| Author |
Topic:
Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 11 UP 15/10**
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Draconarius
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
8/17 2:40am
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 8 UP 28/0
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Jek_Windu posted:
That was one of most beautiful battles I've ever seen described in fanfic. Great trap at the end, completely and utterly unexpected.
 Wow. Thank you, Jek. I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
TO EVERYONE: I'm sorry this took so long. [voice=Anakin]I have no excuse[/voice]. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Though, I must say, it is getting a little lonely around here... 
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ambush, Part One
Deep Space near the Unknown Regions
Even submerged in the Battle Meld, there was still enough of her own self left for her to mutter mutely, “Oh, you have got to be kidding me” as the coralskippers fell away from the Vong interdictor’s hull.
The astromech Jaina had been given shrieked behind her cockpit. [Detecting one hundred and thirty coralskippers. Recommend retreat!]
“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Jaina growled, but she knew that they didn’t have enough time to escape before the corals jumped them. Besides, even if they could, that would just leave the Magician to be set upon and torn apart, and none of the Jedi were going to let that happen while they were still alive.
The corals came on in numbers that made Jaina cringe. The Jedi jinked around the lethal latticework of magma bursts, holding their triggers down to spray the coralskippers with as much of their own fire as possible. The Battle Meld converged their crosshairs on one coralskipper after another, reducing over a dozen to fiery blossoms.
But for every one that went down, there were five more ready to take its place. Jaina took several hits in succession, draining her shields almost to nothing, and still the coralskippers just kept on coming.
Jaina pivoted up on her port stabilizer to dodge a triple coralskipper assault from behind, snapping off one of her two proton torpedoes. The corals who had just tried to ambush her ran straight into it, and all three disappeared inside the nuclear supernova.
A split-second squeeze of her trigger sent five red pulses from her cannons mid-turn, a Force-inspired action that vaporised a coralskipper gunning for Zekk, and then Jaina had to turn her turn into a g-force ridden climbing roll to avoid another trio of coralskippers. She didn’t even have time to counterattack as she dived right to avoid a third group of corals, then broke left hard to dodge around a fourth group, barely avoiding having burning magma splattered all over her buckling shields.
She wasn’t so lucky the next time; two coralskippers slipped onto her tail and attacked in tandem with the converging assault from four other skips. Bright-orange lava flew around her fighter from five directions at once, and not even her Force-assisted flying and Jaden and Zekk’s attempts to help her could stop some of it landing on her fighter. Her shield generator overloaded and shut down, allowing a blast of magma from the side to blow her fighter’s nose off.
Jaina cursed and sent her fighter into a chaotic series of maneuvers that stopped any more magma landing long enough for her to get minimal shields back. She knew she was in bad shape; her sensors had gone along with the front two thirds of her Scorcher’s nose. Her shields were barely up, and what power was left in her lasers wouldn’t boost them by much at all.
The Battle Meld told her that everyone else was in similar straits. Tahiri had taken a scrape to her unshielded fighter’s hull that had reduced her shield generator to molten slag. Anakin was trying his hardest to fight off the corals coming after both him and his wife, killing one every few seconds but overheating his cannons to the point of overload. Jaden and Zekk had been forced well away from Jaina and were both struggling to stay alive with their shields failing and guns recharging, while Valin tried to fight off a whole squadron of coralskippers by himself.
Thanks to the Force, Jaina sensed all of that in a fraction of a second, and she also found herself thanking the Force as it guided her and Valin’s evasive maneuvers towards each other. The first Jaina knew about it was when Valin’s fighter almost completely obscured her cockpit canopy. Any normal pilots would have panicked and thrown their fighters into a hard turn to avoid a collision, but Jaina and Valin weren’t normal pilots. Force-guided twitches of their hands and feet feathered their manoeuvring jets just enough to let them slide around each other close enough to scrape shields.
Jaina’s finger depressed her cannons’ trigger and the four coralskippers that were on Valin’s tail disappeared in blossoms of fire.
Lacking sensors, Jaina didn’t have any way to see the death flares of her own pursuers, so she had to take the sudden end to the lava streaming at her tail as proof enough. She hit the brakes and turned to find Valin in the half second they had before another group of Vong attacked—
The last thing she saw before everything went white was something orange splattering over her canopy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The lava-splattered engine tore itself free of the Scorcher and careened into space, leaving the rest of the fighter to spin out of control until it was transformed into a ball of fire that dissipated within instants.
Over the commlink, Jag heard Wyn’s scream. “Major Forge, no!”
Jag only grimaced and locked onto the Major’s killer. The coral saw him coming and looped up towards him. The two pilots snapped off what shots they could before they passed. Jag turned into a wide curve while his opponent ran headlong into the Scorcher being flown by the now furious Wynssa Fel.
“You’ll pay for that, you kriffing scarhead!”
Jag was actually impressed when he finished his turn and saw the coral dodging its way through the river of laser bolts Wynssa was dishing out. However, the poor pilot didn’t have a chance at defending himself against a second attacker; Jag demonstrated that when he impaled the skip upon a pair of heavy laser blasts.
Wynssa barrel rolled through the dispersing cloud of flame, scattering bits of molten coral with her shields. “Have some of that,” she taunted. “Jag, did you see Major Forge eject?”
“No, but I didn’t have a very good view,” Jag replied. He switched his comm to the frequency that the remnants of Fury squadron were using. “Furies, Major Forge just went down; I’m taking command. Form up and—.”
Jag stopped, very abruptly, when his eyes drifted onto his sensor board and saw the massive blob of red blips obscuring the Magician and the Jedi from view.
He was so shocked that he had to bite back one of the colourful phrases he’d picked up off Jaina.
The Jedi were fighting against almost a hundred corals, outnumbered almost twenty to one, fighting harder than even they probably thought possible but still losing. Jag cycled his targeting system through the five remaining Jedi, and his frown deepened as he saw their status. Not one had more than a quarter shield strength left, all five had taken hull damage, and—worst of all—Jaina’s Scorcher wasn’t one of them!
“Raven One to Magician,” Jag barked frantically. “I have seven Scorchers with me. We’re coming to assist you.”
“Negative, Jag. Don’t move,” came Tycho Celchu’s voice. “You’ll just get yourself killed.”
Jag racked his mind for some argument to explain why that didn’t matter, that he had to make sure Jaina was alright right now, but deep down he knew there was little he could do. Had she gone EV, it would be a simple matter to pick her up once the battle was over. Jag’s only problem, he knew, was that that plan rested on the assumption Jaina was still alive, having survived ejection without being roasted by a stray lava blast or sucked into a dovan basal’s quantum singularity or impaled upon a coralskipper’s nose.
Jag didn’t like assumptions, especially ones of this magnitude, but that didn’t matter either. If Jaina was still alive, she could be pick her up later; if not, then there was nothing more he could do. Either way, getting himself killed wouldn’t solve anything.
“Acknowledged, Magician,” Jag sighed between calming breaths. “Furies, form up on me. The Alchemist is starting to take hull damage; we’ll get back there and help.”
“What? Jag, the Magician!” Wynssa sounded hysterical. “We have to—.”
“We can’t, Wyn,” Jag snapped. “Now form up. Let’s go.”
“What are you talking about? You want Jaina to die?”
Jag felt as though someone had just twisted a knife inside his heart. He wanted to help Jaina, he needed to help Jaina, and if he only had himself to think about he would already be halfway towards that coralskipper maelstrom. But he had a squadron to lead and a battle to win, and he wasn’t going to let his personal feelings stop him doing what needed to be done.
“Of course I don’t, Wynssa.” Jag began to turn back towards the Alchemist, forcing himself to operate strictly as a CEDF pilot, not Jaina Solo’s fiancé. “We’ve got a job to do.”
