Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 553: Static

Marix stared at the large box that was the comm package. It was definitely old, but that had one major advantage: there was no holo screen; it was only audio. Not that she expected the Jedi to be that happy to hear from her either way, but not having to see her meant she didn’t have to actually say who she was right away. Of course, there was the fact that she’d been sitting on the floor in her quarters with this damned thing for ten standard minutes and all she’d managed to get was static.

The Holonet was obviously in bad shape. Upon thinking about it, it made perfect sense. The Yuuzhan Vong weren’t fools. They would surely do their best to disrupt galactic communication and take out every single Holonet Relay they ran across. That, alone, would make hundreds of worlds easier to take simply due to the fact that they wouldn’t be able to call for help.

She wanted to put her fist through the damned thing. Hearing static was starting to really give Marix a headache and she still hadn’t taken the time to clean up after dealing with Loki’s internal wounds. The entire room was going to stink for days thanks to that, and Marix had a feeling she was going to have a hell of a time cleaning herself now that all of the...goo had stopped being goo. At this point, Marix simply had an extra layer of bad-smelling, slightly sticky, clear blue...stuff covering all of her. And on top of all of that, Loki was, as far as she could tell, unconscious again.

So how many longer was she going to sit here on the damned floor staring at a damned machine that was only producing more damned static?

Well, what else could Marix do?

If it came down to it, Marix could morph human, get the old EV suit that Jyren kept around, and go outside to have a look at the external damage Loki had taken. The problem was she had neither the tools nor the time to repair any of it. It really was only a matter of time until the Vong stumbled upon her...or even Torno the Hutt’s lackeys if she’d really angered him.

She could risk forcing Loki through another hyperspace jump to some nearby habitable planet, hope to the Force the Vong weren’t there, set down and then make the repairs. But even if Loki survived the jump to hyperspace, which she doubted he would at this point, Marix knew his underside was severely damaged and if it was as bad as she expected, there was no way he’d survive an atmosphere. That left the possibility of an uninhabitable moon or asteroid or planet, but that also was essentially the same problem with just drifting in space. Life signs would be easy to spot on a dead rock.

What had happened?

Something had changed somewhere, but no one had the decency to tell her about it.

Marix could clearly remember the days when things like this just wouldn’t happen. Loki always got them out of a tight spot without a scratch, just a bit of a scorch mark on his tail end and laugh. Gods, the things they’d been through together! It had all been perfectly fine through the countless missions she’d been sent on into Mrrakesh territory as a Tam’Day’U, they escaped Rebel and Imperial alike for so many years after leaving Alraxia, and then she and Jyren had pulled Loki off of Corellia and they’d done the dumbest things she’d ever done in her entire life. Loki had loved every second of it, Jyren was so much like the ship...impulsive, ready for a thrill, and to hell with consequences! And they’d made it through every single thing.

But it was all different now. Alraxia was her’s to protect now, with her mother dead. She wasn’t able to just completely forget about that like she had so many years ago. It was a constant weight. And Jyren was gone. He wasn’t coming back, Marix knew that much now. He would have appeared by now otherwise, a smile on his face and the first thing he would asked her is why she looked so surprised to see him. But that wasn’t going to happen anymore. That should have been Marix’s first indication that something had changed.

Now, though, Toby was gone, too. She had let him go, but it was still so...quiet. For so long he had been the child that she could protect and even teach when he wasn’t being an annoying little brat. Sure, Toby had always latched onto Jyren strongly, but Marix could at least admit now that she liked the kid. But now it was just her and Loki again...and now this. Now something that had never happened before.

By Alraxian and Kanyak standards, they were both still young and in their prime. Marix, though, was starting to feel old. At her age, most Alraxians were just getting their lives started, but Marix had been running along as an adult since...well, since she could run. And Loki had been right there every step of the way. And now...now...

...now Marix was forced to confront the possibility that Loki wasn’t going to survive.

With a heavy sigh, Marix closed her eyes. Her mind was working overtime, running through everything she could think of to find a way out. To find...something, anything.

But she found beyond the static. That damned static.

And then there was a click in the static.

At first, Marix didn’t catch it. But then it happened again, and she opened her eyes to look down at the thing. Two more clicks in the static, then a long, solid...nothing. Not even static, just silence. Then...

“...the hell is using this frequency out here?!”

Marix stared at the comm package. The voice was male and had a bit of a Corellian accent to it. Those weren’t all that unusual, but she definitely hadn’t expected that kind of tone.

Putting that surprise out of her mind, she quickly hit the comm switch, “I could ask you the same bloody thing. Who is this?”

Even in a desperate situation, Marix wasn’t about to just give out vital information that could damn her without knowing who she was speaking to. Of course, Marix doubted a name would mean much to her. There were so many Jedi these days and she didn’t bother to even try.

The voice that came through sounded almost insulted, “Not exactly the tone I would use if I was the one broadcasting a distress call on a Jedi frequency out in Hutt Space...” a pause, and a bit of static came through, then, “This is Corran Horn, who is currently done answering your questions and until you tell him who you are and why he shouldn’t expect a trap.”

That was a name Marix did know.

He was not just any Jedi, he was a Jedi Master. He’d been a pilot, too, if the stories she’d heard were true. Marix remembered stories about a Horn in CorSec years ago, all told from her smuggler friends who always swore when they spoke the name. And now he was the so-called “Man Who Killed Ithor”, the Jedi that had been challenged to a duel by a Vong for the fate of the planet. Horn had won, but the Vong attacked anyway...and Marix hadn’t heard a word about him sense. If he was smart, Horn had gone into hiding. Course, if he’d gone into hiding, what was he doing out in Hutt Space?

“My name is Alrax Tavos,” she wasn’t going to tell the complete truth, even if she did recognize the name, “And if I was after you, Horn, I wouldn’t be broadcasting that distress signal on the Jedi’s encrypted frequency.”

A slight pause, then, “You’d be amazed the things I’ve seen, Tavos. And since you definitely aren’t a Jedi and you’re using, as you said, the Jedi’s encrypted frequency, I have ever reason to be suspicious.”

Marix sighed. She didn’t have time for this kind of idiotic back and forth game.

Time to just get to the damned point, “This wasn’t exactly Plan A, Horn, so you’ll have to forgive me for getting sick of this game. My ship is badly damaged and we’re drifting out here in the middle of no where just waiting for the Vong, or worse, to find us. This is dangerous enough as the only evidence I have that you are you is that you said you’re you. But I don’t have a choice right now. We need help, Horn, and if you’re not going to provide it then tell me now so I can figure out what to do next.”

This pause was much longer. Finally, after a long, static-filled minute, Horn’s voice returned, “You say your name is Alrax?”

That was an odd question...why the hell would he...? How could he attach any significance to that name? She’d never in her life had a run-in with him, and Max had done his best to keep them both good and out of CorSec’s way...

“I did, but that’s not telling me what I need to know.”

Another pause. When Horn spoke again, he sounded different somehow, but Marix wasn’t able to place it, “We’ve got a fix on your location already, Tavos. You better thank my Father-in-Law when we get there, though. He says the only reason we’re coming to get you at all is because Max was a good man. Whatever the hell that means.”

And then the comm channel cut out, returning to static.

This time, though, Marix didn’t notice the static. She was too busy blankly staring at the comm package.

What had just happened?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 554: Now What?

“Apparently the entire moon isn’t forested,” Adria mumbled to herself.

Rea looked to the human woman then back to the remaining patches of trees behind them, “I am not sure a collection of trees counts as a forest.”

The moon they’d arrived on had, from orbit at least, looked to be covered in large swaths of forests, perfect cover. All of their X-Wings had gone down in the same general area, now about five kilometers behind them, and Rea had naively assumed the rest of the moon was that way. She wasn’t an expert on these kinds of things, so that was her excuse. That, and the fact that in her attempt to not die while reaching the moon’s surface, Rea didn’t exactly have a chance to look much of anywhere but directly in front of and below her.

What was left in front of them now were a few spotty trees and larger, grey rocks with odd yellow fungus on top of them scattered across grass-covered plains. How they hadn’t noticed this before was beyond Rea, as the grass was actually a reddish colour rather than the green of the trees. Sure, she’d seen sections of red colour from orbit, but Rea hadn’t even thought about it.

“Well, we can’t just stand here,” Adria said quickly.

She was right. So far, the Vong hadn’t found them, but there had been multiple ships fly right over them. Neither Rea nor Adria had any idea of what kinds of ships they were, as they mostly just looked like asteroids of sorts, with hints of some kind of hand crafting them into something able to fly. But out here in the open, they’d be spotted in a moment, and they couldn’t turn around now. Still, they needed some kind of cover...

Commodore Nok had slipped into unconsciousness a few minutes earlier. It had, at first, worried Rea, but there wasn’t really time to stop and he was still breathing. Rast and Sansont, the other two Zephyrs with them, were also still unconscious, leaving just she and Adria to figure out what to do. It was in no way comforting, as they were only on the moon because of the Commodore’s very surprising order and now a fair number of the squadron were dead or missing.

