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As she reached the rendezvous point, Jaina glanced at her primary sensor screen. The Rogues were set up midway between the asteroid belt and the Agamarian convoy. Other squadrons of fighters, made up of old TIE designs and a plethora of uglies, formed up behind Rogue Squadron. At the very end of the convoy sat the Ralroost. A couple of last shuttles were coming up from the planet to board the Bothan Assault Cruiser. By stretching out with the Force, Jaina could feel her mother and Danni on board one of them.

They left the planet safely. Now we have to get them out of the system safely.

“Rogue Lead, I have movement on my scanners.” Rogue Four’s voice dominated the channel for a moment. “At 271 mark 30.”

Jaina ruddered her fighter around in that direction and felt a chill run down her spine. “By all that makes a Hutt ugly . . .”

A Yuuzhan Vong warship drifted slowly down from the asteroid belt, with little coralskippers buzzing around it like flies on carrion. The ship itself would have matched an Imperial Star Destroyer in length, but, being something of an ovoid shape, certainly massed a great deal more. The ship’s flesh alternated in strips of smooth, glassy, black rock and rougher, craggier patches that housed pits, which she assumed were weapons emplacements and homes for the dovin basals that propelled the ship.

Near the nose, along the spine, and at the aft of the ship grew huge, long coral arms of deep red and dark blue. Coralskippers dotted these arms like buds on a plant. Jaina assumed that some of the larger, unoccupied holes in the arms housed plasma projectors, and judging from their size compared to the coralskippers, a blast from one of them could easily burn a snubfighter from the sky.

The lead ships in the convoy started to move out. They used Dubrillion’s gravity well to let them build up some speed, then came about on a course that would let them make the first jump in the journey to Agamar. They weren’t going directly, since they had no desire to lead the Yuuzhan Vong to that world. More importantly, by stopping at a way point and shifting to a new course, they’d cut days off the single-jump trip.

The coralskippers that had been orbiting around the big ship formed into squadrons and began their runs at the convoy. Combat traffic controllers on the Ralroost started designating squadrons as targets and fed attack orders to the various Dubrillion squadrons nearest them. Jaina studied her sensor monitors intently, watching as little lights representing fighters moved forward, split apart, and in the midst of fierce dogfights, suddenly winked out of existence.

After what seemed like an eternity, but really was all too soon, Gavin’s voice broke through the low-level chatter on the comm channels. “Rogues, we have been given the target designated Rock-One. Keep moving fast, do as much damage as you can. Everyone look out for everyone else.”

Jaina’s R5 droid, a maroon and white model, uttered a low moan.

“What’s the matter, Sparky?”

The droid tootled and splashed the target on her primary monitor.

Emperor’s black bones, we’re going after the warship. In an odd way, ordering an attack by a group of snubfighters against a capital ship made sense. The Empire’s big ships had always been vulnerable to close-in actions by small fighters. The New Republic’s tactical commanders knew that and employed snubfighters very effectively against their enemies.

Jaina wondered, however, if the Yuuzhan Vong were aware of how afraid they should be of snubfighters.

“As ordered, Lead.” Jaina smiled and jammed the throttle forward. “Sparky, hold on tight back there.”

“Has your wing, Twelve does, Sticks.”

“Thanks, Twelve.” Jaina looked at her weapons board. “Nine, do we use our proton torps, or just the lasers?”

“Got something else you’re going to be saving the torps for, Sticks?”

“I copy, Nine.” Jaina quadded up her lasers and settled a finger over the stutter trigger. She figured she’d use the lasers to scope