A Life Not His Own: Chapter 20

General Ba’tra stares up at the ceiling of the Orbital Defense Headquarters. Allowing the view from the optical ceiling there calm his nerves, ease his tension. This is what he was trained for.

Defense. Attack. To destroy the enemy

His lips pull back from his teeth, revealing the sharpened fangs. Parts of him love this. Seeing the enemy spread above him, the thousands upon thousands of vessels as they revert from wherever the Vong go for faster than light travel. The sharpened tang in the air from the fear and excitement pheromones of a half dozen other species.

Lowering his eyes from the optical ceiling he turns his attention back to the holographic display of the system, the expanse of red which represents the Vong flotilla, the slowly circling ball which represents Coruscant, and the mass of blue arrayed between the planet and the Vong which represents the Republic fleets.

Of most concern to Ba’tra is the green though. The green represents the mine field and orbital platforms which are directly beneath his command.

Finally the red stops amassing, and Ba’tra’s ears twitch as he stares at the hologram, wondering what the Vong are planning. From beneath their flotilla a mass of the red starts flying out, heading towards Coruscant, their colors flickering from red to yellow.

Ba’tra’s ears flatten against the back of his head as he turns to his aid, a serious looking young human girl. “Why did they switch colors?”

The aid types something on her pad, then looks to Ba’tra. “Because their IFF transponders just came on, sir.” She hesitates, and then pulls the ear piece out, a look of horror on her face, as the fear pheromones start to pour off her, causing Ba’tra’s nose to twitch.

“They’re broadcasting.”

Ba’tra taps his ear piece twice, setting it to the general communication channel, and hears the mass of noise, a babble of voices which he can’t distinguish. Frowning he hits his ear piece again and then deftly touches one of the moving yellow lights.

“…currently holding five thousands refugees. I repeat this is the Dawn’s Light from Ornos and we are…”

He touches a different light.

“Jumping Shark and we currently hold seventeen hundred refugees. Rep-”

Yet another light.

“-five hundred ref-”

“-acks and curr-”

He snarls and taps his ear piece, putting it back on the command channel. He looks around at the crew. “I don’t care what you’re hearing on the com channels. We stay at our posts, do our jobs and try our best to ensure that Coruscant does not fall. Is that understood?”

He gets a chorus of affirmatives, and turns back to the hologram, anger smoldering in his eyes as he watches hundreds, if not thousands of yellow dots swarm towards them.

--------------------------------------------------

Danni Quee keeps her hand grasped against one edge of her console, as the blast boat which makes up the primary firepower of the Wild Knights squadron twists into a dangerous spiral. Her eyes scan the controls, and she grins as she sees the readings indicative of a yammosk.

She presses the ear piece to break into the command channel. “We’ve got the yammosk carrier, I’m sending out the IFF information on it now.”

She hears Saba’s hissing voice in reply. “Thiz iz good Danni. Knightz prepare for package drop.”

Danni flicks another few switches, focusing a sensor array on the vessel carrying the yammosk.

A light starts to flicker into existence around the blastboat, one created by the Jedi Knight Izal Waz. The sphere of golden light covers the blastboat as well as the x-wings of the Wild Knightz as Saba hisses lightly with laughter.

“Dropz the package”

As usual, the Vong cruiser they were aiming for had gotten nervous and aimed a singularity at the ball of light, dragging everything within it towards the singularity.

“Now!”

The ball of light fades away and the the x-wings jump away from the blastboat firing proton torpedoes at the cruiser analong. The dovin basil handlers on the Vong craft react accordingly, drawing the singularities away from the still dissipating ball of light to catch the explosions of the proton torpedoes.

They never even see the black two-ton slab of durasteel which their initial singularity had accelerated to a sizable fraction of the speed of light.

As the coral vessel disintegrates from the collision Saba begins hissing with laughter again, and Danni cannot help but grin as well.

She turns back to her sensors, and her breath catches in her throat. The experimental Gravity Amphilication Modulation Sensor is going haywire.

Her grin turns into a full-fledge smile as she yells in joy, startling Saba. The Jedi Master turns towards Danni.

“You scared this one Danni Quee. What iz wrong?”

Danni shakes her head, as she continues watching the data scroll across the mechanism. “Nothing Saba, nothing at all. In fact something wonderful is happening.”

She presses a few buttons, and then turns towards Saba. “I need a gravity well generator or a crystal grav trap.”

Saba turns in her seat to face the young scientist. “What?”

Danni stays focused on her panels. “I think I can jam them. The yammosks I mean. I need a gravity well generator though.”

Saba’s eyes narrow slightly. “Thiz one will make the request.”

Danni does not answer, her attention already taken up by her equipment.

-----------------------------------

Wedge Antilles stares at the generals and admirals around him.

“Why exactly does this Jedi need an interdictor?”

Wedge slowly focuses on the speaker. An Arconan general who name escapes Wedge at the moment. “Because she asked nicely.”

The general sputters in reply, and Wedge slowly grins. “Now, which of those interdictors sitting on the far side of Coruscant’s primary can we bring into Coruscan’t gravity well for that Jedi’s needs?”

Admiral Salmainth, the Noghri in charge of black ops, speaks in his gravely voice. “The Corusca Gem is probably best”

Wedge beckons over one of the aides. “Contact the Corusca Gem’s captain, and put her under the command of Jedi Sabatyne.”

As the aide salutes and walks away, Wedge activates the com system again. “Jedi Sabatyne?”

