A burst of elation filled the battle-meld as Kenth Hamner's squadron attacked. The tactical display showed repeated detonations in the sterns of three nest ships, and a string of white flashes erupted in a high orbit behind Luke's squadron. But none of the vessels seemed to be slowing down.

"Artoo, are they deploying-"

A sharp whistle filled the c.o.c.kpit as R2-D2 warned that the Gorog had opened fire. Luke was already dodging, his hands and feet reacting even before he saw the laser bolts flashing up from the shadows. He rolled away from the burst and took a flak-sh.e.l.l in the forward shields. Mara reached out to him in concern, ready to move into the lead.

No need. R2-D2 already had the shields back at 90 percent. Luke followed the line of laser bolts visually down to their source, then reached out with the Force and shoved the cannon barrels aside. The deadly stream of color changed direction and began to pour harmlessly into s.p.a.ce.

Mara made Luke's day by seeming impressed-at least that was what it felt like through their Force-bond. Then Jacen redirected a stream of mag-pellets and somehow located the flak-guns and pushed those aside, too. Mara seemed almost awed.

Luke sighed, then checked his tactical display. He saw no indication that the nest ships were doing anything except continuing to accelerate.

"Artoo, any sign of dartships?"

R2-D2 trilled a sharp response.

"Take it easy," Luke said. R2-D2's testiness made him wonder whether the droid truly was ready to return to combat service. "I just wanted to be sure."

R2-D2 beeped a promise to make certain Luke knew the instant a dartship appeared, then scrolled an additional message across the display: YOU HAVE NO REASON TO DOUBT ME. I WAS ONLY FOLLOWING MY OWNER-PRESERVATION ROUTINES.

"I know that, Artoo," Luke said. "But you can't protect people from the truth."

WHY NOT? THERE ARE NO TRUTH EXCEPTIONS IN MY PARAMETER STATEMENTS.

A turbolaser strike erupted ahead, bucking the StealthX so hard it felt like they had collided with the nest ship-which they soon would, if the squadron did not launch its attack quickly.

"I'll explain later," Luke said. "Right now, arm the penetrator."

R2-D2 beeped an acknowledgment, and Luke sensed the rest of his squadron lining up behind him. Basically a Jedi shadow bomb with a trio of shaped-charge warheads, the penetrator had been specifically designed to unleash a series of powerful, focused detonations toward the interior of a Killik nest ship.

A message appeared on the display announcing that the penetrator was live. Luke dodged past the fiery blossom of a turbolaser strike, then saw a pair of laser cannons flashing up from the dark crevices between a pair of spitcrete heat sinks. He Force-shoved the barrels aside, then released the penetrator and simultaneously used the Force to send the weapon smashing into the nest ship's hull.

His canopy blast-tinting went black with the first detonation, but the two explosions that followed were so bright that they lit the interior of the c.o.c.kpit anyway. Luke rolled away, then did a wingover and flew back along the attack line.

With no dartships to worry about, he was free to watch on his tactical display as Mara, Jacen, and the rest of his squadron released their penetrators in one-second intervals. Each bomb disappeared into the crater left by the previous one, driving the hole deeper down through the nest ship's layered decks, wreaking increasing amounts of destruction and exposing more and more of the vessel's interior to the cold vacuum of s.p.a.ce.

By the time the last weapon detonated, the Gorog were in such a state of shock that all defensive fire had ceased within a kilometer of the impact area. Luke swung his StealthX around and found a cloud of steam, bodies, and equipment tumbling from the crater, so thick it obscured the ship's hull. He could sense by the exhilaration in the meld that Kyp's attack on the stern of the ship had also gone well, but there was a certain heaviness in Corran's squadron that Luke knew all too well: a Jedi had fallen in the a.s.sault on the bow.

R2-D2 whistled an alarm, and Luke looked down to see swarms of Gorog dartships pouring from the vessel's hangar bays.

"Thanks, Artoo," he said. "What's the rest of the battle look like?"

The tactical display switched scales, and Luke saw that the other nest ships were bleeding dartships and dropping into lower orbits to support Gorog. Clearly, the Killiks had aborted their attack on the blockade. It was more important to protect the Dark Nest, and the Dark Nest had been wounded.