With one last glance behind them just in case, Adria started moving again. Rea was right with her, as they were both pushing Rast’s stretcher between them. Because of the fact that they were having to push three of their unconscious squad mates, the two of them couldn’t move too quickly. The last thing they needed was to accidently drop one of their injured comrades onto the dirt.

They headed for the nearest possible chance at some kind of shelter, one of the large rocks. It turned out that there were actually about five boulders sitting against one another or coming out of the ground in rather odd formations. From what they could see, there were other spots just like it throughout the grassy plain. Still, it seemed oddly convenient to find a collection of large rocks that provided cover from above.

While deactivating the repulsor on Rast’s stretcher and gently helping it down to the ground within the small, natural shelter, Adria grumbled, “This is too bloody convenient.”

“I don’t particularly like it either,” with a sigh, Rea couldn’t help but agree, “But you know we can’t just run around out there with three stretchers looking for something better.”

At this point, Adria was finally getting rid of the life support packages and other parts of her flightsuit that were currently nothing but extra weight. She, like Rea, had been intelligent enough to grab a pack before escaping the location where her X-Wing had gone down. It meant she had a place to stuff the extra pieces of the flightsuit, plus the orange jumpsuit that she was now quite happily removing. It also meant that they had enough rations and other vital supplies that they’d be okay for a good long while on their own.

Deciding that Adria had the right idea, and ready to get rid of the extra weight, herself, Rea followed suit. In a few minutes, they were both down to the simple black jumpsuit that was worn under the orange. It was far more comfortable than all of the extra equipment, which was odd, because Rea had never noticed any discomfort on other planets. Maybe the gravity was a bit stronger...

Leaning back against one of the rocks in the small section that could be considered an interior of an very ancient stone building, Adria sighed and ran a hand through her dark red hair, “So now what?”

Rea, her legs aching a bit, decided to have a seat on the ground. There wasn’t much room with the three occupied stretchers, but Rea wasn’t exactly a large Twi’lek. In fact, she had a fair bit of room in her X-Wing’s cockpit to move around a bit and get comfortable. Resting her head back against the cold rock, she looked over towards Adria, “I don’t think we can do much of anything until the Commodore is conscious again.”

Folding her arms across her chest, Adria shook her head, “I don’t like the idea of just sitting here with the Vong running around searching for us.”

Rea stared at the other woman, “We’re on a moon that basically erupted with Coralskippers, Adria. What else would you expect us to be doing?”

There was a short silence as Adria glared rather than acknowledge the sarcasm. Eventually, instead of bother with any kind of retort, Adria simply knelt down next to her pack and started digging through it. As she was sifting through the contents, she explained out of the corner of her mouth, “The Commodore had to have had a good reason for crashing us on this rock. Might as well see if I can figure out why. Better than just waiting for the Vong to find us.”

Finally, she retrieved a palm sized object that Rea recognized as a portable scanner. After extending the twin antennae and turning it on, Adria was back to leaning against the rock wall and staring down at the scanner’s display. Thankfully, it was one of the newer scanners that didn’t make damned beeping sound every few seconds that would have both driven them crazy and given their location away to anything within a kilometer.

“Any sign of the others?” Rea asked after a few quiet minutes. There were still potentially three other Zephyrs out on the moon somewhere that they’d not come across yet.

Adria shook her head, “Not nearby...”

“What?”

Tilting her head to look over the device and to Rea, the human shot a confused glance towards the Twi’lek, “What what?”

“Your face just changed,” Rea reached up a hand to point, not that it helped, “Did you find something?”

“My face didn’t...” rolling her eyes, Adria looked back to the scanner, but still continued to talk, “Its just...its some kind of distress signal, I think.”

That got Rea to sit up straight, “One of the others?”

“No,” Adria shook her head, “No its...this isn’t a New Republic encryption code. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

By now, the Twi’lek had pulled herself up to her feet and was slowly moving over to have a look at the scanner’s display for herself, “Well, it can’t be the Vong...where’s it coming from?”

With Rea now standing next to her, Adria was polite enough to tilt the device so Rea could see the readout. Not that the lines and symbols meant anything to her, but it was the thought that mattered. Noting the silence from her fellow pilot, Adria pointed to one of the lines higher up on the display, “Its not coming from anywhere specific. Its...I think its coming from everywhere, actually.”

“What does that mean?” Rea turned to look for an answer on Adria’s face, but she found nothing but a shrug and similar confusion.

With a sigh, Adria shook her head, “There are a lot of people that need help? No...no, I really don’t have any idea.”

Taking a step back so as not to force herself to stare at the gibberish on the display anymore, Rea waved a hand idly, “Could this be what the Commodore was after?”

“Maybe but...” Adria shrugged again, “I don’t know how he’d have noticed this. It may be everywhere but its weak. And its not on any frequency the new Republic has ever used...”

As she trailed off, an idea began to form. At the same time, Rea was coming to that exact conclusion. The pieces fell into place. It was Rea who finished the thought, “Someone is here. Someone is on this moon hiding from the Vong.”

“They’re not using any signals the Vong would expect,” Adria went on, her face twisting a bit as she thought, “Do you think the Vong found them? It could just as easily be a trap.”

“But on an old signal we don’t even use?” the Twi’lek shook her head, “No one would pick it up. And if its as weak as you say, then you’d have to be here to find it in the first place...”

Both pilots looked up at the same time, then to each other. There was a silent moment as both of their minds worked even faster. But then, their thoughts diverged from one another. Adria stood up straight and shut down the scanner, “I think I can track this to its source.”

“Wait,” Rea immediately caught up and saw where this was going, “You just said the signal is coming from everywhere.”

“I did,” Adria nodded as she hefted her pack and then removed her blaster pistol from its holster, “But it is stronger to the north of here.”

Without saying anything, Adria then began to step past Rea and towards the ‘exit’ to their makeshift shelter. The Twi’lek, however, did her best to stand in the way, “Wait a second, you can’t leave! We need to stay together here. If the Vong find us...or you while you’re out on your own...”

“The sooner we find whatever the Commodore was after here, the sooner we can get off this rock...somehow,” Adria pushed the smaller Rea to the side and managed a polite smile, “I’ve got my comlink on me and I’ll keep you updated. I won’t go far, either. But this is definitely something and if...well, we may have to wait a long time for the Commodore to wake up.”

And then she left.

Rea stood there staring at the small entrance to their shelter and then let out a long, tired sigh. Every time things seemed like they couldn’t get any more difficult...no, no this wasn’t the time for thinking like that. Let the human run off like a child. There were three injured comrades right here. They needed Rea to be alert in case the Vong found them, and they needed her to use what little medical skill she had to help them.

For the first time, however, Rea didn’t want the Commodore to wake up again. She really didn’t want to get yelled at even if she should have done something to stop Adria.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 555: Natural Reactions

There were times when Tobias wished he would listen to what he was told to do more. When he had turned around and ignited his lightsaber to face the three Yuuzhan Vong warriors rather than continue running from them, Tobias had not even considered how much quieter it would have been if he’d stayed in the hole in the ground. But as the Vong got closer, amphistaves up and preparing to strike at him, Tobias attempted to plant his feet and hold his ground...

And he slipped.

In his decision to fight, Tobias had somehow forgotten the fact that it was still raining and that the ground beneath him was not at all solid, but rather a thick layer of mud and gunk. It was not exactly the best situation to attempt to plant one’s feet in, as what really happened was Tobias’ boot slid much farther than he’d meant and then when he tried to catch himself, he overcompensated and instead of hitting on his back, Tobias went into the mud face first.

Immediately twisting so he was facing up, Tobias could see, through a mask of mud on his face, one of the amphistaves coming right down to take his head off. His lightsaber still active, Tobias managed to swing it around and bat the incoming attack away, using the Vong warrior’s momentum against him. It was hard to not try to rely on the Force to tell him what was about to happen next, but thankfully Marix had taught him at least enough to pay attention when people were trying to kill him.

It was why Tobias noticed the sound of a heavy footstep right next to him, a sign of shifting weight for another attack. And instead of defending himself this time, Tobias rolled away, ignoring the fact that he was now completely covered in mud. When he was a good meter away, he pushed himself up to his feet and faced the three Vong, raising his lightsaber just in time to parry a strike meant to slice open his stomach.

Pushing the Vong’s weapon away just in time to duck from a strike from another of the warriors. Out of the corner of his eye, Tobias could see more movement and was able to identify it as the third warrior attempting to block him in. Which meant there would be a tree behind him...

Another strike from an amphistaff came at his chest and again, it was easy for Tobias to invert his blade and parry. But unlike before, the warrior did not yank his weapon back, but instead slid it down, the length of the energy blade. Tobias realized what was about to happen, then managed to jump back before the tip of the amphistaff cut into his exposed leg.

