Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[AKM]

I miss it and so very much more.

I'm glad, in an odd way, it has the same effect for you.

Sure, let's start a fight over who misses it more

These days I RP in the Old West and Doctor Who, funny eh? And the last Star Wars character I made was in... 2005 I think, and so totally different.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Sure, let's start a fight over who misses it more

Pfft, its not worth it. We already know I'd win!

These days I RP in the Old West and Doctor Who, funny eh? And the last Star Wars character I made was in... 2005 I think, and so totally different.

I still dabble around, myself. Even starting a new Star Wars game here on the boards tonight, hopefully. But being in art school has, sadly, taken away a lot of the time I'd like to have for other things. One of those things being updating this nightly.

 

[AKM]

Art school, fun. These days I'm totally out of Star Wars, kind of funny. But then again, I got to use my own species for The Doctor. And the Wild West, oh yeah, baby! Guns, dead people, bar fights, horses, prostitutes, indians, etc... And one of my characters is one hell of a racist... and... his name is Vandervoort. Fear!

Tell me, why are we using this when we're both on AIM? Oi!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 581: Chasing Ghosts

It had taken nearly half an hour, but the overly excited twins eventually were convinced to play quietly while Marix spoke with the four Jendari, all of whom had simply sat quietly with serene looks on their avian features without saying a word. They seemed content to allow Marix to have some time with her children, and the twins didn’t even seem to notice. They were also far more talkative than she remember, especially Andrea, though she still kept to Alraxian. That was interesting in itself. Saraan would rapidly explain one of their little adventures speaking in somewhat broken Basic with Andrea cutting in and adding to it with little details in Alraxian.

But, finally, Marix had convinced them that yes, they could stay during the meeting as long as they were quiet. So now they sat on the large table just off to Marix’s left, doing their best to be quiet and still play whatever game they were playing with their handful of toys that the Jendari had brought along with them.

With the twins occupied, Marix explained the situation. She kept a very business-like tone and simply reported to them everything that she had learned from Qroal, followed by the information provided by the interrogation. Truthfully, it felt pointless to explain, as Marix half-expected that the Jendari already all of it...and probably more, actually. But they wouldn’t tell her unless she asked even if they did know, so Marix considered her half-hour long briefing as more of a half-hour long question.

When she had finished speaking, she did, in fact, ask a question.

“What do you think?”

All four Jendari watched her carefully for a moment. They were all built about the same, short compared to an Alraxian, frail-looking but with eyes beneath their feather-like hair that could see through any and every thing. Marix could see nothing in those eyes, and they were all closed to the Force beyond a simple feeling of serenity that nearly every Jendari was surrounded by. Eventually, though, the Jendari on the far left with slightly a green colouration to her feathers, answered the question, “I believe your assumption is correct. With what little we know of the Yuuzhan Vong, it would seem that an Alraxian’s ability to morph would be ideal for integrating into their technology.”

“But it is still an assumption,” the Jendari on the right spoke up, showing an interesting disagreement that immediately grabbed Marix’s attention, “There is the possibility that what they want something we do not understand. There is still far too much unknown about them.”

“And the captive could simply be lying to cloud their motives even more,” a third Jendari added.

Then, not missing a beat, the Jendari in the center, who Marix recognized as Lir, one of the older Jendari who was a part of the Council, looked Marix directly in the eye and put out one more possibility, “It is also possible, my lady, that the Knights we have lost contact with are, quite simply, dead.”

Something about that bothered Marix and she wasn’t sure why. She only had a short few moments to think on it, though, before the third Jendari to speak up, to Lir’s right, said softly, “You didn’t even consider that, did you?”

She hadn’t.

The second there had been the possibility of those Knights being alive, even if they were captives of the Vong and being tortured or whatever the Vong did, Marix latched onto that as true. It made sense. The Knights were alive because the Vong needed something from them. They weren’t dead, thousands of light years from their home and everyone that they cared about. They were alive...waiting for Marix to find them. Surviving against all odds because they were Knights, because they had volunteered for their missions into the war zone to protect their people, and because when they got back they would have more information that could be used to protect the Empire. They wouldn’t be dead...no...

And then, right then, Marix knew exactly why she hadn’t considered the possibility of the Knights being dead. She knew, and it terrified her, and so she lied, “I don’t know why I didn’t...”

The Jendari were not stupid. They were just as aware as she was. They did not, however, call her on the obvious lie. Before any of them said anything else, however, all four Jendari glanced to the two young children playing on a table and seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on right over their heads...literally. But then they all looked back to Marix, and Lir’s voice lowered to just above a whisper, “If there are Knights out there, alive and captives of the Yuuzhan Vong, then he could be there, too.”

That was exactly the thought that had come to Marix’s mind moments earlier. It took Marix a moment to realize that Lir was stating that as why she wanted the Knights to be alive, and very definitely not as something he believed to be true. It was a dose of reality that she rarely needed, and that fact bothered her more than the thought had. It just kept coming back...

“If the Knights are alive, though, I can’t leave them out there,” Marix did her best to remain rational.

To her surprise, Lir nodded, “It is too much of a risk to ignore.”

“But...” she said the word that Lir had left off at the end. It wasn’t as if Marix didn’t know what he would say, but she was being careful, as the Jendari were, with what they said with the twins in earshot. They were young, but certain things didn’t need to be mentioned around them without careful innuendo and not-so-subtle hinting.

“Looking for lost Knights is one thing, my lady,” Lir said softly, then his feathers rippled slightly before he added, “But looking for ghosts is something else, entirely.”

He was right, of course.

Marix was finding herself doing exactly what she’d always been angry with Jyren for.

The irony of that thought did nothing but make it all worse, too.

After shaking her head, Marix looked down at Andrea, playing with a little Kanyak-toy, then said to the Jendari, “I cannot send someone else.”

“Then you must be aware of more than just the Yuuzhan Vong.”

But Marix wasn’t really paying attention to the Jendari anymore. Andrea had turned to look over her shoulder and, through that mess of hair that looked so much like Marix, was staring right back at her. There was a very serious look in those big eyes as Andrea looked up at her mother. And looking back, Marix realized a terrible thing. Her little girl understood every word of what they were saying over her head. She wasn’t playing, she was listening, trying to find out how long she would have with her mother before Marix ran off again.

