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The spice heightened her senses, increased her ability to fight, improved her reflexes. Anja clasped the ancient lightsaber at her side. With the full dose of spice surging through her body, she felt vibrant, powerful, ready to take on any foe.

As Han Solo led a group of escaping villagers into the Falcon, Anja pushed past him to run outside. At this moment she didn't care how many knaars were attacking. She could handle them all.

"There's no time to argue, Dad," Jaina said, standing at the base of the ramp as Han Solo tried to cram a last few people aboard. Zekk had already gone into the cockpit and was powering up the engines for immediate takeoff. A dozen of the remaining villagers huddled around Jaina in terror, holding sticks and agricultural implements. One woman had a small laser drilling tool.

"Take Anakin and go," Jaina insisted. "We have our lightsabers, and we have to help these people."

"But I can't leave my own kids behind," Han said, obviously torn.

"We're Jedi Knights, Dad. We have a better chance than any of these villagers. We've got to protect them."

And with that, the first knaars charged out of the darkness at the ramshackle line of buildings, looking for prey. Jaina stood startled for a moment. Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Jacen all stared at their new enemy.

"We're doomed," Em Teedee wailed.

The knaars were fast-moving reptilian predators, sleek saurians with purplish-blue scales and a silver frill of razor-sharp spines along their backs. Tails slashed back and forth, inflicting damage on anything around them with their wicked barbs. The creatures' muscular anus ended in a fistful of claws, and their immense jaws were heavy machinery designed only for eating.

The pack of bloodthirsty beasts stampeded into the village. They swiveled their heads from side to side, clenching and unclenching their grasping claws, looking for flesh to tear.

As the Falcon blasted its repulsobets and rose up, Jaina watched it swivel around and fly low to the ground, approaching the predatory knaars. Han and Zekk would use blaster cannons to shoot the creatures, Jaina knew, but as the pack of monsters continued to flow from the hills, she realized it would never be enough. This migratory pack consisted of hundreds upon hundreds of members, each hungry from its long charge through the rocky hills.

Jaina's lightsaber blazed violet in her hand, and her friends drew their weapons as well. Anja rushed up, looking flushed and full of adrenaline; she danced from foot to foot, as if anxious to attack anything that came close. But the moment the knaars fell upon the nearest guard and tore the old woman apart, the other villagers turned and fled, forgetting to put up even a pretense of a fight.

Instantly Jaina saw that the battle was hopeless. Even with their lightsabers, even with the Millennium Falcon's blasters, they couldn't possibly drive the knaars away. Their best choice was to flee and hope to find a place of refuge or a protected area in which they could make a stand.

And their only path to escape lay through the detonator-salted fields.

The Falcon blasted two of the leading knaars. Several of their fellows fell upon the bodies, stripping the meat off the bones of the dead predators. But scores of knaars kept coming.

The Falcon fired again. Heedless of this minor interruption, the monsters surged forward, slashing with claws, snapping their jaws at their helpless prey. Jaina, with her companions and the remaining villagers, turned and ran headlong into fields full of burrowing detonators.

As the Millennium Falcon took off with a roar, Zekk heard the villagers crowded in the back of the Falcon moan with fear. His attention, though, was focused on the sparks and flashes of light that signified lightsabers as the young Jedi Knights fought down below.

"Zekk, get into the gun well and start blasting those creatures!"

Han Solo shouted.

"I hope your laser cannons are fully charged," Zekk said, climbing down into the gun well. He dropped into the chair,