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There was a moment of silence. “The lights are going out, sir. Coruscant’s lights.”

The Jedi nodded in understanding. Far below, the eternal, never-sleeping city-planet was fading into darkness, facing its first true night since time out of mind. Yuuzhan Vong drop ships, big as mountains, blotted out vast portions of cityscape as they settled down to the business of slaughter. Blastboat analogs spewed molten rock hot enough to melt the glittering towers into dark slag heaps. Enemy transports spat out coralskippers like obscenities. The rocklike ships whirled in a deadly dance, a meteor swarm choreographed by some unseen, malevolent power.

Then a squadron of coralskippers swept toward the Dozen and a burst of plasma blossomed against Kyp’s forward shield.

“It’s our job to hold back the night, Chem. Don’t let yourself get distracted from that.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kyp’s sensors flared, alerting him to another fleet emerging from hyperspace. Kyp glanced at the Jedi wing and groaned. The “fleet” comprised perhaps a dozen X-wings, several battered E-wings, and a few ships that defied classification. All these ships protectively encircled a battered corvette.

“This Danni Quee travels in style. Impressed, Zero-One?” he asked, speaking too low for the comm to pick up.

NOT YET.

“Yeah, for once we’re agreed.”

Kyp switched back to the open channel. “Just like we practiced, Dozen. On my signal, break into fours. Lieutenants, call your targets. May the Force be with you all.”

The Yuuzhan Vong fleet responded to the new threats with precisely choreographed, tactically sound maneuvers. Some of the coralskippers and a blastboat flew to meet the Jedi wing. Other units swooped down on evacuee ships like hunting hawk-bats, daring the fighters of both squadrons to pursue. Still others veered toward the Dozen.

“And guess what?” Kyp murmured. “There’s enough of them to go around!”

The lead coralskippers began to vomit plasma. Kyp signaled the order to break, then tapped his controls. A modified thruster sent him in a sharp, vertical rise. The bolt streaked harmlessly past …

… and slammed into one of the ships behind him—a ship that shouldn’t have been in that position.

Kyp didn’t see the impact, couldn’t hear the explosion or the rending apart of metal and ceramic. But he felt the flare of a young man’s fear and disbelief, then the searing realization of what a moment’s inattention could cost.

“Chem,” he said through gritted teeth.

The Jedi let his guilt and grief flow, carrying a burst of Force power with it. His long fingers danced over the controls, sending a stuttering firestorm of lasers toward the oncoming Yuuzhan Vong.

To his surprise, the larger-than-average coralskipper setting a course for the Jedi corvette swallowed every bolt that came its way.

Kyp shook his head in astonishment. The stutter-trigger technique had been developed early in the war in response to the pattern of shielding singularities—miniature black holes, really—that the enemy’s dovin basals generated. Somehow the Yuuzhan Vong, or at least this one, had found a way to counter this attack.

“You want to dance?” Kyp said grimly. “Fine with me. I’ll lead.”

He swept in, a laser firestorm leading the way. Several coralskippers circled in to support the larger ship. As the Jedi led them away, he carefully noted the shape and diameter of the big ship’s protective shield. He jinked sharply, putting a passing military ship between himself and his attackers just long enough to drop a pair of concussion missiles. Quickly he darted away, drawing the Yuuzhan Vong with him and leaving the missiles floating like harmless flotsam.

Octa responded at once to this signal. She and the three pilots under her command unleashed a barrage of quick-stuttering laserfire at the big coralskipper.

Kyp reached out with the Force and eased the floating missiles toward the big skip. He reversed the flow of Force energy and brought the missiles to a stop just short of the dovin basal’s reach.

While Octa kept the big skip busy, Kyp quickly took