“The Chiss aren’t going to evacuate if we
don’t
stop
those AirStraekers!” Jaina protested. “They won’t have any reason to, because all that’s going to be left of the Great Swarm is a jungle full of maser-popped bugs!”
“Rruub uru bubub,” Wuluw reported. “Ubbuburu buub.”
“I don’t care if the Kolosoloks are attacking,” Jaina said. “That’s not going to do us much good up here, is it?”
“Urbuubur, buubu ururbu.”
“Oh.” Jaina was quiet for a moment, still struggling to Force-shove the AirStraeker into a wingmate. “When you look at it that way, maybe we are expendable.”
A fireball erupted over the jungle canopy as Jaina finally succeeded. With any luck, one of the AirStraekers she had downed had been the commander, but she knew better than to think that this would throw the squadron into disarray. The Chiss were far too organized to let a little thing like casualties disrupt their plans.
Wuluw began to tremble on Jaina’s hack. “Uuuu buuuu . .”
“Ah, don’t be that way,” Jaina said. The squadron was so close now that she could see the droop-winged silhouettes of individual AirStraekers. “Maybe it’s not that bad.”
“Bu ubu ru-“
“Look, you shouldn’t believe everything we say,” Jaina said.
“Urbur?”
“Really,” Jaina replied. She fixed her gaze on the AirStraeker squadron, then reached out to Zekk, concentrating hard and trying to make him feel her alarm through the battle-meld. “Humans do exaggerate.”
Wuluw stopped shaking and remained curiously quiet for a moment, then reported, “Burubu rurburu.”
“He is?” Jaina gasped, feigning surprise. “Well, Zekk’s StealthX isn’t going to give anything away, is it? The Chiss can’t even see that.”
“Ur!” Wuluw clacked her mandibles in delight, then began to rub her antennae over Jaina’s face. “Burrb u!”
“All right! That’s enough!” Jaina laughed. “If we’re going to get out of this, I still need to see.”
Wuluw folded her antennae back immediately.
As soon as her view was clear again, Jaina realized that she had lost sight of the Squibs. Probably, they had dropped back into the jungle as soon as the AirStraekers appeared, preferring to take their chances with the MetaCannons. There was no time to worry about it. She could see the AirStraekers sweeping back and forth now, spraying a wall of laser beams ahead of them and setting aflame a kilometer-wide swath of jungle canopy.
Jaina reached out and tried her Force shove again, but the Chiss learned quickly. Her target simply peeled away from the squadron and climbed, fighting against her Force grasp until he entered the clouds and she lost sight of him. Thinking that disruption was as good as destruction, she began to Force-shove the rest of the squadron. They all vanished into the clouds-then dropped back into view a few moments later, in perfect formation and closer than before.
“Hurry, Zekk!” Jaina said under her breath.
“Ubr?”
“I said we need to keep pressing the attack,” Jaina replied, not wanting to alarm her Wuluw again. “Let’s see if we can find a good observation post.”
Jaina Force-leapt into an especially tall mogo, then used the Force to make herself light and ascended high into the smallest twigs until she had clear view all the way to the mountains. Through the tangle of barren tree limbs, several MetaCannons were visible on the jungle floor, about half a kilometer ahead. Jaina retrieved her electrobinoculars and saw that the crews were busy changing the configuration of their weapons, replacing the ballistic barrels with fan-tipped beam emitters more suited to close-in fighting.
“Have the Rekkers jump those MetaCannons now!” Jaina instructed Wuluw. “If they don’t get there in the next thirty seconds, those maser fans will tear them apart.”
“Ru.”
Jaina checked on the progress of the AirStraekers and found them so close now that she could see the underwing emitter fans flashing individual maser beams-and she could hear the wood cracking as mogo trees burst into flame. She tried her Force-shove attack again, and again she succeeded only in sending the entire squadron into the clouds for no more than three seconds.
Jaina reached out to Zekk again, urging him to hurry. In response, the meld filled with reassurance.
Jaina returned the electrobinoculars to her eyes and began to scan the rest of the battlefield. Five kilometers beyond the MetaCannons, the Chiss perimeter shield was glowing through the battle smoke, a golden wall that flickered and flashed as the Colony’s hordes attacked with catapults, magcannons, and other primitive field pieces. The Chiss were responding with maser cannons mounted on armored personnel carriers, directing most of their fire at a line of about fifty moss-covered hillocks that seemed to be ambling slowly forward.