Jaina Solo Fel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solo_sword) wrote2008-08-04 05:37 am
solo_sword) wrote2008-08-04 05:37 am
The Exquisite Death, Monday Fandom time
Previous.
Thanks to all the ysalamiri in the hold, Jaina didn't realize that the escape plan had been activated until after things started blowing up. And really, any escape plan that included defense with mini cannons had her approval.
The Jedi hadn't actually had to do anything but survive the breaking long enough to get into Vong space. Once they were there, all Anakin had to do was speak into a subcutaneous comlink in order to release the smuggled war droids that came and shot the Vong off their backs before releasing them from the blorash jelly. It'd been hard not to notice that the droids seemed to have been programmed to protect the Solo kids specifically, and Lando would need to be thanked for that little gesture. From there, to continue taking command of the Exquisite Death, the plan meant following Anakin's orders. Jaina was assigned to be part of the support team, armed to clear out the Vong from other corridors. It also meant she sort of unthinkingly took it over, since her group also had Ulaha to worry about. Not that she had to do much clearing anyway, since the war droids had made this part surprisingly easy.
As soon as she thought that, she heard Anakin's voice over her comlink. "Jaina, we've got voxyn."
Jaina didn't look at the rest of her team, though she felt their alarm. "I thought the droids took care of them."
"They're giving me voxyn survival odds. Just trust me. It set off a mine, so it's probably injured. Keep an eye out."
She sighed, pocketing her comlink. "You heard him," she told the others. It didn't change much for her. A job was a job, they had enough weaponry, and the jumpsuits they'd been able to get a hold of acted as a light armor. They could handle a couple voxyn if it came to that.
Which it did, sort of. There were still Vong scurrying around and they knew it, partially because every now and then the Force would just disappear again whenever a ysalamiri got within Force bubble distance. One of those times was when the war droid Two Four-S reported that its sensors had picked up the wounded voxyn in the system ducts.
"Good," Jaina shrugged. "Better there than out here. Let's keep it that way."
This turned out to be more nerve-wracking than it sounded, because it meant having to hold a voxyn somewhere it didn't want to be held. Whether it meant someone was throwing themselves against a bulkhead in order to add some more resistance to the voxyn trying to get out, or Two Four-S attempting to blast something, it wasn't the most fun job.
"Status update," came Anakin's voice again. "We're going after Ganner."
Thinking Ganner was the leader, the Vong had been holding him elsewhere, and he was the only one they needed to retrieve. "Great," Jaina said, pausing in the silence to see if she could hear or sense where the voxyn was at the moment. "We're a little busy right now."
"Got it. The Vong seem to be cutting through the cabins instead of using the corridors. We're going to do the same."
"Copy that," she said, and switched frequencies to warn Zekk and Raynar not to fire when people came down their corridor.
The voxyn launched itself back against the part of the wall Jaina had been leaning against, and it took a lot of effort to push back against it rather than jumping away. This would be a lot easier if she could add the Force to her own weight, but the voxyn was in an entirely different class there. "Two Four-S? I'm getting bored with this," she announced.
A moment later, the voxyn stopped again, but it wouldn't go somewhere else when Jaina hadn't been putting up a terrific fight keeping it at bay, and the metal of the corridor wall was already starting to give. Seeing that Two Four-S was ready by its signal, she backed away from the wall, making sure the breath mask in her hood was firmly in place before getting a better hold on her mini cannon and nodding for the others to do the same.
This time when the voxyn charged against the wall, it managed to break through. It didn't have a chance to get very far into the corridor, though, because almost immediately Two Four-S was firing on it, and Jaina was doing the same an instant later. This thing had already survived war droids and an explosion, there was no such thing as overkill.
It did finally fall, convulsing for a moment before going still, and the purple blood around its many many wounds turned into the brown fume that they'd seen before when it hit the air. With the breath masks on, they didn't have anything to worry about. It was good to be able to think that about something.
"Stay out of the cloud," she ordered, mostly unnecessarily, but she wasn't taking chances.
A moment later she felt the Force return again, and then she felt what was almost a familiar presence by now through the battle meld. She switched on her comlink to Anakin's frequency and said, "What's that I feel? It can't be a voxyn. Two-Four-S and I killed it. I'm looking at its body right now."
