Darkest Knight

15

The screaming sounds of TIE fighters ripping through the atmosphere sent a chill of primal terror down Jacen’s spine. He knew the howl was only exhaust from the powerful engines, but he felt certain the Imperial ship designers must have delighted in the hellish noise.

In the bustling fabrication facility, a cacophony of alarms rang out from platform loudspeakers. Growling, barking announcements hammered through the air. Wookiee workers ran in all directions, activating security systems or evacuating the area.

TIE bombers streaked low over the treetops, dropping proton explosives that set the dense network of branches aflame. Dark gray smoke billowed from burning leaves.

“We must help defend against this threat,” Tenel Ka said, looking for some weapon substantial enough to use against the invading fighters. Her face wore an expression of stony determination.

Sirra and Lowie howled in rage at seeing the destruction of the tree dwellings. The spindly Tour Droid spun its boxy head around, despite its numerous optical sensors. “Do not panic. Have no fear,” it said in its tinny voice. “This must be a drill. No attack has been scheduled for today.”

At Lowie’s waist, Em Teedee piped up in a scornful tone. “Why, you silly Tour Droid, switch on your optical sensors! Can’t you see this is a crisis situation? Hmmmf!” The miniaturized droid muttered a deprecating comment about the questionable intelligence of public-relations models.

The Tour Droid continued to issue calming messages, though its thoughts were obviously scrambled. “Kashyyyk has numerous satellite defenses. No enemy ships can approach this facility. We have sophisticated defense mechanisms, including powerful perimeter guns. They should begin firing any moment now.”

“Perimeter guns?” Tenel Ka said, her cool gray eyes flashing. “Where? Perhaps we can use them against these enemies.”

Sirra roared, gesturing with her long hairy arm to show that she knew the way.

“A splendid idea,” Em Teedee said. “I do hope we won’t be blown to bits before we can implement Mistress Tenel Ka’s plan. Oh my!”

“As my sister would say,” Jacen said, “what are we waiting for?” He, Tenel Ka, and the two young Wookiees barged past the Tour Droid into the complex.

Sirra led them down an open-air corridor amid the din of explosions and laser blasts. They reached a network of pulley-driven vines, ropelike lifts that yanked them to a higher level. Sirra grabbed one vine, tucked her foot into a loop, and the rope sprang upward, drawing her toward the higher platforms. Lowie did the same. Jacen followed suit, looking down to watch Tenel Ka, who wrapped her arm around the vine and stepped into a loop with no problem whatsoever. Within seconds, they were all whisked to an upper platform at the outer perimeter of the complex.

Because of their quick reaction, the companions reached the defensive guns before most of the Wookiee defenders. Jacen saw unattended ion cannons with spherical power sources and needlelike barrels aimed toward the sky—but his eyes lit upon a pair of old-model quad-laser cannons, exactly like those in the Millennium Falcon’s gun wells.

“Hey, we can use those!” Jacen said. He raced over to the nearest emplacement, checking the status panels. “They’re powered up and ready to go.” Tenel Ka gruffly agreed and stationed herself behind one of the other weapons.

The two Wookiees chattered to each other. Em Teedee called, “Master Jacen! Master Lowbacca and Mistress Sirrakuk have decided to use the computers to determine where the breakdown in the facility’s defensive systems occurred. Perhaps they can prevent further Imperial fighters from getting through. Oh, I do hope they’re successful.”

“They’ll do their best,” Jacen said, grabbing the quad-laser’s targeting controls. He sank down into the voluminous seat in front of the cannon, feeling the energy thrum through the firing sticks in his fingers. Since the widely spread controls had been designed for large Wookiee bodies, he adjusted the targeting circle.

Imperial fighters continued to howl overhead, launching strikes against the Wookiee residential districts, but leaving the central computer facilities relatively untouched … though thrown into complete chaos.

A glance to Jacen’s left told him that Tenel Ka was in position. Gripping the firing stick with her right hand, she seemed already familiarized with the weapon’s control systems. In seconds her eyes began to track the enemy fighters overhead.

