CHAPTER NINETEEN
I’m not going to kill the people I should be protecting! Jacen snarled, then summoned the Force, shoving back hard against the onrushing throng of armored human slaves. The two in the lead stumbled back, knocking down others of their number. Jacen grabbed one of the fallen humanoids and shoved it back, low, slamming it into the knees and thighs of the other slaves. Bodies flipped high in the air, then crashed back down.
Off to his right, Corran and his silver lightsaber entered the fight. He swept past and through two reptoids, spilling smoking bodies left and right, then met the Yuuzhan Vong leader on equal footing. The Jedi feinted high, then slashed low. The lightsaber’s argent blade sparked off the vonduun crab armor covering the Yuuzhan Vong’s shins, but did not penetrate to the flesh.
The warrior took a half step back, then scythed his staff around in a cut that came at Corran’s left flank. The Jedi spun inside the arc of the cut and parried it wide with the blade held in his right hand. This left Corran standing with his back to the Yuuzhan Vong’s front, just for a second. He continued his spin, pivoting now on his right foot, and brought his left foot up in a roundhouse kick that cracked his heel against the Yuuzhan Vong’s face mask.
The Yuuzhan Vong staggered backwards and caught his legs against a planter. He fell back, off balance, and found his limbs trapped by the branches of a spindly ornamental fruit tree. Corran closed and slashed at him twice. The first cut traced a scar across the Yuuzhan Vong’s armored belly, then the return stroke opened him from hip to hip.
The third Yuuzhan Vong warrior hissed an order, which started the reptoids pulling back. Before he had any chance to organize any sort of defense or retreat, resistance snipers targeted him. A hail of red blaster bolts shot down at him from all angles, jolting him. He wobbled and lurched, raising a hand to ward off the sting of the energy weapons. His vonduun crab armor might have been proof against an errant bolt or two, but such concentrated fire burned through it. The Yuuzhan Vong spasmed, throwing his limbs wide, then collapsed to the ferrocrete decking.
The reptoids, bereft of any leadership, scattered. Ganner slashed two down and the resistance fighters killed more, but none came in Jacen’s direction. Instead, nearest him, a thrall snapped an order that brought several of his fellows with him. They retreated in good order to the north, back into the building from which they had launched their attack.
Corran raised his blade and circled it over his head. “Move it. Grab two of the guys Jacen put down. Let’s go.”
Two of the resistance fighters each grabbed a downed thrall and started to drag them off when a black ovoid form screamed overhead. It vanished beyond the line of buildings to the south, but Jacen felt a sour taste growing in his mouth. “That was a coralskipper, Corran.”
“Sithspawn!” Corran glanced at his chronometer. “We have to get out of here fast, and we’ve got at least two hours before our ride will be here. As we planned it, people. Get the prisoners out in the vehicles, the rest of us will pull the Vong off.”
Ganner nodded grimly. “I’ve heard the Pesktda Xenobotanical Garden is worth seeing.”
“Yeah, well, don’t figure you’re going to get time to read all the exhibit signs.”
Ganner frowned, but Jacen smiled. “Hey, at least he thinks you can read.”
The older Jedi’s return comment was swallowed by the reappearance of the coralskipper. The ship came down and hovered ten meters above the plaza. Its nose-mounted plasma cannon spat out a bolt that sizzled over the Jedi’s head and melted a two-meter-wide furrow in the ferrocrete.
Corran pointed west. “Go, now! I’ll distract it.”
Ganner started sprinting west, but Jacen grabbed Corran’s sleeve. “You know what you’re doing?”
“Nope, but that’s never stopped me before.” The Corellian Jedi winked at Jacen and stood, then darted east. He waved his lightsaber in the air and shouted. “C’mon, sparky, I dare you.”
The plasma cannon’s muzzle swiveled in Corran’s direction like a bug’s eye on a stalk. The Jedi set himself, lightsaber in hand, ready to deflect the bolt. Light began to glow gold in the muzzle.
“Go, Jacen, go!”
The young Jedi frowned and gathered the Force to himself. He grabbed the hatch cover Ganner had used as a weapon and flicked it up into the air. He slammed it against the cannon muzzle and summoned all the strength he could to hold it there. Jacen felt an immediate shock of pressure through the Force, so he redoubled his effort.