"Just keep an eye on those ducts," Anakin replied. "There's another one."
Jaina sighed. "The fun never ends," she muttered.
They didn't find the next voxyn before Anakin's next transmission, announcing that they'd gotten Ganner, killed Duman Yaght, and taken command of the bridge. Only now did Jaina let her commander mentality to drop long enough to call him an overachiever.
*****
When Jaina got her group reassembled and up to the bridge, she and Anakin conferred on how things had gone. If she thought about it too hard, it was a little weird to think about the fact that she was talking tactics in military terms with her little brother, but she'd been younger than him when she'd started, after all. She'd been his age at Sernpidal. "The voxyn's still on the loose," she said. "We haven't found it yet to kill it."
"We'll just have to keep our eyes out for it," Anakin said, though that wasn't exactly the happiest thought. "I have a feeling it'll come out of hiding eventually. It's hurt more, too. Lowbacca managed to get one of its legs off and it still got away."
Jaina bit her lip. "I have to bring something up that I really don't want to."
"Is it that the first explosion the war droids set off were supposed to take out three voxyn, two of which survived?"
"That'd be it."
"Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to assume the third one's out there still," he said, sighing a little, and wincing when he did.
Jaina also felt the little twinge that went with that. "You okay?"
Anakin nodded. "I got hit with a thud bug. I'm okay," he said, shrugging. "I want Tekli to work on Ulaha and make sure the coma gas is all that's wrong with Ganner before anyone overreacts about me."
She understood that. "Got it, Little Brother, no overreacting."
"Thank you. For now, I want you and Zekk and Lowie checking out the systems on this ship. Anything you can find out that you think will help, let's have it."
"Ooh, digging around in ship body parts. I get the fun jobs," Jaina said, but she didn't mind. Everything the Vong used was living, including their ships. It wasn't often you got to combine mechanics with biology class.
"And one more thing, but I have to ask," said Anakin, his voice a little quieter so the others wouldn't overhear.
This didn't feel like he was talking to her like a mission leader. "Sure," she agreed.
"Did you think I told Ulaha to attack?"
That was something she hadn't expected. "I don't know," she admitted, and noted the look on his face at that. "It looks like you did, but that's not something I could see you doing." Especially since he still held himself responsible for Chewbacca's death.
"You've got a better opinion of me than Jacen," Anakin explained. "I told her to give the name of the base. She acted on her own."
Jaina would be lying if she said she wasn't relieved, but that was because she just had to be glad Anakin hadn't changed that much. "Don't worry about Jacen. He can think whatever he wants, it doesn't make it true," she said. And she wondered if she would get Jacen's side of this too, with the bonus of him feeling guilty over it. Clasping his shoulder briefly- he'd gotten taller, wow- she told him, "And back to business," before calling for Zekk and Lowie to follow her.
*****
When they got closer to Myrkr, Jaina took over flying the ship. She'd had practice in Vong craft, but it was always a little strange, putting on the cognition hood and taking it over. Vong pilots had to be one with the living ships, and it always took some time to readjust herself and figure out what she had to do to not kill everyone aboard. It was still clunky and awkward, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be. It would have been enough to make her nervous, but she'd gone into that fighter mode, that mindset where nothing could bother her, she just had to do what she had to do.
It was easier. She heard the realization that the moon Myrkr shouldn't have had really was a Vong worldship. She heard Anakin's declaration that there were Jedi aboard said worldship. She heard him have to put Jacen and Tahiri and Alema in their places to shut up and get back to work. Jaina simply filed away the things she thought were relevant and ignored the rest. She had flying to do, she couldn't care if Tahiri and Alema were trying to come to blows. She didn't even need to think about how her brothers were relating. It wasn't her job to care right now.
While approaching the worldship, Lowbacca warned that a trio of Vong corvettes were lining up for approach behind them. "Jaina, stay on course," Anakin ordered, and only now did Jaina begin to worry. They didn't really know the procedures for this. She was winging it, and there was a good chance they were going to come under fire.
They didn't. Not only that, but they didn't get a hail, either. Noting a complex visible from here on the planet's surface, Anakin said, "Maxmag that, Ulaha. What's it like?"
