Dark Tide 1: Onslaught (21 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Mara's deteriorating condition had Anakin worried. She was being very brave and very strong, but she was tiring more easily and had begun to withdraw. He could feel her drawing on the Force more and more to sustain herself. It clearly fortified her, but demanded so much of her attention and concentration that he was pretty sure she had no idea where she was or who he was a chunk of the time.

He did his best to see that she did not want for anything. He kept the camp clean and fixed all of the meals. By observing the Dantari, he was able to find edible plants and spices, which he used to make their bland rations into something
different,
if not always appetizing. Mara seemed to take the failed experiments in stride along with the good and livened up a bit at mealtimes.

Tuber—which was the name Anakin had given the elder Dantari root trader—clearly had some concerns about Mara. He kept bringing firewood but wouldn't accept the last couple of roots Anakin had. Instead they traded for other things—most of them being trinkets, which Tuber braided into his hair to frame the button Mara had provided.

Anakin set out from the camp just after a supper that Mara had eaten listlessly. She wandered back to her cot and started sleeping again. He cleaned up, then saw his supply of firewood wouldn't last through the night. It struck him as odd that Tuber had not yet appeared, so he headed down the trail to the Dantari encampment.

He was still a good five hundred meters off when a spike of pain reached him through the Force. He thought immediately of Mara, but it didn't have the feel he would have expected from her. He next thought of Tuber, then caught an undercurrent of fear rolling out from the Dantari camp.

Anakin crouched in the lavender grasses and slowly made his way forward. He smiled, putting into practice all the things Mara had taught him about moving stealthily through the grasses. He could have reached out with the Force to move branches that might crack underfoot or to smooth out grasses so they wouldn't rustle.
I would have done just that, but I don't need to. I can save the Force for later.

He worked his way in toward the camp, and twenty meters away he paused in the shadow of a rock. Looking past the boulder, he saw Tuber on his knees, bleeding from cuts over one eye and across his chest. The Imperial crest there had been taken off in strips. It looked as if his captors had decided to flay him. The Dantari's hands had been bound behind his back. The other Dantari likewise were on their knees, all looking drawn and terribly frightened.

And they had good cause to be. Standing before Tuber were two tall and lean Yuuzhan Vong warriors, both wearing chitinous armor. One bore a staff that had a flattened end like a spear point. The other had a weapon that looked the same, but was flexible and clearly functioned like a whip. The whip wielder held the jacket button in his left hand, waved it under Tuber's nose, then snarled a question at him.

Tuber grunted a response.

The Yuuzhan Vong's whip cracked, and another wound blossomed on the Dantari's broad chest.

A coldness settled in Anakin's stomach. Without a doubt he knew the Yuuzhan Vong was asking where Tuber had gotten the button. Clearly the Dantari couldn't have produced it, and it was far newer than any of the Imperial artifacts, suggesting to the Yuuzhan Vong that other people had been here recently. Tuber was refusing to give the Yuuzhan Vong the information they wanted.
He's in trouble because we are here, because we befriended him.
There was no question in Anakin's mind that he had to do something to save the Dantari.

For a heartbeat he almost despaired. Here he was, a fifteen-year-old Jedi apprentice. He didn't have the experience a full Jedi Knight would have. Mara had experienced trouble killing one of the Yuuzhan Vong on Belkadan. Saving the Dantari seemed impossible. It was a task that would overwhelm him.

Size matters not.
Despite Mara's having chided him for overusing Yoda's aphorism, Anakin knew it applied now. His job, as a Jedi Knight, was to protect those who could not protect themselves. He took a deep breath, opened himself to the Force, and felt it flood through him in a way it never had before. It was water to a being dying of thirst; it was sunshine after days of rain; it was warmth after bitter cold. It was all that and more.

Anakin touched the stone behind which he crouched, and nudged it with a fraction of the Force flowing through him. The five-hundred-kilogram stone ripped itself free of the ground and hurled itself at the Yuuzhan Vong. Dirt flew off it in clumps as it spun through the air. It hit the ground again, five meters from its targets, then bounced up and caught the staff wielder in his flank. A crunching, crackling sound came from beneath the stone, then the Yuuzhan Vong's arms and legs beat out a furious but slackening death tattoo.