It was one of those times that Marix truly needed Jyren to be around. He understood how to be around children, what to say and do...and she...Marix just stared back, wishing she could find some words to comfort her daughter but unable to do anything but gently stroke the girl’s hair. One day, she would be a strong Empress...but Marix truly hoped that Andrea would forgive her for being such a terrible mother.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 582: A New World

While Coruscant was a truly amazing planet, Tobias was glad to be away from it. He could only handle so much of the endless city and the millions of speeders and ships and the fake trees before he just felt uncomfortable. Visiting the planet for a short time was alright, though, and as he and Master Ral left the planet, Tobias couldn’t help but wonder when he would get to see the surface of it again.

But it was gone now, lightyears behind them.

Now, Tobias stood on a world far removed from both Coruscant and Alraxia. There was no endless city and there was also no green. All around Tobias were browns and tans and other muted tones that seemed almost as alien to him as the metals of Coruscant had. There were buildings, but they were the same colours, blending into the environment as if they were simply a part of it and had always been rather than structures build to hold back the planet’s natural forces.

Before standing there, his boots in the sand that was apparently a street, Tobias had only ever known Tatooine as the place Luke Skywalker had grown up. But everyone seemed to know that, especially Jedi. Beyond that, however, Tobias knew nothing at all. In the few short minutes that Tobias had been on the planet, he had learned a surprising amount about it. The first, and most obvious beyond the colours, was the fact that it was hot. Not just any kind of heat, either...Tobias was Alraxian, and he liked heat, but this was a dry heat. Alraxia was humid and there was water in the air and even as a human Tobias felt comfortable in it. But this desert planet was just simply hot...hot, and so dry that already Tobias felt uncomfortable.

Beyond that, what Tobias learned about Tatooine came from Master Ral. With Hutt Space lost, it was the desert planet, far behind the lines of battle, that the remaining Hutts had set up a home. They were everywhere, Hutts of all sizes and ages. And with them were just as many species as Tobias had seen on Coruscant, if not more. In fact, there was no direct sign of the Vong on the planet, no feeling of the their threatening presence in the galaxy. It almost seemed like everyone walking the streets of the old Imperial captial of Bestine didn’t even know about the invasion.

But the Yuuzhan Vong was why he and Master Ral were there.

According to Master Ral, three Jedi had disappeared on Tatooine within the last two weeks. Two of them had been working together, a husband and wife actually there to talk the Hutts into helping in the war effort. They had, of course, failed as they Hutts had instead threatened to turn them over to the Vong. But then something had happened, and the two Jedi Knights had simply dropped off of the surface of the planet. That is, until another Jedi Knight was sent to investigate and found them dead. They had not been killed by the Hutts, but by something else. The report had been that it reminded the Jedi Knight of an amphistaff wound, but larger and much more gruesome.

And then he, too, disappeared.

That had been two days prior.

Now Tobias stood with Master Ral in the streets of Bestine, the very city that all three Jedi Knights had last reported back from. It was unnerving, to say the least. But there was something fighting that in Tobias. He knew that he wouldn’t be on the planet in such an obviously dangerous situation where they knew so little about what was happening if Master Ral didn’t believe he could handle it. Where before, Tobias had felt like he was simply tagging along wherever his master went, this felt different. For the first time, it truly felt like he was there because Master Ral saw him as more than just a student.

“I still do not understand why you insist on wearing that jacket,” Master Ral spoke in his usual serene tone, but there was a hint of a joke in that. It was an odd thing to hear, but Tobias had noticed more and more slight changes like that from Master Ral over the last few days.

Tobias smiled and looked to the Jedi Master. The Omwati was wearing something akin to the classic Jedi robes, though they were trimmed a bit shorter to accommodate a bit more easy of movement and also likely meant to keep him a bit cooler. Tobias also wondered if it had something to do with making him look less like a Jedi, as even Master Ral’s lightsaber was hidden from view. Glancing then to the jacket he wore, Tobias shrugged, “Its comfortable.”

And it reminds me of Jyren.

He didn’t say the last part. In fact, he didn’t really even think it. But it was there, in the back of his head. Tobias was becoming more and more his own person as every day went by, but some things didn’t change. In some way, Tobias would always want to be just like his father. That, and it was comfortable, of course.

Master Ral seemed to accept that answer and idly looked off down the street to their left. A speeder was coming by, an older model one with a closed top and that had, at one time, probably been black rather than grey and lacking in paint. After a few moments of just looking off into that direction as the planet’s twin suns sat high above in the sky, the Omwati turned back to Tobias, “Barrin’s last communication put him here in Bestine, on the south side of the city.”

“This is a city...?” Tobias couldn’t help the question, as it was bothering him. Even the Palace on Alraxia looked more like a city than these huts.

A slight smile formed at the corner of Master Ral’s long features and he nodded once, but went on, “It is possible the Hutts will help us if only to remove themselves from suspicion, though I believe we would be better served looking into this ourselves before we reach out to others.”

Tobias found himself watching some wait-high robed creatures babbling on in some odd language to one another as they walked past. Somehow, though, he kept his main attention on Master Ral’s words, “Why not take the help if we can get it?”

“Three Jedi have been killed already, Tobias. At this point, we cannot risk drawing attention to ourselves as ones looking into the deaths of those Jedi,” Master Ral finished that sentence, waited a beat, then started walking without any word at all.

Out of habit, Tobias easily fell into step next to his Master, knowing that there was a reason he decided to start walking then, “Do you really think this is connected to that new Vong creature you heard about?”

There was something surprisingly worrying in the fact that Master Ral did not immediately respond to that. He was thinking, of course, and also taking in everything around them just as Tobias was trying to do. But then, when Master Ral finally did speak, it ended up worrying Tobias even more than the silence had, “It does fit the profile of the other reports...but I suspect we shall find out for ourselves.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 583: Inevitability

Eventually, everything died.

It was a basic fact of the universe that most living things did their best to put in the back of their minds. But it was always there, unable to be ignored just as life itself could not be ignored. For many beings, what happened after death was vitally important to coping with the inevitability of it, including the Jedi. But sometimes, in the moments when it was so clearly there and unable to be ignored at all, it was impossible to look beyond it to what, if anything, came after. And in that kind of situation, most living beings did everything in their power to avoid it.

It was fear, of course. Fear of the unknown. Fear of death itself or just of pain. Fear of almost everything, but fear. It had driven many Jedi into darkness, that fear. It was the most primal emotion most living beings were capable of, as they were meant to live. But fear could be overcome, but Jedi and by non-Jedi. And in those moments when it was overcome, that was when those terrified beings could actually find a way to put off the inevitable just a little longer.

