Alien Crossfire Ch. 13

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Nelani watched Anakin board the Shadow, and then turned to the Jedi Master. He had a look of concern etched on his face, one which made her squirm a bit.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She considered his words, pondering the softness and compassion in his voice, noting how much it sounded like Anakin’s. Finally she nodded her head a bit.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to give into my anger."

He smiled for her. "It’s all right. I failed the first time I was given such a vision as well. I gave into my fear and anger and attacked a vision of Darth Vader, only to discover that it was myself in the armor."

Nelani looked at him, a scowl covering her face. "Something similar happened to me. I…I attacked Tahiri, and killed her. When that happened a masquer rolled off, and it was me underneath. What does it mean?"

Luke shrugged his shoulders. "What do you think it means?"

Nelani sighed, and scuffed the toe of her boot against the stone floor. Silence reigned in the hall as she considered Luke’s question; as she mentally worked her way through the vision.

Finally, she shrugged as a response. "I don’t know. Maybe I fear Anakin’s feelings for Tahiri. That I’m just a replacement for her. His new sidekick."

Luke placed a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him, even as she could feel the tears gathering in the corner of her eyes.

"Anakin is the most gifted of my students. He understands reality instinctively in ways that I just can’t comprehend. But at the same time, he is a human male, and is fairly dense when it comes to certain things. Talk to him, tell him your fears."

Nelani nodded her head a few times slowly. "I…I’ll think about it, Master Skywalker."

"That’s all I ask. Now, let’s get back to the Venture."

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Wedge Antilles stood in the command center on the planet’s surface, watching the holographic representation of the system. What had grabbed his focus was the blob of yellow dots, representing a new asteroid system that had just jumped into the Pryias system. It had been nearly two weeks since they had taken Borelias, but it appeared that the Yuuzhan Vong had finally returned.

He grinned for a second as the icons flickered to red as the battle computer recognized them as Yuuzhan Vong warships.

He glanced over at Tycho, and nodded his head. Tycho turned to his station, and began handing out orders to the starfighter units stationed on a moon of the sixth planet in the Pyrias system. He grinned as those starfighters launched, and came on station in ragged formation.

Appearing for all intents and purposes, as if the Vong had caught them off guard.

Iella stepped up beside him. "So what’s the plan for today?"

"Bad tactics."

Tycho looked over at them from his station. "We’re planning on losing today."

Iella looked between the two of them, wondering if they had both gone insane.

And she knew it, when they both turn matching smiles towards her.

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Commander Wyrpuuk Cha stood as his fleet arrived in the Pyria system, dropping out of darkspace at the edges of the system. He frowned, as he realized that his fleet had been yanked out of darkspace further away from the main planet than he wanted, or expected, due to the complex dance of gravitational bodies within the system itself. His eyes flowed across the various command stations, and the warriors and intendents who manned them. He nodded his head; everyone was focused on their tasks, performing to the best of their abilities.

The hum of the blaze bugs started up, as they flickered out from their hives, taking up positions, their pitch and hue changing on command from the yammosk hiding at the heart of his fleet. The insects are capable of hovering in flight and glowing or going dark based on the mental commands of the yammosk. As he watched they grouped up, to form the system's primary, then the planets and moons. A group dropped down, taking up position and a color to indicate that they represented Cha's fleet. Finally another patch of them began hovering in place around Borelias, representing the Infidel's warships. Knowledge of their locations supplied by spotter villips on the planet, and gravitic readings from the yammosk itself.

A type of gnat that was related to the blaze bugs came from their hive, nearly invisible to the naked eye except for their blue glow, the represented the trail left from the Infidel's ion engines. That blue glow appeared faintly between the planet Borelais and the sixth planet's second moon.

Kadlah Cha, an analyst from his own domain, spoke from beside him. "The Infidels have not set up planetary shields or any stable weapons platforms in orbit."

He turned to face her, admiring her facial tattoos, a darkening around the eyes and lips that made those features appear oversized. A jagged slice ran down the front of her face, starting at her hairline, crossing over the eye socket and ending at her chin. He considered what she had revealed.

"So they would have situated a minefield surrounding the planet."

Kadlah Cha shook her head slightly. "No, Commander." She reached into the mass of blaze bugs, and grabbed the grouping which represented Borelias and pulled it towards them. The bugs swarmed, resolving themselves into a closer representation of the planet, with more details. "If you notice, these vessels protect a single point on the planet, while others have more reasonable orbits. Those on the planet, report that it is over this location which they have constructed shields."

"A hardpoint defense of a single location." Wyrpuuk Cha considered what Kadlah Cha had revealed. He made a gesture towards the blaze bugs, and they swarmed once again, returning to their original magnification of the system. "And you can see the travel between Borelias and the sixth planet's moon. Yet no ships are reported there. A hidden base? Likewise, they do not protect the planet against us dropping worldforming materials, so they are unconcerned about the planet itself…just whatever is in those buildings. We must discover the secret of what they seek to hide."