The hatch cover glowed red, then white, then evaporated from the center out. A little spurt of plasma squirted down, and Corran batted it from the air with ease. On the coralskipper, from the nose back, little golden lines traced their way along the ship’s black body. They seemed to define where bits and pieces of it had grown together. Then a nova filled the cockpit and blew out the viewports. Burning plasma geysered into the air, and the ship hung there for a moment before dipping its nose and plunging into the ferrocrete.
It hit hard enough to ripple the surface, knocking Jacen down. Pieces of the ship shattered and started bouncing across the plaza. Jacen began to comprehend his danger from them, but before he could act, Corran came sprinting over, hauled him up by his shoulders, and pulled him clear. A huge section of the coralskipper’s tail toppled over on the spot where Jacen had fallen.
He smiled up at Corran. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“Sure, now don’t ever disobey another order.”
The young Jedi blinked in confusion. “But I saved your life.”
“Details, details.” Corran pulled him along as they sprinted to catch up with Ganner and the majority of the resistance fighters. “I lead this expedition, I get to decide the risks and who assumes them. You almost got yourself killed.”
Jacen frowned. “But since I saved your life, you managed to save mine.”
Corran’s eyes narrowed, but he smiled. “You know, if you’re going to keep using logic against me, I’m just going to have to send you home.”
“Yes, sir.”
His chest heaving as it hadn’t in years, Corran crouched in the shadow of one of the Xenobotanical Garden’s outbuildings. The retreat from the plaza had been easier initially than he had expected. While the human thralls did come after them, they did so with little organization. Corran had no desire to slay the thralls, but the resistance members seemed to regard setting their fellow Garqians free of their torment as a sacred duty. Corran had previously acknowledged on Bimmiel how those who could not be cured had to be destroyed, but he was glad he didn’t have to be the one pulling the trigger.
He glanced across the small pathway to where Jacen Solo knelt on one knee. The boy had impressed him. Boy? Emperor’s black bones, he’s a young man, and growing up fast. The use of the hatch cover had likely saved Corran’s life. The fact that the plasma reflux blew out the plasma cannon and splashed plasma all through the interior of the coralskipper had been an added benefit. What he liked more about Jacen, though, was the way he had paced Corran in their retreat.
Along with several of the resistance members, the two of them formed the group’s rear guard. Ganner and four of the Noghri went with the main body, while the remaining two Noghri were heading away with some resistance fighters and the two prisoners. The action the rear guard faced had not been that serious until a larger Yuuzhan Vong transport had descended. From that point forward, Yuuzhan Vong warriors entered the fight, and they clearly were something more than thrall trainers.
Corran ducked as a hum rose and a slender, dark shape flew at him. The razorbug sailed past his head and landed in the dust a couple of meters behind him. It sprouted arms and legs and, if allowed to, would have taken wing again and returned to the warrior that had thrown it.
The Jedi reversed his lightsaber and twisted the handle. The blade went purple and more than doubled in length. The coruscating purple blade tapped the bug, instantly converting the moisture in it into vapor. The bug popped crisply, spraying legs and chitin everywhere.
“I hate those things.”
Jacen nodded, then pointed off to the right.
Returning his blade to its normal focal length, Corran ducked his head out past the edge of the building. He caught a fleeting glimpse of a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, then nothing. These warriors are very good. We’re not going to see them until too late.
Ganner’s voice poured through his comlink’s earpiece. “Perimeter secure. Ithorian section is ours.”
Corran double-tapped his comlink’s microphone, then glanced at Jacen and pointed toward the gardens and the tall grove of bafforr trees. The young man nodded, then took off at a run, cutting left and right at random intervals to make hitting him with any sort of missile weapon tougher. Good for you, Jacen.
The eldest Jedi came up out of his crouch and gritted his teeth against the pain in his legs. He danced back from his shelter, watching for movement, then turned and sprinted. Like Jacen, he juked, and even threw in a few skips.
Two razorbugs arced past him, then a fatter, blue thing hit the ground and exploded off to his right. He cut through an archway and dodged right, then heard something skip off the ferrocrete. He almost stopped for a half second, hunkering down in the archway’s shadow, to ambush the next Yuuzhan Vong through, but he knew he’d be overwhelmed by those following him.
No, into the bafforr grove. That’s going to be our chance.
The bafforr grove was a rarity from Ithor. The towering trees, with their dark green foliage, were semi-intelligent and certainly a big reason why the Ithorians worshiped the Mother Jungle. The Ithorians’ decision to transplant bafforr trees to Garqi signaled their belief that the Garqians shared that uniquely harmonious bond with their environment that the Ithorians had with theirs. Corran hoped that, through the Force, the Jedi could link with the trees and get an idea where those hunting them were. He was far from sure if that plan would succeed, but it was the best they had to work with at the time.