And then his back hit the tree.

But for some reason, Tobias didn’t panic. In fact, some part of him seemed to know exactly what it was doing, as he found himself reaching up at nothing and trying his best to reach even farther with the Force. When he felt something in the hand of the Force above him, Tobias knew what to do...he yanked hard.

Suddenly, two large branches came crashing down in front of him. Two of the Vong that had been about to cut him to pieces were dropped under the weight of the heavy branches, while the third glanced up for just long enough to give Tobias an opening.

With as much strength as he could managed, Tobias thrust his blue-green blade straight for the standing Vong’s torso. The blade hit, but instead of cutting straight through and skewering the warrior, Tobias found out that the armour the warriors wore was very effective...as his blade cut deep into it, but simply followed the contour of its shape until the Vong twisted his weapon to hit Tobias’ lightsaber out of the way.

Finding his own opening, the warrior followed up his defense by taking a large step right inside Tobias’ defenses. An elbow suddenly dug into his stomach, along with the spiked armour covering it. Tobias couldn’t help a gasp of pain and surprise, but the second the Vong pulled back for another strike, he was remorphing the wound. But dealing with the injury meant he didn’t have any time to back away or defend from the backhanded punch that caught him hard across the face.

Tobias felt his jaw crack from the force of the blow, but that feeling faded into numbness when his head hit the nearby tree and then everything went completely blurry. But he didn’t black out, and his vision refocused in time for Tobias to duck and roll out of the way from the sharp end of an amphistaff meant to skewer his face. He may have been up and still alive, but things were still spinning from the blow to the head and it wasn’t really a surprise when Tobias tripped over one of the fallen tree branches and hit the ground again.

But Tobias hit the ground on his hands and knees, not on his face. Immediately, he pushed himself back up and regained his footing, glad for the fallen tree branches to slow the Vong for just long enough so that Tobias was up and mostly ready for him. But just to keep the warrior back, Tobias swung his lightsaber downwards in a long, diagonal arc that wouldn’t have hit anyone, and wasn’t even meant to.

The Vong stopped in his tracks to reach up and catch the blade with the center of his amphistaff, then attempted to do what he’d done before. But when the warrior pushed Tobias’ weapon away and tried to step in close again, Tobias spun around and used that momentum to easily take a good step back just before his blade came in towards the Vong’s torso.

Shifting to a one-handed grip of his deadly amphistaff, the Vong warrior had no trouble catching Tobias’ strike. But as Tobias pulled back to attempt another attack simply to keep the Vong back while he looked for an opening, he saw something happening.

With his free hand, the Vong warrior was reaching for something. Tobias didn’t see what it was until the warrior swung his staff around with enough strength to not only bat Tobias’ lightsaber to the side, but nearly twist him around in the process. On the slick ground, it threw off his footing easily and that was when Tobias saw the Vong’s other hand moving so fast it was just a blur...a blur with something on the end of it...

A sudden sharp pain shot up through Tobias’ body from his lower torso, and he looked down to see a small, dagger-sized amphistaff being removed from his gut. His body naturally reacted to the wound by causing Tobias to cry out in pain and double over, bringing him right down into a raised knee...face first.

Tobias’ nose broke on impact, and he stumbled back trying everything he could to fight back unconsciousness. But the pain was overwhelming him and it had all come so suddenly that he couldn’t do anything at all...it hurt too much to remorph! But if he lost consciousness...if he continued to stumble backwards for another step, he was going to hit the ground, black out, and then end up dead.

No!

No, he couldn’t end up like that!

He had to—

The line of thought was cut off by the ground, which Tobias hit hard before he realized what had happened. His eyes shot open, and through a haze of mud and a bit of red, he saw a blur come straight down for him. A half second later, another sharp pain erupted from his chest as the Vong warrior drove his amphistaff straight through one of Tobias’ two hearts.

But there was a reason Alraxians had two. If one was damaged, the second could operate alone for long enough that the Alraxian could remorph the other and be fine. This, of course, applied to a small subset of Alraxians, but it was a proven fact. And though the pain nearly overwhelmed him, Tobias fought it all to stay conscious...so much so that he didn’t even feel the amphistaff being removed, only seeing the blur of movement to indicate it.

An instinct beat into him from a young age took hold, and Tobias lashed out with his leg, sweeping the surprised Vong’s feet out from under him and dropped the warrior onto his back. Now, the wounds were healing. The injuries were gone in moments, and though the pain lingered and the shock of them still wracked his brain, Tobias dragged himself up to his feet at the same time as his Vong foe.

Rather than let his enemy get the upper hand again, though, Tobias kicked the Vong hard in the skull, dropping him back down to the ground before he could even get up. And then Tobias took one simple step forward, inverted his lightsaber, and drove it down through the only vital part of the Vong that wasn’t covered by armour...his head.

It was when he removed the energy blade from the now-dead Vong warrior that the previous few seconds caught up with Tobias. For a short moment, he stared down at what he’d just done...knowing it hadn’t been out of anger at all. Terrified of the fact that he hadn’t tapped into the Dark Side...he hadn’t been controlled...he’d just reacted with instincts beat into him by his birth parents and then by Marix and Jyren.

Tobias heard something move, and quickly looked over to see, through the still-heavy rain, one of the Vong that had been taken down by the tree branch pushing it off and slowly getting to his feet.

Deactivating his lightsaber, Tobias turned and ran again. He could get away now. He could escape the other two Vong...

But what about that emotionless killing? Could he escape that? Those were natural reactions to the...no, no the fact that he’d killed the Vong was not the problem. It had been a life or death situation. There had been no choice. The problem was something else.

Never in his life, had Tobias done what he’d done just then. He hadn’t even thought about it at the time, just reacted. He had sustained the kinds of wounds that could have killed most other humanoids in the galaxy twice over. Yet, somehow, not only had he remained conscious, he’d fought through it, survived through it, remorphed it...and kept going as if it was nothing.

It was exactly what Marix had always told him he needed to be able to do...so why did it feel so wrong? Why was it so terrifying?

...and where the hell was Master Ral?!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 556: A Favour

Technically, anything was possible in the universe. By that logic, almost anything was possible within the galaxy. This was something that everyone knew at a base level, though few beyond the philosophers bothered to put any thought to. But every so often, something popped up that had a way of making everyone that saw it rethink everything they knew about the galaxy.

Just moments ago, Marix had encountered one of those moments.

A ship had exited hyperspace not far from Loki’s position. She had been sitting in the cockpit, checking the ship’s vital systems and glad to see that, for the moment, he was stable...though still unconscious. Due to the fact that Loki was unconscious, there had been no warning from his sensors that a ship had arrived, but Marix saw something against the black through the viewport.

Something red.

Something very red and very large.

Something that was supposed to be very large, but never, ever meant to be a shade of crimson like it was.

It was an old, Imperial-class Star Destroyer. And it was not white or grey or silver or even black...it was red. Who in the hell would paint a Star Destroyer red? Who the hell was Corran Horn’s father-in-law?!

Her surprise was forced away when the comm channel opened to confirm the earlier conversation. It didn’t take long, and soon the giant red beast was pulling Loki in via its tractor beam. Marix had made sure to check the landing bay before moving to the hatch, and saw a collection of so many kinds of ships that it looked more like a dump than a hangar...and then there was the large group of figures formed up right in front of where Loki eventually set down.

They looked armed, too.

No surprise...

Marix headed to the hatch, pulling on a pair of simple trousers on the way and then throwing a jacket on, too. Knowing humans the Star Destroyer was going to be cold. She also made sure not to carry a single weapon with her. The last thing she needed to do was get shot at, have to kill someone, and then get thrown off the ship for Loki to drift in space until he died.

When the hatch opened and she stepped out into the Star Destroyer’s hangar, no blasters were aimed at her, though they were obviously at the ready. The security detail had no uniforms, but simply wore normal looking clothes. They were smugglers and mercenaries. All of them. But Marix had figured that by the mention of Max...no one else would know, or care, about that name. Especially in relation to ‘Alrax.’

And there, just a couple of meters away from her, were two men. One was just slightly shorter than the other, and he had brown hair and a simple goatee. He wore clothes very reminiscent of Jedi robes, though much more practical...that man would be Corran Horn, though Marix couldn’t help but wonder why there was no lightsaber at his belt. Even if he felt like a disgraced Jedi, it seemed stupid to abandon the weapon.

But it was the other man that surprised her, because she realized who he was immediately. Heavyset, dark hair, and a critical look on his older features only amplified by the way he folded his arms across a large chest. He was Booster Terrik, and that explained everything. She’d met him once, shortly, doing a job with Max. It was a passing meeting, but apparently Terrik remembered. To get as far as he did in the underworld of the galaxy, he had to be able to remember seemingly small things. Hell, the man had a Star Destroyer...a red one.