Sprinting forward from behind the boulder, Anakin drew his lightsaber and settled his right thumb on the trigger button. He leapt up, then kicked off the boulder. He sailed through a high somersault that landed him behind the other Yuuzhan Vong. He ignited his violet lightsaber and lunged, driving the point into a circular depression on the armor, catching the Yuuzhan Vong just below the left armpit.

The glowing purple blade sank in deep. The Yuuzhan Vong's pivot threatened to pull the blade from Anakin's hand because the edges of the armor resisted cutting. The whip came about and cracked him on the left shoulder, shredding his tunic and cutting him. He knew that the blow should have taken his head off, and would have, save that the armor suddenly convulsed and constricted. The joints stiffened, restricting the Yuuzhan Vong's movement. When the armor slackened, the warrior collapsed.

His amphistaff hissed and slithered away.

Anakin looked at the fallen Yuuzhan Vong warriors and began to tremble. He sank to his knees and killed his lightsaber's blade. Somehow he'd managed to kill two trained warriors—warriors that had given Mara trouble.
Granted, I got one with a trick, but the other . . .
He knew his victory should have been impossible, but with the Force as his ally, he had succeeded.

Anakin felt hands on him. He looked up and saw Tuber standing over him. Somehow the Dantari's hands had been freed. Tuber handed him a vincha root, then popped one into his own mouth and began chewing it. After a considerable amount of crunching, the Dantari spat a thick paste of vincha and saliva into his hand and started to smear it on his own wounds.

Anakin nodded and chewed the root himself. It tasted bitter and puckered his mouth immediately. He almost gagged as he swallowed some of it, but he could feel the pain beginning to ease in his shoulder. He dabbed the paste into the wound, and the pain stopped almost immediately.

No wonder they value this root so highly.
Anakin slapped a hand against his forehead.
And he wouldn't take my last ones because he expected me to use them on Mara. It wasn't a coincidence that we came to Dantooine. This stuff might not cure her disease, but it might be able to help her fight against it.

Tuber pulled Anakin to his feet. The Dantari began to bellow orders to the others in his band. They began to gather their belongings and head for the trail up to Anakin's camp. Tuber wore a big smile on his face and shouldered the bag of vincha roots.

Anakin shook his head. He knew these primitive people had decided, somehow, that he and Mara were godlike beings who would protect them. Anakin wanted to believe that he could protect them, but he knew that allowing them to travel with him and Mara would not work. “It would be like me allowing you to build your houses in a floodplain. You'd always be in danger.”

Tuber looked down at him, puzzled.

Anakin knew what he had to do. He concentrated and gathered the Force to himself, then projected into Tuber's mind the image of a mountain valley with long grasses and vincha plants by the dozens. It would be a place of easy living, a paradise for the Dantari. And, even though Anakin thought he was constructing this place in his mind—creating an illusion to fool Tuber—part of him knew the place was very real, and that he was seeing it as it appeared right that moment.

Anakin took quick stock of the sun's position in the image, the length of shadows, the position of Dantooine's larger moon, then pointed off to the northwest. “Go, there, in that direction. That will be your new home. Follow the coast and you will find it.”

Tuber blinked, then reached out with a hand as if he were trying to touch the vision he'd been given. Anakin took his hand and pointed to the northwest. “Go.” He gave the Dantari a gentle shove, then managed to keep himself upright until they crested a small hill and disappeared from sight.

Anakin sank to one knee beside the Yuuzhan Vong he'd slain with the lightsaber. The armor had another similar depression beneath the right armpit. Thin, feathery membranes filled it, and Anakin decided that the twin depressions must have been roughly akin to gills. The lightsaber had punched through the vulnerable points in the armor and killed the Yuuzhan Vong. The armor's own death convulsion had saved Anakin's life by hindering the warrior's attack.

It had been a lucky shot, but he knew Luke would never accept that explanation.
There is no luck, only the Force.

Weary beyond what he thought the effort should have taken out of him, Anakin stumbled off along the trail back to his camp. He smiled because, had Mara not insisted he work without the Force, he wouldn't have had the physical strength to make it back up the incline. The little aches and pains from his exercises told him just how much farther he could go on, and he knew he'd make it back to Mara.

Darkness had fallen completely by his return, and his fire had been reduced to a glowing mound of ash-strewn coals. He grabbed the remaining vincha roots and entered Mara's tent. She came awake instantly, then slumped back on the cot. “What is it?”