Three tall Wookiees charged onto the defensive platform and took up positions at the ion cannons, glancing curiously at the two humans, confused by this unexpected assistance. But they didn’t waste time asking for explanations. Instead, they fired powerful blasts from the ion cannons.

One of the crackling yellow-white shots caught a TIE fighter that soared through the edge of the blast. The Imperial control systems flickered out and the TIE fighter spun dead in the air, its engine silenced. Unable to regain control, the pilot crashed into the distant forest canopy with a dull, booming explosion.

Jacen used his targeting circles to lock onto a sluggish, fully loaded TIE bomber that arrowed toward the clustered residential structures. The bomber came in, picking up speed while preparing to drop its deadly explosives.

Jacen grasped the firing controls and gritted his teeth. “Come on … come on,” he said. Finally, the target lock blinked as the TIE bomber settled directly in the crosshairs.

He squeezed both controls, launching searing blazes of laser energy from all four cannons. The beams targeted on the bomber just before it could drop its proton explosives. Instead of destroying the homes of hundreds of Wookiees, the bomber became a brilliant ball of fire and smoke. The belch of detonations grew louder as the TIE fighter’s own proton bombs fed into the eruption.

“Got one!” Jacen crowed.

Tenel Ka fired repeatedly until another pair of TIE fighters exploded in the air. “Two more,” she said.

By now, additional Wookiee defenders had arrived to assume positions at the remaining guns. Jacen fired again and again, rotating his chair to aim at the rapidly moving targets. He blasted another TIE fighter out of the sky.

“Just like our practice runs in the Millennium Falcon,” he said. “Only this time, hitting the targets is a lot more important than winning a contest with my sister.”

“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka said.

Another wing of TIE fighters swooped down, and Jacen shot wildly. So many Imperial targets, he thought, all of them bristling with lethal weaponry…. His quad-laser cannon spat beams of energy, but they all missed as the fighters spun evasive loops in the air.

“Oh, blaster bolts!” Jacen said.

Wookiees kept appearing, leaping off the vine pulley-lifts and rushing to their positions, although now there were more defenders than guns. Lowie and Sirra hurried over to Jacen and Tenel Ka, speaking loudly. Their grunts and growls overlapped, so that Em Teedee had difficulty translating both.

“One at a time, please!” the little droid said. “All right, I believe I understand the basics of what you’re saying. Master Lowbacca and Mistress Sirrakuk have determined that a single-point defensive failure occurred in the traffic control tower for this facility. Somehow, all of the central command systems have been compromised. It appears that the attack is being guided from there.”

Lowie roared a suggestion. “Oh dear,” Em Teedee said. “Master Lowbacca suggests we would be well advised to go to the heart of the problem and leave these well-trained Wookiee gunners to continue the fight here. While I agree that it might be safer to move inside—I am skeptical about the wisdom of rushing into greater danger.”

“Good idea, Lowie,” Jacen said, ignoring Em Teedee’s warnings. He fired the quad-laser one more time, almost offhandedly, and was astonished to see his quick shot destroy the side panel of another TIE fighter, which spun out of control and crashed to the treetops. “Hey, got another one,” he said.

Barricaded in the traffic control tower, Zekk listened to outraged Wookiees pounding against the sealed door. A sizzling, melting sound worked its way into the background din as the Wookiees used high-intensity laser torches to slice through the armored metal. Their own well-constructed defenses worked against them, since they had intended Kashyyyk’s command center to be impregnable. Slowly but surely, though, the Wookiees made headway, slicing through the door one centimeter at a time.

Using the security monitors, Zekk watched the hairy creatures out in the hall. With bestial rage one of them picked up a metal pipe and hammered at the door—to no effect, of course, because of the thick plating, but the Wookiee seemed satisfied just to be able to vent his fury.

Tamith Kai crossed her arms over her reptile-armored chest. “The noise level out there is most annoying,” she said, then glared at the stormtrooper standing guard. Her violet eyes flashed with a twisted idea. “Why don’t we trigger the locking mechanism and let the Wookiees stumble inside. We can easily take care of the whole lot before they recover from their surprise.”

Vonnda Ra chuckled. “That would be amusing to watch.”

