Yanibar Tales/Blaze of Glory

The heart-rate monitor beeped gently as Captain Jon Rieves adjusted to the sudden increased speed of the treadmill. The machine was in its final cycle, an absurdly fast pace that was more like a sprint than a run. He gasped for breath from the exertion, and sweat poured down his body, soaking his short-cropped brown hair. There were heavy weights attached to his arms, placing stress on those muscles as well. The monitor beeped faster as his heart rate increased from his body trying to cope with the demands being placed upon him.

He wondered if he would have joined the Pathfinders if he’d known they were going to be strapped into these ridiculous workouts every single day. Sure, being part of an elite branch of the Yanibar Guard Army was nice, but this was insane. His muscles quivered and his legs felt like jelly. It could be worse, he figured. He could have been in the infantry and forced to slog around who knew where carrying all kinds of heavy gear while being shot at. His father had done that and been decorated for meritorious combat service in the Yanibar Guard, but while Jon Rieves was no coward, the whole infantry package didn’t sound like a fun day to him. He gritted his teeth and persevered, knowing that the others in the room were looking at him for an example.

All around him were the other three members of his team. Directly in front of him was a human female, Lieutenant Akira Arkani of Serroco, who was also the youngest. Her fellow Pathfinders knew her as “Aleph” from her initials. She wasn’t a fan of the nickname, and her perpetually tough attitude, as well as her expertise as a pilot, made her far more intimidating than one might expect a woman shorter than 1.5 meters to be. Rieves also thought she looked pretty good in a form-fitting tank top and workout shorts, but knew that voicing that opinion was a fast way to earning her ire so he kept his mouth shut. As the only woman selected for the Pathfinders, Akira had made it abundantly clear that it was her talents and no other factor that had gotten her this far.

Flanking her was a lanky blue-skinned male Duros, Terneh Oegonar, who went by “Thunder.” The final member of the group was an Umbaran male, Sneath Lapik, who was on a treadmill to Rieves’s right. Sneath was the only Umbaran in the entire Yanibar Guard—as a species, they weren’t known for being travelers. His pale skin and slight frame blended in with his gray uniform, which had earned him the name “Ghost” by his partners.

“You okay there, chief?” Terneh asked him.

“Just admiring the view, Terneh,” Jon replied as the machine finally began cycling down into its cool-off phase, slowing the pace and granting his weary legs some relief.

Akira glared at him over her shoulder, but the angry retort on her lips died unsaid when the door to the workout room slid open to admit a human male with his right sleeve marked with the rank insignia of a colonel in the Yanibar Guard Army. Though shorter than all of them except Akira, there was a presence about him due to intensity in his dark eyes that lit up his dark skin and curly black hair. His name was Colonel Harrinos, the leader of the informal unit known as the Pathfinders, all of whom had been hand-picked for this assignment. Normally he joined them in their workouts even though he wasn’t required to, but he had missed this morning’s.

“Good morning,” Harrinos said as he breezed in.

None of the Pathfinders made any effort to lift their burdened arms to salute. As one of the most elite units of YGA and an experimental one at that, the Pathfinders had been afforded a large amount of leeway, particularly in the area of proper decorum and formality when it came to rank within their own units. The usual honorifics were therefore normally abandoned when it was just them—the planners behind the Pathfinder Project had wanted as close-knit of a unit as they could get, since they would be relying heavily on each other. The nature of their missions and the risk involved also meant that one of the criteria in their selection had been a lack of spouse or family.

“What’s the word, sir?” Jon asked. “Must have been something important for you to skip out on us.”

“That’s right, Steel,” Harrinos replied, referring to Rieves by the nickname that his piercing gray eyes had earned him. “You four are about to have a unique tourism opportunity in about six hours.”

“Sir?” Terneh asked. “We’re on leave?”

“Of course you are,” Harrinos answered. “Remember, we’re sending you to visit a Yuuzhan Vong resort world?”

“Well, then I hope it’s not a one-way ticket,” Jon replied. “Something tells me that we might wear out our welcome a bit quickly.”

“Get cleaned up and some myostim for those muscles,” Harrison told them, shifting the conversation back to business. “Then get something to eat and suit up. I’ll meet you in the hangar at 0900.”