“The Yuuzhan Vong. They're here.” He handed her a vincha root. “Here, chew this and let the juice run back down your throat. Local medicine, really good.”

Mara swiped her hands across her eyes, then looked at him. “You're hurt.”

“It's nothing, but we have to get out of here.” Anakin frowned. “I think the Yuuzhan Vong have been here since the start, scouting around. Maybe they're the source of your weakness, I don't know. Maybe their presence enhances things under their control, and your disease could be one of those things. You felt a link on Belkadan. Here, it is more subtle since you aren't in direct contact with the Yuuzhan Vong or their things.”

Mara nodded. “That's a trend I'd like to continue.”

“Me, too.” He sighed. “I killed two of them, but I took them by surprise. It was almost too easy, and that has me worried.”

Mara threw back her blanket and swung her legs off the cot. “That's good. You
should
be worried. I have a feeling that dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong will never be that easy again.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Leia Organa Solo looked over at the organized chaos going on around her and wished for more organization and less chaos. The
Ralroost
and a handful of freighters had arrived at Dantooine and detected no Yuuzhan Vong ships in the system or having followed them. The freighters and the
Ralroost
's shuttles began taking refugees down to an equatorial continent that had slender land bridges to the larger northern continent and the southern polar one. Lavender grasses stretched out as far as the eye could see, though the signs of human habitation were beginning to hide them.

The freighters had all picked up more people than they had supplies to sustain on a long run in toward the Core. Dantooine had been a good jump for getting them free of Dubrillion, but the routes back out of Dantooine were few and far between.

Leia sighed.
If Tarkin
had
taken the bait, this world would have been destroyed, and then we'd not have had this haven to run to right now.

Her comlink trilled. “Organa Solo here. Go ahead.”

“Highness, the last group of refugees is coming down from the
Ralroost
. Now would be the time for you to return to the ship so we can make our run to the Core.” Admiral Kre'fey kept his voice low and even, with just the hint of a purr to it. “I know you thought this discussion closed, but I will have Masters to answer to on Coruscant.”

“And you think they'll want me there telling them that I'd warned them?” Leia shook her head. “No thanks, Admiral. I'll remain here with the others. You send us out help, and we'll do just fine.”

“And if the Vong do follow us here?”

“Abandoning the refugees in that case will be worse.” She recalled that a previous group of refugees had been transplanted here, then wiped out by the Empire.
Not a good omen.
“Have a good trip. I'm sure Senator A'Kla will be of help to you.”

“He would if he were coming. He's piloting down my command shuttle with the last group. I'm leaving you two companies of infantry and enough weapons to arm a number of the refugees.”

“I hope we won't need it.”

“No more than I do, I think.”

“Speed to you, Admiral. May the Force be with you.”

“I'll be back with help, soon.”

Leia switched off her comlink, then smiled as Gavin Darklighter came walking over, with Jaina trailing behind him. “Good afternoon, Colonel.”

“Highness. I've taken the liberty of appointing my newest flight officer as a liaison between the three squadrons we've got here and the civilian authorities, which I assume will be you.” Gavin pointed off north, southwest, and southeast of the camp. “I've arrayed my squadrons to establish something of a perimeter. Our weapons are not meant for suppression of ground troops, but they do a good job of it. Rogues have the north; two squadrons of uglies are splitting the south side of things.”

Leia nodded and looked around. The main camp had been set up in a slight depression at the heart of a wide valley. “Doesn't seem particularly defensible here, does it?”

“No, but sensor sweeps showed we can get water from fairly shallow wells. Folks will be needing to build shelters—nasty weather is rolling in from the north—so we can get them to dig some trenches, prepare some redoubts for defense, too. If the Vong are here, having the defenses will be good.”

“And if they aren't, people will grumble about having to dig.”

“Mother, these people are terrified. Having them dig will give them something to do.” Jaina sighed. “Having the freighters here in the middle of the camp will provide temporary shelter, and their guns can cover people if we have to go up and vape some skips.”

Jaina's casual use of the phrase
vape some skips
sent a shiver through Leia and made her regard her daughter differently. It felt to Leia almost as if she'd been looking at one holograph of her daughter, all pretty and prim and young, and then someone had switched it for this new image.