Doing as instructed, she answered, "It appears to be some kind of spaceport. There is a large pit surrounded by many entrances, with what look to be loading facilities."
"Abandoned?"
"Empty. No vessels in sight, but the landing pads are stacked with cargo pods... and cages."
There was a pause, and then then a sudden, "They're trying to lead us into a trap. Jaina, turn toward that complex now!" And turning on his comlink, he began issuing orders to the others. "Ganner, you and Tesar ready that missile. Stand by for targeting coordinates. Everybody, secure your vac suits. We're in for a rough ride."
And here they went. Jaina pulled the ship around, hearing Lowie's warnings about the fact that about every ship in the area was now pointing itself towards them, ready to engage in some fancy maneuvering if she had to, and really hoping she didn't have to.
The Vong finally hailed them, and as Anakin tried to figure out how to answer it, he said, "Jaina, continue on course. Lowie, get a targeting lock on that cruiser and feed the coordinates to Ganner and Tesar."
When Anakin finally answered the hail, he was greeted by a Yuuzhan Vong congratulating him. "Very good, Ganner Rhysode. I see we are not the only ones who use masquers."
In fact, they did have a few tricks. They had a holoshroud unit for this exact scenario, and apparently the Vong still believed Ganner was really in charge of the mission. Anakin didn't correct them. "I'm sure this is more than a social call, shipmaster."
"Commander. It is my obligation to recover the vessel you have stolen."
"Stolen?" Anakin repeated. "We're just borrowing it. You can have it back when we finish."
"I fear it is needed now. Surrender to the matalok ahead, and you will be the only one who suffers for the... misuse... of the Exquisite Death."
While Anakin paused, Lowie had another report about all the corvettes and coralskippers making their way over to come kill them all dead. If the Wookiee's translator droid hadn't already been switched off in frustration, it probably would have been phrased nicer than that.
"It would be futile to make my matalok attack, Jeedai," said the Vong commander. "My trap was well laid, and the warmaster has said that if we must open fire, the Talfaglion hostages are forfeit."
"Has he?" Anakin said. "I see we have no choice."
That was when the battle meld kicked in, opening them all up to the others' thoughts and emotions. They'd gotten so effective with it that Jaina was still holding her course before Anakin told her to, and Ganner had launched a missile before the order was even fully given. She didn't need any instructions on what to do because she just knew what he intended, and she knew what everyone else was doing.
Of course, once they were feeling the shock waves of a cruiser exploding after they'd pumped a thousand kilos of baradium into it, Ganner still had to ask over the comlink, "What now? Plan D?"
"Sort of," said Anakin.
Not long after he'd described his plan, Ulaha was holding out her datapad. "What's that?" he asked.
"I must be the one to stay with the ship," she explained.
This wasn't just normal concern Jaina felt. Ulaha had definitely had the hardest time on this mission so far, and while she was doing better, "better" wasn't the same as "good" or even "okay". If she stayed, it wasn't going to go well. "No offense, Ulaha," Jaina said, "but you're hardly up to something like this."
"Perhaps not, but I am a pilot- and the Exquisite Death is hardly a starfighter," Ulaha insisted, pushing the datapad into Anakin's hands. "As stated, your plan has a twenty-one percent success probability, with a casualty projection in excess of ninety percent. Without me to burden you on the ground, your success probability rises to almost fifty percent."
That seemed to hit Anakin pretty hard. "That high?" he said, but rallied. "Okay, but just drop Two-One-S's shuttle and go."
It seemed so final, and Jaina understood the why, but she really got the feeling that Ulaha knew she wasn't getting out of this. The natural instinct was to insist on going in her place, knowing that she had a much better chance of pulling this off than Ulaha did. But before she could say anything, Anakin nodded to her. "Go with the others," he told her.
She hadn't even seen the others gathering in the first hold, but reluctantly followed orders, heading after them. Had a job to do after all, even if she didn't feel good about it. And everyone else was working mostly in silence, readying their suits and equipment packs. It was hard to tell how much of the silence was because of the battle meld and how much of it was because everyone knew what Ulaha was doing, and either way it didn't matter.