Once again, the crates over the hatch on the roof of that single building on Rodia’s moon shook violently. The Vong warriors were strong, and it wasn’t going to hold them much longer. Rea, Adria, Loro, and the remaining Rodians watched that corner of the roof carefully, blasters at the ready. New Republic fighters were still flying overhead, dogfighting with the almost countless numbers of Coralskippers in the air. Some managed to strafe the red-grass fields here and there, clearing out the remains of the Chazrach that had been feebly attempting to reach them. Now it was just those dozen Yuuzhan Vong warriors below, ready to break through and slaughter everyone on that roof before the rescue ships above were able to land.

And staring at that makeshift barricade that would probably only hold for a few more short moments, all of them saw death. Between them, they only had enough power in their blasters for a handful of shots. Not enough to kill the Vong warriors thanks to their extremely effective vonduun crab armour. The shots had to be well placed, and there wouldn’t be time. They could kill the first, probably, a simple shot to the head as it got through the door. But after that they would all come through quickly, amphistaves at the ready to slaughter them.

It was a terrifying thing to confront, but all of them knew it. Even the youngest of the Rodians who had convinced himself he was invulnerable suddenly understood the weight of his situation. He would not survive this year. He would not complete the Hunt. He would never be a full member of what was left of his Clan. And it scared him. It terrified all of them. But every single one of them was ready to face it, eyes open and ready for it.

But then one of them moved beyond their fear into something else.

Hope.

“We could jump.”

Rea turned to look at Adria next to her, “Jump?!”

The red-haired human woman nodded at the edge of the roof behind her, “Its what? About ten, twelve meter drop? A little more? We could survive that.”

“Wounded cannot jump...” surprisingly, it was the youngest of the Rodians, the green-skinned one with splotches on his face, that spoke that in his nasally voice.

Hope was starting to catch.

Loro shifted from his kneeling position to move over to where Commodore Nok’s unconscious form was, “We carry them and jump. No way we can leave them here.”

“Have you all gone mad?” Rea looked from Loro to Adria and then to the Rodians, who were getting to their feet and finding ways to help Loro carry the couple other wounded that were left.

Adria spun around and then did something that could have been stupid. She looked over the edge of the roof. Just minutes earlier, that would have meant a razor bug through her face, but not now. The Chazrach were no longer down there. She could see the red grass and bodies...so many bodies. Some slain by blaster fire, others by the starfighter strafing runs, and the rest by the group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors that were now about to get through to the roof.

Looking back to Rea, Adria spoke quickly, “We just need a few more minutes and those shuttles will be here but we don’t have that if we stay up here!”

“But—“ Rea stopped herself, seeing Loro starting to pick up the Commodore. One of her arms shot out, grabbing the Mon Calamari’s wrist firmly, “Don’t move him like that! You can’t! He’s already in bad shape!”

Swiftly but gently, Loro removed her hand and went back to the Commodore anyway, “If we stay here he’ll be dead. We’ll all be dead. Adria is right.”

They had all gone mad. All of them were bruised, bleeding, and hurt and they were going to jump from the roof to the hard ground below, a couple of them carrying unconscious wounded over their shoulders in the process. Rea watched one of the crates over the roof access fall move from another powerful push against the door. She then looked to both of her sides to see all of the others on their feet and looking over the edge...except for Adria.

The human woman reached a hand down to help Rea to her feet, “We’ve made it this far, Rea. You and me. We’ve survived and we’ve kept the Commodore alive. But we can’t stay up here and keep that up. This is the only option we have.”

“Unless you want to die,” one of the Rodian’s quipped, unhelpfully.

And then the Rodians jumped. Rea heard thuds and groans as they landed, but they were amazingly silent for what had to be a very painful fall. Loro gave the two females one quick look before taking in a deep breath and jumping, too.

“I’m not going until you do,” Adria’s hand was right there in front of Rea’s face. She was serious. This normally arrogant woman would stand there and die if Rea didn’t go. It didn’t really make sense, but then again, humans rarely did.

Rea grabbed her fellow pilot’s arm and was pulled to her feet in one swift tug. She stood there a moment, then said flatly, “You’re mad.”

And suddenly Adria grinned. But it was only there for a moment, because she turned and jumped. Rea watched the human woman drop and roll, though it was very ungraceful and it looked from the sound of it Adria broke a bone or two...but she did live, and even started to get to her feet, beginning to hobble away just like the others were somehow managing.

Without a look back, Rea threw reason away and jumped. Freefall like that was something she should have seen as normal, being a pilot. But there was no protection, no control...just a fall. A fall that ended very abruptly and very roughly. She hadn’t thought to roll until it was forced on her, landing on one leg which immediately was wracked with pain before buckling under her and causing Rea’s side to slam into the ground next. She rolled beneath the meter high grass for a confusing few moments before stopping face down in the dirt.

Her mind was registering a pain, but somehow it was dulled and distant. Adrenaline was flowing and she could hear Adria cursing not far away. She had to get up. She had to move. The Vong would know soon and they’d come after them. Everything still a blur, Rea pushed herself to her feet. Or at least, she tried to. Her right leg couldn’t support any weight, and a quick glance it showed that it was bent at a very unhealthy angle. Her tunic was frayed, too, with a slightly numb feeling extending across most of her right side.

Suddenly a hand grabbed her left side, long fingers and thin but strong enough to yank her up and then help her to move. It was one of the Rodians, getting an arm around her to help, “Come on, Twi’lek!”

They ran as best they could. But it wasn’t running, as much as feeble hobbling through tall grass to...no where in particular. And then, barely a twenty odd meters from the building, they all heard it. It was an angry cry of rage that didn’t need to be in Basic to be understood. Rea looked over her shoulder to see the Yuuzhan Vong looked back at them from the roof. One of them pointed, and then they, too, jumped. She didn’t seem them land, but something told her that they wouldn’t have the problems that Rea and the others had. That would have lined up just right with the rest of the day...and the war, even.

From ahead of them, but out of sight due to the tall grass, Loro called back in his gravely voice, though it sounded strained at the same time, “I think they see us! Keep it up! Come on!”

And then Rea heard the distinct voice of one of the Rodians yelling, “Shuttle’s down ahead! Move!”

