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Jaina faced down the stubborn Wookiee. “I don’t see what else we can do.”

Lowbacca glanced at the ready ship and grumbled an argument.

“Hapes doesn’t have the sort of people we need. This is experimental technology, and it’s vital that we get it right. There are no better techs anywhere than on Kashyyyk,” she said, naming the Wookiee homeworld.

Lowbacca harrumphed and folded his arms. Jaina’s patience began to fray. “All right, let me put it this way. Your family owes my father a life debt. He doesn’t seem willing to claim it himself, so I’m doing so in his name.”

Lowbacca growled in puzzlement. The choice Jaina put before him was an awkward one, and she knew it. Her friend was caught between honoring a life debt and bringing some of his people into the path of a Yuuzhan Vong attack. Knowing the warrior culture of the Wookiee, Jaina was confident about the outcome.

With another heartfelt groan, Lowbacca hoisted himself into the waiting Hapan ship, and set off to bring some of his clan’s best technicians into grave danger.

Kyp’s X-wing drifted quietly in space, controls darkened and only enough power flowing to supply the lifesupport systems. Even Zero-One, his astromech droid and would-be conscience, remained switched off.

He watched as two small Hapan ships darted past, headed toward the coordinates of a short hyperspace jump. Kyp waited until they had disappeared, then powered up and urged his ship to follow.

His X-wing emerged into a vicious firestorm. Several Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers surrounded the Hapan ships. Plasma bolts tore at the blackness like bloody claws.

“Two ships,” Kyp muttered. “Only two, against this!”

He jinked hard to port to avoid an incoming bolt, then wheeled around in a tight circle and closed in on one of the skips. Two of the enemy ships veered off into wild, erratic flight.

“Looks like there’s a little too much confusion on that implant, Jaina,” Kyp said as he switched on the comm to Zero-One. “Lock down target.”

ACKNOWLEDGED.

Bright blue icons leapt onto his control screen and narrowed down into tight focus. A warning sensor hummed, and the single light flashed for a one–two–three countdown. Kyp hit the button at two.

A proton torpedo dropped into the sky and hurtled toward one of the confused skips. Blue light flared past a stream of plasma, turning the golden bolt into an eerie green. Kyp threw his ship into a side roll, spinning it away from the enemy barrage.

His weapon struck dead center, and the coralskipper exploded into shards of dark coral. Kyp veered away from the blooming cluster of shrapnel and chose his next target. In moments another bright explosion blossomed against the sky.

His comm unit crackled. “Vanguard Three, is that you?”

Kyp recognized the voice of one of Jag Fel’s best Hapan recruits. “Seth! What in the blue blazes are you doing out here?”

“You don’t know?”

At that moment, Kyp did know. These weren’t scouts, sent up in pairs by Colonel Fel. These two men were sacrifices.

“Fall back. I’ll cover you.”

“Cover us, but try not to blow up every skip. I sure don’t want to do this again.”

A quick, syncopated cluster of plasma bolts erupted from two of the skips, converging on the Hapan fighter. The small vessel disappeared in a burst of white fire.

Kyp muttered an oath and swung away to protect the final ship. Despite Seth’s request, he took out three more of the Yuuzhan Vong skips before following the battered Hapan fighter back to its base.

In the docking bay, Kyp swung out of the X-wing and sent a furious mental summons for his “apprentice.”

“You don’t have to shout,” a calm female voice announced.

Jaina strode into the docking bay. Bypassing Kyp, she went up to the surviving pilot. “Did you get any?”

The man glanced at Kyp. “One. Maybe.”

She nodded and turned away. Kyp seized her arm, and the two Jedi locked angry stares. “They’re gathering data,” she said at last. “Important data.”

“How many pilots have you sent up? How many returned?”

“Most likely a higher percentage than those from your command,” she shot back.

“People die in war. I