With that, the colonel turned and left, leaving the Pathfinders to haul their weary bodies from the treadmills back to their quarters. After quick sanisteams and an hour of myostim therapy to rapidly rejuvenate their aching muscles, the four Pathfinders, now wearing jumpsuits that were emblazoned with the insignia of the Yanibar Guard, reconvened in the mess hall on the Niman-class cruiser-carrier Quinlan Vos that had been ferrying them around Force-knew-where for the last few weeks. The room was almost completely deserted—it was in the middle of a shift and this mess was reserved for senior officers anyway.

As they collected their trays and huddled around a table they’d claimed for themselves, the Pathfinders were silent initially, but Jon suspected it wouldn’t last. Sure enough, Akira paused with spoon halfway to her mouth to lob a question into the group.

“So, am I the only one who’s wondering what we’re doing dropping onto a Vong world?”

“I presume we’re there to pick up exotic flowers and candies,” Terneh replied in his deep rolling voice, dabbing his face with a napkin.

She rolled her eyes.

“No, I mean, why we’re launching an offensive action on the Yuuzhan Vong. As far as I know, we’re not at war with them. Seems like we’re asking for trouble that we don’t need.”

Ordinarily, the precepts of the Yanibar Guard advocated limited, defensive warfare, with little emphasis on pre-emptive strikes. Then again, ordinarily, the entire galaxy wasn’t being invaded by a vicious race of alien invaders unlike anything else seen or heard of. The Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful humanoid species from beyond the fringes of the Outer Rim, had invaded only two years ago, and their violent rampage had already taken them thousands of parsecs into the heart of the galaxy. Armed with bizarre biotechnology, fueled by a desire for conquest and a hate for Jedi and machines, and empowered by their religious doctrines, the Yuuzhan Vong had swept through all the resistance that the primary galactic government, the New Republic, could offer.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise that command is sending us after the Yuuzhan Vong, Akira,” Terneh told her. “They have so far shown no intentions other than the complete subjugation of the entire galaxy through brute force. If they are successful in seizing the galaxy, they would wipe out not only the New Republic, but all Force-sensitives, Jedi, and anyone else who dared offer them resistance. Entire ways of life, thousands of years of culture and heritage, would be destroyed if their war succeeds.”

“You could say that about the Empire as well,” Akira argued. “Yet the Yanibar Guard didn’t launch attacks on their planets. We take care of our own.”

“Actually, the Yanibar Guard did launch attacks on a number of offworld Imperial targets,” the taciturn Sneath interjected. “It’s just not publicized—all the missions are highly classified.”

“And you would know this how?” she demanded.

He gave her a thin smile.

“Just have to know where to look,” he answered cryptically.

“He’s right,” Jon put in. “The Yanibar Guard did carry out covert operations against Imperial targets. My father told me about them, or at least dropped enough hints to make it obvious.”

“Fine,” Akira relented. “But does that make it right? What gives us the authority to go trampling around other people’s planets? Doesn’t that put us on the same level with the Vong?”

“We help protect those whom we can whenever possible without compromising the safety of the refuge,” Ternah said. “The Vong have a nasty habit of attacking civilians and enslaving and killing them. They can’t protect themselves and we can to an extent, so we also try and help them.”

“Killing off Vong on conquered planets might just incite them to cause more casualties. Remember Toprawa during the Great War? The planet was reduced to barbarianism just for helping the Rebel Alliance—what’s to say our actions won’t spawn a similar or worse response from the Yuuzhan Vong?” Akira countered.

“Toprawa’s sacrifice was tragic, but it helped the Rebellion to stop the first Death Star. Had the Toprawans not done so, Alderaan might have just been the first of many worlds to be destroyed by its power,” Terneh replied.

Akira’s eyes blazed and she looked about ready to issue a sharp retort, but Rieves cut her off.

“All right, enough,” Jon interjected. “It’s our job as soldiers to carry out orders from command—that’s good enough for me. If any of you have problems with the assignment, talk it out with Harrinos.”

“And what if something comes up during the mission? Something questionable?” Akira asked in a more subdued tone.

“Then we deal with it then,” Jon told her. “I’ve got some misgivings about all the stuff that could go wrong on our mission, but if we overdo the what-ifs, we’ll never get anywhere. We already had three weeks of sim-time and briefings, so it’s not like we haven’t had a chance to think about this stuff unless one of you has something new. Do you?”

None of his pilots gave him an answer in the affirmative.