But behind, the Vong could be heard. They didn’t speak, but Rea could hear them moving. Heavy footsteps hitting the ground and the grass behind them rustling as the Vong warriors got closer and closer.

“Faster!” the Rodian helping her tried to speed up, but Rea couldn’t keep up. In an attempt to do so, she let her injured leg try to take some of her weight and actually run rather than hopping along. But under her weight, Rea’s leg gave out and this time she found herself unable to ignore the pain. She slipped, yelped in pain, and then fell. The Rodian reacted by letting go of her. In that terrible moment when Rea hit the ground, she was able to see the Rodian look down at her, but he didn’t stop...he kept running.

They all kept running except for one Twi’lek.

For a short few moments after jumping from that roof, Rea had stopped being afraid and felt that same hope that they’d survive. There was even a ship now, on the ground somewhere ahead of her that she hadn’t seen land...but it was there. There ready to take them off the terrible moon. All of them except her. But she wasn’t afraid anymore. The Vong were right there. There was nothing she could do anymore.

And so in that half-second of clarity, Rea’tin Lor knew that it was over. But despite that, she also knew that the Commodore and the others would make it. And that...that made it all worthwhile.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 584: Deep Orbit

Distant orbit of a star system was an interesting form of camouflage. Usually it meant powering down most systems and dropping into an orbit typical of an asteroid in a somewhat erratic orbit. There was, of course, a great deal of care required in this, and at least a little bit of insanity needed to think that a ship could be mistaken for an asteroid...or at least ignored like one.

It rarely worked.

Rarely, of course, meant that sometimes it did.

The trick to it had nothing to do with those attempting it...rather, it was all in the hope that someone wouldn’t notice. For a metal ship, it could work. Most ships were composites, of course, but distant scans could read a ship as just a floating metal object. If no one bothered to look closer, then all was well and it worked. But organic ships had another difficulty on top of everything else...asteroids weren’t normally composed of non-metals. It was an immediate tip off to something odd, though, again, it took someone paying a little more attention than a cursory scan.

But then again, sometimes even that might not seem odd. It was possible that the Yuuzhan Vong might just ignore organic floating objects as space debris, usually the second guess of a not-so-attentive scanning officer of a ship after an asteroid. And besides that, the Yuuzhan Vong were from another galaxy. Who were they to say what was normal and not in this one? It was worth a try, at least...

And, for four standard days, it had worked.

“So what do you think?” Marix asked as she peered through the viewport and at the small globe of a star. There were dots, too. Planets. Colour could even be seen in them, though it took some careful peering at their current distance.

[I think they’re thick. Orbit right past the fifth planet and they didn’t even bat an eye. Bet we could do it again and they’d still miss us.] somehow, even though it was just a mental voice and not a real sound, Hermes sounded different than Loki. They were brothers, and there was a definite similarity in the way they both ‘spoke’, but where Loki could shift from sarcasm to serious, it seemed that Hermes only had the ability to be sarcastic. Well, sometimes he had a good-natured humour about him but there was always the sarcasm. It was why he had been the perfect match for Kyren: a foil to such a serious personality. And then Jyren, too, actually succeeding at sarcasm and general wit where Jyren tried far too hard and usually fell short.

Marix, however, just tried her best not to be annoyed by it. Hermes seemed to at least tone it down a bit when she was around, so the last week had actually been bearable. They had not discussed Loki at all except for the first hyperspace jump, and even then it had been short. Neither of them really wanted to think about Loki’s condition, even if they had been consistently assured that, by the time they got back, he’d be on his feet again, as it were. The saying only made things more frustrating, though, since Loki didn’t actually have feet.

Shifting slightly in the single chair within Hermes’ cockpit, Marix let her head rest against the curved headrest that Jyren had talked Hermes into going with. The chair was bigger than Loki’s, too, a more comfortable size for Jyren. Apparently Alyx hadn’t bothered to ask Hermes to change any of those little details, if he’d even thought about it. Marix sure wasn’t going to say a thing about it, “Nothing new?”

[Not since that flotilla left a couple of hours back.] Hermes sounded bored. [Too far out to get a good look at the planet, though.]

Idly, Marix patted the side of the seat, “Six more hours and we’ll be right in the middle of it again. Get one more good look at that big ship and then we can decide what to do.”

[And by ‘we’, you mean ‘you’. Or ‘me’, I guess. Pick a pronoun, you know what I mean.]

“You really do babble.”

A slight laugh sounded in her mind. [What else do you expect me to do? Just out here floating like a rock and staring at some star system I’ve never heard of looking for something you’ve only vaguely described to me. Even then, it was an idea and not an object. Its amazing anyone can put up with you for more than a day.]

“I’ve heard the same said about you,” Marix forced a smile on her face, at least a slight one. He hadn’t said ‘Loki’ he’d said ‘anyone’. It was deliberate, and they’d both been doing it for days. Sadly, though, it seemed that just not speaking the name didn’t mean they couldn’t stop thinking it. Not that they stopped the practice. It had to work eventually. Marix then decided to change the subject to something more practical, “Can you give me a view of the planet again?”

[Your friendly, babbling telescope obeys, my lady.]

In front of her, just over the viewport, an image appeared. At first, it was just a zoomed in image of the system’s single, boring little star. But then it shifted to the right until a green dot came into view, then again zoomed in until the dot was a planet. There were greens and blues and the whites of clouds obscuring much of it, but that was about the extent of the detail. Currently, Hermes was at the peak of his orbit, so far out from the rest of the system that it was amazing he could bring the planet into that clear a view at all.

Myrkr was a planet ignored by the galaxy for much of history. It sat in the Inner Rim, a planet covered in forests, jungles, and very unique wildlife that all used the Force to their advantage in some way. Through most of history, it was just a haven for smugglers and such. A nice place where no one bothered to look partly due to the natural wildlife and partly due to the fact that it was just considered a rather backwater world without any real civilization of any kind. In recent years it had been a blip on the galactic scene again, but nothing more. And now the Vong had it.

As she thought about them, Marix saw the obvious presence of the Vong gently orbiting around the planet come into view. At first glance, the object looked like a galaxy orbiting Myrkr. It was a spiral shaped object with those long arms so easily associated with galactic formations, but it was not composed of stars and dust. It was ship, and it was solid. It was one of the Yuuzhan Vong’s Worldships, their namesake being enough to describe them perfectly.