Luke reached out to Kenth, Kyle, and Tresina, calling them back to the initial target. When Pellaeon arrived with the main attack fleet, there would be fewer casualties from friendly fire if the Jedi were doing their best to follow the original plan.

Once Luke sensed that his squadron had re-formed behind him, he continued forward, using the Force to clear a path through the cloud of flotsam and bodies still pouring from the Gorog nest's interior. He knew by the growing tension of the meld that Corran and Kyp were also returning to begin the second, more dangerous phase of the a.s.sault. And he shared in their hope that the Alliance battle fleet would arrive soon. Once the Jedi began the final destruction of the Dark Nest, they were going to need all the support they could get.

Luke reached the breach in the outer hull and activated the imaging system in his helmet visor. The dark interior of the nest ship was immediately transformed into an eerie hologram of vibrant colors, with white-hot lumps of spitcrete rubble and glowing red pieces of Killiks streaming up a long, seemingly bottomless shaft before they tumbled out into the void.

The StealthXs shut down their ion drives and descended into the hull breach under the power of their maneuvering thrusters alone. As much as Luke would have liked to, there was no time to look for traps or counterattacks as they descended past each deck in the bombed-out shaft. The success of their a.s.sault depended on speed and ferocity, and their best hope lay in keeping the enemy off balance.

When the squadron had descended ten decks, the rear trio of StealthXs peeled off and glided toward the edge of the shaft. A few moments later, a series of blue flashes spilled out of the darkness as the three pilots came to an air lock and used their laser cannons to blast it open. Luke glanced over his shoulder and saw more flotsam streaming up the shaft behind him. The nest ship's artificial gravity generator had either been destroyed or shut down to conserve power, because even the heaviest pieces showed no sign of dropping toward the center of the ship.

A second trio of StealthXs peeled off after the squadron had descended twenty decks, and a third after thirty. By then, the combat-meld was charged with excitement as the Jedi blasted their way deeper into the enormous ship from three sides, cutting down waves of vac-suited Gorog warriors with their laser cannons, blasting open air locks and using the Force to hide shadow bombs at critical locations.

Luke and Mara and Jacen pa.s.sed the fortieth deck and continued down to the fiftieth, the shaft narrowing to barely more than the spread of a StealthX's wings. The excitement in the meld turned to fear and anger and all the other emotions that boiled to surface in the midst of a pitched battle, then Kenth and Kyle and Tresina Lobi began to radiate alarm, warning Luke and Kyp and Corran that trouble was on its way.

Luke was not worried. Dartships were far less maneuverable than StealthXs and would be next to worthless in the twisting wreckage . . . but that thought came to an abrupt end when R2-D2 trilled an urgent warning.

"B-wings?" Luke asked. Armed more heavily than XJ-3s, B-wings were some of the most dangerous and maneuverable starfighters in the galaxy. "Are you sure?"

R2-D2 piped an annoyed affirmative.

Luke tore his gaze away from the dust-filled murk ahead just long enough to check his tactical display. At this point, the image showed only the shaft behind them, a flared column of s.p.a.ce packed with descending starfighters.

"Ours?"

That question was answered when the blue streak of an approaching proton torpedo appeared on the display. Luke instantly poured on some speed and ducked into the exposed decks, leading Mara and Jacen away from the detonation area. The torpedo streaked past behind them, then reached the bottom of the shaft and exploded.

Luke and his wingmates were partially shielded by several layers of deck, but the blast reached them with enough power to beat down their rear shields and hurl them into the next bulkhead. Their forward shields absorbed most of the impact, but their c.o.c.kpits broke into a cacophony of damage alarms and depletion warnings.

Luke spun his StealthX around while it was still wobbling. The wings banged into a ceiling on one side and the floor on the other, but at least his targeting systems seemed unaffected. A constant stream of laserfire flashed down the shaft as Kyle Katarn and two members of his squadron attacked the approaching B-wings from behind.

Although the hull breach was considerably larger than it had been just a few minutes ago, with the nest ship's artificial gravity nonfunctional, it was so choked with floating dust and rubble that the storm of cannon bolts was barely visible. Luke glanced over and found Mara and Jacen already using their att.i.tude thrusters to move away from him, spreading out to lay an ambush.

