Bell’s steelee reared up, and he had to fight to get it under control—and so he missed the bolt’s impact. He heard it, though, an utterly unique sound of metal being overheated in an instant and flashing into vapor, followed by two distinct thunks.

When his mount was calm, moving forward again to catch up with Loden—whose steelee hadn’t missed a step, of course—Bell saw what the weapon had done. One of the Nihil’s two ships had been sliced in half, the middle section of the vessel just…gone. The two remaining edges had fallen to the ground, sparks and flame already shooting up from the superheated edges.

“Whoa,” Bell said.

He nudged his steelee to greater speed and called ahead to Loden.

“Get the other ship!”

“I can’t,” his master answered, pointing ahead with the smoking weapon before tossing it to one side, where it clattered onto the hard, metallic soil and was left behind in an instant.

Bell looked where Loden had indicated. He understood immediately. The Nihil had realized the danger to the one ship they had left, their last remaining escape route, and had repositioned themselves, moving the cart containing the kidnapped family so it was directly in the line of fire. The Vanguard’s cannon wasn’t a precision weapon, at least not removed from its housings in the vehicle. He couldn’t risk the shot—it would almost certainly hit the family.

“Maybe for the best,” Loden said. “If I’d fired twice the whole thing might have blown up in my hands. I had to leave the cooling module back with the V-Wheel.”

“What are we going to do, Master?” Bell asked.

“Whatever we can,” he replied.

Not reassuring. If Loden Greatstorm was out of ideas, things were dire.

They were getting closer to the Nihil, and the complications of the situation were starting to overwhelm Bell’s ability to plan. He would have to trust in the Force, let it guide his choices.

Something happened up ahead. Bell and Loden heard a blaster fire, and a moment later a person was thrown from the cart. The Nihil sped on, leaving the body lying motionless on the hard ground.

“That wasn’t a Nihil,” Bell said. “No mask. Did they kill one of the hostages?”

Loden remained silent.

The Jedi raced forward, details becoming clearer with every meter. The victim was the mother.

“She’s alive,” Bell said. “I can still sense her.”

As if to validate Bell’s words, the woman lifted an arm from where she lay—a weak, pain-filled gesture, even at a distance.

Beyond her, the Nihil had almost reached their ship.

The Jedi reached the woman. They pulled their steelees to a stop and leapt from the saddles. She had a smoking hole in her side—probably non-lethal, at least not right away.

“Please,” she said, her voice small, thin, “my children, my husband. Please, you have to…”