Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [1]
During a brave attempt to contact and make peace with the enemy, Senator Elegos A’Kla was murdered by Yuuzhan Vong commander Shedao Shai, who delivered the body to Elegos’s close friend, Jedi Corran Horn. Horn then challenged Shai to a duel—the prize being the planet Ithor. Horn bested Shai, but the Yuuzan Vong destroyed Ithor nonetheless.
The New Republic government unraveled a little more with each setback. Soon the Jedi Knights splintered under the strain. Chafing under what some perceived as Luke’s excessive caution, a renegade group of Jedi under the leadership of Kyp Durron advocated using every available resource to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong—including unbridled aggression, which could lead only to the dark side. The philosophical dispute drove a wedge between the Solo brothers, Jacen and Anakin, while sister Jaina focused instead on her new role as a pilot with the elite Rogue Squadron.
Consumed with guilt for failing to save Chewbacca, Han Solo turned away from his family, seeking expiation in action—and foiled a Yuuzhan Vong plot to eliminate the Jedi. Han returned with what seemed to be an antidote to the debilitating illness Mara Jade Skywalker endured. But not even that victory could erase the loss of his dearest friend—or mend his marriage to Leia.
Leia, too, was beset with guilt. By disregarding a vision of the future, Leia feared she had condemned the Hapan fleet to ruin at Fondor. A pitched battle at the shipyards was shattered by a weapon of uncontrollable destructive power fired from Centerpoint Station—a weapon armed by her younger son, Anakin.
Now, as the Yuuzhan Vong tighten their noose and press inward toward Coruscant and victory, Luke and Mara, Han and Leia and their children, as well as the New Republic itself, must find the balance they have lost—before there is nothing left to lose.
PROLOGUE
Lieutenant Jaina Solo rolled her X-wing fighter up on its port S-foil and shoved her throttle forward. A seed-shaped Yuuzhan Vong coralskipper had been harrying her wingmate. As it went evasive, a minuscule black hole appeared just off its tail and gulped down every splinter of laser energy Jaina poured into it.
She matched her X-wing’s speed to the skip’s and pursued. There’d been dozens of battles since Colonel Gavin Darklighter invited her to join Rogue Squadron. Her pride hadn’t faded, but the thrill sure had. Too many midnight scrambles. Too much death, too little sleep.
But I’m in Rogue Squadron, she reflected, feathering her throttle, not because of who my parents are, and not because the Force is strong in my family.
But based on her own piloting skills. Besides, Rogue Squadron ought to include at least one Jedi Knight.
The skip she was chasing swooped toward the Bothan Assault Cruiser Champion. Champ was flying cover for another refugee convoy. Kalarba’s industrialized moon, Hosk, already wobbled in its orbit. The situation was hauntingly similar to Sernpidal’s last hours, almost ten months ago. There would be even greater losses, here—to the Kalarbans. But to Jaina, like her dad, Sernpidal had been a tragedy that might never be matched.
Vaping these skips wouldn’t bring back Chewbacca, but it helped deaden Jaina’s bitter memories. Keeping one finger on her stutter trigger, she showered the coralskipper with crimson laser splinters. Multiple bursts of low-power energy tired and distracted the skip’s energy-sucking dovin basals. As the colonel once put it, “Tickle its teeth, then ram a fist down its throat.”
Her sensor showed the vortex draw back slightly, a little closer to the enemy ship that projected it. On her primary screen, a Chiss clawcraft swooped in from behind. “Covering you, Rogue Eleven.”
Now! Jaina tightened her index finger on the main firing control, loosing a solid burst from all four of her lasers. The skip’s tiny, projected gravity well bent