Corran arrived at the heart of the grove and dropped to one knee near Ganner, Jacen, and Rade. On their faces he could recognize the fact that they knew they were dead. He knew it, too, but every second they could buy would be one more second that the Best Chance could use to get its cargo aboard and out.
He looked up at Jacen. “I should have sent you out with the ship.”
Jacen shrugged. “I’m just the copilot. We get off this rock, we get off it together.”
“It’s a deal.” Corran glanced at Ganner. “Tried to read the trees?”
Ganner nodded wearily. “There is something there, but it’s very vague and subtle.”
Rade pointed at the yellow pollen staining the ground. “It’s spring. The trees are devoting a lot of energy to growth and reproduction. They are budding, after all.”
“I see that.” Corran sighed. “My grandfather once told me that a blood meal is nourishing for plants. One way or another they’re going to gorge.”
Jacen pointed back toward the archway. “They’re coming.”
Back at the arch some reptoids and thralls darted through, taking up covered positions. Resistance snipers hit a few, but had no clean kills. More of the Yuuzhan Vong experiments and slaves came through, but they huddled there, around the gate, waiting. Their anxious glances told Corran what they waited for. When it came, he couldn’t help but be impressed.
One by one, seven Yuuzhan Vong warriors stalked through the arch. They moved quickly enough, but not hurriedly. While they did not choose to stand in the open, they did stand and didn’t seek heavy cover. A few blaster bolts reached out and struck them, but their cerulean armor skipped the bolts off.
Rade raised a hand. “Wait for good shots. At this range, the armor isn’t giving.”
“Different armor, Rade. This is the serious stuff.” Corran remained on one knee and watched as the last Yuuzhan Vong warrior came through the arch. “Oh, yeah, we’re just going to have a fun time now.”
Jacen glanced over at him. “Your definition of fun and mine don’t exactly match.”
“Not you I’m worried about. It’s them.” Corran scraped two fingers through the yellow bafforr pollen and streaked it beneath each of his eyes. “Not quite as nifty as their battle masks, but it’s something.”
The warrior Corran took to be the Yuuzhan Vong leader stepped forward of their line. Rade started to give an order to cut him down, but Corran raised a hand. In a low voice he said, “Remember, we’re playing for time here.”
The Yuuzhan Vong brandished his amphistaff and began shouting in a high voice. “I am Krag of Domain Val. Garqi is mine. Surrender and you live.”
Corran stood, but Ganner eclipsed him. “I am Ganner Rhysode. I am Jedi. Before you can engage our leader, you must go through me.”
“Didn’t know you cared, Ganner.”
“I don’t, Corran, but the last time I let you fight the Yuuzhan Vong, I had to lift you into a ship and save your life. A gram of prevention is worth a kilo of cure.”
One of the Noghri likewise stepped out between the Yuuzhan Vong and Ganner. “I am Mushkil of Clan Baikh’vair. The way to a Jedi is through me.”
Tension rose in the air. For Corran it was all but palpable, and even the bafforr trees could seem to sense it. A flurry of yellow pollen began to drift down, as if the bright playful color could somehow leech the malevolence from the air. He saw yellow spots dapple the shoulders of Ganner’s combat suit and mottle the Noghri’s flesh, adding a gay note to what had only been grim before.
Then a single blaster shot burned through the air, spinning a reptoid around and dropping him to the gravel-strewn garden pathway. The tension exploded like thunder, and though Corran knew his action was suicidal, he charged with the others at the Yuuzhan Vong line. Blaster bolts, hot and red, filled the air, knocking down reptoids and thralls, leaving the Jedi and Noghri matched number for number with the Yuuzhan Vong warriors.
But not for long.
Mushkil did reach Krag Val before either Ganner or Corran could. The Noghri hurled a knife as he closed, but the warrior’s spinning amphistaff flicked the blade up high and away. Then, even before the knife had time to fall to the ground, the Yuuzhan Vong had closed, swept the Noghri’s legs from beneath him, and stabbed down. He impaled the Noghri on his amphistaff’s tail. Blood spurted straight up as Krag Val pulled his weapon free and engaged Ganner.
