twin Leader." The flagship's voice came over her comm.

  "Good news, flag."

  "Not so good for you. They're pulling back to help their leader."

  That meant four enemy frigates would soon be engaging her. No, three enemy frigates—she saw one break up as it tried to maneuver away from the fight.

  "Better call on the—"

  "Already taken care of, Twin Leader."

  Already taken care of. Through her dovin basals Jaina felt the surge of gravity waves as two more squadrons of starships entered realspace.

  Two Battle Dragons, three Nova-class battle cruisers, and accompanying fighters, all courtesy of the Hapan Navy, and led in person by Jaina's former classmate, Queen Mother Tenel Ka, ruler of the sixty-three inhabited planets of the Hapes Consortium.

  Greetings! Tenel Ka sent. Her strong personality flooded Jaina's Force awareness. The presence of a single additional Jedi had greatly increased the power of the Force-meld.

  Welcome to Obroa-skai, Majesty, Jaina tried to send. We've saved the flagship for you. She couldn't tell whether such a complex thought got through, but she could sense that Tenel Ka understood at least the substance of it.

  The Hapan fleet, like the New Republic ships, had been hovering only a few light-hours from Obroa-skai, ready for the call. Previous Hapan experience in fighting alongside the New Republic, at Fondor, had been nothing short of a catastrophe, and Tenel Ka had taken a political risk in bringing her ships here at all. Both Jaina and General Farlander wanted to be careful in using their ally, and so it had been agreed that the Hapans were to be used either to complete a victory or, if necessary, to cover a withdrawal.

  What the Hapans managed instead was to complete a massacre. Hapan tactics had always consisted of a direct charge that launched a massed energy wall, all weapons blasting at once at a single target, a tactic that proved ideal for this situation. The Battle Dragons, on their way to the flagship, first took out the enemy transports, their concentrated wall of fire shattering the ships to fragments.

  Jaina watched in awe as the three battle cruisers, acting as one, dashed at the enemy flagship in a single pass, their batteries blazing. Much of the fire got through, and Jaina saw towering explosions and geysers of debris erupt from the enemy hull.

  Hapan energy weapons had once taken a notoriously long time to recharge, but after Fondor the New Republic had given the Hapans quick-charge turbolasers, so the battle cruisers staye
d in the fight and kept hammering, now joined by the Battle Dragons. The flagship quaked to impacts, flame pouring from gaping holes in its sides.

  At this point the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong apparently conceded their flagship lost, abandoned the battle, and fled in all directions with allied squadrons in pursuit. Jaina was surprised—she'd assumed they'd defend their Supreme Commander to the last warrior.

  One alien frigate, surrounded by enemies, jumped into hyper-space too soon and was dragged back into realspace by Obroa-held's gravity. The inertia-damping dovin basals failed at the shock, and every individual on the ship was flung into the nearest bulkhead at nearly six-tenths speed of light. The result was a superheated plasma that ruptured the enemy hull as it blasted outward. Another frigate was blown to shreds by New Republic cruisers. Of the capital ships, only one frigate escaped into hyper-space, along with however many of the coralskippers it had managed to recover.

  The Hapan ships blew up the flagship on their next pass. The starfighters began to hunt down the stranded coralskippers.

  All that remained was for the surviving allied capital ships to move to Obroa-skai, destroy the planet's yammosk with a well-placed shot, and then plaster any Yuuzhan Vong barracks or installations until they glowed, taking care not to harm what remained of the library.

  Jaina watched the end game play itself, her mind ringing with awe. It worked. Her plan. It worked.

  She had just killed Shimrra, Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong. If she hadn't just won the war, she might have provided its decisive moment.

  A Wookiee howl came over the comlink.

  "Yes!" Tesar said. "Congratulations!"

  Cheers and congratulations erupted over the comlink. Jaina's squadron, the comrades she'd led into danger, cheering her success. An unaccustomed joy filled Jaina.

  "Thank you," she babbled. "Thank you all."

  More congratulations came through her Force-awareness. And then, from the flagship, "Stand by. The general's sending a message."

  Keyan Farlander's voice, when it came over the comm, sounded bemused.