Zekk packed everyone into the five escape pods, and he'd put Jaina in the first. Maybe he thought she'd argue about going in Ulaha's place if he didn't. And once everyone was secured, it was time to wait, the only light being that from a glowstick. Jaina was squeezed in with Lowie, and while cramped quarters with a Wookiee wasn't exactly the best situation, they made up for it by also having the tiny Chadra Fan Tekli, so they weren't as bad off as they could have been.
It felt like forever till Ulaha's voice came over the open comlink channel. "They are coming out to meet us, but they do not fire. Now they are spreading out, and arrest tentacles are extending from the noses of some of the ships."
"They're still trying to take us alive," Anakin said, sounding surprised. "Why risk so much?"
"They are alienz," said one of the Barabel sisters, but Jaina couldn't tell which. "There is no sense trying to understand them."
When the Exquisite Death started swinging around, Jaina braced herself against the side of the pod, sort of wishing again that she was in the pilot's seat for this. "You must start the drop," Ulaha commed. "They are shooting tentacles at us."
With encouragement from 2-1S, Anakin gave the go, and there was more jostling of the pods as Ulaha flew the ship, as the hold decompressed, as the pod slid towards the breach. The decoy pod went ahead of them, and once the war droids had reported that the decoy had caused substantial damage to the Vong vessel trying to capture it, Jaina's pod was deployed, and she tried to stop her stomach from lurching at the sudden weightlessness. It was easily to do when you were more worried at the thought of being grabbed by one of those tentacles or blown up and completely unable to do anything about it.
They got lucky. Eryl began a countdown, and on her mark, they had to slow the descent of the pods before impact to make sure they got onto the worldship alive and in one piece. That didn't mean that the landing was fun, and Jaina wasn't happy to have her shoulder slammed into the wall of the pod as they half-bounced, half-skidded to a stop. It could have been worse. Lowie could have ended the trip on top of her or Tekli. That would have been less fun.
"Made it," Jaina said, and was glad that she couldn't sense anyone being more than a little banged up. Lowie wuffed a congratulations at her, and she patted his furry shoulder before they got to work on getting out of the pod. They'd made it here. In a little while it would be obvious to them that Ulaha didn't.
Next.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Some dialogue taken directly from Star by Star by Troy Denning.]
Thanks to all the ysalamiri in the hold, Jaina didn't realize that the escape plan had been activated until after things started blowing up. And really, any escape plan that included defense with mini cannons had her approval.
The Jedi hadn't actually had to do anything but survive the breaking long enough to get into Vong space. Once they were there, all Anakin had to do was speak into a subcutaneous comlink in order to release the smuggled war droids that came and shot the Vong off their backs before releasing them from the blorash jelly. It'd been hard not to notice that the droids seemed to have been programmed to protect the Solo kids specifically, and Lando would need to be thanked for that little gesture. From there, to continue taking command of the Exquisite Death, the plan meant following Anakin's orders. Jaina was assigned to be part of the support team, armed to clear out the Vong from other corridors. It also meant she sort of unthinkingly took it over, since her group also had Ulaha to worry about. Not that she had to do much clearing anyway, since the war droids had made this part surprisingly easy.
As soon as she thought that, she heard Anakin's voice over her comlink. "Jaina, we've got voxyn."
Jaina didn't look at the rest of her team, though she felt their alarm. "I thought the droids took care of them."
"They're giving me voxyn survival odds. Just trust me. It set off a mine, so it's probably injured. Keep an eye out."
She sighed, pocketing her comlink. "You heard him," she told the others. It didn't change much for her. A job was a job, they had enough weaponry, and the jumpsuits they'd been able to get a hold of acted as a light armor. They could handle a couple voxyn if it came to that.
Which it did, sort of. There were still Vong scurrying around and they knew it, partially because every now and then the Force would just disappear again whenever a ysalamiri got within Force bubble distance. One of those times was when the war droid Two Four-S reported that its sensors had picked up the wounded voxyn in the system ducts.
"Good," Jaina shrugged. "Better there than out here. Let's keep it that way."
This turned out to be more nerve-wracking than it sounded, because it meant having to hold a voxyn somewhere it didn't want to be held. Whether it meant someone was throwing themselves against a bulkhead in order to add some more resistance to the voxyn trying to get out, or Two Four-S attempting to blast something, it wasn't the most fun job.