“All right, then. Let’s get to the briefing room, see what Harrinos has come up with.”

Having finished their breakfast, the assembled Pathfinders stood and collected their trays, which they deposited in an appropriately-marked slot in the wall before exiting the mess hall. Minutes later, they joined their commander in a briefing room inside the cruiser-carrier, clustered around a table and holoprojector. While other planning and intelligence staff had been involved in the operation, the standard approach was to have all of that detail be funneled through Harrinos to the other Pathfinders as part of a streamlined command and communication structure.

The hologram of the planet Falleen glowed quietly above the projector, pockmarked with symbols. Around it, graphic representations of ships floated around it, following vectors and trajectories that portrayed their orbits. The Pathfinders huddled around it. They silently studied the multi-colored hologram, watching as a series of graphical icons ran through a fast-paced simulation of what they were expected to do—execute the most daring Yanibar Guard raid in thirty years. They were all aware that calculated risks were being taken here, risks that had been carefully evaluated and balanced. What the Pathfinders—aside from Harrinos—didn’t know was that this was far from the first Yanibar Guard strike against the Yuuzhan Vong.

As the Yuzuhan Vong threat had grown, the isolationist Yanibar Guard had become more proactive. They had not been open in their raids—covert operations were their stock in trade—but they did happen. The collaborationist Peace Brigade, cutthroat sellouts that had emerged from the denizens of the galaxy, had been particularly choice targets as they presented a viable military target without the advantages possessed by the Yuuzhan Vong. In the mean time, the secretive intelligence arm of the Yanibar Guard had infiltrated the data networks of the crumbling New Republic, stealing every piece of information about the Yuuzhan Vong they possibly could. Their labs, and the labs of the primary arms supplier to the Yanibar Guard, the indigenous Kraechar Arms, had been shipped every captured piece of Vong biotech for analysis, in hopes of finding a counter. After two years of frantic research and hasty trials by Kraechar Arms and Black Works, the research and development arm of Yanibar Guard Intelligence, a new weapons system had been redesigned halfway through its development as a possible counter to the Yuuzhan Vong.

Now it just had to be tested. That was why the Yanibar Guard ships were in orbit over the conquered planet. That was why these five people were standing around a holoprojector examining their attack plan one last time. The simulation finished playing out—a relatively straight forward mission best described as an armed reconnaissance. Colonel Harrinos turned to the other Pathfinders.

“Everything clear?” he asked.

“It is, Eyes,” Jon told him tersely. “Nice plan.”

“Are you ready, Steel?” the colonel inquired, directing the query to him since he was the team leader.

Rieves knew from long weeks of working with the officer that he could be trusted with a straight answer. He also respected him enough to give him one.

“We spent weeks in the sims preparing for this. We have some misgivings but nothing show-stopping. We’re good to go.”

“Let’s get to it, then,” Harrinos replied. “Head to the hangar.”

He switched off the hologram and they all followed him to a cavernous hangar one level down. Inside were the results of the collaboration between Black Works and Kraechar Arms—as well as millions of credits. There were four of them parked on the dull gray metal deck, waiting for their pilots.

When they had first been brought in as candidates for the Pathfinder program, they had gotten a chance to meet the brilliant mind behind their designs, Sarth Kraen, a middle-aged human engineer and the head of Kraechar Arms. As they had been showed their new vehicles for the first time, Kraen had solemnly informed of their nature.

“This is without a doubt the most complex and terrifying war machine I have ever built.”

Upon seeing them for the first time, the pilots had certainly understood his position.

The eleven-meter tall war machines were called Avatars. They were bipedal walkers each crewed by a single pilot and equipped with a dizzying array of technology. A self-healing laminanium skeleton, one whose design had been stolen from a New Republic company called Tendrando Arms and scaled up, formed the frame of each Avatar. Encased in the torso and limbs were servomotors, gyroscopes, actuators, repulsorlifts, and heat sinks, all of which were safely concealed behind thick durasteel fibrous-ceramic plating. For further protection, each Avatar carried a dual-mode shield projector that not only generated a force field around the walker to shield it from energy blasts, but also utilized a rediscovered technology from millennia ago that had been revived and improved upon by Black Works. This defense system, called kinetic shielding, protected the walker from physical impacts and missiles. It was further reinforced by a pair of anti-missile batteries mounted on the shoulders of each walker designed to shoot rapid-fire laser pulses at incoming anti-vehicle missiles. Offensively, each Avatar mounted a laser cannon in each arm and seventy-two rockets in shoulder mounts. A centerline modular weapons mount underneath the chin of each walker could accommodate an ion cannon, rail gun, double blasters, or flamethrower. Concealed inside each arm was also a sizable vibroblade for close-in brawling—it was an unorthodox weapon for a battle walker, but the Yuuzhan Vong had shown a propensity for melee fighting.