“Bit taller than I remember,” Booster’s voice was gruff but there was the hint of a smile somewhere in there.

Marix tilted her head slightly so she wasn’t looking completely down at him and instead at more of an angle that almost had them seeing eye-to-eye, “You haven’t changed a bit.”

She had a good memory, too.

And then, in one silent moment, the tension faded. Booster took a few steps closer then looked past Marix to Loki. He looked over the ship from where he stood, then said out of the corner of his mouth, “Don’t you boys have work to do?”

At that point, the so-called ‘armed guards’ headed their own ways, holstering blasters as they left. So that had just been a precaution. Booster was smart...

“Never seen a ship like this, Alrax,” he was speaking at Loki, walking towards the Kanyak’s aft section which was significantly damaged. The hull was exposed...in Loki’s case, it was like having his external layer of skin missing and just letting his insides open up to the air...or vacuum. And that was just what could be seen. Marix wasn’t ready to turn her back on Horn or Terrik and check the ship’s underside.

Marix turned her head to watch Booster carefully, but didn’t move from where she stood, “Does that mean I can’t have help getting Loki fixed up?”

Booster stopped right next to one of Loki’s two sublight drives, reaching over and putting a hand on the Kanyak’s hull, “You’ll get what you need if you can tell me what it is. But that’s your one, and its only because of Max. I owed him a favour and he was killed before he could call it in. But seeing as I know you didn’t kill him and you were the only partner he ran with that he ever trusted, you get the favour and this is it.”

The man sure had a sense of honour about him.

But what did Marix need?

She needed tools she didn’t have...tools that Booster probably didn’t have, either. But what else could be used? They could improvise with some basic hull plating. It wouldn’t be pretty, but Loki had guns grafted to him at this point...Marix had no problem using more metal to keep her friend alive, especially when it would be temporary. But still, what could really help?

Turning around, Marix looked straight to Corran, who was watching her carefully, and asked, “Can you heal?”

Understanding that question, Corran’s response was not one she wanted to hear, “I’m not a healer, if that’s what you mean.”

“Neither am I, but that’s not what I asked,” she pointed to Loki, “If I needed you to use the Force and heal a living being, could you do it?”

That got some attention.

“This thing’s alive?” from behind her, Booster made a grunt of surprise. From the sound of it, he also took a couple of steps back.

Marix knew the worry, so she quickly went to remedying it, “He’s not Vong or anything you know. Don’t ask, either, because you won’t get an answer. The important thing is that he would help you if you needed it, and right now he needs your help,” she turned around to look back to Booster, “This favour, its not for me. Its for Loki.”

Raising his hands in defense, as Marix’s voice had become very deadly in that moment, Booster said casually, “It was a question, I didn’t say I’d toss ya out. You do what you need and take that son-in-law of mine to help you so he stops sittin’ over my shoulder every second like a damned parasite.”

The larger man then turned around and headed for a turbolift, grumbling something about his daughter’s taste in men while he left. Marix turned back to Corran again, one eyebrow up but instead of commenting on what Booster had said, went a completely different direction, “You don’t trust me.”

“I don’t know you,” Corran answered immediately.

“We have met before,” Marix commented, trying to find a way to ease the tension so they could get to helping Loki, “I was on Ithor.”

“I didn’t see you,” the same tone as before. This man was definitely still a CorSec officer at heart. He wasn’t letting anything out.

Marix let out a sigh to show she was getting tired of this, “I was in the back trying to keep my mate from screaming at you all and my son from joining you. Not that I succeeded on the latter, it seems...”

The last sentence had just been a rather random thought spoken out loud. But it had an impression. Finally, Corran’s face changed slightly, and she could see a concern there, as well as feel it through the Force, “Your son is a Jedi?”

“Not yet,” she shook her head, trying to keep patient as it looked like Corran was finally going to believe her and then would actually help, “Last I checked, he’s still in training and if he knows what’s good for him he’s on Yavin IV.”

Corran shook his head, “I truly hope he is not. Just after we received your message Master Skywalker sent his own request. Apparently the Vong have attacked Yavin and some of students are still trapped there...my son is one of them, also.”

The words were a shock to her, but Marix did not show it at all. Well, there was one slight change, but Corran likely didn’t notice it. Her muscles all tensed, though she didn’t move at all beyond that. Keeping her face emotionless, Marix spoke slowly and carefully, “I expect that Yavin IV is our next destination.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Booster’s not the kind of man to turn down helping family,” Corran nodded back towards the turoblift, despite the fact that the other man was gone, “And these days, he includes the Jedi in that definition. You can bet we’ll be there as fast as this beast can go.”

Then they didn’t have much time. Loki needed to be ready by the time they got to Yavin.

“So are we going to stand here or did you want my help with your friend here?” Corran pointed over Marix’s shoulder to Loki. But when she opened her mouth to respond, he cut her off by motioning for her to lead the way over to the ship, “And should I change into clothes that I don’t mind being covered in...in...whatever it is you’re covered in?”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 557: Monsters

The tall, red grass of Rodia’s moon seemed to stretch forever. Adria had been tracking the odd signal for the last twenty standard minutes according to her chrono. Every time a coralskipper or other Vong ship went overhead, she’d ducked low and just waited, not moving for minutes just to be safe. It was why she hadn’t actually moved too terribly far in twenty minutes.

Glancing over her shoulder, she couldn’t see the natural shelter anymore. There were others like it all over, which made Adria wonder just how natural they were. It didn’t seem impossible for the collections of large rocks to actually have been built by Rodians as makeshift shelters for...for...whatever reason. She knew next to nothing about their culture beyond the fact that it was clan based and put a strong emphasis on ‘the hunt’.

Knelt down to make herself harder to see, Adria looked at the scanning device again. About a half kilometer north was where the signal was strongest. In fact, it was close enough she could probably get a visual on it if she tried...

Adria was impulsive, but she wasn’t stupid. She would check out the area, then immediately head back to where Rea was holed up. She wasn’t about to get herself killed, but at the same time, sitting around waiting to do something like this seemed foolish. It was likely that Commodore Nok would have them doing this when he was conscious again, anyway, so might as well get a step ahead.

After sliding the scanner back into her pack and sealing it again, Adria looked overhead again before beginning to move again. She stayed low, weary of Vong ships that may pass overhead. Earlier that day, she’d watched the entire moon erupt in Coralskippers. But now...since they’d ‘landed’ on the surface, they hadn’t actually seen any Vong. Sure, they’d been followed and managed to escape, and there were ships passing overhead here and there but no direct contact. No direct contact on a moon that was obviously heavily occupied.

Where were the Vong?

A few minutes passed before Adria saw something that was definitely not rocks. In fact, from the way the light was catching it, it looked to be metal...

Moving carefully and staying low, Adria made sure to keep her blaster in hand and ready. There was no cover nearby and so it was just a long stretch of red grass between her and what looked like a circular building with a flat roof. And it was definitely a metal structure, which meant it wasn’t Vong in origin...which raised more questions...which...

All thoughts were suddenly cut off by a sound that Adria had never heard before. It was like the roar of a great beast, but twisted and alien and with an odd shriek in the bestial sound that sent a shiver up her spine. And it was behind her.

Her head spun around to find the source of the noise and Adria saw a creature...no, two creatures. Both of them were a good three and a half meters high, walking on four spined, crab-like legs, with a builky, but more humanoid-shaped torso curving up above the lower section of the body. Between two human-sized scythe-shaped arms was something recognizable. The head of the creature was that of a Rodian, with a distinctive snout, large black eyes, and even the two stalked ears...but on the back of its head, instead the usual ‘spines’ that dotted a Rodian’s skull were huge, very dangerous looking quills.

One of the two creatures roared again, its snout-shaped mouth opening wide to let out the spine-chilling sound, and then began to move quickly for her. How Adria hadn’t seen them behind her before was beyond her, but that didn’t matter.

Instinct kicked in just as the second Rodian-thing began to come after her, and Adria raised her blaster to fire a barrage of shots while starting to run the other direction at a speed that would not be fast enough to keep her away from the two monsters for long. Though most of her shots went wide, one did strike the creatures at the front right in its massive chest, but had no effect on it other than to leave a black mark on its armoured torso.

Seeing how ineffective her blaster pistol was against the hulking beasts charging straight for her, Adria decided not to waste her time staring over her shoulder. Instead, she turned completely forward and ran as fast as she could, hoping to hell that she could get on the roof of that building and that the creatures wouldn’t be able to get up to her before she figured out what to do.

In a matter of seconds, she could feel the ground shaking behind her as the two creatures gained rapidly. It was almost enough to cause Adria to lose her footing, and she couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder. What she saw was one of the creatures within arm’s reach of her, barreling forward with one of its massive, bone-bladed arms already coming down to cleave her in two.

In that moment of near panic, Adria made a decision, and dove to the side. She hit the ground hard, rolling in time to see the first creature pull itself to a stop before spinning around awkwardly on its four legs to come at her again, while the second creature was now about to hit her dead on.