On their orbit through the system itself, both Marix and Hermes had spent a great deal of time examining the ship from a distance. It was over a hundred kilometers long, with protrusions on both hemispheres of its spiral shape that looked like typical Vong weaponry. Smaller cruisers and ships docked with the long, spiral arms for short periods of time before detaching and flying off to wherever they were going. It was an amazing sight, really. A world orbiting a world.

And something else, too.

Upon leaving the Gateway to look for the lost Knights, Marix had done the logical thing and picked one to follow. She plotted a course to her last known location and then went from there based on the Force and instinct. Marix and Hermes had ended up in a rather empty part of space just outside the Mid Rim and had sat there for a day while Marix thought and felt it out. The Knight had last reported from that location, though she’d undoubtedly gone somewhere else before her disappearance. It was a matter of finding where.

Through the wonderfully vague guidance of the Force, they had reached Myrkr. For a short moment upon entering the system, Marix felt a presence in the Force, distant but there and in pain. At that point, she knew they’d found what they were looking for. Seeing the worldship just solidified that. It also, however, presented a problem that had caused the four day orbiting and observation they were now involved in. Was the feeling from the planet below or the worldship?

Both would be difficult to reach, but the former was much more accessible than the latter. Marix wasn’t ready to barge into a Vong worldship just yet. It would take something drastic for her to go that far, and even then, likely something along the lines of the twins being on said worldship. That was about the only thing that could cause such a stupid action. Still, something about the planet was drawing her. It was hard to pinpoint, but it was important. They needed to get down there and have a look around.

“In my experience, the Vong aren’t fools,” Marix mumbled the words, but it was obvious to Hermes that she was speaking to him, “They have to have seen us and they’ve got to be watching us now. But lets ignore the whys on that for now. Lets also ignore your analysis of them as ‘thick’.”

At that, Hermes had to cut in. [That’s a tough one to ignore...]

Not about to dignify that with a response, Marix continued her slow approach to an important question, “I need the truth here, Hermes. Can you get us onto Myrkr’s surface without that thing noticing?”

For the first time, Hermes did not immediately respond. He obviously took a moment to think, then answered in a surprisingly serious way. [If I’ve calculated our orbit just right, we’ll swing around and reach a point where that worldship will be on the opposite end of Myrkr from us. We’ll be just past the fifth planet’s orbit when that happens, so we’ll have to make a run for it to get in that window in time....but yes, I think I can do it.]

“What about other ships? They aren’t stupid, Hermes, they’re not just watching one side of the planet,” Marix was covering every option. This wasn’t the kind of situation to have to improvise unless all hell broke loose, and even then, it would be improvising a way to the nearest hyperspace route.

[I’ve been watching that, actually.] Hermes was somehow keeping to business like she’d never believed. [All the Vong ships just head right for that big one and then leave. We’re pretty far behind the front line so I doubt they’re too worried. No one’s dumb enough to be this far out, anyway, right? Exactly. Course, only problem is if they are paying even the slightest bit of attention, they’ll notice when we’re not orbiting anymore...]

At that, Marix shrugged, “Can’t avoid that. You’ll just have to get us down and hidden quickly. Use that unrivaled speed you’re always bragging about along with your unmatched intelligence that Alyx said you claimed to be a holder of in the last few months.”

[Yes, well, I prefer not to brag.]

“I prefer the same,” Marix gently kicked the underside of the control consoles, “So you damn well better be able to do it. Otherwise you’re going down in history as Hermes the Slow and Thick.”

The feeling of a smile passed into Marix’s mind. [Well, we can’t have that, can we? Just remember, Hermes is spelled in all big letters that you can see from orbit. Don’t let them forget that part. And I’d like some music at my monument, too. Something fast with a good beat.]

Marix rolled her eyes, “If you keep this up for the next six hours I’ll build special little cave for you when we get back. It’ll be nice and private and sealed deep underground so no one can hear you claiming to be Hermes, Master of the Great Below.”

[That does have a ring to it...]

Marix just sighed.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 585: What to Say

If there was one positive thing Tobias could come up with about Tatooine, it was that he was human while there. If he’d been an Alraxian, the dry heat would have driven him insane and all the sand getting everywhere would have likely pushed him to murder. Then the smell. Oh, the smells. Bestine was supposed to be the capital of the planet, but it smelled like a slum and that with a human nose, too.

It had been a half hour since he and Master Ral had gone different directions. Tobias couldn’t help but cherish the freedom he was being granted, but he also knew how much else was being placed there along with it. Master Ral trusted him now, and he wasn’t about to go screwing that up. Or at least, he didn’t plan to.

How things were planned and how they really happened seemed to always be polar opposites.

“I didn’t say anything!” Tobias raised his hands in defense, trying to back away but finding a rather large, three-eyed Gran standing in his way.

“Exactly,” the Gran spoke the word in heavily accented Basic, but with a deep, angry voice that caused Tobias to take a very large step forward now that he knew that thing was behind him.

Of course, this put him face to face with the Gamorrean and wrinkly-skinned Weequay that had been the initial problem. The Gamorrean’s tiny eyes narrowed and he bellowed something while pointed a pudgy finger at Tobias. The Weequay nodded, then translated in an appropriately angry voice, “That problem. Not like nosey strangers that poke around and disappear next moment. Too many human steal from us like that.”

There was a grunt of acknowledgment from the Gran, which made Tobias look over his shoulder for a brief moment. At least none of them were armed...that he could see. Still, though, he tried to remain calm. Try being the operative word, as even someone with a loose grip on Basic could hear how nervous he was, “I was just looking for a friend of mine! I wondered if you’d seen him!”

The Gamorrean made a few guttural sounds, then the Weequay said, “You think you take our money then? Price on your friend’s head! No help you find what’s ours.”

It didn’t help that they couldn’t seem to stick to a story. Tobias had just been asking people if they’d seen one of the Jedi that had gone missing, claiming to be a family friend and concerned about his well being. Most of the people had at least tried to be helpful, thinking about it but then shrugging and apologizing because they didn’t recognize the description. But these two...well, three apparently, had immediately taken offence. Tobias was beginning to think they just wanted to pick a fight.

