But the Force slipped out of his grasp. He could not think, could not focus.

He fell to one side, flaring agony in his shattered leg momentarily clearing his head. But only for that moment. He couldn’t think. He felt stupid, dull.

The air lock hatch cycled open, causing eddies of air to whisk through the hold, but not enough to dissipate the gas. Only enough to stir it a bit, causing a clear area near the air lock, which meant Loden Greatstorm saw the monsters step into the ship.

The Nihil.

Lourna Dee walked into the hold, followed by a few of her best Storms. All were masked, the headgear doing triple duty as concealers of identity, inducers of terror, and, most important, filters of nerve toxin. The stuff was a special recipe she’d commissioned from a poisoner on Nar Shaddaa and had never shared with her fellow Tempest Runners—a girl had to have a few secrets, after all.

The gray fog swirled, breaking apart and re-forming, giving her glimpses of both the Jedi and the Blythe, collapsed on the deck, unconscious.

This should square me up with Marchion Ro, she thought. Mission accomplished.

Lourna Dee wondered how Kassav was doing, on his own assignment, if he’d redeem himself as well.

She hoped not.

“Take them both,” she said.

Chapter Forty

“How are they doing this?” Admiral Kronara shouted, watching the green lights signifying his fighters blink out across the tactical display—blue lights, too, and those were Jedi.

The Nihil ships, all but the capital ship, were doing something unfathomable. They were disappearing and reappearing all across the battlespace, flickering in and out of existence. The Republic pilots couldn’t keep up, and the Nihil were making the most of it, knocking his Longbeams and Skywings down one by one.

It didn’t seem entirely controlled, however—the Nihil ships could and did appear directly in the path of Republic and Jedi ships…and even their own. The result was utter mayhem. Explosive, murderous mayhem.

“Cloaking fields?” he called out.

“Doesn’t seem to be, Admiral,” one of his bridge officers responded. “Scans suggest they’re jumping in and out of hyperspace. Tiny little leaps, sometimes as short as a kilometer.”

“That’s not possible,” Kronara said.

The officer did not respond, wisely enough. Obviously it was not impossible—the blasted ships were doing it there, right in front of his eyes.

Another Longbeam exploded—that was three good people lost, minimum. Some ships in that class held as many as twenty-four.

This was…how could you fight something like this? It was like battling chaos itself. Like trying to shoot down…a storm.