Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [77]
“Your. Pardon. Master.”
Shedao Shai regarded Lian coldly, then returned his gaze to the Yuuzhan Vong beneath his foot. “What happened here? Tell me all.”
Runck’s fingers clawed into the ground. “We can only surmise and only have information from some Chazrach who ran from here.”
“And what you surmise is?”
A gray tongue licked lips free of black specks. “Krag Val, as is proper, announced a challenge to the enemy leader. Silverblade did not answer it. Yellowblade did, then one of the others, not a jeedai, answered. Krag Val cut down the first, then Yellowblade. The third jeedai slew him. Silverblade engaged others and must have slain them. Our slaves broke and ran. The enemy burned this place to the ground, consuming the bodies of their dead and ours.”
Shedao Shai’s right hand convulsed into a fist. He pounded it against his armored thigh, breaking the grip and letting each finger slowly straighten. “And by the time you got here, the conflagration had spread. You could find no way to track them?”
“No, Leader, there was nothing we could do.”
“Wrong, Runck of Domain Das.” Shedao Shai shifted all of his weight onto the subordinate’s neck, then twisted his foot, popping skull from spine. “You could have been faster.”
He glanced quickly at Deign Lian. His subordinate hesitated, then started to lower himself to the ground.
“Don’t be stupid, Deign Lian.” The Yuuzhan Vong leader left Runck’s body twitching out its life and stood over his aide. “What have you learned from letting your prey escape?”
Deign Lian’s eyes studied the blackened ground. “That the infidels are cunning. They laid a trap for us. Had you not insisted—”
Shedao Shai kicked him in the chest, dumping him onto his left flank in a black cloud of dust. “If that is the lesson you learned, you are no smarter than Runck.”
“But, my leader—”
“Think, Lian, truly think.” Shedao slowly spread his gauntleted hands. “You see this ruin around you and you come away with an impression of cunning? Analyze the battle you were involved in. The truth is obvious.”
“I have tried, Commander.”
“Not hard enough, Lian.” Shedao suppressed a shiver spawned by his subordinate’s incompetence. “They arrive and deploy to recover the jeedai. You arrive and deploy to deny them their prize. Your force is superior. Then they bring in reinforcements in two waves? The second wave’s delay gained them no tactical advantage. One of their ships took serious damage because of the delay. Moreover, given where the second wave appeared in the system, there are a limited number of points from which they could have come. Few of them allow for convenient access to the New Republic, but not so this Imperial Remnant.”
The Yuuzhan Vong leader slowly paced a circle around his aide. “More importantly, even the arrival of this force was not enough to defeat you and drive you away from the planet. They took their prize and retreated. My supposition is that the second wave was from the Imperial Remnant, here for their own reasons, and they decided to intervene.”
Lian nodded slowly. “My leader’s wisdom is boundless.”
“If it were that, I would have sent more ships with you. I would have been here myself.”
The aide looked up. “How did you know to send ships with me?”
Shedao Shai paused for a moment. “The earlier appearance of the New Republic ship made no sense. If they wished a scouting run on Garqi, it could have remained at the system fringe while their fighters flew in close, gathered data, and retreated. This was largely their activity pattern at Sernpidal. The only reason for them to be here was to deliver the ship that was reported downed. Analysis of the crash site showed us all we would expect.”
“I fail to see—”
“Indeed.” Shedao Shai snorted. “You and those who explored the ruins of the ship. They were so afraid of being tainted that they missed