“I don’t want any money!” if he was smart, Tobias would have been using the Force to calm down the three around him. A crowd was developing, though, obviously to see if anything interesting happened. That, combined with his surprise at how antagonistic the trio was made it difficult for Tobias to concentrate at all on anything but figuring out what, if anything, he’d actually done wrong. The worst part was that he had trouble accepting that he hadn’t done anything wrong, which meant Tobias just kept digging himself deeper into a whole, “I didn’t know there was a price on his head! I was just worried about him so I came looking and—“

”He Jedi, too,” the Gran spoke gruffly, then put a heavy hand down on Tobias’ right shoulder, “You know he Jedi? I hear New Republic abandon Jedi...Vong pay good money for them.”

“Good money,” the Weequay nodded slowly and then pointed a finger at Tobias, “Jedi have no friends. Only other Jedi. That mean you Jedi, too...”

This time, when the Gamorrean grunted, no translation was given. Tobias, however, didn’t really need one. He figured it was just further pushing along of that ‘Jedi bad’ line of thought. He was right, too, though the vague assumption meant he didn’t know how many curses and other insults were laced in what seemed like a simple series of sounds. Sometimes it was nice not to understand a lot of languages. Only sometimes.

But now Tobias realized that these three weren’t just looking for a fight. They’d labeled him as a Jedi, and there was, indeed, a high price placed on Jedi in many areas of the galaxy. It was usually beyond monetary, too, with entire worlds convinced that if they turned over their Jedi, the Vong would spare them. Of course that wouldn’t be true, but it was something the people believed, and in the end that was all that really mattered.

Getting into a fight, however, was not something Tobias really wanted to do. Master Ral had told him to keep his eyes open and lay low, and already he’d failed at both. So now Tobias needed to get out of this situation in such a way that he could safely hide and blend back into the dirty, sand-scorched populace of Bestine. Still, running meant they would go after him. An outright fistfight probably meant that others would get involved against him, and removing his lightsaber from his hidden place beneath his jacket was completely out of the question.

It was at that point that something in Tobias’ mind finally clicked and told him to calm down and focus. It took a moment, and he could feel the three beings around him all burning brightly with aggression. They were definitely ready for a fight, and it didn’t look like he could stop that. Talking was obviously making things worse. Or was it...?

“You really trust these two to split the bounty with you?” there was a bit of the Force laced in Tobias’ words, but only a bit. This was mainly due to not really being any good at suggesting things to their brains rather than their ears, but he had to learn somehow. To offset the not-so-skilled use of the Force, Tobias tried to sound as honest as possible. He also didn’t speak the words directly to any of them, rather in the middle so that any of them could decide who the other two he was talking about were.

And it worked, too.

“Not split bounty with them anyway!” it was the Weequay that blurted the words out. His eyes suddenly went wide, realization of what he’d just said out loud washing over him.

At that, the Gran’s hand on Tobias’ shoulder lifted and the large humanoid stepped around him to glare down at the Weequay, “What was that?”

The Gamorrean snorted a series of words that didn’t sound at all polite. It then looked like the two were about to gang up and beat the Weequay into a very small, mushy pile of something, but Tobias could feel through the Force that all three still weren’t dumb enough to completely put Tobias out of their thoughts. The Gamorrean was still looking at him through the corner of those little, beady eyes, and the Gran glanced over his shoulder more than once.

So Tobias decided to tip the situation in his favour just a bit more.

Keeping his hand at his side, but drawing the Force to him, Tobias gave the Gamorrean a not-so-gentle shove right into the Gran. This got an angry yell and a push back, then the Weequay seemed annoyed at this act of violence and swung a punch at his Gran companion. In a matter of seconds, it was three-way brawl with the crowd cheering and laughing.

Tobias took that moment to turn and bolt the other direction as fast as he could without using the Force to help him on.

“Oi!” and then he heard a voice from that crowd, “You idiots that kid’s runnin’ off while you make fools of yourselves!”

There were a series of groans from the crowd as the fight stopped, and Tobias turned around to see all three of his assailants staring at him with rage obvious in their eyes.

“So much for a low profile,” Tobias mumbled softly to himself before turning and starting to run again, with the Gran, Gamorrean, and Weequay already on their feet and coming after him.


Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been insanely swamped with paintings the last week. Its going to probably keep up for another month, but I'll do my best to keep updating. After that,though, should be smooth sailing again for a while.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 586: Battle Report

Commodore Nok regained consciousness on the shuttle, halfway to the shuttle and out of the moon’s atmosphere. He was only conscious for long enough to hear yelling, metallic creaking, and look around to see a greyish blur. But then the shuttle was jolted violently, dropping Rulae back into darkness only moments after the blur was beginning to solidify into actual shapes and forms.

The next time he awoke, he immediately recognized that he was in a medical bay. The empty smell in the air told him that before he eyes did. All medical facilities smelled the same. Sterile to an extent that it was almost worrying. A moment later, a cold metal gently touched his shoulder. Rulae shifted his eyes to look and see a thin medical droid standing there, its emotionless face doing nothing to reassure, though its calm voice at least tried to, “You should remain still, Commodore. I have just finished treating your wounds, sir, but you must not do anything to reopen the wounds.”

“What happened...?” Rulae asked in a hoarse voice, having trouble getting his voice to work. The last thing he could remember was ejecting from his X-Wing, then a few brief flashes here and there that didn’t make any sense to him for the moment.

“I believe that is my question for you, Commodore,” that was not the medical droid, but a stronger, gruffer voice that Rulae knew very well. Admiral Tarus stood next to Rulae’s medical bed, his uniform as crisp as always and his sharp features revealing nothing at all, “In fact, the answer to that will likely be the deciding factor on whether I strip you of your rank and take that squadron away from you.”

That should have hit Rulae much harder than it did. But his head was still hurting and a few parts of him still ached, so Rulae figured that he wasn’t really completely aware just yet. Likely because of that, Rulae felt only that it was logical that he might lose his command after his actions at Rodia. He still didn’t know how many of the Zephyrs had survived, and ordering them to land on the moon would have been enough to get him into trouble considering it was just a recon mission. But with the way they’d ‘landed’, Rulae knew he wouldn’t be in the best position to argue for keeping command of the Zephyrs.

Rulae tried to shake his head, but couldn’t get his body to comply and just said weakly, “I don’t remember much, sir...”

“You sustained multiple concussions, Commodore,” the medical droid interjected softly, “Your short term memory may not return to you.”