Before Zekk could voice an indignant protest that he was in command of this mission, the stormtrooper activated the door controls. The panel suddenly slid aside, shocking the Wookiee engineers who had been working to gain access. They howled.

The stormtrooper used his blaster rifle to mow them down in a few seconds, every one of them. Even encased in white armor, the storm-trooper’s body language showed his pleasure. He keyed in the sequence to slam the heavy door shut again, leaving the fallen Wookiees out in the corridor.

“At last, peace and quiet,” Tamith Kai said.

Overhead, TIE fighters and bombers continued to attack, dodging bursts of weapon fire from the tree facility’s perimeter defenses. The reinforced dome overhead showed the battle in the skies. Several contingents of stormtrooper reinforcements had already landed.

Vonnda Ra worked at one of the computer stations, scanning security images. A minute later, she gave a gasp of surprised triumph. “Ah, I believe I’ve found them,” she said. “The vermin were firing the perimeter guns, but now they’re in the corridors. They seem to be making their way … ah! They’re making their way here. Delusions of grandeur. That could prove quite convenient.”

“Who?” Zekk said.

Vonnda Ra raised her eyebrows. “Why, those Jedi brats, of course. Had you forgotten your other goal for this mission?”

Zekk thought of Jacen and Jaina and their friends. “No, I didn’t forget,” he said. But he didn’t want to confront the twins here, not in front of the evil Tamith Kai. This should have been his own private battle, the consequences of the choices he had made. “We’ll meet them on the way. Ambush them. Lock down their location.”

“Simple enough,” Vonnda Ra said.

Reinforcing his position of command, Zekk turned sharply and issued brisk orders. “Tamith Kai, you will remain here and continue organizing the mission. Our primary goal is to get those computer systems for the Second Imperium. You—” he nodded toward the stormtrooper “—will stay here as guard. Vonnda Ra and I will take care of the young Jedi Knights.”

Tamith Kai scowled at being ordered about, but Zekk rounded on her, his cape swirling. “Is that assignment beyond your capabilities, Tamith Kai?”

“Indeed not,” she said. “Is yours? Just be certain you eliminate those brats.”

When the stormtrooper unsealed the armored door again, Vonnda Ra followed Zekk, and they strode out into the corridor, stepping around motionless Wookiee engineers sprawled on the floor, heading toward a confrontation with Zekk’s former friends.

Jacen rushed along, shoulder to shoulder with Lowie and Sirra. The interior corridors were full of smoke, debris, and noise. Glow-panels in the ceilings flickered off and on with energy fluctuations from the attack.

Jacen and Lowie drew their shimmering lightsabers and held them ready. Tenel Ka picked up a loose metal rod, a piece of destroyed pipe that had fallen from an overhead assembly, and loped along behind them, guarding the rear. She held the rod like a spear, as if hoping to find some enemy target.

Lowie and Sirra turned the corner in the corridor, and Jacen thought he recognized the route they had taken to the monolithic control tower during their visit with the Tour Droid. Suddenly, Lowie gave a surprised roar; Sirra bellowed in alarm. Tenel Ka brandished her long metal rod.

“Hey, it’s Zekk!” Jacen shouted, skidding to a stop.

There in the corridor, as if waiting for them, stood the dark-haired scamp who for years had been a friend to Jacen and Jaina … who had taken them on excursions through Coruscant’s abandoned building levels and dim alleys. Now the once-scruffy boy wore expensive leather armor and a crimson-lined black cape—and bore a scarlet-bladed lightsaber. He looked ominous.

Tenel Ka saw Zekk, too, and held her metal staff at the ready. In a flash of memory, Jacen thought of the warrior girl’s initial meeting with Zekk, back on Coruscant: when the young man had dropped down from above to surprise them, Tenel Ka had whipped out her fibercord with blurring speed and lassoed him before he could jump out of the way.

Now, though, Tenel Ka had only one hand, and she did not choose to drop her long steel rod to grab for her rope, or her lightsaber.

For a moment Zekk’s face seemed to open. His eyes grew round and uncertain. “Jacen,” he said, “I—”

Tenel Ka glared at the Nightsister and spoke in a low, threatening voice, “I have your name, Vonnda Ra. I saw you try to lure others from the Singing Mountain Clan on Dathomir. In your encampment at the Great Canyon you chose me as a trainee for the Shadow Academy, but instead we rescued my friends—and defeated you utterly. We’ll defeat you again.”