“The hell with it!” Wynssa shrieked. “I’m not going to just sit here and watch the Vong take Valin away from me!”
“No. Wyn, don’t!”
He was far too late; the words hadn’t even left his mouth when Wynssa whipped her Scorcher around and raced off to save her boyfriend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The ship rocked hard—again—and this time Wedge had to struggle just to remain in his seat. The lights flickered and almost didn’t come back on, leaving the only source of light to be the explosion ripping apart the security console. The Rodian officer fell to the deck, swatting madly at the flames licking at his uniform.
“Get him some help!” Wedge hollered over the screeching alarms. “Tycho, status!”
Tycho waited until he had regained his footing beside the tactical officer’s console before he replied. “Shields at thirty percent. We’re starting to take hull damage.”
“The Black Knights?”
The young officer at the fighter control station turned away to look at his commander. “I still can’t find Jaina’s Scorcher, sir! The others won’t hold out much longer.”
Wedge pushed himself out of his chair and staggered several steps as another squadron of coralskippers strafed his ship. Green laser fire blasted the space outside the bridge, trying and failing to take out the attacking skips; Wedge only saw one coralskipper disappear inside the blinding green streak of a turbolaser blast.
He made his way to the starfighter control station and hunched over the officer’s shoulder, and stubbornly refused to lose his balance as yet another bunch of corals launched a strafing run, this time straight on the bridge.
Wedge watched the lava spray against the bridge shields until he was sure they were going to hold, then leaned down so nothing could prevent the fighter controller hearing him. “Are the Jedi still grouped up?”
“Yes, they are. Why?”
Wedge looked to his exec. “Tycho, get the ship into position for a full frontal assault. Aim it at the Black Knights.”
“Sir?” the tactical officer Tycho was hunched over asked.
“The Jedi should be able to fly through it, and a concentrated assault should vaporise a few dozen corals for them,” Wedge explained quickly. “Throw everything we’ve got at them. Missiles, torpedoes, the lot.”
“Missile launchers are set to auto-fire, captain.”
“Then get them off auto-fire! Start the reload cycles and make sure every last one is ready to fire.” Wedge reached down to snatch the headset off his fighter controller. “Anakin, this is Wedge. I need you and the others to try and keep the corals in one group and in front of us.”
“Excuse me?”
Given the circumstances, Wedge was impressed that Anakin could spare the concentration to reply at all.
“Keep the corals together in front of the Magician’s bow,” Wedge repeated. “We’re going to try and thin them out a bit for you.”
“Oh. Oh! Right. Just hurry up. I’m not sure—Valin!”
Wedge watched Valin’s Scorcher disappear from the status board in front of him as Anakin’s horrified cry echoed in his ear. His breath caught in his throat as he looked down at the little light beside the darkened Scorcher outline, the one that would light up if Valin had managed to eject in time.
The same one that still hadn’t lit up for Jaina.
The light turned green after what seemed, to Wedge at least, to be an eternity. He let out a quick sigh and then ordered, “Anakin, lure the corals into position. It’ll get them away from Valin, at least.”
“Just hurry! Argh, damn!”
“We’re doing the best we can.” Wedge handed the headset back to the fighter controller and turned his attention to Tycho. “We’re going to need as much firepower as we can get for this. Are then any Scorchers nearby that could dump a few torpedoes for us?”
“Actually… yes.” Tycho looked up at his old friend, a wave of sudden remembrance spreading across his features. “Jag said he had a half dozen Scorchers nearby.”
Wedge ripped the headset off his fighter controller’s head again. “Magician to Ravens One and Two. Jag, Wynssa, do you read?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wynssa’s hand was gripping her throttle control so hard that her knuckles had turned bone white. She just wished it was her other hand that was holding the throttle. Then it wouldn’t matter that it was the one shaking as though someone had locked the vibration cell of a vibroblade inside her palm. As it was, it’s uncontrollable shaking was making it impossible for her to keep the control stick still.
Not that that was really important, seeing as how her eyes were so fogged with tears that she could hardly distinguish the blurry splotches that the stars had become from the equally blurry scratches marring her cockpit canopy.
And then, of course, there was that ever-present voice echoing around her cockpit from the comm speakers.
“Wynssa, slow down! That’s an order!”
Oh, now he was ordering her, as if that was going to make her care. “The hell with you! I’m not… not watching Valin die…”
Reciting the words made the image flash through her head again. Such a simple one, really; just a little green blip winking out of existence on her sensor board. It was what the image meant that had her in a state of barley controlled panic.
It meant that Valin’s Scorcher was gone, destroyed, ripped apart by a Vong magma cannon. It meant that Valin, if he wasn’t already dead, was drifting helplessly through space, waiting until some filthy scarhead decided to finish him off by barbecuing him with a magma burst or pulling him into a singularity.
She wasn’t going to let that happen.
Not in a million years was she going to let that happen.
“I’m not letting them take Valin away from me!” she screamed, shaking her head to clear the tears out of her eyes and let them join the others drifting throughout her cockpit.
“Wynssa, you’re not going to help him by getting yourself killed!” Jag barked. “Slow down and think!”
“Damn you to hell, you coward!” Wynssa screamed back. Why wouldn’t he understand that she had to do something? She couldn’t sit here and watch the only person who really loved her die.
Why couldn’t Jag understand that?
“You should be trying to save him as well! And Jaina! You don’t care what happens to her! You can’t love her! You don’t!” she howled, ignoring her tenderised throat begging her to stop screaming. “If you did, you’d understand… you… you’d understand…”
“I do understand, Wynssa.” The way Wynssa’s unstable hand was making her fighter shudder like a frightened whisperkit had let Jag slide alongside by now. He was probably staring through their cockpit canopies straight at her. “I want to help Jaina—and Valin—but we can’t help anyone if we’re dead. Uncle Wedge and our cousins are still aboard the Magician. We have to protect them, Wynssa.”
“But… b-but…” she forced her eyes to shut, trying and failing to stop more tears leaking out. “But Valin might still be alive, and if he is—.”
“Then the best way to help him is to win the battle as quickly as we can so we can pick him up,” Jag interrupted.
“What if… what if he didn’t…”
“Then there’s nothing more you can do, Wynssa,” Jag said softly. “Please, Wynssa. Slow down. What’s going to happen to Valin if he survives but you get yourself killed?”
“I… I…” Wynssa choked. She didn’t have an answer for him, not one she was willing to actually give voice to. She knew Valin would be heartbroken—was there something beyond heartbroken?—if she died. She couldn’t do that to him.
She just couldn’t.
She closed her eyes, releasing another pair of tears into her cockpit, and then she slowly pulled the throttle back. Fresh tears fell every time the throttle clicked down another fraction, until finally Wynssa started to weep.
“Good girl, Wynssa,” she heard Jag sigh with relief. “I think you should just take your fighter and stay out of the way. You’re not going to be much—.”
“Magician to Ravens One and Two. Jag, Wynssa, do you read?”
Jag replied first. “Raven One here.”
Wynssa tried twice to hit the comm controls with her shaking hand before she finally got it. “R-Raven Two h-h-here.”
“We need some help here,” her uncle began, wasting no time asking if she was alright. “I need the two of you to slave your targeting systems to our and get ready to dump your torpedoes. How many do you have?”
“Four. Haven’t used any,” Wynssa squeaked.
“Two,” Jag added.
“That’ll do. We’re going to try and thin out a few of those coralskippers for Anakin and the others. When I say fire, dump every torpedo you’ve got.”
“Acknowledged, Magician.” Wynssa heard Jag’s commlink chirp as he switched over to their squadron frequency. “Wynssa, what did he mean by ‘dump’ our torpedoes?”
Wynssa’s eyes drifted back to the sensor board. She couldn’t help thinking about Valin, drifting through space or… or…
“Wynssa?”