When Rulae’s eyes shifted back to the Admiral, he saw that the middle aged human was actually looking at him with sympathy in his eyes. But when the Admiral spoke, his voice remained stern and strong as always, “Three of your pilots returned with their fighters. They told us of the ambush and I ordered the fleet to Rodia. When we arrived, we found debris in orbit around the moon and no signs of any of you. One of your pilots stated you were going to...rescue the others that were closer to the moon. We found more debris all across the surface of the moon, but before we were able to send search teams down the Vong launched multiple wings of coralskippers.”

Rulae was still not able to completely grasp all that was said. He did, however, latch onto the most important part of that report, “My pilots...only three survived?”

For a long few moments when the Admiral did not respond, Rulae felt his blood go cold and his chest tighten. It did not help that the Admiral’s tone remained hard, “Only three returned with their starfighters. Including yourself, Commodore, six of your squadron survived. In addition to that, we retrieved two Rodian mercenaries and...” Admiral Tarus’ voice trailed off, and he showed emotion for the first time. There was concern on his face, “One of your pilots that we had presumed dead at Fondor was also recovered.”

There was only one pilot that he had lost at Fondor.

“Loro is alive?” Rulae was very obviously confused. The Mon Calamari pilot had ejected from his damaged X-Wing during the fierce battle above Fondo months prior, and when he wasn’t recovered after the battle was rightfully presumed dead. To be picked up by the Vong wasn’t entirely out of the question, Rulae had heard about such things before...but that he would be on Rodia’s moon seemed almost too much of a coincidence to believe.

“Indeed he is,” the Admiral nodded, “He and the Rodians are being held in...secure interrogation rooms for the moment. We cannot be sure that the Yuuzhan Vong did not do something to them.”

That did make sense. It was not something Rulae wanted to think about, one of his old pilots being twisted by the Vong, but it was something that had to be considered. But at least he was alive. Rulae could only hope that Loro would turn out to be no more than shaken up from whatever he went through during captivity.

“The others?” there were still other concerns on Rulae’s mind, of course.

“Harken is in the best shape. She sustained a few bruises and cuts, but is currently working on her report,” it was at that point that the Admiral moved from standing to sitting next to the bed, “Most of the other young pilots are in their quarters, recovering from minor wounds that will heal. You and Officer Lor, however, are not likely to leave the medical bay for some time.”

Rulae knew he was not in the best of shape. He hadn’t bothered to look at himself, but he could feel it very easily. He felt weak and breathing was not as easy as it should have been. Most of him ached, too, though he was concerned by the fact that he could not feel anything at all from his left arm. He was not about to look to make sure it was there, for fear of not finding it, but even numbness was worth concern.

Hearing that Lor was not doing well was not comforting at all, however, “How is she?”

“Unconscious,” the Admiral looked beyond Rulae to some other part of the medical bay, “She lost a great deal of blood and is very lucky to be alive. From what Harken reported briefly, they were attacked by a great deal of Vong forces on the moon’s surface. Officer Lor was nearly killed during their escape to the shuttle we sent down. A pair of Yuuzhan Vong warriors cut her down with their amphistaves. Harken and Loro went back for her and with the help of our marines killed the warriors and retrieved Rea’s body. But...her arm was severed. By the time she arrived here and the medical staff started to operate the injuries she had sustained required them to take...drastic measures. One of her legs was amputated. She...has been unconscious since then and the droids are concerned that she may have suffered damage to her brain as well.”

The icy feeling returned to Rulae’s veins upon hearing that. Very slowly, and with a lot of pain, Rulae turned his head to try to look in the direction that the Admiral was looking. He could see other medical beds, and not far away one of them was occupied by a blue-skinned humanoid. Sadly, Rulae could not make out anymore details, though he knew it was her. Those kinds of injuries meant she’d likely never fly again.

And then he felt the need to defend his actions. Not to the Admiral, but to himself, “We were dead in the air, there was no escape for the majority of them with so many skips in the air. I ordered everyone down to the moon because we had a chance there. That and...well, there had to a reason so many skips were down there. I hoped we could find that out and put a stop to it.”

The Admiral shifted so that he was looking back down at Rulae, “The Rodians and Loro have stated that the Vong were working on something there, so your hunch seems correct. However, dealing with that kind of objective is better suited for SpecForces, not green pilots. You should know that better than most, Commodore. You put your squadron’s lives in danger in a situation they were not trained to handle and a great deal of them died. This was a reconnaissance mission, not an assault. The second you saw trouble you should have ordered that entire squadron out of the system.”

“By the time I knew it was trouble, half the squadron was already surrounded, sir,” somehow, Rulae managed to keep his voice calm. He expected it had a great deal to do with how weak he felt, as it was in no way comforting to have to think about what had happened, “I did what I thought was best. We were dead in the air, so I ordered the pilots that could jump to do so and the others to get to the moon’s surface in an attempt to survive.”

Admiral Tarus’ eyes narrowed and, for a moment, he looked less like a human and more like a very dangerous predator, “According to your wingmate, you could have made that hyperspace jump, too. In fact, you should have. If you had done that, we could have jumped back without a rookie babbling on to convince us we had to go to Rodia. I would have listened to you and immediately made the jump to save the rest of your squadron.”

Rulae managed to hold Tarus’ critical look without any difficulty. It was obvious the Admiral was angry, and for good reason. The Admiral had always been the kind of man to care for the people under his command. And, looking at it from the perspective of a commanding officer, Rulae had made a decision that had risked more lives than he should have.

Still...

“I stand by my decision, sir,” Rulae somehow managed to match the strong tone that the Admiral had adopted, “If I had left them and they had stayed in the air, there would not have been anyone to rescue. There would have been only four survivors in that case. And I...” he stopped a moment, suddenly realizing what it was and why he’d done what he’d done, “I will not abandon my pilots anymore, sir. I have seen us run time and time again after good people die in useless fights that get us no where. I have had to jump away from losing battles, leaving young pilots behind to be slaughtered again and again. I couldn’t do it anymore, sir. It wasn’t right and they needed me.”

For a long, silent minute, the Admiral watched him carefully. Then, he got up to his feet and took a few steps away before stopping, and looking over his shoulder back to Rulae, “When you are well enough, I expect that much and more to be in your report.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 587: Natural Adaptations

Home to smugglers and other unsavory beings in the galaxy, Myrkr had never been very well developed beyond a few small encampments claiming to be towns or cities pocketed here and there across the planet’s surface. Because of this, the planet’s thick jungles were still teeming with native life that was, on the whole, rather dangerous. It was a wild planet, left untamed but not completely forgotten at the same time. Overall, it seemed like the very last place for the Yuuzhan Vong to take any interest in. There were no abominable cities of duracrete ruining the planet’s natural life, nor anymore than a handful of droids or other pinnacles of technology the Vong abhorred. By all rights, it should have been ignored entirely. There wasn’t even any significant population to exploit.