The muscular Nightsister held up her claw-like hands. “Not this time, Jedi brats!” she said. “I shall enjoy destroying you.”

Jacen felt her dark power crackle through the air, and he held his lightsaber high in defense. Fire-blue lightning bolts danced at Vonnda Ra’s fingertips, burning through her body and sizzling behind her eyes.

She flicked her wrists to hurl her dark lightning at them—but Zekk shouldered the Nightsister to one side. The bolts of evil force flared past them like shadowy flames and scorched the wall plates.

Vonnda Ra glared at Zekk, but he snapped, “They are mine to deal with! I am in command here.”

With a thundering sound of booted feet, a contingent of Imperial fighters charged down the corridor. Jacen looked up in alarm. Reinforcements had arrived—far more than he could hope to fight with his lightsaber, even with the help of Lowbacca, Sirra, and Tenel Ka.

Stormtroopers must have landed on the upper platforms, Jacen surmised. The Second Imperium apparently wanted something here at the fabrication facility. Judging from the alarms and explosions, the Imperials had already overrun most of the platforms.

Zekk stood waiting to battle the Jedi trainees, as if gathering up his courage and his anger, while the rebuffed Nightsister seethed with dark fury. The stormtroopers drew their weapons.

Jacen knew with sudden certainty that they could never win a face-to-face fight here. Tenel Ka pushed herself one step forward, brandishing her metal rod. “We must turn back,” she said, darting a look at him over her shoulder.

“Good idea,” Jacen said, casting a glance behind him.

“You, girl, are a traitor to Dathomir!” Vonnda Ra spat, just as Tenel Ka hurled the long pipe in her direction. The rod struck the Nightsister, knocking her sideways. Stormtroopers clattered toward them as Lowie and Sirra turned to charge back down the corridor.

“After them!” Zekk called, gesturing with one black-gloved hand.

The stormtroopers thundered in pursuit. Vonnda Ra cast the pipe aside. Patches of it were bent and red-hot where fire from within her fingers had super-heated the metal.

Sirra yelled something to her brother as they sprinted down the corridor, with Jacen and Tenel Ka right behind them. “Access hatch?” Em Teedee translated. “Escape? Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. By all means, let us escape.”

At an intersection of corridors, Sirra stopped beside a clearly marked floor panel. Reaching her long fingers down, she hooked the tiny ring-handles. With her powerful muscles, she hauled upward, pulling the heavy hatch free to reveal a trapdoor. She growled and gestured.

Without hesitation Lowie leaped into the hole, catching a strong vine that hung underneath. The tinny voice of the translating droid wailed, “But this leads to the underlevels of the forest! Master Lowbacca, we can’t go down here. It’s far too dangerous!”

Lowie merely grumbled and continued his descent. Tenel Ka followed next, hopping lightly over the edge, wrapping her muscular legs around a vine. Grasping it with her hand, she lowered herself into the darkness.

Jacen turned around just in time to see Zekk and Vonnda Ra rushing toward them, flanked by stormtroopers. “Down into the underworld, huh?” Jacen said, glancing at Sirrakuk. “Looks like you’ll get an early chance to complete that risky adventure of yours.”

Sirra growled her agreement. With that, both of them plunged over the lip of the trapdoor and descended into the murky, leafy depths below.

Scrambling downward into the tangled foliage, Jacen looked up through the dense branches to see the silhouetted figures of Zekk and Vonnda Ra conferring at the edge of the glowing patch of light. Jacen could hear their voices faintly as he fled deeper into the thick forest.

“We’ll have to follow them,” Zekk said.

“You should have allowed me to destroy them when I had the chance,” the Nightsister snapped. “Now they will cause difficulties.”

Zekk answered sharply. “I am in charge here. We’ll do things my way.” He turned and shouted to the stormtroopers. “Down into the forests. All of you.”

Zekk, Vonnda Ra, and the stormtroopers plunged after their prey into the underworld of Kashyyyk.