Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [61]
The Noghri moved against the Yuuzhan Vong slaves like rancors through Jawas. Fists and feet blurred as they struck, crushing bone and pitching their reptilian foes to the ground. Jacen had seen Noghri fight before, and had even sparred against some, but never had he seen them attack without holding something back. Here they were pure killers, and the ease and economy of their motions belied their lethal power.
A trio of reptoids closed with Jacen. He parried a slash from a staff, then riposted his green blade through the reptoid’s chest. Two blaster bolts from snipers burned hot and red through a second reptoid. Jacen shoved the reptoid on his blade off, letting the rolling body trip up a third reptoid. When that one fell at his feet, he slammed the dark end of his lightsaber against the reptoid’s skull, knocking him out.
The Yuuzhan Vong warrior fighting Ganner had recovered and tugged his face mask back into place. His amphistaff spun into a blur. The warrior came in fast, attacking low and high. Ganner blocked some cuts, ducked back from others, then one grazing slash opened a red line on his left thigh. Ganner snarled, and the warrior yelled and increased the violence of his assault.
Ganner leapt back, limping, his leg faltering. Jacen saw him go down, falling back on his haunches. Ganner raised his lightsaber in a weak defense as the warrior charged forward, amphistaff raised for a two-handed blow that would crush Ganner’s skull.
Blaster bolts sizzled through the air, but none touched the Yuuzhan Vong warrior. Jacen glanced at the hatch cover, gathering the Force to hurl it and shield Ganner, but there was no time. He hoped a bolt might catch the warrior, or Corran might be able to project an image into his brain to save Ganner, but that did not happen.
Ganner had already saved himself.
The Yuuzhan Vong warrior, in his furious, headlong rush, stepped into the hole from which Ganner had emerged. His right leg sank into it up to midthigh, then his leg got trapped, and Jacen could hear it snap halfway across the plaza. The warrior’s torso smashed into the ground. His helmet and faceplate bounced off, then Ganner’s backhand slash carried away his head from the eyes up.
One of the other Yuuzhan Vong warriors shrieked aloud, shattering the momentary silence that marked the other warrior’s death. In an instant the knotted balls of humans fighting reptoids separated. Humans and reptoids sorted themselves out. They appropriated new weapons from the dead.
The Yuuzhan Vong warrior screeched another command.
The human thralls turned, snarling, and galloped toward the resistance members. Malice burned in their eyes, replacing any vestige of humanity that might once have been there.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Luke rose from the chair he’d been occupying in the office of the director of the University of Garos library and paced out into the outer office before answering his comlink. He left Mara and Mirax behind to deal with the director’s questions. The director was a bureaucrat who took great pains to explain every procedure she was doing as she went along, reducing her work pace to something slower than that of a wet tauntaun on Hoth.
If she’d just let Artoo jack into her system, we’d be done in no time.
“Skywalker here. What is it, Anakin?”
“Greetings, Master Skywalker.”
“Daeshara’cor?” A jolt ran up Luke’s spine. He sought through the Force for a sense of her or Anakin. He found them, but very distant and small, as if they were actively trying to diminish their presence in the Force. “Anakin had this comlink frequency.”
“He is fine. A bit sore, but unharmed.” Static ate at her voice, erasing traces of stress. If there is any. Luke realized she’d dialed down the signal power to make