The fight wasn’t going well. More marauders were joining the fray every second—those who survived their sudden, shocking arrivals on Valo, that is. Indeera wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. The Cloudships were hyperjumping directly into Valo’s atmosphere. It was utter madness, not to mention nigh-on impossible. Most defied the odds by staying in one piece, maybe something to do with the bizarre engines bolted onto the back of each battle-scarred hulk. Others either exploded the moment they hit Valo’s gravitational field or plummeted to the ground, blazing balls of death that would only add to the inferno already raging across the park.

Right now a large cruiser had arrived, three lightning bolts painted jaggedly across its nose, and was unleashing its laser batteries on what remained of the sky-islands. Almost half the repulsor platforms had gone down in the first wave, larger islands smashing into their smaller counterparts as they dropped like stones. Indeera could only pray that the attractions were relatively empty this early in the day, although each island would have had countless attendants already in place to welcome visitors that would now never come. Indeera felt a wave of despair wash over her every time a platform went down, adding to the all-pervading sense of terror that rose up from the ground below. She knew her fellow Jedi would feel the same behind the controls of their own Vectors: Porter, Mikkel, Nib, and poor empathetic Burry, who, out of all of them, would be finding the level of anguish unbearable.

Bolts lanced past her canopy. She’d picked up a tracker. She didn’t hesitate, pulling into a roll so extreme that any other pilot would’ve instantly lost consciousness. Her pursuer didn’t stand a chance as she dropped behind them and mashed her triggers.

Above her another of the platforms dipped worryingly. Indeera’s heart leapt to her mouth as she saw dots tumbling from the island. What planet did the platform represent? Boz Pity? Bestine? It didn’t matter. Each of those dots was a life, and there was nothing she could do. Even if she somehow managed to get beneath one of the falling souls, catching them on the back of her Vector would smash every bone in their already doomed bodies.

That dreadful truth didn’t lessen the horror as she watched a Nihil swerve to hit one of the falling victims, smearing them across its windscreen. Indeera gripped her yoke tighter as she felt the pirate’s glee. Sadistic bastard! It wasn’t the most Jedi thought, but it was an honest one. Despite years of training, for a moment all she wanted was revenge.