“Feature Anakin put into the Scorchers,” she explained, her voice cracking with unbearable dread. “You can open the missile bay and drop them all into space,” she began, reciting from the lessons Colonel Darklighter had given her. “More than halves the accuracy, but lets you get them all out at once.”
“Right. So that’s what that control was. Wait for Captain Antilles’ order.” Jag violated his apparent refusal to stray from the perfect fighter pilot role and turned his voice into the one Wynssa’s Jag had used when he was worried about her. “Are you going to be alright, Wynssa?”
“Yes,” she grumbled, focusing her unbearable fear for Valin into a palpable fury directed straight at the scarheads trying to take him from her. Her free hand accessed the missile controls and set her bay up for a torpedo drop. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Just as long as I get to kill those scarheads and get my Valin back…
Then her uncle’s voice echoed through the comm into her cockpit.
“Jag, Wynssa, fire!”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Danni wanted to scream as she stared helplessly at the sensor board. The surviving Black Knights were twisting and spinning their way through the coralskipper wing as though possessed by some demon that had crawled up from the underworld. Another coralskipper was going down every few seconds, but each one was taking another few megajoules of shield energy or another piece of hull along with them. Valin was EV, floating helplessly through space, while Jaina was just… gone. Danni was fairly sure she was still alive, not having felt the shockwave of agony that would have torn through the Force had she died, but the fact that her beacon still hadn’t shown up anywhere had Danni worried sick.
“I still can’t find her,” the officer occupying the seat Danni was leaning over said. “I’m sorry.”
Danni looked up to where Kyle was standing near the captain and shook her head. The Jedi Master’s frown deepened and he turned to the captain.
Before he could say anything, the ship bucked beneath them all, sending everyone who wasn’t seated or braced against something to the floor. Danni squealed in pain as her wrist took the bulk of her weight crashing onto the floor, and her wrist continued to throb as she picked herself back up. She knew instantly that she’d probably sprained it, if not broken it outright.
Wonderful.
Around her, the bridge had descended into chaos. Two power conduits in the wall had exploded, leaving one crewman writhing in pain and another dead on the floor. Several crewman who had shared Danni’s misfortune of having been standing when the ship was hit were nursing broken arms or legs, making Danni suddenly grateful she only had a sprained wrist.
Captain Kre’fey finally managed to regain his balance and hollered, “What was that?”
“A coralskipper just rammed the port engine!” Kayti cried, her teenage voice cracking with fright, reminding both Danni and the captain that this was her first major battle. Danni made a mental note to console the girl after it was all over.
“The engine’s scrap metal!” the ship’s engineer called out next. “I’m reducing power to the starboard engine and firing port thrusters to compensate, but we’re still at half engine power.”
“The Vong destroyers are beginning to close!” Kayti wailed.
Danni heard Kyle swear as the Captain let out a snarl that she wouldn’t have been surprised to hear come from an aggravated Naboo tusk cat. “Helm, bring us about. I want to meet those destroyers with our forward shields. Ready all weapon banks.”
Danni cradled her sore wrist as she looked down at the sensor board again. She knew what the captain was doing; with the ship’s aft shields drained from constant coralskipper strafing runs and engines running at half power, there was no way to outrun the speedy Yuuzhan Vong destroyers. The only choices available now were turn and fight, or die running.
Anakin, guys, we could really use some help right now, Danni thought.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Anakin, everyone: incoming!”
Wedge’s cry was all the warning Anakin and the other three surviving Black Knights got before the Magician’s fearsome arsenal opened up on the coralskippers swarming around them. Anakin’s entire universe suddenly changed dodging endless streams to magma to a mix between blocking out Artoo’s horrified wailing and spiralling the two of them around turbolaser blasts powerful enough to vaporise their entire fighter with only a scraping hit. He gave himself completely over to the Force, willing more than flying his fighter through the maze of gigantic energy hyphens.
The coralskippers chasing him and his friends didn’t stand a chance. The yammosk coordinating them was so hell-bent on eradicating the Jedi that it sent the coralskippers in after them, and after that all the Jedi had to do was keep moving while the corals were either impaled upon a turbolaser blast or came close enough to one that half their hulls were melted off.
The turbolaser barrage ended as abruptly as it had begun, and the coralskippers moved in on their targets once more, blissfully unaware of the dozens of streaking missiles and torpedoes headed straight for them. Two concussion missiles slid in completely undetected, turning a pair of corals into short-lived supernovas, and then the rest of the broken coralskipper armada realized what was happening and started swerving to avoid the oncoming warheads.
This gave the surviving Jedi Knights enough time to swing around and hammer them, hard. Anakin and Tahiri teamed up to strafe three corals out of existence before they distracted two more long enough for a torpedo or missile to blow them apart. Zekk and Jaden nailed four themselves and let the missiles take three more before they linked back up with Anakin and Tahiri and set upon the remaining corals. Within seconds another eight were dead, reducing the once-mighty coralskipper armada down to a mere handful of fighters.
The few survivors began backing off to defend the cruiser and interdictor, which were both trying to put some distance between them and the Magician. Their commander had probably decided that he needed a moment to think following the massacre of his fighter cover.
Anakin didn’t feel like letting him have it.
A brief probe of the Battle Meld told him the other three Black Knights agreed, although both Tahiri and Jaden wanted to head back to the Magician. Anakin got enough information from the Force to know that both their fighters were practically falling apart, and so he urged them back as well.
Then Anakin’s comm speakers crackled to life again. “Magician to Black Knight One. Jag and Wynssa are coming to help you out,” Wedge explained. “I think we could do with one less interdictor around here.”
“I thought… you’d never ask,” Anakin blurted between breaths. He was only just beginning to understand how heavily he’d been calling upon the Force to help him outfly the corals and protect his wife and child. Every cell in his body was calling out for rest, begging him to stop for a few hours.
Anakin knew he couldn’t do that. He stared his trembling hand of flesh down until it was moving even less than his mechanical one was, then he linked his comm to Jag and Wynssa and prepared for their attack on the interdictor.
Just keep me going for a few more minutes, Anakin pleaded as he drew on the Force again. “We’ll have to clear off those coralskippers first. There’s…” Anakin quickly scanned Artoo’s report. “…twenty-one of them and four of us. That means we’ll have to take five each and then gang up on the last one.”
“Acknowledged,” Jag replied in a crisp military monotone.
[I recommend against this!] Artoo wailed. [We can’t take much more damage.]
“I’ll make sure we don’t get hit, then,” Anakin assured his astromech, and he had little time to do much else. He and Zekk led the charge against the enemy interdictor, angling around the lumbering cruiser so they wouldn’t have to deal with it until later. The surviving coralskippers moved to intercept.
Anakin snapped off a few bursts at the first coral and let Zekk snap it in two with his heavy lasers before he banked right and reduced the corals Jag and Wynssa had distracted to free-floating atoms.
The brother and sister turned after another flight of skips while Artoo warned Anakin of three more approaching from behind. Anakin rolled up on his starboard stabilizer and led the corals into a wide arc that brought them right into Zekk’s crosshair.
While his friend’s red-streaking lasers forced two of the corals to break off and disintegrated the third, Anakin surprised the one that was trying to ambush Zekk. It fell for the tried-and-true dovan basal distraction trick, forced to defend against Anakin’s normal laser cannons while he snuck a blast from his dual heavy cannons around the singularity. The fraction of the hull that wasn’t vaporised outright drifted off into space.
[Fourteen left,] Artoo announced an instant before Jag claimed another one. [Thirteen.]
Anakin spun around the strafing attack of another pair, then let them swing around onto his tail, were they became so fixated on gaining the glory of killing the illustrious Anakin Solo that it was very easy for Wynssa to surprise them from beneath and vaporise both. Anakin swung around onto the tail of the coralskipper trailing Wynssa and let his laser cannons loose on it. Anakin stuck to the coral’s tail as it lead him through a series of frantic spins and turns, until his endless assault overwhelmed the dovan basal and a quartet of red streaks dissected the coralskipper’s hull.
