Light of the Jedi(84)

Though if it came to it, she would happily destroy every last one of these ships and the flight recorder, too.

Happily.



* * *





Mikkel fired, and the missile he had targeted exploded, just seconds before it would have reached the fragment.

He exhaled, breath escaping from each of his mouths.

Just two projectiles left, and neither was in range for him. It was up to the others now.

He watched as Joss and Pikka Adren’s Longbeam fired out those magclamps they were always so proud of—a whole grand array, most likely every one their ship had, reeling out on their endlessly long, thin cables—and the missile changed course, pulled in by the attracting force of the clamps.

Ingenious.

The missile exploded, and while the magclamps had certainly been destroyed, there was still one more surviving Longbeam, and it could retrieve the flight recorder—the mission could still succeed.

One more enemy missile remained, and Te’Ami was headed toward it on an intercept course. Neither of the Longbeams was in position to reach it, or Mikkel himself—but Te’Ami could knock it down, no problem. She was a fantastic shot.

And indeed, a spread of laserfire shot out from the front of her Vector—off target but zeroing in…and then another missile appeared on Mikkel’s scopes, headed directly for Te’Ami. His targeting computer tried to resolve the location of their attacker. A vague, flickering outline appeared on his screens—and disappeared. Whatever was shooting at them clearly had some sort of cloaking system—but that was not the primary issue.



“Te’Ami! There’s another missile! I can’t—”

“I see it, Mikkel. Quiet now. I have work to do.”

Mikkel Sutmani watched, his helplessness at the destruction of the Longbeam a few moments ago amplified a thousandfold. Te’Ami increased her Vector’s speed, trying to simultaneously outrun the missile racing toward her and catch the original projectile before it hit the flight recorder.

Her Vector bucked and wove, laser blasts shooting out, all misses, as she attempted to hit her target while evading what had targeted her.

Mikkel slammed his own Vector forward, knowing, once again, that he didn’t have time. He reached out with the Force, knowing that through it anything was possible, knowing he could reach the missile chasing Te’Ami’s ship and could cause it to veer off or detonate. He could sense its speed, its outline, the metal of its casing, the superheated exhaust gases shoving it forward toward his fellow Jedi.

“Got it,” came Te’Ami’s voice over the comm, satisfied, content.

Mikkel almost had the missile…he could feel it, almost as if it were gripped in his hand. He could destroy it. The Force was his ally, and a powerful ally it was. He squeezed the missile…and suddenly, in a blast of violent flame, it was gone. But not by any action of his.

It was gone.

And so was Te’Ami.



The loss hit him like a blast wave, no less intense than the one that had killed his colleague. Mikkel clenched his fists, searching his spirit for calm.

His Vector’s targeting scopes lit up with data—the full outline and location of the ship that had murdered Te’Ami, as well as detailed specifications of its armaments and defenses.



“Whoa, you guys seeing this? Target acquired—battle corvette…ugly-looking thing,” came Joss Adren’s voice. “Not the New Elite, another ship. Master Sutmani, how about your Vector and my Longbeam go after it while Captain Meggal grabs the flight recorder?”

Mikkel did not answer. He did not ask where this information had come from, or any questions at all, really. He just pushed his control sticks forward, as far as they would go, and his Vector’s engines roared in response.

I have work to do, he thought.



* * *





“Blast it!” Lourna Dee cried, more emotional than she generally preferred to be.

The cursed Jedi had shot down her last missile before it could reach the flight recorder. Yes, that particular Jedi had died, but Lourna still had not succeeded at the mission, and it seemed like she’d probably revealed her position, too. She had a Longbeam and a Vector headed straight for her.



“Do we fire more missiles?” Attaman asked.

“Yes,” Lourna said. “Send out the rest—everything we’ve got. We’ll kill these idiots, too, and then go after the fragment.”

The Lourna Dee shuddered slightly as the rest of its complement of missiles fired—another half dozen, trailing exhaust as they raced out toward the two growing dots of light headed toward her cruiser.

The Jedi…the blasted Jedi in that blasted Vector…shot down four of them. The other two were headed for the Longbeam, and it killed one with a laser blast and distracted the last with a flare.

“Who…are these guys?” Belial said.

He was worried. Lourna Dee could hear it. So, for that matter, was she. The Lourna Dee wasn’t designed for straight-up fights. It was built to strike from hiding, kill its target, and leap away. It was light on armor, light on shields, and didn’t have much in the way of laser cannons, either.



Could a Longbeam and a Vector actually take out her flagship? Just those two little vessels?

She decided she didn’t want to find out.