The fighters zoomed overhead, firing at the ground indiscriminately. Stellan jumped back, using the Force to pluck his lightsaber from its holster, igniting the blade before the crossguard hilt was even in his hand. He swept his blade around, batting away one of the bolts, feeling satisfaction as it slammed into one of the fighters at the back of the formation. Thick smoke belched from the impact, but the marauder flew on, unhampered by the damage.

The wall of gas rolled toward them.

“Get close,” Stellan yelled, deactivating his lightsaber. “I’ll try to clear the air.”

“Won’t you need that?” Quo asked, his eyes flicking toward the lightsaber’s hilt.

“Not unless I want to burn you.”

It wasn’t a threat, but a statement of fact. They’d all have to cram close if he was to shield them from the smog. Stellan raised a hand, pushing back against the noxious fumes. It wasn’t easy, not in the midst of such clamor, the focus he required made all the more difficult by the understandable panic of the group. Not that there was any hysteria in Lina Soh’s voice when she asked where they should go. Stellan thanked the Force and focused on the chancellor, drawing strength from her resilience, feeling the gas push back just a little bit farther.

Unfortunately, Norel Quo was anything but calm. “Well? Is anyone going to answer?”

“There,” Captain Maramis said, pointing through a gap between two pavilions. The Rothana experimental walker stood abandoned, its platform open to the elements but hopefully higher than the approaching gas.

“Can you protect us, Lord Jedi?” Elarec asked.

Stellan felt a twinge of doubt, which he did his best to subdue. “Yes, if we move slowly.”

“Slowly?” Quo squawked.

“This will be difficult for him,” the regasa said, looking deep into Stellan’s eyes. “But we are grateful. What was the expression Jorra Malli taught me? For light and life.”

“For light and life,” Stellan repeated, grateful for her support. He repeated the mantra over and over as the group moved forward, Regasa Elarec and Lina Soh picking up the refrain along with him, as much to draw strength for themselves as to help him, although the result was the same.

For light and life.

For light and life.

The progress was painfully slow, and with every shuffled step the air surrounding them became staler as Stellan kept the toxins at bay.

“Can’t we go quicker?” Quo asked, only to suffer a rebuke from his chancellor.

“Not if you want to breathe, Norel. I think that’s an acceptable trade-off, don’t you?”