As they waited, Luke silenced his alarms and wondered idly, "Where did Killiks get B-wings?"

R2-D2 ventured the obvious opinion. After all, B-wings were manufactured by Slayn & Korpil-one of the best known of the Verpine hive companies.

"All right-forget I asked," Luke said. All the Killiks would have needed to arrange a third-party sale was a single highly placed tarhead. "How are the rear shields? Can you get them back up?"

R2-D2 let out a falling whistle, then a pair of B-wings appeared in the storm of laser bolts pouring down the shaft breach. With their head-like c.o.c.kpits mounted atop a cross-shaped wing structure, the craft had a vaguely human profile, like a man standing with his legs crossed and his arms outstretched. The first B-wing was descending in the upright position, slowly spinning around to search the adjacent decks for StealthX infiltrators. The second was flying on its back, firing back up the shaft at Kyle Katarn and the other attacking Jedi from behind.

The first craft started to spin more rapidly, trying to bring the torpedo launcher on its tail a.s.sembly to bear on Luke's StealthX. He grabbed the vessel in the Force and held it in place, then opened fire with his laser cannons. The startled B-wing pilot applied more power, trying to break free. Luke drew on the Force more heavily to counter the maneuvering thrusters, and all of the energy flowing through his body began to make his skin nettle.

Mara and Jacen began to fire, too. The B-wing's shields emitted an overload flash, then went down in a storm of discharge static. An instant later the starfighter itself simply came apart under the combined fury of the StealthX cannons.

The second B-wing gave up trying to hold Kyle and his companions at bay and dropped its tail to bring its torpedo launcher to bear. Luke started to Force-grab the fighter again, but Jacen had already caught it and was holding it in place while cannon bolts pounded its shields from above.

This B-wing did not even try to break free. The pilot simply launched the proton torpedo in the direction it was pointed. Suddenly the electronics in Luke's c.o.c.kpit were popping and spewing acrid smoke, and the spitcrete ceiling was crashing down on his StealthX, and Mara was touching him through their Force-bond, surprised and worried but somehow confident they were not going to die-not yet.

Then Luke and his StealthX became just so much flotsam, the laser cannons and broken wings tumbling away into the dust and the rubble, the fusial engines banging against the fuselage, still connected by a few twisted shreds of metal. R2-D2 was screeching warnings over the c.o.c.kpit speaker, his voice barely audible over the roar of escaping air.

Luke sealed his vac suit and activated his helmet comm unit. "I'm okay, Artoo. Prepare to abandon the craft."

R2-D2 ran a message across the heads-up display inside Luke's visor. THE SELF-DESTRUCT CHARGE IS MISSING-AND THERE IS NO CRAFT.

"I know. Just unhook yourself."

Luke could feel that Mara was not injured, either, but Jacen was more difficult to read. He had drawn in on himself and vanished from the Force.

Luke opened a comlink channel. "Jacen?"

"Over here." Mara's concern filled their Force-bond. "His canopy is smashed, but his visor is down and I can tell that his vac suit is pressurized. He may still he alive."

Luke's breath left him in a rush of fear. Not again. He could not tell Leia that he had lost another of her sons.

"Get him out!"

"I'm trying," Mara commed. "Just calm down."

But Luke could not calm down. He felt as though he had been punched in the stomach by a Wookiee. It was bad enough that he had sent Anakin to his death, but this time Jacen had been with him. He looked in the direction from which he sensed Mara's presence.

It took a moment to pick out her blotchy red image through all the rubble displayed by the imaging system inside his visor. But she was already wearing her combat harness, and she had her bulky G-12 power blaster slung over one shoulder. The battered remains of her starfighter were bobbing along in the rubble beneath her, and she was hanging on to the empty droid socket behind the shattered canopy of Jacen's StealthX.

Now that he saw that Mara was already with Jacen, Luke began to calm. What could be done, she was doing-but he did not understand how she had gotten there so fast. Before the explosion, she had been on the other side of him.

"How'd you get over there?"

"Bounced," Mara said. She took the lightsaber off her utility belt. "You coming?"

"Be right there."

