He felt a playful nudge in the Force, pleased to know that Vernestra had taken his teasing in the spirit it had been meant. He had complete faith in her, despite her ever-increasing reputation for wrecking ships. Talk about history repeating. As Elzar never failed to remind him, Stellan hadn’t been a natural pilot back when they were Padawans. Thankfully some things improved with age.

He dipped down, the drift following to emerge in the middle of a downpour. Smoke was billowing up from a base far below them, a gargantuan battle cruiser hovering above the devastation. Where in Tython’s name did the Nihil get their ships?

Lourna glanced behind her as she raced for her shuttle. The Jedi fighters were sweeping in low, skimming the treetops as they prepared to fire. She’d already given the word to abandon the base. There was no way they could win this fight, not now. Most of her Tempest had already scattered, taking to the Paths where they would wait for her word. For all she knew, Zeetar was dead, crushed in the rubble of the main building, not that she was going to go back to check. If he survived, great, if not another Tempest Runner would be found. That was the way of it. Ro probably already had a list of sycophants to choose from.

Not that the Eye seemed to care that his precious base was going up in flames. The Gaze Electric hung in the air in front of them, its guns silent. Why wasn’t Ro responding? The Gaze had weapons capable of targeting an ant from high orbit. A handful of Vectors shouldn’t have been a problem, and yet Ro was holding back. Was it another test, to see who survived? Maybe she’d backed the wrong fathier. Maybe she should have sided with Pan. It was academic now. Pan was dead, but she was very much alive and intended to stay that way.

“Treacherous witch.”

For a moment, Lourna thought that she’d been wrong, that it was Pan, back from Cyclor to take his revenge. But it wasn’t the Dowutin who lunged at her from behind a power generator, but the slithering bulk of Quin Amarant that dropped on her with such speed that she slipped, falling beneath him. “Believed in you!”

She twisted, attempting to throw him off, the Lamproid’s stinger striking the ground beside her. That was too close. Amarant’s remaining pincers cut through her armor, digging deep. Lourna cried out in pain, one hand holding his heavy head back, her arm locked.