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Tol Sivron finally whirled to see silhouettes against the gaseous backdrop of the Maw. His Twi’lek head-tails uncurled and stood out straight behind him.

A fleet of Rebel warships appeared inside the Maw. The invasion force he had dreaded for so long had finally arrived.

With two Corellian corvettes at point and two at his flanks, General Wedge Antilles brought the escort frigate Yavaris toward the mismatched cluster of rocks that formed Maw Installation.

Qwi Xux stood pale blue and beautiful at the observation station beside him, looking tense yet eager to ransack her old quarters for clues to her lost memories.

“Maw Installation,” Wedge said into the comm channel. “This is General Antilles, Commander of the New Republic occupation fleet. Please respond to discuss terms of your surrender.”

He felt arrogant as he said it, but he knew they had no way of fighting off his fleet. Hidden in the midst of the black holes, without Admiral Daala’s Star Destroyers to defend it, the Installation depended on inaccessibility rather than firepower for protection.

As his ships approached the cluster of rocks, Wedge received no response. But when the open metal framework of the Death Star prototype orbited up from behind the planetoids, he felt a stab of terror.

“Shields up!” he said instinctively.

But the Death Star did not fire, gracefully orbiting back out of view again.

As Wedge brought his fleet in closer, a tracery of laser fire shot toward them from small buildings and habitation modules on the misshapen asteroids. Only a few of the beams managed to strike, reflecting harmlessly off the ships’ shields.

“All right,” Wedge said. “Two corvettes. Surgical strikes only. We want to remove those defenses, but don’t damage the Installation itself.” He shot a glance at Qwi. “That place holds too much important data to risk losing it.”

Wedge watched the enormous banks of engines behind the foremost two corvettes as they rained destructive blasts upon the asteroids. Bright-red spears lanced down to pulverize the rocks.

“This is too easy,” Wedge said.

A desperate signal came from one of the corvette captains. His image flickered as he beamed a transmission on the emergency channel. “Something’s happening to our hull! Shields aren’t effective. Some new kind of weapon. Hull walls are weakening. Can’t pinpoint where—”

The transmission cut off as the corvette became a ball of fire and shrapnel.

“Back off!” Wedge shouted into the open channel, but the second corvette plunged forward, choosing instead to use his full complement of dual turbolaser cannons as well as a pair of proton torpedoes that had been specially installed for the occupation mission. “Captain Ortola! Back off!”

The captain of the second corvette blasted the nearest planetoid. Proton torpedoes sizzled with uncontained energy. Turbolaser blasts ignited volatile gases and flammables, reducing the small planetoid to incandescent dust.

“That won’t be a problem anymore, sir,” Captain Ortola said. “You may deploy the strike forces at your leisure.”

Howling warnings shrieked through the Maw Installation’s intercom so monotonously that Tol Sivron found it difficult to plan his speech.

“Your attention, please,” he said into the intercom. “Remember to follow your emergency procedures.”

Outside, stormtroopers hustled up and down the white-tiled corridors. The stormtrooper captain was yelling and directing his troops to set up defensive positions at vital intersections. No one bothered to refer to the carefully written and tested contingency scenarios Tol Sivron and his managers had spent so much time developing.

Gritting his pointed teeth in annoyance, Sivron raised his voice into the intercom. “If you need another copy of your emergency procedures, or if you have difficulty finding one, contact your respective division leader immediately. We will see to it that you receive one.”

Hanging above Maw Installation, the Rebel ships looked like nightmarish constructions, brushing aside the Installation’s defensive lasers as if they were mere insect bites.