Luke popped his canopy, then grabbed his own combat harness and slipped out of his darkened c.o.c.kpit. He pulled the ma.s.sive power blaster out of the carrying sleeve behind his seat, connected the powerfeed to the energy pack on his combat harness, and slung the weapon over his shoulder.

A trio of Jedi presences arrived behind him, about fifty meters away. Luke glanced back and saw three empty s.p.a.ces about the size of StealthXs amid all the dust and spitcrete floating in the penetration crater. Even this close, the imaging system inside his helmet was as blind to the starfighters as any sensor system.

"Master Skywalker?" Kyle asked over the helmet corns.

"Jacen's out-we don't know how had." Luke used the Force to pull R2-D2 out of the astromech socket and used a utility clip to attach the droid to the back of his combat harness. "We'll need a hand evacuating . ."

Luke let the sentence trail off when an icy knot of danger sense formed between his shoulder blades. He dropped behind his StealthX and felt the fuselage vibrating beneath a hail of shatter gun pellets. He peered under the belly of wreckage, but his attackers were too well covered for his helmet's imaging system to pick them out from the surrounding rubble.

Luke worked to quiet his mind, to sense only the Force holding him in its liquid grasp, lapping at him from all sides. He began to feel a ma.s.s of ripples coming at him from the emptiness ahead, from the shifting voids of beings hiding themselves in the Force. There were hundreds of them, Gorog warriors rushing to the attack, pouring into the battle zone through a choke point hidden somewhere deep in the sea of floating rubble.

And there was more, a stillness so fixed it was frozen, a cold hole that seemed to he drawing the Force into it.

"Lomi Plo is here," Luke commed. At the same time, he was reaching into the battle-meld, calling Kyp and Corran and the rest of the Jedi to his side, letting them know it was time to close the trap. "She came after us."

Shatter gun pellets began to stream through the fuselage on Luke's side of the c.o.c.kpit, and he knew that his protection was disintegrating fast. Still peering under the StealthX wreckage, he pulled the heavy power blaster off his back, then used the Force to send a speeder-sized block of spitcrete tumbling toward an even larger one where he had detected the nearest group of Gorog.

The two blocks collided in silence and tumbled away in new directions. The shatter gun fire stopped instantly, and images of warm bug gore and crushed pressure sh.e.l.ls began to drift across Luke's imaging system. He spotted a trio of Gorog tumbling through the rubble, all six limbs flailing as they struggled to bring their carapace suits back under control.

Luke swung the barrel of his power blaster around and fired one bolt at each insect, using the Force to steady himself against the blowback caused by the weapon's ma.s.sive energy discharges. Unlike the lighter blasters that Luke and Mara-and Han and Leia-had been carrying the first time they fought the Gorog, the big G-12s had more than enough power to punch through the thick chitin of a Killik pressure carapace. As each bolt struck, it literally shattered the protective sh.e.l.l-and the bug inside.

When no more shatter gun pellets came his way, Luke turned toward Mara. She was crouching on the other side of Jacen's StealthX, trying to use her lightsaber to cut him out of the c.o.c.kpit. She was not having much success. A small tangle of Gorog were floating toward her through the rubble, spraying Jacen's crippled starfighter with shatter gun pellets as they bounced from block to block.

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

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

By the time the imaging system cleared again, Mara had cut Jacen's canopy open and was depressing a b.u.t.ton on his wrist to activate his suit's automatic stim-system. Luke started toward them, somersaulting through the dust and laying suppression fire into the rubble. He no longer needed to search for ripples in the Force to find Gorog-he could see them coming, a growing tide of egg-shaped carapaces springing from one hunk of spitcrete to another, spraying shatter gun pellets as they approached.

Luke reached Jacen's StealthX just as Mara was pulling his limp form out of the c.o.c.kpit. "How is he?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Everything reads okay," she said. "Maybe it's just a compression blackout."

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

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

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

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

He looked confused for a moment, then turned to Luke. "She's here, isn't she?"

Luke nodded. "I think so."

"Can you see her?" Jacen demanded.

"I don't know," Luke said. "I haven't-"

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

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

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

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

"Luke?" Mara came his side. "What are you-"

"Lomi's over there," Jacen said, joining them. "At least I think it's her."