Enemy Lines II_ Rebel Stand - Aaron Allston [90]
And here he was again. “I stand in your way,” Luke repeated, and was pleased that he had regained control over his voice. “What you see, you will not achieve.”
The expression on Lord Nyax’s face turned from mocking amusement to seriousness … even sadness, for a brief moment, as though the thing had at last recognized some kinship and discovered that it did not bridge the gulf between the two of them.
Then it charged.
Kell finished binding Viqi’s hands behind her back and looked up in time to see Lord Nyax lunge toward Luke.
Luke raised his lightsaber, caught the downward sweep of Lord Nyax’s right-hand forearm weapon. He spun clockwise, narrowing his profile as the left-hand forearm blade thrust toward him, and kept his guard up in time to intercept the right-hand elbow blade. Mara leapt forward, unleashing two fast blows that the thing’s left-elbow blade caught, then folded over nearly double as she leaped back from a strike from its left knee.
The Yuuzhan Vong warriors unloaded handfuls of thudbugs and razorbugs, heedless of which of the targets they might hit, but the two Jedi and Lord Nyax flicked the weapons out of the air or dodged them entirely.
Two Jedi? Three. Suddenly Tahiri was in their midst, coming up on Luke’s left, blocking a follow-up blow from the elbow blade on that side.
“Bad,” Kell said.
Face nodded. “Bad bad.” He pulled his blaster rifle from the wrappings on his back. “But who to shoot first?”
“We’re no good here.” Kell gestured toward the stairwell. “Let’s see what they’re doing down below. If it’s important, I can blow it up.”
“That’s our Kell.”
Kell set Viqi on her feet, then hauled her up over his shoulder. Following Face, he descended the stairwell.
Denua Ku watched the pale Jeedai, and for a moment admiration almost drowned out the revulsion he felt at the notion of having abomination-machines like lightsabers touching one’s own flesh.
The pale thing fought with a savagery and speed unlike those of any warrior he had ever seen. And it was untrained. With his experienced warrior’s eye, he could see that its movements were instinctive, a fact revealed in the creature’s failure to throw effective combinations of blows, its inability to gauge which way its enemies would leap when it attacked them.
If it had been born Yuuzhan Vong, if he’d been able to train it for a year, even half a year, he could have turned this thing into the greatest warrior who was not himself a god. As it was, he’d have to kill this thing.
Even if the Jeedai, too, wanted it dead, it was still an abomination. And it was the greater threat. It had to die first. He threw his last razorbug, then lunged forward into hand-to-hand range, probing at the pale thing’s back with the tail-tip of his amphistaff.
The pale thing spun, sending its knee blade toward Denua Ku’s guts. He blocked the sweep with his amphistaff, but the impact was tremendous; it threw him back off his feet. He rolled backward and came upright, saw one of his warriors perform a similar probing assault … and this warrior took a forearm blade through the throat.
Nine Yuuzhan Vong warriors down. Sixteen to go. The numbers were becoming worse.
A tremendous mechanical roar shook the chamber. It lowered slightly in volume but became steady, filling the air.
FOURTEEN
“It’s a delaying tactic!” Mara shouted over the roar.
“I know!” Luke shouted back. “It’s working! I’m being delayed!” He stopped a forearm-swing and was driven back a step, stopped the follow-up elbow swing and was driven back a step, jumped back to avoid the knee-strike and discovered it was only a feint; Lord Nyax’s leg snapped back and caught a Yuuzhan Vong warrior in the crotch, collapsing the warrior despite its armor.
Every step took the Jedi and the warriors toward the center of the chamber. The floor vibrated beneath their feet.
“What?” Mara said.
“I didn’t say anything!”
“Not you! Speak up, Face!”
Luke waved