Before she could even come with the faintest of ideas on how to survive the encounter with the two beasts, a new sound took over. Or rather, a series of them. A barrage of blaster bolts arced across Adria’s field of vision before catching both of the monstrous creatures all over their torso. The amount of shots stalled the both of them until finally they dropped hard to the ground, the one still charging for Adria hitting hard and sliding through the dirt before it came to a stop.

It took Adria a few moments of sitting on her backside, staring at the two downed, slightly-moving monsters, before she finally turned towards the source of the blaster fire. A part of her expected to see the other members of Zephyr squadron that they hadn’t run into yet, but that wasn’t what Adria’s eyes found. She saw two humans, about five Rodians, and a Mon Calamari, all armed with blaster rifles of various make and moving towards her with them lowered.

One of the humans, a young man with short, blonde hair, extended a hand to help her to her feet, “Smart move running this way. Wouldn’t have seen you otherwise.”

Adria did not take his hand, getting to her feet on her own and keeping her blaster in hand, just in case. She had been about to say something in response when she noticed something else. Or rather, someone.

“...Loro?!”

The Mon Calamari in the group pushed his way through a couple of the Rodians before his already-large eyes somehow managed to go wider, “Harken!”

“Loro, I thought you were dead!” she laughed without meaning to and then, also without meaning to, hugged her former wingmate.

Somewhat surprised and a bit uncomfortable, Loro managed to return the gesture and said in that gravely voice that was very much his, “They do equip starfighters with ejection seats.”

Realizing she’d hugged him, Adria nearly jumped back. She looked over the group, noticing they all looked as shocked at her as she was to find them. Which brought up a few important questions, “Hang on...I think you’re going to have to tell me how the hell you got here, what’s going on, and uh,” she motioned behind her with her blaster pistol, “What those are. Were.”

The other human, an older looking man with thinning hair but a strong build, nodded, “I believe we have a few questions for you, too, Miss. But lets talk inside where we have at least some shelter from those beasts.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 558: Of Tree Branches

As Tobias watched the two Yuuzhan Vong warriors walk past him, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was being cowardly by hiding in a tree. He had managed to use his considerable lead to take time and look for Master Ral, but found no sign of his Master. In fact, Tobias had realized that he was lost. And before he could figure out what to do next, through the heavy sound of the constant rain, Tobias’ ears detected something else...foosteps. Heavy footsteps.

And so Tobias had made a quick decision: he scaled the nearest tree, finding a branch high enough up to be out of plain sight. The two Vong were being careful, so much so that they actually stopped right under him. Tobias’ mind was filled with panic. They were tracking him. He had no idea how to hide his tracks, and hadn’t even thought about it until now...staring down at the Vong.

As carefully and quietly as he could, Tobias shifted his position from kneeling oddly to lying flat on the branch. It was in hopes that he could conceal himself better in case they looked upwards, and also so he could watch them more carefully himself. That, and it was nice to have the rain on his back rather than directly on his face. But while the two Vong did carefully walk around the tree, they didn’t seem to take notice of the claw marks that Tobias had left in his swift ascent. If they saw them at all, they likely assumed they were simply the marks of some local animal. It wasn’t as if claw marks on trees were that uncommon on a world as untamed as Yavin IV was.

[Dwel so oran e’sai, Enarin. Lan nomayi suc.]

The voice in his head nearly caused Tobias to fall out of the tree and right onto one of the Vong. Thankfully, he just twitched slightly and managed to dig his claws in to hold himself in place. When he recovered, Tobias realized what had just been said: the Knight he’d contacted earlier was in the system. The problem, however, was that the Yavin system was significantly blockaded.

Trying to lock onto the distant presence through a tiny thread of the Alraxian Network that he could feel, Tobias replied in Alraxian. [Can you safely run the blockade?]

[Most of the ships on the outer reaches of the system are large and likely slow.] the Knight responded immediately, still ‘speaking’ in Alraxian. [If I am to break through we will have to move quickly. My Kanyak, Horus, informs me that the difficult part will be stopping long enough to get you on board. The rest, he assures me, he can handle.]

Tobias immediately recognized a handful of problems and decided most all of them boiled down to one important thing. [How long will it take you to reach me?]

A short pause, then. [It is hard to say. It lis likely there are many smaller ships aboard the larger ones that could make the approach more dangerous. Horus believes that even with extra resistance, we can get to you within fifteen minutes. Are you currently in danger?]

[Not currently...] Tobias wanted to make some sarcastic comment about being above the danger, but it just didn’t seem like the time. He sure as hell didn’t have Jyren’s terrible sense of when to make a joke. For some reason, that was depressing. But that wasn’t important. What was important, however, was... [But I have been separated from my Master and we cannot leave without him.]

Another pause, this one a bit longer. Tobias could imagine the Knight and his Kanyak arguing over what to do. [We have been spotted, it seems. If we do not come for you now, I do not believe we will be able to reach you at all.]

That was a question. It wasn’t stated like a question, but the Knights were always like that with him for some reason. They must not have been sure of him in some form. He was young still, could he really give them orders that weren’t tainted by inexperience? It wasn’t as much their own safety they likely worried about, but his. If his mother was anyone but the Empress, they likely wouldn’t even listen at all. But coupling that with the fact that she was Marix and the Knights seemed to always end up accepting that she’d likely taught him a great deal about taking care of himself...which she had.

And so, remembering some of those things he’d been taught, Tobias answered the unspoken question. [Make your approach and keep me updated.]

No response came beyond a strong feeling of determination. That was how the Knights always accepted their orders. What were the point of words when no language ever had words that could truly represent some ideas? Especially for beings like Alraxians that were very strongly rooted in their emotions and feelings. Better to show the feeling than to try and fumble for a word that wouldn’t even truly grasp it.

Thankfully, by that point, the two Vong had moved on. Tobias was looking down at grass, dirt, mud, and tree roots. But they wouldn’t be far. It was going to be dangerous to come down but he didn’t have much of a choice. Tobias had actually secured them a way off of Yavin IV, but Master Ral had no idea.

Attempting to reach out with the Force proved useless as the abundant natural life of the moon blotted out the specific details he had felt earlier. Tobias just couldn’t manage the focus to reach that level of clarity again...not yet. He was too caught up in the fact that he had roughly fifteen minutes to find Master Ral and then figure out how to reach a Kanyak that couldn’t possibly land in this part of the thick jungle.

Okay. Focus. There was a limited amount of time now and Tobias couldn’t waste any of that being childish. If he didn’t find Master Ral in fifteen minutes...well...that Knight wasn’t going to leave without Tobias. Not after he’d come as far as he was going to have to. Which meant Tobias needed to move fast and figure out how to find Master Ral.

First things first. He needed to get back to the shelter. The problem was, he was still a bit turned around.

What would Jyren have done?

He’d likely drop to the ground, activate his lightsaber, and run into a group of Vong head first before magically finding Master Ral while running away.

No, Tobias couldn’t rely on luck like that. He just wasn’t that impulsive.

Alright. Fine.

What would Marix have done?

Backtrack. Run through her memories, figure out exactly where she had stepped and follow that backwards until she reached the exact point she’d started. There wouldn’t be visual reference, just her own very careful identification of her surroundings at all times.

Tobias wasn’t nearly that aware of his surroundings all of the time, but it was a place to start. He’d have to be quick, which meant he wouldn’t give himself time to rethink things. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t second guess himself and Tobias would just go with his instincts. Both Marix and Jyren had always agreed on that one thing...trusting his instincts, because they were rarely wrong.

As quietly as he could manage considering the length of the drop, Tobias shifted his position and swung down from the tree branch. He hit the ground in a wonderful pool of mud which splashed around him, then immediately started at a sprint back the way he’d come.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 559: Escape

It took roughly eight minutes, but Tobias somehow managed to find his way back to the ruined temple he’d not-so-intelligently left. The trek back wasn’t nearly as hard as he’d expected, as Tobias quickly realized he had mostly been running in straight lines, only turning to avoid trees. It also helped that there was still a dead Yuuzhan Vong near the one point where Tobias did change direction. Never in his life did he think a corpse would make a landmark...

Eyes scanning the area from the cover of tree, Tobias waited another few moments to make sure he hadn’t been followed and that there weren’t any Vong near the shelter. When he was sure, he slipped back down to the ground again and made a quick, slightly dangerous due to the rain, dash for the ‘cave’ and was soon once again within its dark, damp, recesses.

And there was no sign of Master Ral.

In a way, that was good. It meant that Tobias couldn’t be yelled at for doing something extremely stupid. But, more importantly, it was very bad. Tobias had not heard a thing from the Knight, which likely meant the ride off of Yavin IV was very close. Gods, where was Master Ral?!

