Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [164]
There was simply no holding them back.
Carried along by sheer exuberance, proclaiming their long-overdue equality and salvation for all to hear, they poured from their hidey-holes like ngdins at a sacrifice—and indeed thousands of the meter-long blood soakers followed them out into rapidly darkening daylight, assured of more than the usual share of glossy black nutrient.
Yuuzhan’tar had become a feeding frenzy for warriors who should have known better, and for biots that were doing only what they had been bred to do.
Gazing down on the Place of Hierarchy, Nom Anor was struck dumb by the butchery for which he was responsible—thanks to Shimrra—and yet was powerless to thwart. He could no more command the warriors to desist than he could convince the Shamed Ones to flee. He was, as ever, caught in the middle, though placed there by his own schemes, lies, and masquerades.
The realization made him desperate. The insatiable warrior pack had worked its way south from the Citadel, through Vistu and Numesh, across bridges and down alleyways, slaughtering wherever they fared, until they had entered the public place that of late had become the heretics’ hallowed ground, owing to the many who already died there during demonstrations and riots.
It was immediately clear that the warriors had merely been practicing up until this point. For now, trapped in the Place of Hierarchy was a crowd into which they could wade like thrashing biots. Before them stood those responsible for keeping the Yuuzhan Vong from total victory at Zonama Sekot. These were the ones who would pay, against whom the warriors could exorcise their fear and confusion—even if those they put to death were as innocent as they were Shameless.
But the horror had scarcely commenced—with war cries answered by agonized screams—when fires began to break out in many of the quake-damaged structures that walled the place, including the prefectory and the Temple of the Lovers, Yun-Txiin and Yun-Q’aah.
For a moment Nom Anor was certain that the sudden blazes were the result of firebomb strafings by Alliance starfighters that had punched through Coruscant’s dovin basal voids. From his vantage at the top of the flight of yorik coral stairs that fronted the prefectory he could see that similar conflagrations were raging in all precincts of the city, and beyond. Flaring from the vegetation that cloaked the buttes that were the tops of buildings and towers, the flames were being carried by the wind to all quarters.
But the hot swirling wind also brought the foul odor of marsh gas to Nom Anor’s flattened nostrils, and he swung around in disbelief to see a cavalcade of fire-breathing Yuuzhan Vong beasts bobbing over the cityscape.
Quickly he lifted his gaze.
There were too few starfighters in the sky to account for so many fires, and no evidence of orbital bombardment, turbolaser bolts, or proton torpedoes. Then he understood, and his heart filled with such anguish that he dropped to his knees and remained there until he had caught his breath and regained his senses.
Shimrra was responsible!
Beyond reason, beyond madness, the Supreme Overlord had struck a deal with the dhuryam to destroy Coruscant—Nom Anor’s Coruscant! With the same ruthlessness that had allowed him to dispatch Warmaster Nas Choka’s armada on a suicide mission to poison Zonama Sekot, Shimrra had decided to eradicate all things Yuuzhan Vong. He had become the Yuuzhan Vong-specific poison he had fabricated for the elite—if only