The only remaining targets were busy fighting off Zekk, Jag, and Wynssa, leaving Anakin with a moment’s peace to take stock of the situation. “Artoo… the interdictor…?”
[Moving away,] the astromech replied, lighting up one of the larger blips on Anakin’s sensor board. [I recommend torpedoes.]
Anakin nodded to himself and angled his fighter towards the interdictor, flying wide around the surviving cruiser. The cruiser was busy still trying to fight off the Magician, but the damage the Black Knights had caused when they first launched their attack had pushed the odds fairly in Wedge’s favour. It wouldn’t be long before it was reduced to a floating hulk.
Anakin came at the interdictor from the far side, spraying laser fire around its hull while he slipped around the magma bursts sent at him by the handful of turreted corals still affixed to the ship’s hull.
The interdictor’s spare dovan basals did their job, intercepting the incoming laser bolts while the main basals continued to put up the gravity well stopping the Alchemist and Magician from escaping. Anakin saw three positioned around the interdictor’s right side and at the same time saw his way in. He snapped off a pair of torpedoes and then continued spraying laser fire over the interdictor’s hull.
When they weren’t being directly controlled by a Yuuzhan Vong, dovan basals were not the most intelligent creatures; they would simply defend their host vessel against the greatest threat they could detect. This meant that the basals continued o suck in Anakin’s laser fire until they realised there was a pair of torpedoes headed straight for the interdictor’s hull. The nearest dovan basal went to move its singularity in front of the incoming torpedoes.
Half a second before they did, Anakin reached out with the Force and stopped it cold.
It took another half a second for the other dovan basals to realise that their companion had been rendered useless, and by then the torpedoes were already ploughing into the interdictor’s side.
For a single heartbeat, the torpedoes simply disappeared into the yorik coral, the only sign they had ever existed being the red and blue trails from their thrusters. A fraction of a second later, the warheads detonated and a gigantic explosion tore away a quarter of the interdictor’s side.
The ship began to list away, debris trailing from the gaping wound as it tried to escape. Anakin would have considered just letting it go if it had given up projecting the gravity well that was stopping his ships from escaping. As it was, the well stayed active and Anakin chased after the interdictor to finish it off. The remaining coralskippers tried to stop him, but with Zekk, Jag, and Wynssa on their tails they didn’t stand a chance. Artoo chirped as the four surviving skips disappeared off Anakin’s sensor board.
Anakin zeroed in on the wound he’d left in the interdictor’s side and launched his last two torpedoes at it. The only dovan basals that could have intercepted them were too busy projecting the interdiction field to move to intercept, leaving the ship’s wounded side open for the next two warheads. The torpedoes burrowed deep into the hole the last two had left and detonated. Fire erupted from inside the ship’s ruined hull, screaming back through the hole the first two torpedoes had left an instant before the same explosion tore out the ship’s opposite side. The breach widened as the explosion shredded more of the ship until the entire thing split in half.
Anakin sighed in relief as the thing died, but he knew that last Force trick he’d used had drained him almost completely. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and his eyelids felt like they each had a star destroyer dangling from them. He slumped back into his seat as his entire body went numb.
He only barely heard Artoo’s questioning whistle. [Anakin? Are you okay?]
Anakin could only manage a couple of gasped words between exhausted breaths. “I think you… should take… over… Artoo…”
Then a final sigh escaped Anakin’s lips as the blackness closed in on him.
[end of chapter]
Next time on Shattered Mirror: Ambush, Part Three
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Shattered Mirror - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28487856/p1/?1 Proudly A/T and J/J Knighted by the wonderful SilSolo "Damned if I'm gonna lose to you!" "Then damned you shall be!" - my brother and I playing Smash Bros.
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Jainasolo101
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
8/17 5:30pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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Oh no! Please keep Anakin safe. And Jaina. I really can't wait to see what happends. *looking worried* 
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" Do or do not. There is no try."
Jagged Fel ROCKS!
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canadianjedimama
Registered:
Jan '08
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Date Posted:
8/17 7:04pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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Draco, I'm still reading. 
Althought this last bit had me on the edge of my seat... I'm very worried for everyone.
Bit this bit did give me a giggle:
Draco posted:
“Throw everything we’ve got at them. Missiles, torpedoes, the lot.”
I had this flash of that scene from POTC where they're loading the silver into the cannons... 
Nice work.
CJM
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Lucky member of the Jagateers, my e-sister's of Jag-love!  Death of The Calrissian Pimp-Cane 43 ABY May tha playa rest in peace, yo.
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jadesabre75
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
8/17 7:43pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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GAH! *good thoughts...good thoughts...you're not gonna kill Jaina...you're not gonna kill Jaina* Ok, I'm better now. LOL Great action!!!! This was one of my favorite chapters!
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Stories are in my bio! Have at it!
"Writers block is when your characters get tired of everything you do to them and go on strike."
Lucky Member of the Jagateers: Jagateer of the Imperial Red Swim Trunks
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angry_bendu1
Registered:
Apr '07
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Date Posted:
8/19 2:16pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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Uh, wow.
I think that's all you'll be getting out of me for now, sorry.  I need time to digest this.  
Excellent post! 
-----signature-----
Ramblings of a Jedi (snarky Jesika's diary- filled w/ romance, sarcasm, etc.): http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/28753761/p1/?0 I was staring at the orange juice because it said "concentrate". Proud owner of a '96 Geo Metro. "To the Crapmobile!"
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Jek_Windu
Registered:
Jan '03
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Date Posted:
8/23 11:04am
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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Dude, that frakkin' rocked. I actually had to pause a moment to consider- Anakin Solo just stopped a black hole.
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Tryanids: You don't have enough bullets! Imperial Guard: YES WE DO! R.I.P. Trini 
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Draconarius
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
8/23 11:01pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
- Date Edited:
8/24 8:34pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Draconarius
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Jainasolo101:
Oh no! Please keep Anakin safe. And Jaina. I really can't wait to see what happens. *looking worried*
I must point out that I can’t really kill either of them. They are the main characters, after all.
I could lop off a limb or two, though 
canadianjedimama:
Draco, I'm still reading.
Althought this last bit had me on the edge of my seat... I'm very worried for everyone.
That was the general idea, I’m afraid.
Bit this bit did give me a giggle:
Draco posted:
________________________________________
“Throw everything we’ve got at them. Missiles, torpedoes, the lot.”
________________________________________
I had this flash of that scene from POTC where they're loading the silver into the cannons...
 Nah, I’m afraid the Magician doesn’t have any silver aboard.
They could always throw the kitchen utensils into the torpedo launcher and see how that goes, though. Worth a shot, you think? 
Nice work.
Thanks.
CJM
Draco.
Jadesabre75:
GAH!
Now there’s the reaction I was after
*good thoughts...good thoughts...you're not gonna kill Jaina...you're not gonna kill Jaina*
So sure, are you? I might just point out that I’ve got 19 characters locked in as ‘going to die’, and I have still yet to decide the ultimate fates of 3 more. So, out of 45 total characters (who are listed on the DP, anyway) I will be killing between 19 and 22 of them.
What that boils down to is: there are precious few ‘safe’ characters at this point.
Ok, I'm better now.
Glad to hear it… though I think my last comment didn’t help much…
Great action!!!! This was one of my favorite chapters!
Thanks!
angrybendu1:
Uh, wow.
Thank you.
I think that's all you'll be getting out of me for now, sorry. I need time to digest this.
I apologise for the overload.
Excellent post!
