There was nothing. No reply at all. On screen, he saw Nihil standing dumbstruck, surprised by their sudden unveiling. There was plenty of devastation, that was for sure, and a hell of a lot of bodies, but now the Nihil had lost their advantage. Now the Jedi could see.

“Prepare the death charges,” Pan snapped at his crew. “If Lourna’s Tempest can’t do their job on the ground, we’ll raze the damn planet from the skies.”

Thank the Force for that, Indeera thought as she reduced another of the Nihil’s infernal speakers with a careful shot from her Vector’s laser cannons. Throwing the ship into a spin, she targeted the next spiked probe and sent it the same way before turning her attention to a Nihil marauder that was zeroing in on a civilian ship that had taken off when the war-cloud had lifted.

She took no pleasure in denying the pirate its life, but was happy to see the cruiser continue on its way, safe from attack. The people they had saved now safely deposited on the ground, Indeera’s drift had returned to the air and were fighting alongside the last of the Republic pilots, trying to put Mikkel’s passing from their mind. There had been so much loss today, but Mikkel was a part of them all now. He was still in the fight, and always would be.

A pair of thermal missiles shrieked toward her. She jerked to the left, the Vector responding perfectly. The missiles streaked past her wing, straight into the Nihil raider that had picked up her tail. Destroyed by their own ordnance. The universe brought its own justice with or without the Jedi. She flew straight at the fighter that had unloaded its missile launchers at her. The pilot was firing wildly, laser bolts zipping past her. She didn’t flinch, and she didn’t respond, not until she knew her own weapons were in range. When her shot came, it was clear and clinical, the fighter blossoming into flames.

Indeera had to admit, she was impressed in a funny sort of way. Once Stellan’s plan had dissipated the smoke, the uncovered Nihil had frozen for a split second, but their stunned silence hadn’t lasted long, replaced by more bloodcurdling war cries over the thud of their damn “music,” if such a word was appropriate. They had rejoined the battle with renewed vigor, more feral than before, no matter how many of the speakers the Jedi brought down to cut short the aural bombardment or how many marauder craft were sent plummeting from the skies. They were like the battle hydra of legend. Cut off a head, and four more would grow back in its place, but whatever the odds, the Jedi would never stand down. Not now. Not ever.