"Status update," came Anakin's voice again. "We're going after Ganner."
Thinking Ganner was the leader, the Vong had been holding him elsewhere, and he was the only one they needed to retrieve. "Great," Jaina said, pausing in the silence to see if she could hear or sense where the voxyn was at the moment. "We're a little busy right now."
"Got it. The Vong seem to be cutting through the cabins instead of using the corridors. We're going to do the same."
"Copy that," she said, and switched frequencies to warn Zekk and Raynar not to fire when people came down their corridor.
The voxyn launched itself back against the part of the wall Jaina had been leaning against, and it took a lot of effort to push back against it rather than jumping away. This would be a lot easier if she could add the Force to her own weight, but the voxyn was in an entirely different class there. "Two Four-S? I'm getting bored with this," she announced.
A moment later, the voxyn stopped again, but it wouldn't go somewhere else when Jaina hadn't been putting up a terrific fight keeping it at bay, and the metal of the corridor wall was already starting to give. Seeing that Two Four-S was ready by its signal, she backed away from the wall, making sure the breath mask in her hood was firmly in place before getting a better hold on her mini cannon and nodding for the others to do the same.
This time when the voxyn charged against the wall, it managed to break through. It didn't have a chance to get very far into the corridor, though, because almost immediately Two Four-S was firing on it, and Jaina was doing the same an instant later. This thing had already survived war droids and an explosion, there was no such thing as overkill.
It did finally fall, convulsing for a moment before going still, and the purple blood around its many many wounds turned into the brown fume that they'd seen before when it hit the air. With the breath masks on, they didn't have anything to worry about. It was good to be able to think that about something.
"Stay out of the cloud," she ordered, mostly unnecessarily, but she wasn't taking chances.
A moment later she felt the Force return again, and then she felt what was almost a familiar presence by now through the battle meld. She switched on her comlink to Anakin's frequency and said, "What's that I feel? It can't be a voxyn. Two-Four-S and I killed it. I'm looking at its body right now."
"Just keep an eye on those ducts," Anakin replied. "There's another one."
Jaina sighed. "The fun never ends," she muttered.
They didn't find the next voxyn before Anakin's next transmission, announcing that they'd gotten Ganner, killed Duman Yaght, and taken command of the bridge. Only now did Jaina let her commander mentality to drop long enough to call him an overachiever.
*****
When Jaina got her group reassembled and up to the bridge, she and Anakin conferred on how things had gone. If she thought about it too hard, it was a little weird to think about the fact that she was talking tactics in military terms with her little brother, but she'd been younger than him when she'd started, after all. She'd been his age at Sernpidal. "The voxyn's still on the loose," she said. "We haven't found it yet to kill it."
"We'll just have to keep our eyes out for it," Anakin said, though that wasn't exactly the happiest thought. "I have a feeling it'll come out of hiding eventually. It's hurt more, too. Lowbacca managed to get one of its legs off and it still got away."
Jaina bit her lip. "I have to bring something up that I really don't want to."
"Is it that the first explosion the war droids set off were supposed to take out three voxyn, two of which survived?"
"That'd be it."
"Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to assume the third one's out there still," he said, sighing a little, and wincing when he did.
Jaina also felt the little twinge that went with that. "You okay?"
Anakin nodded. "I got hit with a thud bug. I'm okay," he said, shrugging. "I want Tekli to work on Ulaha and make sure the coma gas is all that's wrong with Ganner before anyone overreacts about me."
She understood that. "Got it, Little Brother, no overreacting."
"Thank you. For now, I want you and Zekk and Lowie checking out the systems on this ship. Anything you can find out that you think will help, let's have it."
"Ooh, digging around in ship body parts. I get the fun jobs," Jaina said, but she didn't mind. Everything the Vong used was living, including their ships. It wasn't often you got to combine mechanics with biology class.
"And one more thing, but I have to ask," said Anakin, his voice a little quieter so the others wouldn't overhear.
This didn't feel like he was talking to her like a mission leader. "Sure," she agreed.
"Did you think I told Ulaha to attack?"