Kadlah Cha nodded her head in reply and then returned to her station.

Wyrpuuk Cha turned once more to watch the blaze bugs. As he watched, the red indicative of the infidel's small attack craft slowly flared into existence from the second moon of the system's sixth planet.

His lips pulled back into a rictus, a silent sneering grin. The hunt begins.

He glanced towards Uthrum Cha, the subaltern in charge of his fleet of yorik-et. "Launch your yorik-et. Destroy the infidels."

Uthrum smacked his armored fist against the vonduum crab curiass, a solid thunk of obedience. Wyrpuuk Cha watched as the subaltern turned back to his station, slipping into a cognition hood. He then returned his attention to the blaze bugs shining in the air in front of his throne of command, watching as the green of the yorik-et bolted away from the command ship, advancing towards the ragged line of infidel fighters.

He his flicked up to the blaze bugs representing the infidel capital ships; there were three of their large blasphemous triangle machines of war, and a host of smaller warships.

He reached into the mass of blaze bugs, and drew a line from a group of four Miid Ro'ik warships towards the three triangle ships.

He watched happily as the blaze bugs began their slow advance towards the infidels.

This should not take long.

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Jag dropped out of hyperspace, watching happily as the mottled swirls fell away, resolving into the cold pinpricks of light which were the unfamiliar constellations of the Known Regions. Seconds after his own reversion, two more clawcraft flickered into existence, shedding the extra-luminal speed even as they banked slightly to form up on his wing.

He glanced to the clawcraft off of his starboard wing and started to grin, even though he knew that she would not be able to see his smile through his full-faced flight helmet. He lifted a hand towards her, and then faced forward once more. He opened a com to her. "Shawnkyr, any suggestions?"

He could almost detect a hint of amusement in her voice. "I thought you were in command of this mission, sir."

"I am. I just don't want you to think I'm going to ignore your thoughts and suggestions. There is a reason I brought you along after all."

He took a few minutes to consider his options, pulling up a galactic map as he did so. He flicked through a few screens, showing the systems nearest to the major hyperspace lanes leading to and from Coruscant.

"We want to go somewhere near the front lines, but not in the direct invasion path."

Shawnkyr's voice intruded on his thoughts. "Commander, shall we try the Hapes Consortium?"

Jag frowned for a second. "Hapes?" As he said this, he punched in a few commands into his console, and saw that the sector was only a jump off the Perlemian Hyperlane. He considered it for a moment, and then gave a quick internal shrug as he checked the consumables on his craft.

"We should have enough supplies to get us there, so it sounds good."

He quickly plugged in the coordinates into the navigational computer, and waited for the chime to indicate that it had computed a hyperspace path. Once that was done – he pushed the throttles forward, causing his ship to gain speed, when he reached the proper speed, he pulled the hyperspace levers down and the stars reached towards him once more, and then they exploded into the swirls of lights and colors of hyperspace.

Hours later, the time had come to perform a course change. He pushed forward the hyperspace levers and the stars once more winked into existence, and Jag found himself barreling directly towards a YT-888 light freighter.

He let out a sharp curse, and yanked his flight yoke to the side, twisting his clawcraft around the freighter. The flash of orange plasma lit his cockpit for a second as it traveled past him, heading towards the freighter's engines.

He armed his cannons and loaded his weapons system, running a quick scan of the surrounding space. The targeting computer highlighted two coralskippers running towards the freighter, ignoring him. Then it designated two more skips as secondary targets.

"You still there Shawnkyr?"

A single click over the com was the only response he gets.

Smiling maliciously, he allowed his clawcraft to flash past the coralskippers, and then banked hard, the g-forces overriding his inertial compensator, causing his vision to darken at the edges. Ignoring the discomfort, he targeted the trailing skip. As the reticule turned green he squeezed the trigger down, and two blue bursts erupted from his canons, striking the skip.

The coralskipper erupted in a flash of ichor and coral and Jag flew through the debris field – the small stones pinging against his hull.

Blue fire flashed past his cockpit and struck the remaining coralskipper. It too erupted, spreading coral in an expanding sphere. A Yuuzhan Vong body flew past his canopy and Jag smiled.

He scanned local space again, happy to not find any more Vong forces. Once more he brought his fighter on a heading for Hapes, he then opened up a com-channel. "Any damage?"

Shawnkyr's voice came first. "None, sir."

Then he received Ben's voice. "Negative, sir."

"Good. See you both at Hapes."

Two clicks of the com was the reply he received, and with a ghost of a grin on his lips, he pulled they hyperspace levers down once more.

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