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Han squatted down beside the warrior he had shot in the chest, then regarded the thirty-year-old weapon that had supplied the lethal bolt. “I never knew these old blasters packed such a wallop.”

“They don’t,” Kyp said from where he was crouched near another warrior. He rapped his knuckles against the breastplate of the Yuuzhan Vong’s living armor. “Inferior armor, inferior weaponry, inferior troops.” He glanced around. “Even the bissops were slow.”

Leia glanced at Sasso in sudden uncertainty. “Another side effect of the heat wave?”

The Rodian shook his head in perplexity.

“Let me get this straight,” Wraw said. “You’re disappointed because we won too easily?” He snorted a laugh. “I’m beginning to wonder if all of you aren’t sympathizers.”

“He’s right.” Page said. “We can use every bit of luck we get.”

“I’ve played enough sabacc to know luck when I see it,” Han said, “and this wasn’t it.” He scanned the boulders and nearby trees. “They could be luring us into a trap.”

Kyp glanced at him. “Something else is going on here,” he said.

TWENTY-TWO

Rimward of the Tion Hegemony, Jaina watched the Yuuzhan Vong armada revert from hyperspace once again. One moment it appeared that ten thousand stars had been eclipsed; the next, that that part of the galaxy had gained a new star cluster.

Cappie shrilled and squeaked, underscoring its obvious distress by spotting the cockpit’s display screen with countless glowing bezels. In the same instant, two cinder-black A-wings that had been Jaina’s starboard companions for the past hour fell away in stealth, and made the jump to lightspeed.

Despite the glowing threat-assessment screen and her previous sightings of the armada, Jaina was staggered by the sheer number of ships the Yuuzhan Vong had amassed. Close-ups of the vessels provided by the starfighter’s long-range scanners showed their pitted hulls to be marked and etched with cryptic symbols and blackened with what looked like war paint but was probably blood. Many displayed slender tendrils of yorik coral, from which flew sail-like battle standards. Evidenced by melt circles and areas of carbon scoring, some of the ships were clearly veterans of earlier campaigns, uprooted from occupied systems throughout the invasion corridor. Others looked newly commissioned—newly grown—including an enormous rose-colored oval that had to be the flagship.

The fact that the Yuuzhan Vong had essentially entrusted hundreds of conquered worlds to the protection of patrol craft and ground troops meant not only that they were willing to risk everything they had gained on one conclusive battle, but also that their intent was nothing less than the obliteration of the Alliance fleets.

Cappie sent another transmission to the cockpit, and Jaina clutched the control yoke in pulse-quickening anticipation.

A pyrotechnic display of globular explosions began to fire-brighten the leading edge of the mobile cluster of ships, and a dozen bezels disappeared from the display screen. Again the Yuuzhan Vong had moved headlong into an expansive arc of smart mines that had been sown at the jump point. But as had occurred at the Perlemian transit point, the explosions began to taper off almost immediately, until there were only isolated bursts, and many of the undetonated mines disappeared, vacuumed into immense singularities created by dovin basals.

Jaina pressed her chin to the helmet’s microphone stud.

“Quermia controller, this is Twin Suns One. The beast has arrived and opened the packages we left.”

“Did the packages come as a surprise?”

“Not for long enough to give the beast any pause.”

“What is the status of your companions?”

“Heralds are away.”

“Can you corroborate the beast’s current vector?”

Jaina keyed a short request to the R2-B3 droid, which replied with tones and buzzes that became text on the display screen.

“Bearing toward jump coordinates for Mon Calamari.”

“Copy that, Twin Suns One. You are green to depart, and reposition