Jaina had a touch of dirt on her face, and salt rings from sweat marked her flight suit's armpits. Her hair had been pulled back into a braid and lacked the sheen of clean hair. Leia could tell her daughter was tired, but there was an energy in her eyes that Leia recognized all too well. Her own father—her adopted father—had remarked on it in her eyes, when Leia became involved with the Rebellion.

She's more grown than any parent wants to admit.
Leia reached out to stroke her daughter's cheek, but caught a flash of wariness in Jaina's eyes. She shifted her hand to land on Jaina's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “That's a good point, Jaina.”

Gavin nodded in agreement. “We might have to move them around a bit to provide the best in overlapping fields of fire, but they should be pretty effective in holding hostiles off.”

“Admiral Kre'fey is sending troopers down, and lots of weapons.” Leia shook her head slowly. “We probably won't have any time to train the refugees.”

Her daughter raised a finger. “There have to be veterans of the Rebellion and even Imp service among them. We sort them out, have them help organize the camp, and we'll make it more defensible.”

“That will work, too. The grasses here aren't very tasty, but they will suffice for most folks.” Leia sighed. “That leaves only one other worry.”

Gavin frowned. “And that is?”

“Mara and Anakin are supposed to be here on Dantooine. A sweep of comm frequencies is negative for any activity.”

The pilot shrugged. “If she is here for rest, they might not have their comlinks on.”

“That occurred to me.” Leia shivered. “I can't feel them with the Force, either. If they were dead, I'm sure I'd have felt that. Their being cut off like this, I don't know. It's not good, not good at all.”

Jaina covered Leia's hand with her own. “Don't worry, Mom. Mara's pretty smart, and Anakin isn't stupid. I'm sure they're just fine.”

Leia looked at her closely. “Can you feel them with the Force?”

A pained expression passed over her face. “A little, yes, in fits and starts. Not enough to give me a direction, or I'd be out looking. It feels like Anakin, when he was a kid, playing hide-and-seek. When I get him, he's strong.”

Leia sighed. “Let's hope he remains strong, then.”
And well hidden, especially if it's the Yuuzhan Vong seeking him.

The thunder crack from above had faded just enough for Anakin to catch the whirring buzz of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon arcing in at him. He pulled his right shoulder back and twisted his face to the left. He felt the fist-size disk whirl past him, barely missing his cheek. It make a solid thud as it slammed into the bole of a tree.

A flash of lightning burnished a silver edge on the thing. Legs sprouted from the body and began to push the right edge of its carapace out of the divot it had chopped into the wood. As Anakin had learned through experience in his flight from Yuuzhan Vong hunters, the bug would free itself, then fly off, returning to the hand of the warrior that had thrown it at him.

Not this time.
Anakin darted forward and smashed the butt end of his lightsaber into the bug's body. The fragile wings shattered, and the body snapped in half. Dark fluid oozed from the bug and began to steam as raindrops hit it.

Repressing a shudder, Anakin turned back and started along the torturous mountain trail. The track he was following was really just a rivulet that had washed away dirt, leaving wet stones and roots to catch at his feet. Reaching forward, he grabbed a thick root and hauled himself up, then found Mara lying there, in the muddy runoff, her chest heaving.

Without saying anything he pulled a piece of vincha root from his pocket, bit off half, and stuffed the rest into her mouth. “C'mon, Mara, they're right behind us.”

“They're always right behind us, 'cept when they're ahead of us.” She started to get up, then stumbled, pulling him down, too.

Two more of the razorbugs sailed past to stick in the ground. Anakin squashed one, then tugged Mara to her feet. “Go, go.”

She scrambled up the next three meters, then perched on a stone for a second before darting forward. He headed up after her. By the time he got to the top of the incline, he saw her legging it around a leftward bend in the trail. He pulled himself up onto that next section of trail and started running after her, but something thumped heavily on the trail behind him.

Anakin spun, igniting his purple blade as he turned. He parried a slash from an amphistaff and half ducked under it. He lunged at the Yuuzhan Vong warrior's belly, but the armor held despite smoke and water vapor erupting from the lightsaber's touch. The warrior leapt back, then whipped his amphistaff forward. The weapon caught Anakin with a stinging slash to the left forearm, further tattering the sleeve on that arm and the flesh beneath it.

Anakin hugged his arm to his chest, and the Yuuzhan Vong warrior laughed. His amphistaff became rigid, and the warrior rose to his full height, standing there all glorious and terrible at the end of the path. He looked down at Anakin and said something that dripped with condescension.