“This one iz here General Antillez.”

“Momentarily you will be contacted by the captain of the Corusca Gem, to provide you access to its gravity well generators.”

“Thank you, general.”

“Can you tell me why you need them? Some of the generals around me don’t seem to understand.” As he says this he looks pointedly at the Arconan general and smiles as she squirms slightly beneath his steely gaze and the Jedi’s hissing laughter.

After a moment, Saba speaks again. “This one waz assigned to work with a scientist by the Master. She believez it possible to jam the yammosk, and seeks access to the gravity well generator for thiz end.”

“Thank you Jedi Sabatyne, please keep us informed of your progress.”

“This one will, General Antillez.”

The com channel shuts off, and Wedge looks towards the Arconian again. Her name suddenly flashing into his mind. Yill Osool. “I trust that that is reason enough to lend the Jedi this interdictor General Osool?”

Osool does not reply, just tersely nods her head, and returns to coordinating her portion of the battle as Wedge turns the holographic display to show him the full battle. His eyes narrowing slightly as a swatch of the red dots turn yellow. He looks up at one of the battle coordinators.

“What is happening here?”

The coordinator looks up from her datapad, a look of concern on her face. “We just received IFF information for those. Apparently they’re slave transports.”

Wedge frowns slightly. “What are they doing?”

“Accelerating towards Coruscant.”

Wedge looks at her, horror dawning on his face as comprehension dawns. “Contact shield control, have them reinforce the power to the shields. Those shields can’t go down.” He looks at the mass of yellow advancing towards the Republic Forces and Coruscant.

Then he looks back towards the coordinator. “Also contact ODH and tell them that to not activate the mines on the prisoner transports. Save them for the Vong warships.”

“Yes sir” Ignoring the lieutenant’s salute, he turns his attention once more to the display as the yellow quickly closes.

--------------------------------------------------------

Jaina sits in her cockpit, happy to once more be flying with Rogue Squadron. She looks out the canopy and sees the expanse of stars, knowing that some of those reflected dots of lights are in actuality Yuuzhan Vong warcraft.

She glances over at her wingmate, a human female named Illisa Tiv and smiles as the perky blonde waves at her. She wiggles her fingers in response, and then settles back into the crashseat waiting for the command to do something. She looks down at one of her displays, and frowns as it shows a mass of yellow dots flying towards their position.

She frowns at them for a second and then hears the click of the command channel being opened.

“Rogues, ignore the yellows and let them through.”

Slightly confused, Jaina clicks her com twice in quick succession and strains her eyes to see what is advancing. Within moments she is able to, as a CR90 cruiser comes hurtling towards her.

She pushes the stick down and away causing her x-wing to roll out of the path of the vessel. Frowning she allows her craft to come back to a rest so she can watch as the ship continues its path towards Coruscant.

Her frown deepens as she continues to watch as it is ignored by the Golan stations and the mine field. Confused, she aims a sensor sweep towards Coruscant and sees the normal dual layered shields as they flow in opposing directions over the planet.

And as the corvette explodes in a ball of orange and yellow, causing blue electrical discharge to flicker over the top shields - she understands.

As the Force screams from the death throes of hundreds of sentinents - she understands.

The refugees are a sacrifice for the Vong’s blood-thirsty gods.

She growls slight, and twists her X-wing back into position as an HT-2200 flies past her wingman. She winces minutes later as the Force howls once more.

Finally her displays lights up with targeting information and the command channel crackles to life once more.

“All right Rogues, light them up. We have some coral to break.”

She pushes forward on her throttle and her X-wing jumps forward, a quick glance at her display shows that her wingman is tucked in tight aft and starboard beneath her. She starts slowly rocking her craft side to side as the slews of balls of super-heated plasma flash past her canopy. She closes with the first flight of skips and starts peppering their lead with stutter shots.

A joy rises up inside her at the prospect of destroying the Vong culpable for the deaths of so many innocents this day.

She shudders as the death throes of another thousand sentients washes over her.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Alema and Numa Rar duck under the branches of the tree, Lu’ath following behind them quickly. Around and about them, a group of a hundred Nosuarians and other Shamed heretics rush away from the Yuuzhan Vong base.

Lu’ath spares another glance towards the two nubile Jedi, still wondering why they had hidden who they were from him and the Nosuarians for the weeks and months they worked to build up the resistance on New Plympto.

A leather flap of wings flickers past overhead, and Lu’ath lifts his blaster, and tracks the blast bug. He pauses for a stop, and pulls the trigger causing the blastbug to evaporate in an explosion that is half blaster bolt and half Vong weapon. Without another thought he starts running once more.

Finally, the group comes into view of the ancient freighter which has been supplied to the Resistance leadership to get them off the world. Alema, at least Lu’ath thinks it is Alema, stops at the ramp and quickly enters a code, causing a ramp to swiftly lower.

Lu’ath boards the craft, looking around the interior in half amazement. He had heard stories of flying in metal craft, but still has not been in one. But he can understand this; after all he is a Yuuzhan Vong.

Finally everyone is aboard, and the ship lifts off from the surface of New Plympto and rockets towards space. The ship takes up a stationary orbit around Karsten, and Lu’ath looks out towards New Plympto, noticing how the green of vegetation is slowly turning black.

He presses his hand against the smooth transparisteel of the viewport, as New Plympto is slowly turned into a barren wasteland, as lifeless as the moon they currently orbit.

His voice is soft, a eulogy for an entire world. “There is no death, there is the Force.”