Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 10_ Jedi Bounty - Kevin J. Anderson [53]
Hovrak grabbed a suit and studied its configuration to make sure it would fit his body type.
Taking care not to knock loose any of his precious medals, he tugged the suit on over his formal uniform and directed four of his guards to do the same.
Hovrak sealed his transparisteel helmet and stared through its mirrorized coating. Now he could walk and see comfortably, even out in the harshest glare. The suit's recirculating climate-control systems kept him cool, and he listened to the hiss of cool air as he breathed.
The four guards, now suited up, gathered beside him, anxious to begin stalking. They wanted to kill the escaped humans before the searing heat did the job for them.
The landscape out there was hellish: fire and lava, rock and desert.
The silvery suits would protect them against far greater extremes than the weakling humans would be able to endure.
"Let's go," Hovrak said through the comm unit in his helmet. "No one rests until our task is finished." The Adjutant Advisor stepped out into the sizzling daylight, looking for any shadowed path that Jaina and Raynar might have chosen to walk. The two humans could not have moved very fast across the treacherous landscape, picking their way upward; they could not have gone far.
Hovrak shouldered his weapon, hoping that its circuits wouldn't be scrambled by the unaccustomed inhospitable temperatures. Of course, if the blaster refused to fire, he could simply attack the young humans with his hands. The rocks felt soft and plastic under his heavy-booted feet.
He grasped outcroppings with his gloves to help himself along, and easily picked up the trail. The humans hadn't had many options.
A couple of the Diversity Alliance guards appeared uneasy, less confident than he was in the protective abilities of their suits.
Hovrak ignored their concerns, though, and snarled through the helmet comm system for them to hurry up.
When he caught the humans, Hovrak would have to restrain himself from killing them too quickly. The heat, the sunlight, the lava offered numerous possibilities for drawing out their pain.
Nolaa Tarkona would be so pleased.
Armored against the heat, the silver-suited hunters moved steadily along, closing in on their prey.
AS THE HEAT storm howled past the frozen cave opening, Jacen listened to the cracking, scalding wind. Suddenly superheated rock tumbled free outside and ice formations melted.
Clouds of mist roiled at the entrance like soup, making the air dense and impenetrable in Ry-loth's frozen night. A jet of steam shot into the cave, struck the wall, and froze instantly into a hard, glassy coating.
Gusts of raw, hot air struck Jacen in the face, but his skin was so numb he could take no pleasure in it.
Behind him, Tenel Ka was more intent on the sound she had heard from deeper within the cave. "Who is there?" she said. "I sense you here with us." She drew her lightsaber and switched on the humming beam as the storm continued to rage outside. Her turquoise blade cast a dim blue-green glow.
"So, someone has come to kill me at last," a hoarse voice rasped. "I would have managed the job myself eventually... if you had given me a little more time."
As the wind whipped the mountainside, Jacen heard a mechanical rattling from the windmills and turbines that stood sentry like robotic scarecrows outside. The inescapable force of the whirlwind spun gears and powered the generators.
Jury-rigged lights inside the cave flickered on to reveal an extensive network of living chambers.
Jacen stood next to Tenel Ka, ready to fight.
He drew his own lightsaber, planning to ignite the emerald blade, but he quickly saw they had nothing to fear.
Back in a cleared section of the cave huddled an old Twi'Lek man. His face was gaunt, his skin bruised and grayish. He looked up at them, head-tails trembling as if from the cold. He blinked repeatedly. His once sharpened teeth were now dull