Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [0]
RUIN
MICHAEL A. STACKPOLE
A Del Rey® Book
THE BALLANTINE PUBLISHING GROUP • NEW YORK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Dramatis Personae
Map
Timeline
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Also by Michael A. Stackpole
Front Sales
Copyright
To Star Wars Fans
Your knowledge and dedication makes
writing these books a challenge.
Your passion for the universe makes
writing them indescribably rewarding.
Until we meet again . . .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could not have been completed without the efforts of a legion of people. The author wishes to thank the
following people without whose effort this book would not exist:
Sue Rostoni, Lucy Autry Wilson, and Allan Kausch of Lucas Licensing Ltd.
Shelly Shapiro of Del Rey.
Ricia Mainhardt, my agent.
R. A. Salvatore, Kathy Tyers, Jim Luceno—Nice handoff, Bob; here’s the baton for you, Jim.
Peet Janes, Timothy Zahn, Tish Pahl, and Jennifer Roberson.
And always, Liz Danforth, who tolerates my vanishing into the galaxy far, far away for months at a time.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Gavin Darklighter: Rogue Squadron colonel; human male
Corran Horn: Jedi Knight; Rogue Squadron; human male
Traest Kre’fey: New Republic admiral; Bothan male
Deign Lian: Yuuzhan Vong warrior; male
Gilad Pellaeon: Imperial Remnant admiral; human male
Shedao Shai: Yuuzhan Vong commander; male
Luke Skywalker: Jedi Master; human male
Anakin Solo: Jedi Knight; human male
Jacen Solo: Jedi Knight; human male
Jaina Solo: Jedi Knight; Rogue Squadron lieutenant; human female
Leia Organa Solo: New Republic ambassador; human female
Wedge Antilles: Rogue Squadron general; human male
Mara Jade Skywalker: Jedi Master; human female
CHAPTER ONE
Shedao Shai stood in his chamber, deep within the living ship Legacy of Torment. Tall and lean, long-limbed with hooks and barbs at wrist, elbow, knee, and heel, the Yuuzhan Vong warrior had pulled himself up to his full height and held his open hands out away from his sides. A slender, fleshy umbilical connected his ship to the cognition hood he wore. The tiny cable snaked up and out through the cabin’s yorick coral wall where it was grafted into the ship’s neural tissue.
Shedao Shai saw what the ship saw and knew what it knew, there, orbiting Dubrillion. Only the void of space surrounded him, with Dubrillion being a blue and green ball slowly spinning beneath his feet. The system’s asteroid belt stretched over him in a mobile arch, and the distant brown world Destrillion hovered away in the near-empty darkness like a cowardly suitor.
This is what it feels like to be a god. Shedao Shai hesitated for a second, barely a heartbeat, letting fear of having blasphemed run through him. He smothered the fear, knowing that Yun-Yammka, the god known as the Slayer, would allow him his conceit as a reward for having successfully taken so many worlds from the infidels. The priests had told the Yuuzhan Vong that their new home was here, in what the infidels called the New Republic; and to Shedao Shai fell the hideous responsibility of leading the attack that would make the priests’ prophecy a reality.
Using the ship’s senses as his own, Shedao allowed himself to slip the bonds and concerns of his body and spread his intellect over all he saw. The Yuuzhan Vong had traveled far, in great worldships, seeking this new home. Scouts had located this galaxy over fifty years before, and the report of the survivors had brought reality to the Supreme Overlord’s prophecy: a new home was at hand at last. Later, agents had been infiltrated into it. Intelligence had flowed back to the worldships, and a whole generation