[Dark Nest] - 3(80)

Luke extended a hand and sent them all tumbling with a violent Force shove. As they struggled to right themselves, he pulled a thermal detonator off his harness, thumbed the activation switch, and sent it after them.

A sharp crackle came over his comlink as the weapon detonated, and his imaging system went momentarily dark. Luke squeezed the trigger of his power blaster anyway, spraying bolts toward the empty ripples in the Force that he could still feel approaching from deeper in the rubble.

By the time the imaging system cleared again, Mara had cut Jacen’s canopy open and was depressing a button on his wrist to activate his suit’s automatic stim-system. Luke started toward them, somersaulting through the dust and laying suppression fire into the rubble. He no longer needed to search for ripples in the Force to find Gorog-he could see them coming, a growing tide of egg-shaped carapaces springing from one hunk of spitcrete to another, spraying shatter gun pellets as they approached.

Luke reached Jacen’s StealthX just as Mara was pulling his limp form out of the cockpit. “How is he?”

“Still alive,” Mara said. A string of shatter gun pellets tore into the fuselage, blowing Jacen’s R9 unit apart and filling the air with sparks. “For now!”

R2-D2 flashed a message across Luke’s visor suggesting that without evasive action, none of them would be alive in a moment.

“Don’t worry.” Luke pulled a trio of thermal detonators off his harness and thumbed the activators. “I still have a few tricks left.”

He tossed the detonators toward the oncoming wave of Gorog, then used the Force to spread them across the head of the entire swarm. This time, the crackle inside his helmet was ear popping. But Luke was looking in the opposite direction as the detonation occurred, pulling himself over Jacen’s StealthX, and his imaging system did not darken.

Luke retrieved his nephew’s combat harness and power blaster from the cockpit, then caught up to Mara and took an arm. As they Force-pulled themselves toward a slowly tumbling chunk of spitcrete, Luke’s imaging system showed a StealthX-sized bubble pushing past through the flotsam. Kyle Katarn touched Luke through the battle-meld, reassuring him, letting him know reinforcements were on the way.

A moment later, the StealthXs turned the battle zone as bright as day with their flashing laser cannons.

Luke and Mara slipped behind the spitcrete with Jacen. Luke used the Force to hold the block steady so they could hide behind it. Mara opened the status display on the forearm of Jacen’s suit and checked his vital signs.

“Everything reads okay,” she said. “Maybe it’s just a compression blackout.”

“Or a concussion.” Luke could hear the relief in his own voice. Neither type of injury was likely to be a fatal-as long as they could get him to help. “Turn up his comm volume.”

Luke started to grab Jacen by the shoulders, but Mara pointed him toward the edge of the block. “Stand watch. I’ll handle-“

An incoherent groan came over the comm channel, then Jacen’s face grew suddenly pale inside his helmet visor. His eyes blinked open, and he nearly sent them all tumbling by trying to sit up.

“No, Jacen.” Mara pushed him against the spitcrete. “Stay put.”

He looked confused for a moment, then turned to Luke. “She’s here, isn’t she?”

Luke nodded. “I think so.”

“Can you see her?” Jacen demanded.

“I don’t know,” Luke said. “I haven’t-“

A deafening pop came over the comm channel, and an orange flash briefly lit the battle zone. Luke felt the sudden anguish of a young Jedi’s fiery death, then saw the wings and cannon mounts of a StealthX spinning past along with the gravel and smoke. He slid over and peered around the edge of their spitcrete hiding place and discovered that he could, indeed, see Lomi Plo. The Dark Queen.

She floated about a dozen meters away, surrounded by Gorog warriors and encased in a somewhat cylindrical Killik pressure carapace. A pair of long, crooked arms were still extended from her stooped shoulders, pointing toward the twisted skeleton of smoking durasteel that had been a StealthX just a moment earlier. A second pair of shorter, more human-looking arms protruded from the middle of her body, while one spindly leg jutted out from the side of her hip, giving her an appearance more insectile than human.

Intending to take her out with a sniper shot, Luke started to reach for his power blaster, but Lomi’s danger sense was as acute as Mara’s. A lightsaber immediately appeared in her lower set of arms, and she started to turn in a slow circle, scanning the rubble and looking for her would-be ambusher.

Realizing there was only one way to do this, Luke snapped the lightsaber off his own belt. “Mara, keep the bugs off me.”