Again:
Jek_Windu:
Dude, that frakkin' rocked. I actually had to pause a moment to consider- Anakin Solo just stopped a black hole.
He’s not the first one. I got the idea from NJO: Dark Tide I. Luke does it to a Yuuzhan Vong tank. Luke’s trick was a bit more impressive; he actually pushed it back into the tank. Killed the thing with its own black hole.
If that’s not justice, I don’t know what is.
-----signature-----
Shattered Mirror - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28487856/p1/?1 Proudly A/T and J/J Knighted by the wonderful SilSolo "Damned if I'm gonna lose to you!" "Then damned you shall be!" - my brother and I playing Smash Bros.
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duckedtapedemon
Registered:
Aug '03
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Date Posted:
8/31 3:54pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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the rewrite is good, although I liked the original a lot! I miss the little commander of the Archangel . Please add me to the PM list and keep up the good work!
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Jaina_Jade_Fel
Registered:
Aug '08
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Date Posted:
8/31 10:25pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
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hey, i read part of the origonal, but i'm really likin this!!
Ahhhhh...what will happen?!Seriously!!!!!!
can you add me to the pm list? And i can't wait for the next update!! 
-----signature-----
Did you know ‘I told you so’ has a brother? His name is ‘shut the hell up’. – Wedge Antilles
You can’t look dignified when you’re having fun. - Wes Janson
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?"- Clint Eastwood
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Draconarius
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
9/2 8:14pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
- Date Edited:
9/2 8:15pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Draconarius
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duckedtapedemon:
First: I love the username. for originality.
the rewrite is good, although I liked the original a lot!
I decided to do the rewrite to take care of a few plot holes I found creeping in. I'm also adding a couple of extra story aspects, but they probably won't show up until Bakura. Everything is almost identical to the original before that.
I miss the little commander of the Archangel.
So did I, but I've really expanded the Shattered Mirror backstory (so much so that I'm starting to consider a prequel fic...). Anyway, having Kre'fey take over from the original Captain Yannik worked better than anything other scenario.
Please add me to the PM list and keep up the good work!
Expect a PM, then.
Jaina_Jade_Fel:
hey, i read part of the origonal, but i'm really likin this!!
Thanks.
Ahhhhh...what will happen?!Seriously!!!!!!
Seriously? You're going to have wait until I get the next post up.
can you add me to the pm list? And i can't wait for the next update!!
No problem. Expect a PM in the near future.
-----signature-----
Shattered Mirror - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28487856/p1/?1 Proudly A/T and J/J Knighted by the wonderful SilSolo "Damned if I'm gonna lose to you!" "Then damned you shall be!" - my brother and I playing Smash Bros.
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Draconarius
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
9/19 11:42pm
Subject:
RE: Shattered Mirror (Post-NJO AU; A/T, J/J, Valin/Wynssa, Kyle Katarn, Danni, OCs) **CHAP 9 UP 17/0
- Date Edited:
9/20 10:24pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Draconarius
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First of all, I apologise for taking so long to get this post up (has it really been a month? Eep!). I just couldn’t get this post to work; I rewrote it at least six times. I’ve also been working on a few changes to the bad guys, and I wanted to get those worked out before I kept moving with the story.
Anyway, you’re not here to listen (or read, as the case may be) my ramblings, so I’ll get on with the chapter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
CHAPTER TEN
Ambush, Part Three
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Deep Space near the Unknown Regions
Zekk wiped the last coralskipper out of existence with a linked blast from his Scorchers heavy lasers, freeing Anakin up to make his run on the interdictor. Zekk watched his friend’s Scorcher zero in on the gaping breach the first two torpedoes had left. He felt Anakin reach out with the Force and stop the dovan basal’s black hole with an unbreakable telekinetic grip, and then Zekk watched as the torpedoes slammed into the interdictor’s side. The explosion blew the ship in half, and Zekk hissed a “Yes!” through his teeth.
It was as if the two cruisers that winked out right on top of him had been waiting for him to start thinking he had won before they jumped in.
“What? Damn it!” he snarled as the cruisers began to angle for attack. “Anakin, the Vong just got back up!”
The lack of a response worried Zekk more than the two fresh cruisers ahead of him.
“Anakin?” he repeated. “Anakin, say something!”
Then Anakin’s Force presence faded from the Battle Meld. Zekk knew he hadn’t been shot down; he could still sense his friend in the Force. The problem was that Anakin’s Force presence was subdued, quiet, almost as if…
Zekk thought, Darn it, Anakin, how many times do we have to do this?
“Anakin, answer me,” Zekk repeated. “Anakin!”
This time Zekk did get a response, in the form of a series of garbled whistles and moans that reminded him of the ramblings his astromech had been giving out until a magma blast had turned him into scrap metal.
Zekk looked down at his readout to see what the hell Artoo was saying, and what he read there made him groan.
[Anakin’s not available right now. I can take a message, if you like.]
“Very funny, Artoo,” Zekk scolded. The little astromech was beginning to remind him a bit too much of Valin. “Do you have control of the Scorcher?”
[No.]
Zekk had to read it twice to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. “No? What do you mean, no?”
[Autopilot functions have taken damage,] Artoo explained. [I’m trying to bypass. I have managed to disable Anakin’s controls so we won’t spin out of control, but until I can activate my autopilot controls I will be unable to change course.]
“Wonderful,” Zekk mumbled as he checked Anakin’s—well, Artoo’s course, and then he groaned again. The two new cruisers had dropped out right in front of the Scorcher’s current course. Artoo could perform some basic evasive maneuvers and then head back to the Magician, but only if he had control of the fighter. Without it, there was nothing the astromech could do to stop himself and his pilot being immolated upon the cruisers’ lava cannons.
Then the cruisers complicated matters further by dropping off fresh coralskippers. Zekk counted ten fighters launching from each ship, certainly less than their full load. The rest must have been lashed onto that interdictor for the ambush; that also explained why the cruisers had been held back until now. Without fighter cover, they were extremely vulnerable to Scorcher runs.
The coralskippers all began to zero in on Anakin’s directionless Scorcher. Zekk pushed his fighter to the limit of its acceleration power and raced to reach Anakin’s fighter first. He still had no idea what he was going to do; even if he somehow defeated all twenty coralskippers, he still didn’t have a way to change Anakin’s course.
Inwardly, he felt like smacking his friend over the head. Anakin was always pushing himself too hard. He had once gone four days without sleep, using the Force to keep himself going, and Zekk even remembered that Anakin had been surprised when he discovered his body just couldn’t take that much reliance upon the Force. Zekk had warned Anakin that he was going to get himself and someone else in trouble using the Force like that, and here they were—
An idea burst into Zekk’s mind like a detonating torpedo.
He put his commlink through to Jag and Wynssa and quickly explained what was going on and what his plan was. “I need you two to cover me,” he finished. “I’m not going to be able to fight back while I’m doing this.”
“I’ve already called what’s left of Fury squadron over here to help,” Jag said. “We’ll do what we can until they arrive.”
“Don’t get yourselves killed,” Zekk said as he pulled his fighter alongside Anakin’s. “Artoo, I need you to release Anakin’s left rudder pedal, and only the left rudder pedal. Can you do that?”
[Give me a minute,] came the reply. [I don’t really see the point, though.]
“Just do it, Artoo,” Zekk insisted. He waited impatiently as the cruisers and their coralskippers closed in, watching as Jag and Wynssa dove in to try and keep them at bay. Only a few corals stopped to fight them, dismissively assuming that they would be enough to deal with the two fighters. The other fourteen—fourteen!—closed in on Zekk and his helpless comrade.
“Artoo?” Zekk pressed. “Have you got it yet?”
[Wait a moment,] the droid chirped. [There you go, for all the good it will do.]