That was something she hadn't expected. "I don't know," she admitted, and noted the look on his face at that. "It looks like you did, but that's not something I could see you doing." Especially since he still held himself responsible for Chewbacca's death.
"You've got a better opinion of me than Jacen," Anakin explained. "I told her to give the name of the base. She acted on her own."
Jaina would be lying if she said she wasn't relieved, but that was because she just had to be glad Anakin hadn't changed that much. "Don't worry about Jacen. He can think whatever he wants, it doesn't make it true," she said. And she wondered if she would get Jacen's side of this too, with the bonus of him feeling guilty over it. Clasping his shoulder briefly- he'd gotten taller, wow- she told him, "And back to business," before calling for Zekk and Lowie to follow her.
*****
When they got closer to Myrkr, Jaina took over flying the ship. She'd had practice in Vong craft, but it was always a little strange, putting on the cognition hood and taking it over. Vong pilots had to be one with the living ships, and it always took some time to readjust herself and figure out what she had to do to not kill everyone aboard. It was still clunky and awkward, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be. It would have been enough to make her nervous, but she'd gone into that fighter mode, that mindset where nothing could bother her, she just had to do what she had to do.
It was easier. She heard the realization that the moon Myrkr shouldn't have had really was a Vong worldship. She heard Anakin's declaration that there were Jedi aboard said worldship. She heard him have to put Jacen and Tahiri and Alema in their places to shut up and get back to work. Jaina simply filed away the things she thought were relevant and ignored the rest. She had flying to do, she couldn't care if Tahiri and Alema were trying to come to blows. She didn't even need to think about how her brothers were relating. It wasn't her job to care right now.
While approaching the worldship, Lowbacca warned that a trio of Vong corvettes were lining up for approach behind them. "Jaina, stay on course," Anakin ordered, and only now did Jaina begin to worry. They didn't really know the procedures for this. She was winging it, and there was a good chance they were going to come under fire.
They didn't. Not only that, but they didn't get a hail, either. Noting a complex visible from here on the planet's surface, Anakin said, "Maxmag that, Ulaha. What's it like?"
Doing as instructed, she answered, "It appears to be some kind of spaceport. There is a large pit surrounded by many entrances, with what look to be loading facilities."
"Abandoned?"
"Empty. No vessels in sight, but the landing pads are stacked with cargo pods... and cages."
There was a pause, and then then a sudden, "They're trying to lead us into a trap. Jaina, turn toward that complex now!" And turning on his comlink, he began issuing orders to the others. "Ganner, you and Tesar ready that missile. Stand by for targeting coordinates. Everybody, secure your vac suits. We're in for a rough ride."
And here they went. Jaina pulled the ship around, hearing Lowie's warnings about the fact that about every ship in the area was now pointing itself towards them, ready to engage in some fancy maneuvering if she had to, and really hoping she didn't have to.
The Vong finally hailed them, and as Anakin tried to figure out how to answer it, he said, "Jaina, continue on course. Lowie, get a targeting lock on that cruiser and feed the coordinates to Ganner and Tesar."
When Anakin finally answered the hail, he was greeted by a Yuuzhan Vong congratulating him. "Very good, Ganner Rhysode. I see we are not the only ones who use masquers."
In fact, they did have a few tricks. They had a holoshroud unit for this exact scenario, and apparently the Vong still believed Ganner was really in charge of the mission. Anakin didn't correct them. "I'm sure this is more than a social call, shipmaster."
"Commander. It is my obligation to recover the vessel you have stolen."
"Stolen?" Anakin repeated. "We're just borrowing it. You can have it back when we finish."
"I fear it is needed now. Surrender to the matalok ahead, and you will be the only one who suffers for the... misuse... of the Exquisite Death."
While Anakin paused, Lowie had another report about all the corvettes and coralskippers making their way over to come kill them all dead. If the Wookiee's translator droid hadn't already been switched off in frustration, it probably would have been phrased nicer than that.
"It would be futile to make my matalok attack, Jeedai," said the Vong commander. "My trap was well laid, and the warmaster has said that if we must open fire, the Talfaglion hostages are forfeit."
"Has he?" Anakin said. "I see we have no choice."