Okay. Stop. Calm down. This was the worst possible time to be panicky and irrational. Tobias couldn’t afford to let his worry and other emotions cloud his reason and judgement. He was supposed to be a Jedi, dammit! Jedi were calm in the most dangerous of situations. They were calm, and that calm allowed them to both make the right decisions at the right moments, and to keep the necessary focus so as to effectively use the Force when the time called for it. Ever since he’d run off from this hole in the ground, Tobias had done none of that.

It was time to stop being a child, and start being the Jedi he was supposed to be.

After a series of deep, calming breaths, Tobias closed his eyes. Standing there in the middle of the small cave beneath the ruins of an ancient Massassi Temple, hands at his sides and, against all that Marix had taught him, his back to the entrance, Tobias began to reach out for the Force, just feeling it and finding it around him. Both of those were easy to do on Yavin IV, a planet so rich with life it glowed brighter than a star in the Force. The difficult part, the one that Tobias knew he could do if he remained calm and focused, was to look through the brightness, to differentiate the individual sparks of life all across the moon: animals, planets, Peace Brigadiers, what few Jedi remained, and...

“Tobias!”

He saw Master Ral in the Force just a heartbeat before Tobias heard the voice behind him. Eyes snapping open, Tobias spun around to see his Omwati Jedi Master quickly moving into the shelter, his white, feathery hair matted to his head by the rain. Before Tobias could say anything, however, Master Ral continued speaking in a voice filled with more urgency that was normal from the calm Jedi Master, “We must leave here immediately.”

“Vong after you?” Tobias asked the question as Master Ral began to turn to lead the way out.

“More than would be intelligent to fight against,” but then, realized that Tobias hadn’t moved, Master Ral stopped just a few steps away and turned around, “What is it?”

Tobias could have just told him that they had a way off the planet. He could have only relayed that one piece of vital information and been in the clear. But no, that wasn’t what a Jedi was supposed to do.

“I went looking for you, Master,” like a good Jedi, Tobias told the truth, “I ran into some Vong and managed to lose them. But listen, before you yell at me because I know I deserve it. There’s a ship on the way, it’ll be here in just a few minutes. If we can find some clearing in the trees large enough for a small sized freighter we can get off this planet.”

There was no anger through the Force or on Master Ral’s face. In fact, he didn’t even miss a beat with this new information and simply replied immediately, “There should be an area just to the south of here. Are you sure we can trust the pilot of this ship?”

The interesting thing to Tobias was that, as the question was asked, Master Ral was leaving the shelter again. This time, however, Tobias followed, “The pilot is one of the Knights sworn to protect myself and my family. If we cannot trust him, then there is no one left in the galaxy we can trust.”

When Tobias caught up to his Master, they both took on a very swift pace. After dashing around a rather large tree, Master Ral’s head tilted just slightly to glance to Tobias. He didn’t say anything, but the question didn’t need to be spoken. How had he gotten in contact with a species that, as far as Master Ral had been told, were no where near Yavin IV. Truthfully, Tobias didn’t really know, either, so it was good the question wasn’t asked. In fact, he also a bit relieved Master Ral hadn’t commented on the fact that Tobias was still in his Alraxian body.

Distantly through the sounds of their running and rain, something could be heard in the sky above. Looking up did no good, as the jungle was too thick. But looking up wasn’t necessary for Tobias.

[We have your position. Moving to an area just south of your location.]

[We are both on our way now.] Tobias replied, then realized he might need to add. [We’re being followed by Vong, though.]

[As are we. Horus believes we can only set down for a matter of moments to get you on board before those fighters are on us.]

[We’ll be quick.] Tobias tried to sound sure, but then spoke up to Master Ral, “He’s almost down and will be to the clearing any moment now, Master. But uh...there are Coralskippers on them.”

The Jedi Master was intelligent enough to save certain questions for later. Namely, how Tobias was getting this information. But Master Ral understood that some things were best saved for later, when there weren’t Vong after them and...

They reached the clearly in the jungle, which actually looked like an area that a ship had gone down in decades earlier. Trees were down, metal scraps here and there, but nothing had regrown from the looks of it. Above, and circling down quickly, a tan-coloured, odd-shaped object could be seen. But that wasn’t what had their attention. What was truly important for the moment was that there were a dozen Yuuzhan Vong standing in the clearing, aphistaves at the ready and snarl-like grins on their scarred and tattooed faces.

They had been waiting.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 560: Pride

The snap-hiss of Master Ral’s lightsaber suddenly igniting cut through the silence created in the moment of discovery of the Vong trap.

“Master?!” Tobias started to turn to look in surprise at the immediate drawing of his Master’s weapon, but one of his ears caught a sound that was far more important. A fast moving buzzing sound and it was getting louder...

Reacting as best he could since the Force did him no good, Tobias twisted away, tilting his head just enough that the razor bug didn’t take his face off, instead cutting a long gash across his left cheek. Though he was trying to become a natural at simply remorphing a small wound like that without a thought, Tobias sure wasn’t there yet, and the buzzing of more razor bugs coming at them definitely didn’t help him.

As Tobias quickly drew his own weapon from its place at his belt, Master Ral moved to stand in front of the young Alraxian. Just like all Vong and their ‘technology’, the razor and thud bugs being thrown at them could not be felt in the Force. There was no screaming alert of danger to tell a Jedi were his lightsaber should be to deflect an attack and where to move to simply one. Instead, it was required that the Jedi use their eyes and ears. This was, of course, very difficult. Many Jedi were killed due to their reliance on the Force, which simply became a crutch and an outright weakness with the Yuuzhan Vong.

But Master Ral was a Jedi Master for a reason.

No, he could not feel the incoming razor bugs in the Force, but he had not neglected his other senses as some younger Jedi did. Aware of Tobias’ exact location behind him, thanks to the Force, Master Ral swung his lightsaber in an expertly timed arc that cut down three incoming razor bugs, then shifted to the side in time for another to fly straight between his body and Tobias’.

“Stay close until that ship sets down!” Master Ral called sharply over his shoulder to Tobias, who had just activated his own lightsaber and turned to see the at least six of the Yuuzhan Vong charging for them.

Before Tobias could say anything, his ears picked up on a buzzing sound again. This time, however, coming from behind them...or rather, in front of Tobias since he still had his back to his Master and the approaching Vong. The rain hadn’t eased up at all, meaning that trying to spot the tiny, semi-intelligent bug coming back around at them was extremely difficult. Focus on the sound.

Louder...

Louder...

Getting closer...

...LEFT!

Tobias didn’t see it, but just swung his blue-green blade in an upwards arc to defend his entire body, hoping his ears weren’t lying. There was a fizzling sound as the blade went up that was much louder than the odd sound created by the rain hitting the blade, and he knew he’d got the thing.

“Forward, Tobias!” the sharp voice of his Master caused Tobias’ body to move before he’d even registered the words.

Spinning around, Tobias saw only two of the Vong warriors approaching. One coming straight for Master Ral, and the other for Tobias, both with their large amphistaves at the ready. They were actually being what might be considered ‘honourable’, which was almost worrying as Tobias had never heard of this before. A dozen Vong and only one came at each of them. Was that a sign of respect or overconfidence?

There was no time to answer that question. Master Ral took a single step forward, ducking low under a swing meant to remove his head from his body, then swung his own lightsaber to take the Vong’s feet out from under him. The powerfully built warrior was not fast enough to dodge this attack, and soon both of his legs ended at the knee. When he hit the ground with a heavy grunt, the blue-skinned Jedi Master inverted his blade and drove it straight down into the warrior’s neck...ending the ‘fight’ before it had started, then bringing his lightsaber up at the ready position just as a new warrior charged for him, spewing words in the Vong language that could only have been curses.

Tobias, however, did not make such quick work of his warrior. While he did manage to step back to dodge a quick horizontal slash at his torso, Tobias’ counterattack was simple and predictable. He took a firm step forward to close the gap between himself and the Vong and thrust his lightsaber straight for his opponent’s chest. But the warrior seemed to be ready for it, his amphistaff spinning back around and easily batting Tobias’ bright blade off to the right.

Suddenly wide open, Tobias was barely able to duck under a horizontal slash aimed straight at his neck. Instead, it only took a few of his hairs with it. But now Tobias saw an opening, and used all his strength to jab his left elbow right into his opponent’s gut.

This did not, however, have the desired effect. Instead of the Vong reeling back from the strike, Tobias’ elbow screamed in pain from the impact against the very durable armour all of the Yuuzhan Vong warrior wore. And before he could even make an exclamation of pain, Tobias’ legs were swept out from underneath him.

The world spun and before Tobias realized what was happening, his back hit the muddy ground. For the briefest of moments, Tobias’ eyes went blurry. The moment his vision returned to normal, he saw the sharp tip of an amphistaff coming straight down towards his face. Reacting as fast as his body would allow, Tobias rolled in towards the warrior’s feet, feeling the tip of the staff graze his shoulder rather than his eye.

And then Tobias saw an interesting opening directly above him.