“Thank you, Artoo,” Zekk said, then he shut down the comm so he wouldn’t be distracted by the droid. He closed his eyes—normally suicidal during a battle, but he didn’t have much choice here—and then he stretched out with his feelings, feeling his way through the Force inside Anakin’s cockpit. He imagined the layout of his own cockpit, found where the port rudder pedal would be, and pushed.
The thrusters on Anakin’s fighter fired, turning the ship into a slow arc back to the Magician.
Yes! Zekk thought, pushing a little bit harder to make Anakin’s ship turn that bit faster. He managed to get Anakin’s ship completely turned around and aimed in the Magician’s general direction before his targeting computer warned him that the coralskippers were nearing weapons range.
Zekk double-checked Anakin’s course before he reactivated his comm. “Artoo, have you got control back yet?”
[Not quite,] the startled astromech replied. [I wish you people would start warning me before you go defying the laws of physics.]
“Just hurry it up, Artoo!” Zekk swung around to face the coralskippers before they started chewing away at his tail.
He started spraying laser fire over them as soon as his crosshair indicated a good lock. Red-streaking lasers swirled into the nothingness of the skips’ black holes, disappearing without leaving so much as a scratch. Six of the skips broke away from the others to fight Zekk; the other eight kept heading towards helpless Anakin.
Zekk snarled in frustration, weaving his fighter through a maze of magma bursts. He ignored the corals shooting at him as best he could, trying to keep the others away from Anakin’s helpless Scorcher. He tricked one into taking a heavy cannon blast to the back before repeated impacts from behind buckled his shields and forced him to spin away, leaving Anakin completely defenceless.
“Damn it!” Zekk howled. He vented his desperation on the nearest coralskipper and reduced it to molten slag. A third one died after Zekk forced it to overshoot and splattered lasers all over it. He spun around the next two, arcing back towards Anakin’s fighter.
He knew he wasn’t going to make it. The coralskippers converged on Anakin’s fighter like a swarm of angry honeydarters. Artoo managed to regain control and avoid the first wave with a series of impressive evasive maneuvers, but then the next four closed in from four completely different angles.
They were a heartbeat away from trapping Anakin’s Scorcher between bursts of magma when a barrage of blue-streaking torpedoes raced in and turned two coralskippers into expanding clouds of superheated gas. Dovan basals triggered two more torpedoes early, forcing the coralskippers to stop trying attack Anakin.
The six surviving Fury squadron Scorchers dived in after their torpedoes, shredding two more coralskippers with the first pass alone. Jag and Wynssa followed them in, destroying another pair of skips in short order.
Zekk let out a victorious hiss as Artoo took himself and Anakin back to the Magician. Finally free from having to defend his friend, Zekk turned his attention on the coralskippers trying to kill him. He flipped his Scorcher onto his starboard stabilizer and broke hard, forcing the coral that was coming at him from behind to overshoot. Zekk snapped off two blasts as it raced past; the first clipped its side, the second hit in the back, just behind the cockpit, melted through the hull, and then burst out through the cockpit canopy after vaporising the pilot.
A quick snap turn and a twisting barrel roll brought Zekk behind another coralskipper. A few brief bursts from his cannons managed to slip enough blasts around the dovan basal to reduce the coral to a few half-melted fragments of coral.
Zekk blew through the coral’s remains and scanned for his next target.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The roar of the Scorcher’s engines drowned out Artoo’s frantic shrieking as the astromech guided it into the Magician’s hangar. Tahiri groaned as the fighter touched down near her; it was dotted with burn marks from lava globules that had come entirely too close to taking her husband from her. It still looked combat worthy, though, despite how much Artoo was wailing.
Tahiri was halfway up the ladder before the techs had even finished securing it to the Scorcher’s side. She found the external canopy controls and activated them the moment the ladder locked into place.
Artoo let out another series of whistles as the canopy began to open. Lacking her husband’s almost telepathic connection to the little droid, Tahiri had no idea what it was saying. She was pretty sure it was something bad, given how frantic it sounded.
“Calm down, Artoo. He’s alright… I think,” Tahiri said as the cockpit opened. She reached inside as soon as there was room enough for her to fit, patting Anakin’s cheek to get a reaction from him. “Anakin? Anakin, wake up!”
Anakin’s eyes fluttered until they were half-open. He looked groggily at his wife, and a half-smile pulled at his lips. “Tahiri?”
Then he collapsed back into his seat and back into his Force-induced coma.
“Anakin?” Tahiri blurted. This time, he didn’t respond at all, even when she reached out to him through their Force bond. Cursing, Tahiri reached for the buckle to his crash restraints. “Someone give me a hand. We’ve got to get him up to the med lab.”
Tahiri quickly undid the restraints and clambered up onto the Scorcher’s nose so she could help one of the technicians pull Anakin out of the cockpit while another fetched one of the stretchers kept in the hangar—you never knew when a pilot was going to come back injured, after all. Tahiri had to call upon her Force telekinesis more than once to get her husband out of his fighter—he wasn’t exactly as small as she was—but once he was out, getting him onto the stretcher was simple. The two technicians who had helped her volunteered to carry him up to the ship’s med lab.
“Thanks,” Tahiri said gratefully. She knelt at her husband’s side and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, then gingerly stroked the same spot with the tips of her fingers. “I’m sorry, Anakin,” she whispered. “You know I have to do this.”
He stayed unconscious—which was probably a good thing, considering what Tahiri was planning—and the techs picked him up and started carrying him towards the nearest turbolift. Tahiri watched them for a few seconds before she turned to the other technicians examining Anakin’s fighter.
“How long will it take for you to get it refuelled and reloaded?” she demanded.
The leader of the team turned to face her, slightly confused. “Knight Veila Solo?”
“It can still fly, right?” Tahiri waited until the man nodded. “Then get it reloaded and rearmed so I can get back out there!”
The lead tech stammered uselessly as Tahiri pushed past him and started climbing the ladder. “Knight Veila Solo, we haven’t started checking the ship over. I think it can still fly—.”
“And I think I can still help out there!” Tahiri snapped. “Now hurry up before I—.”
Then a barrage of sound and fire knocked Tahiri off the Scorcher’s boarding ladder and sent her tumbling down to the deck.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wedge was really, really sick of the ridiculous number of hits his ship was taking. He picked himself up from the last one—which had felt like a hull breach instead of a shield impact—and turned to look at his surviving bridge crew. “What in the universe was that?”
“The cruiser still has weapons left,” the tactical officer replied. “Punched through the lower shields. The hangar was hit.”
“Damage?” Tycho demanded.
“Don’t know yet,” came the response from the damage control station. “I’m getting reports now. Emergency shields have contained the breach. Two rescue shuttles are severely damaged, another is destroyed. The hangar is reporting they’re still operational.”
Wedge breathed a sigh of relief and mentally noted to never again take a Yuuzhan Vong ship off the threat list until it was in several pieces, regardless of how long it had goen without firing. “Target that cruiser again. Don’t stop shooting until it breaks up this time.”
The tactical officer nodded his acknowledgement and devoted his attention to his console, allowing Wedge to turn to his fighter controller.
“Black Knight One was supposed to be landing. Did he make it before that hit?”
“Yes, sir, he did. But, um…”
“What?”
“Well, Tahiri Veila Solo just reported in from his Scorcher. She says she’s taking it back out.”
Wedge shook his head but didn’t bother protesting. He knew Tahiri would have made sure the ship was flyable first, and he certainly wasn’t going to argue against having another fighter out there.
Good luck, Tahiri. “Let’s finish off that cruiser. Tycho, keep an eye on those two new ones. I don’t want us getting surrounded.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tahiri’s hand brushed over her stomach as she located Zekk, Jag, Wyn, and Fury squadron on her new fighter’s sensors. She could already sense the little life blossoming inside her, and she already felt guilty about putting it in danger. Anakin had been right to insist on her staying behind. It wasn’t fair on her child to risk its life running into battle like this.