That was when the battle meld kicked in, opening them all up to the others' thoughts and emotions. They'd gotten so effective with it that Jaina was still holding her course before Anakin told her to, and Ganner had launched a missile before the order was even fully given. She didn't need any instructions on what to do because she just knew what he intended, and she knew what everyone else was doing.
Of course, once they were feeling the shock waves of a cruiser exploding after they'd pumped a thousand kilos of baradium into it, Ganner still had to ask over the comlink, "What now? Plan D?"
"Sort of," said Anakin.
Not long after he'd described his plan, Ulaha was holding out her datapad. "What's that?" he asked.
"I must be the one to stay with the ship," she explained.
This wasn't just normal concern Jaina felt. Ulaha had definitely had the hardest time on this mission so far, and while she was doing better, "better" wasn't the same as "good" or even "okay". If she stayed, it wasn't going to go well. "No offense, Ulaha," Jaina said, "but you're hardly up to something like this."
"Perhaps not, but I am a pilot- and the Exquisite Death is hardly a starfighter," Ulaha insisted, pushing the datapad into Anakin's hands. "As stated, your plan has a twenty-one percent success probability, with a casualty projection in excess of ninety percent. Without me to burden you on the ground, your success probability rises to almost fifty percent."
That seemed to hit Anakin pretty hard. "That high?" he said, but rallied. "Okay, but just drop Two-One-S's shuttle and go."
It seemed so final, and Jaina understood the why, but she really got the feeling that Ulaha knew she wasn't getting out of this. The natural instinct was to insist on going in her place, knowing that she had a much better chance of pulling this off than Ulaha did. But before she could say anything, Anakin nodded to her. "Go with the others," he told her.
She hadn't even seen the others gathering in the first hold, but reluctantly followed orders, heading after them. Had a job to do after all, even if she didn't feel good about it. And everyone else was working mostly in silence, readying their suits and equipment packs. It was hard to tell how much of the silence was because of the battle meld and how much of it was because everyone knew what Ulaha was doing, and either way it didn't matter.
Zekk packed everyone into the five escape pods, and he'd put Jaina in the first. Maybe he thought she'd argue about going in Ulaha's place if he didn't. And once everyone was secured, it was time to wait, the only light being that from a glowstick. Jaina was squeezed in with Lowie, and while cramped quarters with a Wookiee wasn't exactly the best situation, they made up for it by also having the tiny Chadra Fan Tekli, so they weren't as bad off as they could have been.
It felt like forever till Ulaha's voice came over the open comlink channel. "They are coming out to meet us, but they do not fire. Now they are spreading out, and arrest tentacles are extending from the noses of some of the ships."
"They're still trying to take us alive," Anakin said, sounding surprised. "Why risk so much?"
"They are alienz," said one of the Barabel sisters, but Jaina couldn't tell which. "There is no sense trying to understand them."
When the Exquisite Death started swinging around, Jaina braced herself against the side of the pod, sort of wishing again that she was in the pilot's seat for this. "You must start the drop," Ulaha commed. "They are shooting tentacles at us."
With encouragement from 2-1S, Anakin gave the go, and there was more jostling of the pods as Ulaha flew the ship, as the hold decompressed, as the pod slid towards the breach. The decoy pod went ahead of them, and once the war droids had reported that the decoy had caused substantial damage to the Vong vessel trying to capture it, Jaina's pod was deployed, and she tried to stop her stomach from lurching at the sudden weightlessness. It was easily to do when you were more worried at the thought of being grabbed by one of those tentacles or blown up and completely unable to do anything about it.
They got lucky. Eryl began a countdown, and on her mark, they had to slow the descent of the pods before impact to make sure they got onto the worldship alive and in one piece. That didn't mean that the landing was fun, and Jaina wasn't happy to have her shoulder slammed into the wall of the pod as they half-bounced, half-skidded to a stop. It could have been worse. Lowie could have ended the trip on top of her or Tekli. That would have been less fun.
"Made it," Jaina said, and was glad that she couldn't sense anyone being more than a little banged up. Lowie wuffed a congratulations at her, and she patted his furry shoulder before they got to work on getting out of the pod. They'd made it here. In a little while it would be obvious to them that Ulaha didn't.
Next.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Some dialogue taken directly from Star by Star by Troy Denning.]