Indeera felt concern radiate from Burryaga. “The Force will protect her, Padawan,” she told him. “Stay with me.”

The Wookiee responded as any apprentice should, banishing his fears and dropping into position as they raced toward the next bay.

“Oh no you don’t,” Pan growled as he saw the two Vectors move in for the kill. Switching controls, he unleashed a barrage of laser bolts, laughing as the Jedi fighters were forced to peel off, scav droids locking onto their heat signatures.

Chell was still worried, but Pan didn’t care. He was having fun.

One of the Jedi seemed more experienced than the other. He sent a command to the droids to focus on the lesser of the two pilots.

“Always look for the weakest link,” he muttered as they latched on to the Vector’s hull.

Burry was in trouble and Indeera knew it. The Wookiee just wasn’t centered enough to scrape the scav droids from his Vector’s skin as Nib had so ably demonstrated moments before. She reached out to calm him, but instead felt a warning from the Force. Lights were flashing on the back of each and every droid.

“Burryaga,” Indeera shouted, realizing in an instant what the commander of the dreadnaught had planned. “Push them away! Do it now!”

The urgency in her voice was the focus Burry needed. He pushed out with the Force, sending the droids spinning, but it was already too late. The scavengers exploded as one, the blast buffeting Burryaga’s Vector. Anyone else could be forgiven for thinking that the sudden destruction had been caused by Burry’s actions, but Indeera knew better. The Nihil commander had activated the scavengers’ self-destruct, sacrificing the droids to take Burryaga with them.

Indeera’s warning had saved the Wookiee, but he was out of the game, smoke belching from his engine.

“Get out of here, Padawan,” she ordered him, gambling that his Vector would make it to the ground. “You’ve done enough.”

The Wookiee moaned over the comm as he dropped away.

“You too, Burry,” she responded. “We’ll see each other soon.”

Whether that was true or not remained to be seen. Indeera brought her Vector about, flinching as the last Skyhawk dissolved into a blaze of superheated metal. She was on her own now, one Jedi against a Nihil fleet.

So be it.

There was no way she could get to the bomb bay, not with a swarm of scav droids on her tail. She swung around, leading them a merry dance along the length of the ship, shooting past its nose, out into the upper atmosphere. She pulled into a roll, coming about to face the mammoth warship, the scav droids perfectly matching the turn. Now it was only a matter of time, seeing who could run faster.