But if I don’t and they take out the Magician, we’ll both be dead anyway, Tahiri thought as her hand ran over her womb. I’m so sorry.
“Anakin?” Zekk asked over the comm. “Is that you?”
“It’s Tahiri. I’ve got a full load of torpedoes here.” A grand total of four, she thought. The one thing I miss from the X-wings is their torpedo load. “Where do you want ‘em?”
“Tahiri? What are you? Oh…” Zekk sounded as though he was on the verge of giving up. “Jag, Wyn, and the Furies are taking one of the cruisers. We don’t have to worry about any more fighters.”
“Perfect,” Tahiri sighed. Her hand tightened on the throttle and flight sticks. “Alright, you distract the turrets, I’ll torpedo it.”
“Just be careful, okay?” Zekk pleaded. “Anakin will never forgive me if anything happens to you.”
“I’ll be careful, I promise.” Tahiri brought her fighter in behind Zekk’s as they lined up on the two cruisers.
The two newest additions to the Yuuzhan Vong fleet were advancing towards the Magician, spitting countless magma bursts at the Scorchers harassing them. The starboard one had been hammered by torpedo impacts, sporting a half-dozen hull breaches, but it was somehow still able to move and fight. The third cruiser, the one that had been here since the start of the engagement, was still trying to slug it out with the Magician, and Tahiri knew all too well that Wedge’s ship had finally taken a severe hit only moments ago—her arm still hurt from where she’d landed on it after falling from the Scorcher’s boarding ladder.
The Magician was still fighting back, and it had the advantage by far. Wedge had turned his ship so the failed lower shields were no longer exposed, instead showing the cruiser his strong port shields while the two ships exchanged broadsides. Fewer magma bursts launched from the cruiser with each exchange, leading Tahiri to believe that it was only a matter of minutes until the crippled ship completely shut down.
No climatic explosion, but Tahiri decided that as long as it was dead she couldn’t care less.
She and Zekk zeroed in on the as-yet-undamaged cruiser. Magma fire launched up at them as they neared weapons range. Tahiri ducked below the first barrage and let Zekk race in first, drawing the fire away from her. Zekk strafed the cruiser’s hull, spraying red laser fire to tire the singularities or draw them away so his heavy cannons could destroy the dovan basals themselves. Tahiri followed him through, picking off the couple of basals that he missed, then she looped back around and activated her torpedoes.
Artoo wailed about how much of a pounding their shields had taken as Tahiri lined up her crosshair on the cruiser’s defenceless aft section.
“Relax, Artoo, we won’t be getting too close,” Tahiri said through gritted teeth, spiralling her fighter through the magma bursts the cruiser sent at her. She waited for the targeting computer’s beeps to become a solid tone before she pulled the trigger and sent two blue-streaking torpedoes racing ahead of her. It only took a couple of seconds for the launchers to load the next set, and by then Tahiri had adjusted her aim and Artoo had recalculated the lock.
Tahiri broke away as the second and final pair of torpedoes followed the first pair in. The cruiser’s crippled dovan basals were useless, forcing it to resort to firing at the incoming torpedoes. One lucky shot clipped one torpedo and detonated it, obscuring Tahiri’s view of the others with a huge ball of white-orange flame. More explosions erupted behind the first one, and by the time it cleared the others almost had as well, leaving behind holes in the cruiser that would have been big enough to land a small transport in.
The other cruiser swung left as it saw the destruction being rained on its comrade. Tahiri expected the cruiser she had just torpedoed to do the same, but it just continued lumbering forwards. The magma cannons stopped spurting lava at Zekk only moments later, and only started again after the Jedi began firing.
It was when she realised that the shots were the living ship’s instinctive attempts to defend itself that she figured out what had happened. The poor cruiser had to have been an older vessel, still equipped with a cognition hood. The neural pulse that the torpedoes sent through the ship on impact would have killed the pilot. It would take a little over two minutes to release the dead pilot and replace him, so Tahiri had to act quickly.
“Black Knight Five… I mean, Black Knight One to Magician,” Tahiri almost shouted into her comm system. “Cruiser Five was using a cognition hood. Can you give us some torpedoes over here?”
“Acknowledged,” the fighter controller replied. “Acquiring target.”
Less than ten seconds later, all five of the Magician’s torpedo launchers flared as they each sent a single warhead towards the vulnerable cruiser. Tahiri joined Zekk in strafing the ship to keep it distracted until the torpedoes arrived, picking off dovan basals and the occasional magma cannon. The torpedoes landed in a neat line along the cruiser’s side and erupted into supernovas one after the other, each explosion more than big enough to swallow the Jade Shadow whole.
The dying warship continued its forward momentum, and likely would for the rest of eternity this deep in space. Tahiri paid it no more heed and quickly checked her sensors. The first thing she saw was five red and gold flashing dots disappear into the larger red dot that represented the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser the Magician had been fighting since the engagement started. The cruiser momentarily split into two blips, and at first Tahiri was confused as to what was happening. It wasn’t until Artoo took both blips off the sensor board that Tahiri realised what had happened.
[Focused hit to the middle. The torpedoes blew the ship in half,] the astromech explained.
“I figured as much,” Tahiri said. “Two down in less than a minute. This is going pretty well.”
[It certainly couldn’t have gotten worse.]
“Funny, Artoo,” Tahiri groaned as she formed up beside Zekk. “You’re starting to remind me of Valin, you know that?”
[Anakin tells me I’m becoming grouchy,] Artoo grumbled. [I’m not sure which one I prefer.]
“Shut up and give me a target,” Tahiri groaned. How her husband put up with this astromech twenty-four hours a day, she would never know.
The only target Artoo could find nearby was the other newly-arrived cruiser, designated Cruiser Four by the Magician. The six remaining Fury squadron Scorchers were flying alongside Jag and Wynssa as all eight hammered away at the ship’s hull. Several torpedoes had struck home, and the cruiser was probably no longer in ay sort of condition to challenge the Magician. It was still putting up more than enough fire to give the Scorchers harassing it a hard time.
“Zekk, I don’t suppose you have any torpedoes left?” Tahiri asked as she and the single other Jedi still flying formed up for the attack.
“No, I don’t.”
“I used mine up on that last cruiser.” Tahiri tightened her hand on the control yoke. “Alright, let’s hope Fury squadron has a few still.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Destroyer Three is coming about!” Kayti shouted, somehow managing to make her frail voice carry over the alarms and the fire burning at the back of the bridge.
The destroyer opened fire seconds later, and the Alchemist bucked beneath Danni’s chair. She had taken over the fighter control station after its previous occupier had caught a piece of shrapnel in the chest.
Kyle didn’t bother giving the order to return fire; Captain Kre’fey had given the order to fire at will long before a piece of debris from the same explosion that had claimed the fighter controller’s life had knocked him unconscious. Danni felt the ship buck yet again, this time from the recoil of the starboard turbolasers. The single heavy turbolaser turret fired next, sending two massive streaks of green light into Destroyer Two. The resulting explosion forced Danni to turn away, denying her the opportunity to see the result.
It took Kayti far too long to report the destroyer’s destruction. The increasing waver in her voice spoke volumes about how much the battle was affecting her. “We, we got it! Destroyer T-two is gone!”
No one had time to enjoy the victory, as one of the Scorcher outlines on Danni’s console winked out only seconds later. “Rogue Nine is down.” Danni waited a few more seconds. “No emergency beacon.”
Kyle growled from the captain’s chair he was only half sitting in. “Shields?”
“Forward shields are holding at nineteen percent. Port and starboard at fifty-three and thirty-nine,” the tactical officer replied.
