[Dark Nest] - 3(57)

A handful of blaster bolts tore into the tree’s trunk, then abruptly stopped when her attackers realized she was protected. Jaina snapped her lightsaber off her belt and Force-leapt to the branch above, then crept close to the trunk and peered around it, toward the source of the blaster bolts. As she had suspected, Longnose and Scarcheek were crouching in a trunk notch in the next tree, their large dark eyes scanning the area where she had disappeared.

Jaina scowled. Hit-Squibs.

She began to scan the surrounding branches, planning a route that would take her behind the two assassins, unsure in her anger whether she meant to capture them or simply take her vengeance.

That was when Zekk touched Jaina through the meld, wondering if she was hurt, urging her to focus. Vengeance was not important-it was never important. The battle was all that mattered now. She had a responsibility to the Colony.

Jaina glanced skyward. The smoke was so thick that she could barely see the green rain clouds above, but they were still there, still pouring water down onto the burning jungle.

Jaina wondered what had taken Zekk so long to reach her, and the image of attacking clawcraft filled her mind. Of course-the Chiss would never attack without top cover. She returned her lightsaber to her utility belt, then used the Force to snap a small branch about thirty meters behind Longnose and Scarcheek.

The two Squibs leapt out of their hiding place and started down the tree headfirst, moving so fast that Jaina wondered if they were falling. Once the pair had vanished from sight, she whispered after them, using the Force to carry her hard-edged voice.

“We’ll finish this later,” she said. “If you stay alive that long.”

A pair of startled screams echoed up through the smoke.

A moment later, the hum of a StealthX’s repulsor drives passed by overhead. She looked up to see a black streak flashing after

the AirStraekers, its laser cannons ripping the sky open.

The MetaCannons were continuing to chew through the jungle, but now Jaina could hear other sounds, too-the wail of enemy voices, the pinging of shatter gun pellets on metal armor, the chain-thunder of

exploding ammunition. The Rekkers had reached the Chiss lines.

Seeing that the lower levels of the jungle-at least in the direction of the fighting-had erupted into a solid wall of flame and smoke, Jaina returned to the canopy. She could see Zekk’s StealthX in the distance as it hunted down the AirStraekers, but not much more.

Jaina retrieved her electrobinoculars, then used the Force to clear a hole through the smoke. The MetaCannons had cut a trench three hundred meters into the jungle. A solid wall of smoke and steam was pouring out of this trench, while thousands of Rekkers and millions of Jooj were swarming into it. Clearly, the situation at the MetaCannons was under control.

The battle at the perimeter was going more poorly. The Chiss had massed opposite the Kolosoloks, flinging vape charges and gas grenades at the great insects and firing their charric rifles from the roofs of their personnel carriers. The Killik tide pressed the attack, pouring shatter gun pellets over the shield or simply leaping into the horde of defenders.

The Chiss were too disciplined to panic and too well trained to break. Support units poured in by the squad, by the platoon, by the company. Bodies, both insect and Chiss, began to lie three and four and then ten deep. Personnel carriers exploded or became so riddled with shatter gun fire that the crews could be seen lying in pieces inside. The Kolosoloks were butting the shield, filling the air with golden sprays of discharge sparks, recoiling stunned and unsteady, then hitting it again and again … and still the perimeter held.

Then Jaina saw a Chiss vape charge fly astray when the soldier who had thrown it was hit by a line of shatter gun pellets. Responding more by instinct than by plan, she reached out for the vape charge in the Force. Her control at such a distance was almost nonexistent, so she simply nudged it toward the nearest relay pylon and watched in surprise as the distant speck struck the post-then dropped to the ground and simply lay there.

Jaina cursed under her breath, then lowered her electrobinoculars. “The rodder didn’t thumb the-“

A brilliant detonation dot appeared through the smoke, and a sudden jolt of surprise shot through the Force. Jaina raised the electrobinoculars again, then cleared a viewing hole through the smoke and was astonished to see that the relay pylon had disappeared after all. Killiks were pouring through the gap in the perimeter shield, enveloping a company of Chiss defenders and fanning outward in an unstoppable tide.

The Colony had broken the enemy line. Now the Chiss would have to evacuate.





FIFTEEN


The vastness of the Megador’s Hangar 51 rumbled with activity as a small army of technicians, droids, and support personnel rushed to ready the entire wing of Jedi StealthXs for combat. The StealthXs were temperamental craft with specialized equipment, so even simple tasks like fueling and arming required twice as much work and made three times as much noise as the same work on a standard starfighter. And the systems checks caused a cacophony in their own right, as furious bleeps and tweets flew back and forth between the StealthXs’ security-conscious astromechs and the Megador’s self-important diagnostic droids.