In that moment of surprise for the Vong warrior where his amphistaff was forced into thick mud rather than flesh, Tobias swung his still-active lightsaber at an unarmoured section of his opponent. There was a sudden cry of anger and pain from the Vong as Tobias’ lightsaber took off the warrior’s right hand The amphistaff stuck in the ground still, Tobias was able to jump up to his feet as the Vong stumbled back just a few steps.

But when Tobias got to his feet, he was not greeted by an unarmed opponent. Just as he was bringing his lightsaber up into a defensive position in front of him, Tobias saw the Vong warrior remove a small, dagger-sized amphistaff from what might have been a belt.

“K’lthrek Jeedai!” the Vong’s tattooed and viciously scarred face matched his voice perfectly. And just as he finished speaking, he dove forward to take Tobias by surprise.

Tobias saw another opening, as it was obvious the warrior was now reacting out of anger and not choosing his attacks wisely. In one simply motion, Tobias twisted to his right, avoiding the dagger strike easily, and then brought his lightsaber down to take the warrior’s head off.

The cut was clean and met with no resistance.

But knowing that there were countless other warriors ready for him, as Master Ral was still a blur of movement off to the side, Tobias had no time to celebrate his victory. Quickly bringing up the blue-green blade in front of him again and trying to ignore the hair matted to his forehead by the rain, Tobias looked up to the group of Vong a few meters away, ready for his next opponent.

[Take cover immediately!]

The Knight’s voice in Tobias’ head suddenly changed everything, and it took only a slight glance upwards to see why.

“Master! DOWN!” Tobias relayed the warning and then took the only cover they had, dropped right into the mud.

Before he hit the ground, Tobias caught sight of his Master, a blur of motion stopping only to drive his lightsaber straight through his opponent’s upper torso. The second he removed the blade, without a single question as to what Tobias had just yelled, Master Ral also dropped to the mud.

Just as Master Ral hit, there was a series of loud, pulsing sounds that weren’t like anything either of them had ever heard before. But those were suddenly drowned out by violent eruptions of trees, mud, metal debris, and Vong as the shots hit their targets with amazing accuracy. This sound, too, was drowned out by another. But this one Tobias knew very, very well.

It was the unique, almost humming sound that Kanyaks made in an atmosphere when they were about to take off. Pushing himself up to his feet, Tobias ran over to his Master and, with his free hand, grabbed the Omwati’s robes. Helping to pull Master Ral up, they both ran straight for the Kanyak that was hovering just a half meter above what was left of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Though the circular hatch was open, showing the cream-coloured interior, there was no one standing there to wave them in. In fact, the Knight didn’t even urge Tobias to move quickly. He said nothing at all.

Not that anything needed to be said.

In a matter of seconds, Master Ral and Tobias were inside the ship, their lightsaber deactivated and the hatch irising closed right behind them. Due to the inertial dampers, they were not thrown against the wall as the Kanyak quickly took to the sky again, but Tobias did hear the thrumming sound in the hull around him that indicated the engines were working as hard as they could.

Through heavy breathing, Master Ral eventually said, “You did well, Tobias.”

Suddenly feeling odd that there was no water hitting him from above anymore, Tobias couldn’t help but glance up slightly, “We should...should get to the cockpit.”

His mind was still focused on the fact that they weren’t out of this just yet.

Marix would have been proud of him.


Sorry for taking so much time to update. Bit of a hectic time right now and its probably going to continue for a while. Going to do my best to really stick to this better than I have been, though.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 561: All Patched Up

For the moment, Marix had no time to be proud of anyone or anything.

After patching up Loki’s serious internal wounds on her own, it was surprisingly helpful to have someone else to assist with the external damage. Sure, Corran Horn had no idea about anything when it came to Kanyaks, but that didn’t seem to make him useless. In just under a standard hour, they had managed to attach a series of durasteel plates to Loki’s underside and a few portions of his damaged aft section above the main drives. The metal looked like horrible abominations on his skin, but they were affixed to Loki for a reason. Until he could be properly repaired, the plates would keep his hull sealed and prevent any further damage from the vacuum to the exposed sections of his body.

Sadly, Loki was still unconscious.

But despite this, Marix found herself gently running a hand along his underside, saying softly to her old friend, “You’re going to be alright.”

“What was that?” Horn looked over his shoulder to her, looking slightly confused. He was now covered in the same blue substance that Marix was, which was at least slightly humourous considering his beard was now flaked with blue.

“Nothing,” she replied simply enough, patting Loki’s hull one more time then turning to see the former Jedi Master cleaning himself as best he could with an old looking towel, “Thank you.”

The fact that Horn smiled behind the towel was only apparent to Marix after a few moments when he moved to wiping off his arms, “Happy to help. Booster seems to trust you and considering how much of a bastard he is, that says a lot.”

Booster didn’t trust her. Booster trusted Max and had taken her and Loki in out of respect for the old smuggler. Of course, Marix didn’t say that. It just didn’t seem appropriate considering the help. Now Loki was flight-worthy again, to the point where Marix even felt he could handle hyperspace. There would still be more strain on him than usual, but there shouldn’t be any risk of death after the makeshift repairs.

“Its an amazing design,” now it was Horn’s turn to run a hand along Loki’s hull, this time the underside of his ‘wing’ while taking a few steps over to where Marix stood, “It would be too much to ask to see the inside, though, wouldn’t it?”

Marix tilted her head in the slightest of nods. Her tail also flicked, but Horn either didn’t notice that sign of annoyance or didn’t understand what it meant. But he did seem to understand the nod, so Marix didn’t feel the need to say anything else. It was nice to find a Jedi that seemed to understand what the galaxy was actually like beyond their ideals.

Horn looked as if he was about to say something else, but stopped when he felt the same gentle shudder of the deck plates that Marix detected at her feet. It was the kind of effect that might go unnoticed by anyone that hadn’t spent a great deal of their lives aboard starships. The shudder only occurred on larger ships, but it was a clear sign of entry to or exit from hyperspace.

But while that may have been what got Horn’s attention, something else grabbed Marix. A formerly silent part of her mind flared up with activity. It was, to her sudden and odd disappointment, not her link with Jyren, though there was the smallest of moments of hope that it was. But it was similar. It wasn’t nearly as strong, but the Alraxian Network never was as strong as a link.

There was an Alraxian on Yavin.

No.

There was a Knight on Yavin.

“Are you alright?” though the other sounds of the hangar were generally quiet, Marix didn’t hear Horn’s question. Her eyes closed and she focused her thoughts. First, she reached out through the Force, finding Yavin IV not far away through pockets of life, then easily identifying the bright planet. It took only a few short moments to pick up on the familiar presence in the Force that was Tobias. And near him she could feel two other strong presences in the Force. One had to be the Knight. The other must have been Tobias’ Jedi Master, a thought that caused a slight sensation of annoyance.

[What is the situation, Knight?] Marix sent the message in Alraxian and rather forcefully. There was no need to identify herself. Every Knight knew what she felt like in the Network and in the Force.

There was a short moment of surprise from the Knight, then his ‘voice’ took over in the formal tone Marix hated so much. [I have just retrieved your son and another from the surface of the fourth moon, my lady. We should reach an escape vector in under five standard minutes but the enemy forces are moving to intercept.]

The way he spoke combined with his general feeling in the Force caused Marix to actually remember him. He was not one of the former Tam’Day’U that had become part of the Knights, which made it even more odd that she could recognize him from just a voice and a feeling. But she did. His name was Varis, and the reason Marix knew him was because he was one of the longest-serving, and highest-ranking of the Knights. He had been loyal to her mother, and was one of the first to step up and volunteer for the reconnaissance missions outside the Empire.

Marix’s eyes opened to see Horn talking into a comlink. Realizing she had stepped out of the moment and let her other senses fade, Marix cursed herself and actually went back to listening.

The first thing she heard was Booster’s booming voice coming out of that tiny comlink, “...an entire kriffing fleet and Skywalker wants us to fight it alone? I’m going to have a long talk with that kid the second my grandkids are safe. Speaking of which, get your backside up here!”

“On my way, Booster,” it was amazing that Horn could be so casual after the tirade that had escaped the comlink. Sliding the small device back into his pocket, Horn caught the look on Marix’s face and smiled, “Put a man in jail once and he never seems to forget about it. Especially when you marry his daughter.”

As the Jedi turned to leave the hangar, Marix spoke up, “Corran.”

She hadn’t actually used his first name in the entire time he’d been helping her. That chance caught his attention, and he turned around to regard her with a raised eyebrow but no words. Marix unfolded her arms from across her chest and said, “My son is out there on a ship like mine. They’re leaving Yavin’s atmosphere right now and they’re going to need cover.”

Corran understood what she wasn’t saying, and so nodded, “I’ll tell Booster the second I get up to the bridge. But if they’re in a ship like yours, its going to be hard to tell it apart from the Vong. Yours wasn’t broadcasting any IFF signals when we found you.”

