Hands grabbed him, turning him over. A face swam into view. Elzar? Where had he come from? It didn’t make sense.

It also didn’t matter.

“Stop her,” he wheezed. “The Twi’lek. She’s going for the chancellor … for Regasa Elarec.”

Elzar took off at a sprint, pulling back his arm to launch his lightsaber into the air. The blade shone as it arced toward the REW, slicing through the Nihil’s cable before she could reach the top of the walker.

The Twi’lek dropped, releasing the maul as she fell. Stellan didn’t know if Elzar would get to her before the targons took their revenge, but he knew it was finally over. The chancellor and everyone on the walker was safe. Stellan could relax as long as someone stopped that dreadful whistling that was coming from above.

The bomb hit the ground between Elzar and the walker and everything turned red.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

The skies above Valo

The onslaught needed to be stopped, and Indeera Stokes was the Jedi to do it. She had almost died at the hands of the Nihil, and the Force had given her another chance, working through Elzar Mann. Now she had to make it count.

She was pushing her Vector to the limit, and she wasn’t alone. Nib Assek was with her to starboard, Burryaga to port, engines gunning, eyes fixed on their target. Behind the Vectors, the last remaining Skyhawks struggled to keep up, their starfighters unable to match the Jedi’s speed.

The Nihil ships hung in the sky above them, circling an imposing battle cruiser that was almost beautiful in its brutality. The Vectors were hideously outgunned, of course, even with Jedi at the controls, but among them they would find a way to bring the Nihil down.

They just had to.

“We have incoming,” Chell informed Pan Eyta aboard the Elegencia.

“How many?” the Dowutin grunted.

“Three Vectors and a handful of Skyhawks.”

Pan snorted. “The remnants of the glorious Republic.”

He thumbed a control, broadcasting to the fleet. “Continue the bombardment. These gnats are mine.”

Indeera’s life was saved for the second time by a sudden stab of intuition. She pulled her yoke to the right, Nib swerving to avoid her. A barrage of turbolasers streaked from the belly of the main Nihil ship, missing her port wings by millimeters. The Skyhawk that had been climbing behind her wasn’t so lucky. The fighter burst into flames that were instantly extinguished in the weak oxygen, the wreckage tumbling back to Valo. Indeera aimed at the cannon to return fire but was still out of range.

She needed to go faster.

Pan grunted as the Jedi evaded his shot, although the destruction of the Skyhawk had been a worthy consolation. As the rest of the Tempest continued to shell the planet below, Pan switched from one cannon to another, scattering the attackers as they targeted the Elegencia’s bombing bays.

Ha. Some chance.