Jaina pulled away from the periscope and blinked for a moment as her eyes readjusted to the dim shine ball light inside the rustling tunnel. The air was hot and humid and filled with the bitter smell of battle pheromones, and the Force was charged with the same pre-combat anxiety common to soldiers of every species. The passage was literally packed with Killiks: millions of thumb-sized Jooj, an endless line of massive Rekkers, a scattering of knee-high Wuluws. There were also a few dozen volunteers from other insect species-mostly mantis-like Snutib hunters, shriveled-looking Geonosian warriors, and a handful of Kamarians who kept asking about her father.
Jaina even saw a pair of greasy black-furred Squibs, armed with repeating blasters and thermal detonators, who seemed unable to take their big eyes off her. She smiled and reached out to them in the Force, trying to offer reassurance and calm their fears. She was not very successful; they merely curled their lips and continued to watch her.
Jaina eyed them suspiciously. It was hard to imagine why a couple of young mercenary Squibs would join this fight-unless they were desperate and stupid. On the other hand, it was hard to imagine them posing much of a threat, either. More likely, it was something else prickling her danger sense-something to do with the Chiss.
Jaina would have liked to know whether Zekk sensed anything unusual, but he was posted on a mountain more than a hundred kilometers away, too far away for her to share what was in his mind. With their own nest-the Taat-still trapped inside the Utegetu Nebula, their
mind-link
only functioned when they were within a few dozen meters of each other.
Jaina reached out to Zekk in the Force, communicating in the clumsy way Jedi usually did. When she felt nothing unusual, she withdrew from his presence and turned to a knee-high Killik standing beside her.
“Wuluw, inform UnuThul that we, er, I am having danger ripples.” As she spoke, Jaina was absentmindedly running her wrists along its antennae. “Ask him if Unu is sure the scouts have found all of the Chiss reserves.”
Wuluw acknowledged the order with a curt “Urbu.” With yellow, oversized eyes and chitin so thin that it could be cracked by a stiff wind, the Killiks of the Wuluw nest hardly made ideal soldiers. But Wuluws mind-shared over a much greater distance than most Killiks-nearly half a kilometer, compared with a typical range of a few dozen meters-and so they were posted throughout the Great Swarm to serve as a communications net.
A moment later, Wuluw reported that UnuThul did not sense any danger in the Force. He wanted to know if she and Zekk were trying another trick like she had at Qoribu-
“No,” Jaina interrupted. “We want to destroy the landing force, too. Maybe a big defeat will make the Chiss rethink the wisdom of pressing this war.”
Wuluw relayed an assurance from UnuThul that they would soon teach the Chiss to respect the Colony. Then a murky Force pressure rose inside Jaina’s chest, urging her and the rest of the Great Swarm to action. The tunnel filled with a loud clatter, and Wuluw rumbled a more specific order from UnuThul, telling Jaina to prepare her horde for the assault.
Jaina looked down a side tunnel to a large underground chamber, one of hundreds that the Killiks had been excavating since the drop ships landed. A steady shower of moist jungle soil was pouring down from the ceiling, partially obscuring the pale white chitin of the four Mollom burrowers already digging their way toward the surface.
“Tell UnuThul we’ll be attacking the command craft any moment,” Jaina said. She opened herself to the battle-meld primarily with Zekk, but she knew UnuThul would also be monitoring it-then motioned to her insect troops and started down the side corridor. “We’ll hit-“
“Ur ruub,” the lead Rekker rumbled. “Uuu b ruu.”
“Right,” Jaina said. “We just need to be sure the volunteers-“
“Fassssst and ‘arrrrrd,” a Snutib whistled.
“UnuThul told us,” a Geonosian added.
“Good,” Jaina said, wondering why UnuThul had bothered to name her and Zekk subcommanders if he wanted to run the entire battle himself. “Ask if you have any questions.”
She stopped just inside the entrance and waited in silence for the Mollom to break through to the surface. Thankfully, the jungle soil was too moist to raise dust as it fell, but as the burrowers neared the surface, the dirt changed to mud, and the chamber floor quickly grew slick. Finally, the Mollom boomed a warning down the shaft, and a loud sucking noise sounded from the surface.
An instant later the heat-blackened nose of a drop ship crashed down into the chamber, its shield generators overloading and exploding as they struggled to push back the cramped shaft the Mollom had dug beneath it. Rain began to pour down the hole, and the craft’s forward beam cannons continued to fire, filling the room with heat and steam and color, and blasting bantha-sized craters into the walls and floor.