Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [110]
But we’re not in space, are we, boys? The exploding proton torpedoes did two things. The first was to pulse out a shock wave that traveled faster than the speed of sound and pushed a lot of atmosphere in front of it. That dense chunk of air slammed into the two crates, boosting them forward and starting them to tumble. It raced past, dissipating as it went, but even the two leaders were bounced around a bit.
The second thing the explosions did, by superheating air and blasting it out in all directions, was to create a void that a lot of air rushed in to fill. The resulting turbulence whirled the spinning crates around. Gavin had no idea how the Yuuzhan Vong pilots and the living components of their ships were able to track up, down, direction, speed, or altitude, but he knew that at the heart of a whirlwind he’d have had a hard time thinking about any of that.
Apparently, so did the Yuuzhan Vong. Their ships fell from the sky, careening through the jungle. No explosions resulted from their impacts, though trees toppled, scarring the dark canopy.
Gavin watched them fall, then focused on the rest of the crates. They were already quite far and quite low, and too close to the herd ship to risk another proton torpedo shot. He smiled to himself. Did what we could to slow them down. Now they’re not our problem.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The first Yuuzhan Vong carrier swooped in at the Tafanda Bay and pulled away sharply at the last moment. The herd ship, which had no guns, presented no obvious threat to the invaders. The second carrier came in level and blazed away with the two small plasma cannons mounted on the cockpit’s roof. Golden gouts of plasma slammed into the transparisteel of a veiwport, melting it like ice beneath a blowtorch.
The carrier then used a void, centering it on the hole, to suck molten transparisteel away. The void pulled in some atmosphere, tree branches, and small uprooted plants by the time it had cleared out a hole big enough to let the carrier land. The boxy ship entered the Tafanda Bay and moved forward to a green promenade. It touched down lightly, opening hatches through which poured a legion of little reptoid shock troops.
From the ship’s aft emerged a half-dozen Yuuzhan Vong warriors, all tall, lean, and terrible. They bore their amphistaffs and wore armor, but it hung loosely on them. They seemed to move uneasily in it, and as Anakin Solo watched them alight from the ship, he supposed their uneasiness came from wearing the dead shell of a creature instead of the living vonduun crab itself.
He studied the small screen on his datapad, occasionally hitting a key to provide himself another view from one of the many holocams located throughout the city. He switched to the one nearest where the first crate had landed and caught the quick flash of something before static filled the little data window. Another view showed two Yuuzhan Vong warriors pointing at the smoking, sparking ruin of a holocam.
One of the warriors plucked a flat, disk-shaped bug from a bandolier he wore across his chest and sent it whirling out toward the cam through which Anakin watched them. Anakin flinched, having felt the sting of the razorbugs on Dantooine. The toss missed, but the bug came flying back to its master for another try. Anakin switched to yet a third cam, but the landing of the second crate cut off his view of the warrior throwing the bug.
Daeshara’cor rested a hand on his left shoulder. “It’s time, Anakin.”
He shut the datapad off and started to pocket it, but she turned and looked at him. “Leave it. No reason to drag it along.”
The remark surprised him for a second. She was right. He didn’t need it for what they would be doing. In fact, it would be a little extra weight, something that might slow him down. If they defeated the Yuuzhan Vong, he would have all the time