But it wasn’t.

The Vong had a worldship in orbit, one of their absolutely massive starships that had traveled the void between galaxies. It was the first of its kind that any of the Alraxian Knights had identified, though many had sent reports of them being rumoured at specific locations. This one, in a stationary orbit above Myrkr and looking like a living spiral galaxy, had been spotted by a Knight just two standard weeks prior. A week after reporting that she would attempt to get closer and learn as much as she could, the Knight disappeared entirely along with her Kanyak. The first thing that Marix and Hermes had done upon arrival in the system hours earlier was to search for the Kanyak through various means, all of which had failed. If it had left the system, a report would have been sent...but there was none. The path ended at Myrkr and at the worldship.

Marix had spent a great deal of the hyperspace trip studying the Knight’s reports about the planet. It wasn’t that Marix didn’t know Myrkr, she actually had a great deal of first hand knowledge thanks to her old days working as a smuggler, but she was more interested in what had attracted the Knight’s attention. The detection of the worldship had been the first shock for the Knight, immediately providing access to something they had never had before. It was not something to be passed up, and so she had stayed in system at a distance, working out a way to get in close. But as that plan was being worked out, the Knight began to consider why the ship was even there. Speculation on that had filled her last report.

After reading it all through and seeing the system for herself, Marix was able to dismiss many of the possibilities. It was not a military stronghold, as there was only a small flotilla of Vong ships guarding the massive worldship. It could have been a trade hub, but that didn’t fit with the Vong profile at all. They didn’t seem interested in trade. The next possibility was supply, which was still definitely in the running considering how many Vong ships would come and go. Still, that did not completely answer all of Marix’s questions. Myrkr was in no way in a strategic location for a supply point, especially in a push to the Core Worlds that the Vong were undertaking. It was just too far behind the line and a little too off the beaten path, as it were.

Which said, to both the Knight and Marix, that the important piece had to be Myrkr itself. While the Knight did not have much working knowledge of the planet, Marix did. There was something that made Myrkr a very unique planet in the galaxy, and that was the native life. Many species on the planet were actually Force sensitive and used that to their advantage. The pinnacle of this came in the form of two species: the vornskyr and the yslamiri. The former was a very dangerous predator which used the Force to hunt its prey. This adaptation made the species an amazing tracker of Force sensitives in the galaxy. The predator also reminded Marix a bit of the Mrrakesh, though they weren’t sentient. Of course, sometimes Marix wondered if the Mrrakesh were sentient...

The yslamiri were arguably a more interesting species, however. They were not predators and did not use the Force to find their food. Instead, for them, the Force was a defensive mechanism. Somehow, the small, lizard-like creatures naturally created a bubble in the Force, blocking it out entirely. Since their use by Grand Admiral Thrawn so many years prior, the animals had proven to be quite an effective weapon in trapping Jedi opponents.

And this was where Marix made the connection between Myrkr and the Vong.

In recent months, the Yuuzhan Vong had proven to be obsessed with eliminating the Jedi Knights from the war, so much so that there were hints that they would leave worlds alone if the citizens turned over their Jedi. The Force might not directly affect the Vong, but the had seen its so-called champions and how effective it made them in combat. The Vong wanted to remove the Jedi, and it made sense to Marix that they would attempt to use the species of Myrkr to assist in that goal. The yslamiri could strip the Jedi of their abilities if the animal was close enough, and Marix could see the Vong attempting to use that trait to their advantage.

But that wasn’t why she and Hermes had taken nearly seven hours to carefully orbit close enough to the planet and make a mad dash to the surface before the Vong noticed that an object that had been in the sky previously was no longer there. It had been worrying that there was nothing to impede their landing, as Marix had expected far worse than a quick flight through the atmosphere and then a tight landing in a not-so-sparse part of the jungle. They had not been spotted at all, as far as Hermes could tell, and hopefully the Vong weren’t paying too much attention to their previous trajectory attempting to mimic a stray asteroid.

Even if they did notice Hermes was not orbiting anymore, it might not matter. Myrkr was no small planet, and Hermes had actually done a good job of hiding himself. And after landing, Marix had shut him up and put him to work scanning the area for the other Kanyak or even the Knight. An hour and a half passed and he found nothing. Marix found herself balancing two objectives. She had come to find the lost Knight, but now upon arriving and thinking of what the Vong might be up to, found herself needing to learn more. If the Vong were trying to use Myrkr’s native life to their advantage, not only the Jedi would be in trouble. All Force sensitives would, and that included a great many Alraxians.

“Where was she last?” Marix asked as she stepped out onto the soft ground. It smelled more like a swamp than a jungle, and Marix’s eyes could see enough movement all around her to know that Hermes had not scared off any of the native life. She was keeping her presence in the Force pulled inward as much as she could, not wanting to attract undue attention from any local vornskyrs.

[The last transmission came from an area ten kilometers to the east of here.] Hermes sounded bored. [She was trying to find out what the Vong were doing here and that’s about it...]

Marix knew that much, but Hermes didn’t seem to care. As she walked under him to head towards the east, Marix idly ran a hand along his underside, “Stay awake, Hermes, and let me know if anything new shows up. I am going to see what I can do about finding our lost Knight.”

There was the feeling of a sigh through the Force from Hermes. [I can’t believe Loki puts up with you just running off and having all the fun.]

Not dignifying that with a response, Marix just started onwards, ducking under some low branches and beginning a careful navigation of a place that was not meant for creatures the size of even a small Alraxian. It was going to take her some time to get ten kilometers if the jungle remained as thick throughout, and Marix expected it was more likely to get worse than better. Tight, enclosed spaces with dangerous predators all over waiting for a snack. It was like being back on Alraxia, outside of the Palace in the native environments where the early Alraxians had somehow managed to survive with their only defense in an under-developed morphing ability.

When she thought that, Marix admitted to herself that there was a bit of romantic ideal to that. Something like that was not a common thought for her.

Of course, Myrkr was not a romantic place at all. Somewhere on this planet, a Knight had disappeared. Somewhere else on this planet, the Vong were likely studying yslamiri. Marix could only hope that they weren’t also studying a newly captured Alraxian Knight.