“Equalize them the first chance you get!” Kyle barked. Refocusing the shield power was a useful maneuver, but unfortunately the shields had to be lowered for several seconds while the generator power was redistributed. It left the ship extremely vulnerable, something that couldn’t be done carelessly.
The Duros tactical officer turned to Kayti. “Where are those cruisers?”
The poor girl was so busy watching the holo-display that Kyle had to shout her name to get her to respond.
“Ah… four klicks out. Closing fast.”
Danni shook her head; she was going to have to really spend some time calming Kayti down once this was all over.
“If those cruisers get within weapons range, we’re finished,” Kyle said, barely audible over the other sounds barraging the bridge. He was right, of course; the Empire had designed the Magician-class ships for offensive combat, using their stealth systems to sneak up close and unleash its formidable firepower while it still had the element of surprise. The Alchemist just didn’t have the shields or armour for an extended fight with five Yuuzhan Vong warships.
“Destroyer Three is firing again!”
The crew only got about half a second between Kayti’s warning and the impact of several heavy magma bursts. Danni grunted as she fought to stay in her seat, and behind her she heard something sparking and an all too brief squeal from Kayti before the sparks turned into an explosion.
Danni turned to see Kayti on her knees beside the ruined holographic projector, covering one side of her face with her hands as she screamed. “Ah! Ah-argh! It burns! Ah, it bur-urns!”
“Danni, get her to the med lab!” Kyle hollared. “Someone take over the fighter control station. Get in touch with the Magician and the Furies. We need backup here.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jag drilled red death into the cruiser’s hull with grim determination. All the CEDF training in the universe couldn’t keep the slightest smile developing on his face as two slightly more explosive pieces of coral erupted under the barrage. Several dovan basals disappeared off his sensors, clearing the path for Fury Four’s torpedoes to plough into the cruiser. Jag whipped his Scorcher up and away from the explosions, so he didn’t get to see the explosions vaporising coral and opening the cruiser’s interior up to space.
By the time he brought his fighter back around for another run, it was obvious that another attack wouldn’t be necessary. The two newest holes made ten total, all focused on the cruiser’s middle, leaving the ship with a huge gap in its defences and most of its systems—such as they were, on a living ship—barely functioning.
“Raven One to Magician,” Jag spoke into his comm after he made his assessment. “Cruiser Four is down.”
“Acknowledged,” the Magician’s fighter controller replied. “How many of you have torpedoes left?”
“Fury Five, I’ve got two.”
“Fury Eight, one left.”
“Fury One, one left.”
“Return for a reload before you head out,” the controller instructed.
Jag clipped an affirmative and headed back with the rest of the fighters, deciding before he reached the Magician’s hangar that the one weakness these Scorchers had was a low torpedo compliment. The techs managed to get the fighters reloaded in less than ten minutes, but by then the two remaining cruisers were getting dangerously close to the Alchemist.
The Alchemist had managed to destroy two of the three destroyers that had raced ahead of the cruisers, and had left the last one limping away with a good quarter of its mass reduced to molten slag. The Alchemist had swung around hard now that the destroyers were gone and trying to run as fast as it could with its damaged engines, leaving the Scorchers to deal with the rapidly diminishing coralskipper force.
Jag didn’t bother contacting the Alchemist; the Magician would have already done that. He locked onto the two cruisers and chose Cruiser Two to be Fury squadron’s target, leaving Cruiser One for himself, Wynssa, Zekk, and Tahiri.
“Tahiri and I will take out the dovan basals,” Zekk said as the fighters split up. “Jag, Wynssa, get ready for a torpedo run.”
Jag sent a single click back to the Jedi pilot to acknowledge the orders, then slowed down to let Zekk and Tahiri slink ahead.
He flexed his hand on the control yoke as he and his sister closed in. Her complete loss of control earlier still had him deeply concerned. She had been very close to getting herself and him killed. “Wynssa,” he said on their private squadron frequency. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to do this?”
“I’m fine,” she growled.
Jag sighed and decided to leave it there. He certainly needed the extra firepower at his side for this attack.
The cruisers seemed unconcerned by the ten Scorchers approaching them from behind, and Jag was fairly sure he understood why. The Yuuzhan Vong had shown an obsessive focus on destroying the Alchemist throughout the battle. Their commander seemed almost eager to sacrifice his entire force to destroy that one ship.
He was probably going to come very close, too. The cruisers might—just—be able to survive the ten-Scorcher assault about to be delivered to them from behind long enough to attack the fleeing Alchemist, but that was unlikely at best. The cruisers were pure ship-to-ship combatants, and if they got within attack range of the Alchemist they would likely destroy it within minutes, but they were not designed to counter fighters and were thus particularly vulnerable to them. With the Vong’s rapidly dwindling force of coralskippers tied up battling the Scorchers near the Alchemist, the cruisers were left completely open.
Zekk and Tahiri led the attack and began strafing their target’s hull, blowing magma cannons and dovan basals away with a constant rain of red-streaking lasers. Jag selected torpedoes and waited until he was within range and had a solid tone before he squeezed the trigger and let two warheads fly at the cruiser’s bow. Wynssa fired heartbeats later.
It only took seconds for the torpedoes to track in, but a dovan basal triggered one early. Jag’s second torpedo disappeared into the explosion caused by the first and created a second detonation. Wynssa’s weapons had slightly more luck; one got hit by a magma burst and blew up early, while the second slipped past the singularity that stopped Jag’s weapons and struck home.
The torpedo burrowed into the cruiser’s hull and detonated. The blinding explosion left behind a gaping hole, but it wasn’t lethal. The cruiser continued to move towards the fleeing Alchemist.
That was until Zekk dove in for his own attack. The Jedi dropped his Scorcher down in line with the hull breach left by Wynssa’s torpedo and, at almost point-blank range, opened his torpedo bay and dropped all four of his warheads into space. The torpedoes hung dead in space for only a few moments as Zekk’s fighter hauled up to avoid a collision, the shields covering his fighter’s belly scraping fragments of coral off the cruiser. The cruiser’s gun pumped yellow-orange globules at Zekk’s ship, unaware that the docile items he had left behind posed a threat.
Then the torpedoes came to life, their engines glowing blue with burning propellant. Being dumped into space had denied the torpedoes the added thrust of the Scorcher’s launching tubes, but at the ridiculously close range they found themselves at, it hardly mattered. There was less than a second between the torpedoes firing their engines and the blue trails disappearing into the cruiser’s insides. Half a second after that, the torpedoes blew up, spewing fire and molten coral into space through the hole Wynssa had created.
Jag didn’t wait for the explosion to subside before he attacked again. Seeing Tahiri and Wynssa drawing most of the attention from the ship’s defences, he pumped his last pair of missiles out towards its tail end. A dovan basal saw them coming and moved its singularity to catch them.
Tahiri saw her chance and dived in low over the cruiser’s hull, ducking beneath the singularity that had shifted to catch Jag’s torpedoes. Jag caught a glimpse of Tahiri’s torpedo bay doors opening, but the cruiser and Tahiri disappeared behind him before he could see more.
Had he been able to look, he would have seen Tahiri’s torpedoes fall away from her fighter like bombs from a Y-wing. The warheads fell onto the cruiser’s hull and punched in deep before they detonated. The resulting fireball forced the ship’s aft end down, rearing it up like a wounded animal. Debris fell from the hole left in its back, mingling with the debris still tumbling away from the hole left by Jag and Zekk.
Jag saw the other cruiser swing to port, angling away from its wounded counterpart. At the same time, Jag saw the red dots on his sensor board representing the coralskippers begin to head away from the Scorchers they were fighting.
They’re backing off, he realised. They must have finally had enough. “Alchemist, Magician, this is Raven One. The Yuuzhan Vong are retreating. Repeat: the Vong are pulling back. Requesting orders.”
“Pursue and destroy,” Kyle K | |