Ah, yes. Loki had one, but it was something that was only active while he kept it that way. Being unconscious meant there was no IFF being broadcast, so a Kanyak like that could easily look like a Von ship. Of course, every Kanyak in this part of the galaxy would have the right transmitter installed to avoid that kind of difficulty. That, however, was not something Marix felt needed to be relayed. Besides, the help she needed was given and there was no further use to staying where she was aboard the Errant Venture.

“Tell him I appreciate the help,” Marix was talking while her mind was working out a plan, “If he ever needs anything...if you need anything, Corran, use that comlink in your left jacket pocket.”

With another small nod, she then turned and walked to Loki’s access hatch. After manually opening it, she headed in and made her way to the cockpit. [Loki is damaged, Varis, but I am on my way to you. I’ll provide cover for you to get yourself and my son out of the system alive.]

[Yes, my lady.] Varis was intelligent enough not to argue with his superior, especially when it was his Empress speaking the orders. [I am plotting a course for the Gateway as we speak and should be able to make the jump as soon as Horus is out of the system’s gravity well.]

Dropping down into the pilot’s chair and starting up the Loki’s systems as carefully as she could, Marix shook her head. [No. The other you picked up should be a Jedi Master. Let him provide your destination.]

As Loki began to gently lift off of the hangar deck and spin around to exit the Star Destroyer, Marix realized that in only a few minutes she’d done two things very out of character for herself. Not only had she given Corran Horn a comlink specifically connected to Loki’s unique comm frequency, but she’d also just told a Knight to listen to a Jedi Master.

If Jyren could see her now...gods, he probably wouldn’t even recognize her covered in all this blue gunk! Marix made a note to take a good long shower the second she had a free moment. But a free moment wasn’t likely to come soon. She was about to fly her unconscious ship right into a Yuuzhan Vong fleet. After she managed to survive that and got Loki to hyperspace, there was a Vong to question locked in one of the small rooms towards the rear of the ship. And then...well...something would probably come up after that.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 562: Survivors

“The Vong call them Vagh Rodiek,” Obrack Loro explained, his gravely voice an amazingly comforting sound for Adria. Just seeing him alive was wonderful enough, but to hear him talk and actually prove that it wasn’t a hallucination was even better. Of course, the situation didn’t exactly match that happy sentiment.

They were within the small building that Adria had seen from a distance. It was an old farm home, apparently. Two small, barely furnished rooms and strong walls. The latter was the important part, as it was a good, safe place to hide from the Vong and those Vagh Rodiek monsters. Though it was out in the open in the fields of red grass, an easy target. That was bothering Adria, but the others all seemed to be confident in their safety.

The others were the same group that had killed the two Vagh Rodiek that had nearly ended Adria’s life. An older human who claimed to be from Alderaan, a younger human with a Corellian accent, five different Rodians, all armed to the snout, and Loro, the lone Mon Calamari of the group.

One of the Rodians tilted his head and then waved a long-fingered hand in the air as he spoke in the distinct nasally voice that all of his species seemed to have, “The Vong shape our people. Alter the genetic code and combine it with their own beasts. They make these Vagh Rodiek from our clan mates, human. The monsters once like us.”

That was a terrifying thought, but it made sense. Beyond the crab legs and huge scythe-like arms was the upper body of a Rodian, though it was armoured and the usually soft spines on the back of their skulls were altered into vicious looking spikes. By this point in the war, it was well known that the Yuuzhan Vong were experts in genetics. It was how they bred and created all of their technology. But the very idea of them ‘shaping’ an existing species into a monster like those things outside...? That was something new.

But there was something else bothering her, and Adria brushed a strand of her red hair out of her eye before looking across the table to Loro, “I still don’t understand all of this. How did you survive? How did you end up here? All of you! Blast it, why do the Vong just let you live out here in this little house right out in the open? It doesn’t make sense!”

“We are prey for their monsters,” it was the Rodian, leaning against the far wall, who answered one of the questions. He then motioned to the four other Rodians standing next to him, “We were on hunt together. My brother, nephew, and two sons. It was the first hunt for my youngest, but Vong found us. We wake in field not far from here, see Rodia in the sky above and know we were moved up here but not why. Then monsters come. Had no weapons anymore, so we ran. Found this building and two humans. They help us and use blasters to bring down beasts.”

The older human, sitting at the head of the table to Adria’s left, nodded, “Same for us. My nephew and I were transporting medical supplies and our ship was caught in an ambush. But the Vong didn’t kill us for some reason. Found ourselves here and when we saw ‘skips flying overhead we went for cover. Found this place and it was pretty damn well filled with blasters and rations. Even rigged me up an old comm device to send a distress signal on an Old Republic frequency.”

A hint of a smile tugged at Adria’s features, “My commander picked that signal up while we were scouting the system.”

“What happened?” it was Loro that asked, and there was an obvious concern in his voice, “We saw a few trails of fire in the sky an hour or so back but figured it was just the Vong.”

The smile on Adria’s face was gone after that sentence and she couldn’t help a sigh, “We were ambushed. This moon was housing more Coralskippers than I’ve ever seen. A few of the squadron got out of system but when it was clear the rest of us were just going to die if we kept flying in circles up there, the Commodore ordered us down here. Said he picked up your signal, too. It was a rough landing...Rea’s back a couple kilometers with him and another two of our rooks. He’s lucky to be alive...barely survived the ride down.”

Loro’s mouth opened and then closed a few times. He wasn’t at a loss for words, rather taking in the moisture in the air as best he could. After a few moments, he spoke up again, “Seems rash for the Commodore.”

Adria nodded, but then realized something, “It was that or die. At least down here we had a chance to survive. That and he said he had a feeling like there was something important down here.”

“Your commander smart,” the Rodian cut in again, “This more than test moon for Vagh Rodiek. Vong Shapers create their monsters on this moon. Shapers set up camp north of here.”

Shaking his large, red-orange head, Loro looked over his shoulder to the green-skinned Rodian, “Eettair, there are nine of us right now. If we can get to my old commander that adds only three more since he’s injured and likely not up for a fight.”

“One more,” Adria corrected, “The two rooks are in pretty bad shape, too.”

“Right,” Loro nodded, then turned back to Eettair, “That’s still nine against all of those Shapers, at least three dozen warriors, and who knows how many more of those Vagh Rodiek. We don’t stand a chance.”

Eettair shook his head, “Ten.”

“Nine,” this time, Loro’s voice carried a weight to it, “We aren’t leaving three injured people without protection.”

“Rather find a way to hit those damned Vong than keep hiding in this place while they have time to make more of those things to throw at us,” finally, the young human spoke. He was standing behind Adria, cleaning an older model blaster rifle.

The older human shook his head, looking past Adria to the young man, “Just ‘cause you can shook a blaster doesn’t mean you can fight a horde of Vong warriors, Val. I ain’t seeing you dead, either. Your mother would kill me if I came back without ya.”

The young man was about to speak up when Loro put an end to the dissent by standing up loudly and saying, “Its not important right now. We have people not far from here that are injured and need to get here for safety. Lets get them to safety and we can worry about what we do next after.”

There was an annoyed sound from behind Adria, but it was obvious that Val wasn’t arguing. The older man was getting to his feet, too. Even the Rodians were retrieving blasters, though as Adria got to her feet, she noticed that Eettair hadn’t moved.

When Loro noticed this too, the Rodai started to speak before he could get yelled at, “We go north to Vong. Four enough to bring back injured. It been more than a week since we last see Vong base.”

“So now its five against an army?” obviously annoying, Loro pointed a finger, as best as a Mon Calamari could considering his hands were fins, at the Rodian, “Getting yourselves killed isn’t going to do any of us any good at all.”

Eettair shook his head, “We no fight. First part of hunt is scouting. Fish no understand hunt, but I forgive. We check perimeter, get numbers on Vong defense, then return to plan attack.”

Letting out a heavy, slightly gurgled sigh, Loro threw his hands in the air, “We aren’t attacking that base, dammit! But fine! Go! But you’re on your own, all of you. If we actually find a way off this rock, we aren’t waiting for your green backsides.”

The snort that Eettair made was more like a low pitched screech, “We no wait for you either, fish.”

With that, the Rodians left.

Adria looked to the two other humans and then shot a raised eyebrow to Loro, “We’re all friendly, aren’t we?”

“They’re irrational,” Loro explained as he picked up a blaster rifle off of the table and checked its power pack, “Every time they see those Vagh Rodiek beasts they just want to take it straight to the Vong.”

With a shrug, Adria decided to check her own blaster, which was the standard-issue, mostly useless pistol all the pilots had, “Can’t say I blame them.”

Holding his blaster in two hands, Loro motioned towards the door, “Lead the way, Harken. But keep your eyes and ears open. Those monsters are quiet as a damned stealth ship until they’re nearly on you.”