The young Jedi's eyes narrowed, and the big rock on which the Yuuzhan Vong stood rolled back from beneath the warrior's feet. The warrior leaned heavily on his amphistaff, but the muddy ground gave way, spilling the warrior forward. He landed hard on his chest and face, splashing mud in all directions. As he pulled his head back and up, Anakin caught him with a snap kick that pitched him into the darkness.

The young Jedi doused his lightsaber and darted off along after his aunt. He tried to feel her with the Force, but she'd so effectively drawn it around her, using it to fend off the disease, that he could barely detect her. He knew he had to register just as faintly to her. He'd been hoarding his own strength and minimizing his presence in the Force just in case the Yuuzhan Vong were somehow using the Force to track them. For three days they had been running through the mountains and had been pursued from almost the first moment of their flight. They cut across Yuuzhan Vong tracks before they reached their ship, so they knew the
Jade Sabre
had been found and, if the Yuuzhan Vong hatred for technology remained true, had been reduced to scrap.

Throughout the run they had been miserable. The rain had come on so quickly and poured so hard that Anakin had wondered if somehow the Yuuzhan Vong controlled it or if he was just growing more and more paranoid. The Yuuzhan Vong who hunted them seemed to take great delight in coursing them and chasing them. The razorbugs constantly flew from shadows, inflicting little nicks and slices. His arms and legs burned from cuts and fatigue. His robes, which were leaden with so much rain and mud, seemed more holes than they were cloth.
I'm pretty much reduced to my body and my lightsaber.

Around the turn the trail broadened out. Tall stones, set like teeth along the edges of the trail, channeled him toward an overshadowed pathway. Tall trees eclipsed the night sky—though really only blocked his ability to see the lightning-spitting thunderheads. Mara sagged against one of the plinths, then gave him a quick smile and fingered a wet strand of red hair away from her cheek. Tattered and torn as badly as he was, and sick and exhausted, she still managed to have defiance play in her eyes.

Her head came up, and her eyes focused beyond him. He spun, barely a dozen meters into the clearing. Behind him were three Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Two moved right and left, leaving the third to come straight on. They came slowly, cautiously, and he wondered why.
Any one of them could break me in half.

Something in their wariness as they approached brought it all home to him.
They are here because of me. I slew two of them in my first encounter. All the single warriors who've come to face me have gone down. I haven't killed any more since then, but perhaps I disgraced them.

Anakin didn't spare a glance over his shoulder. “Mara, they want me. It's a matter of honor for them, I think.”

“They may want you, Anakin, but they'll deal with the both of us.” He heard her lightsaber hiss behind him, pouring blue highlights onto the Yuuzhan Vong and their wet armor. “Light your blade. I've got left.”

“No, Mara, run.” He felt a cold calm coming over him as he brought his hands together on the hilt of his lightsaber. He knew, without any doubt at all, that he would not survive a fight with three of the Yuuzhan Vong. The Force had been with him in his first encounter, and all along the way.
Just be with me one more time, so Mara can escape. One more time.

He thumbed his blade alive. The energy rod glowed with a violet intensity. He held it forward, with the hilt near his belly and the blade pointing down at the ground. He brought his right leg forward, knee bent; and he planted his left foot. He could see all three of them and nodded to each in succession. Nodding again to the central figure, Anakin impatiently flicked his blade up a centimeter or two, inviting the Yuuzhan Vong onward.

The centermost warrior began to whirl his amphistaff over his head. Lightning seared white-hot edges on his armor and along the amphistaff. The Yuuzhan Vong started forward, and Anakin feinted toward him, kicking a lump of wet sand in his direction. The warrior retreated a step, then his companions hooted at him.

All of a sudden Anakin knew exactly what he had to do. He knew the proper series of steps he had to move through to save Mara. Without giving it any conscious thought, he allowed his body to flow through the choreography that came to him through the Force.

Pivoting on his right foot, he lunged at the Yuuzhan Vong on his right. That warrior leapt back, only to slam himself into one of the plinths. As that warrior stumbled to the ground, Anakin dodged to his left, taking a step toward the central warrior. Because his earlier move had exposed his back to the left warrior, that Yuuzhan Vong had driven at him. Anakin reversed his grip on the lightsaber and stabbed it backward past his right hip, impaling the alien warrior on the blade.