The Jedi’s sulfurous blade slashed low at the warrior’s legs. Krag Val pivoted on his left foot, pulling his right foot back, letting the lightsaber scar the armor on his left shin. Ganner’s rush carried him past the warrior. As he turned to bring his lightsaber into play again, the Yuuzhan Vong slashed down. Ganner reeled away, his left hand trying to keep his torn face together.
Corran drove at Krag Val, but Jacen got to him first. The younger Jedi slashed high, letting the Yuuzhan Vong block with his amphistaff. Jacen kept the pressure on, grinding the blade against the amphistaff, then kicked out with his right foot, catching the warrior on his left knee. The joint straightened, then locked and would have broken, but the warrior hopped backwards.
Jacen arced his green blade around, stroking it through the scar Ganner had cut on the left shin, and took the warrior’s leg off at midcalf. He leapt above an amphistaff blow, then slashed down and caught Krag Val’s right arm at the juncture of his elbow. Sparking and smoking, the lightsaber sawed through it, freeing the arm and amphistaff.
Corran streaked past Jacen and leapt over the fallen Ganner. He blocked a slash meant to decapitate the downed Jedi, then whipped his blade down and around in a cut that scored a warrior’s breastplate. That warrior fell back, for a moment blocking one of his fellows. This gave Corran a chance to step on the dark end of Ganner’s lightsaber and kick it up into the air. He grabbed it in his left hand and held it with the blade trailing back behind him. He let the tip of his silver blade drift, as if he was going to connect the pollen dots on the Yuuzhan Vong’s armor with it.
“C’mon, you two. Let’s go.” Corran stamped a foot and feinted at the warriors he faced. “I don’t have all day.”
They glanced at each other, then one took a step forward, but it was a halting one. Corran knew it wasn’t a feint. The step ended abruptly and too much weight shifted onto that foot. In an instant Corran lunged high with his silver blade, then spun to the right, slashing Ganner’s trailing blade across the warrior’s knee.
As he came around he brought the silver blade down and across in a parry he hoped would pick off the attack coming from the other warrior, but the blade met no resistance at all. He tightened the arc and left the blade pointed straight at his second foe. If the warrior came at him, he’d impale himself.
But that’s not going to happen. Corran stared, wide-eyed, at the warriors. The soft, leathery tissue that covered the vonduun-crab-armor joints had begun to swell, stiffening limbs. Dark fluid oozed from holes beneath the warriors’ armpits, flooding down to erode the pollen stains. The swelling forced the warriors upright, then, stiff-limbed, they toppled over. Breath came short and shallow for them, and Corran had no doubt the armor’s swelling was suffocating them.
All around him the Yuuzhan Vong warriors were down, along with two more Noghri. Ganner had risen to hands and knees, his left glove covered with blood. Jacen stood over the body of another dying warrior while the resistance blasterfire broke the slaves and sent them scurrying from the garden.
Jacen looked stunned. “What happened?”
Corran waved a hand through the air. “If I had to guess, their living armor had a nasty allergic reaction to this pollen. It’s swollen up and is killing them.” He swept his silver blade around in a circle. “We have to burn this all down. Everything.”
“What?” Jacen pointed at the bafforr trees. “They’re semi-intelligent. They saved us. How can we burn them down?”
“We have to. We have to burn the entire garden.” Corran nodded at Rade. “Gotta be done. We know bafforr pollen can affect vonduun crab armor, and quickly, too. The Yuuzhan Vong don’t, otherwise we’d never have been allowed to retreat here. This knowledge is vital, and we have to delay the Vong figuring out what happened here.”
The youngest Jedi shook his head. “What if it’s just the pollen from this grove? What if this grove’s genetics are unique?”
“Take cuttings then, Jacen, take pollen samples, as much as you want.” Corran turned to Rade. “We need to start four fires, so the Yuuzhan Vong can’t trace this grove as what we’re trying to destroy by having the fire’s epicenter be here. We’ll also need to knock out the fire suppression system here to make sure it all goes. Their dead have to burn, too.”
The resistance leader nodded. “I’m on it.”
Jacen shook his head. “This place, so much greenery. Can’t you feel the Force here, Corran?”
“I can, Jacen, but we have to look beyond it.” He dropped to a knee beside Ganner and helped one of the resistance fighters press a bandage over the left side of Ganner’s face. “The Vong will figure out what happened here, eventually. I just hope what we’re doing earns us enough time that we can mount a defense of Ithor. If we can’t, that world will die, and with it will go our best chances for driving the Yuuzhan Vong from our galaxy.”