“Aah, this never gets old,” Terneh said as the Pathfinders sauntered into the hangar where their Avatars were waiting. “I feel faster and tougher just being around them.”

Speed and toughness had definitely been incorporated into their design. The machines were built sturdily, but their construction was also intended to provide mobility. They could run at up to ninety kilometers per hour, twist their torsos fully around, elevate, depress, and swivel their arms, even jump via repulsors. Being knocked to the ground in an Avatar, unlike most walkers, was recoverable, though the process could be difficult if a leg was damaged. However, the machines were built to absorb abuse and come back fighting. All of the power needed to fuel the incredible power demands of the Avatar was provided by a heavily shielded fusion core that occupied the center of its torso, one which had been adapted from a robust starfighter engine.

The Pathfinders were the first group of Avatar pilots. There were other test groups, but they’d been the best. They’d been selected from YGA from the ranks of Challenger tank and Stiletto gunship pilots and gone through months of extensive training in order to use the Avatar. Controlling the walker depended on an experimental man-machine link generated by a neurohelmet that linked the pilot’s reflexes to the array of control computers buried inside each Avatar’s cockpit. That allowed them almost humanoid-levels of agility, but the technology, stolen from an Imperial research depot, took a lot of getting used to. Interfacing with the machines had a curious effect on humanoid brains, one which was still being researched. Even with the moderate Force-sensitivity that each of the Pathfinders possessed and the mental training they’d received, the linkup was an unusual sensation, to say the least.

Now, they stood before their Avatars, ready to embark on the first ever combat mission. The walkers were strapped down with ablative heat shields and repulsorpacks for the debarkation from the cruiser-carrier, which hampered their mobility. In fact, each Avatar was folded up, the legs collapsed to lower their height and fit neatly into the protective shell. When they were ready, the floor of the docking bay would drop out from beneath them, starting their plunge.

“Everything checks out,” Harrinos said. “The technicians report all systems are cleared for launch.”

“This is it,” Rieves observed. “Time to burn sky.”

“I’ll be in contact once you guys are groundside,” Harrinos told them.

“Save some champagne for when we get back,” Terneh quipped.

The commander shook each of the Pathfinders’ hands, then stood back as they clambered up the ladders into their respective cockpits. Several technicians were on hand as the pilots boarded their Avatars. Each pilot pulled on their helmet and then allowed the technician to insert the hydration line into their arm. For all their firepower and mobility, the walkers were incredibly heat-inefficient when run at full power, a problem that wasn’t thoroughly realized until after the shield generators had been installed. Field trials had quickly revealed that the cockpits grew incredibly hot and numerous pilots had become rapidly dehydrated while simulating cockpit maneuvers. The form-fitting nature of the protective deflector fields meant that additional heat sinks couldn’t be added without re-mapping the surface profile of the walkers and then adjusting the shield alignment, a lengthy and costly process. Instead, a hydration system had been installed so that each of the pilots would be intravenously re-hydrated. It was a temporary measure at best, but they had to live with it for now.

“All systems showing green,” Akira reported. “Can’t tell for sure without a live test.”

“Negative on that,” Terneh sounded off. “Don’t think the Vos’s captain would appreciate you smashing that ablative shield and shooting up his hangar.”

“Tell me something I didn’t know,” she retorted.

“Cool it, guys,” Jon told them. “Finish up your checklists so we can get this party started. Remember, callsigns only from here on out.”

“Affirmative,” the two chastened pilots replied.

The comm channels were silent as all four pilots finished running down the exhaustive procedures that had been drilled into their minds. The last thing any of them wanted was a foul-up before launch—everything had to be functioning perfectly. Engines—check. Reactor—check. Shields—check. Weapons—check. Drop-shield—check. The list cycled down through Jon’s mind almost automatically due to endless repetition during training. As expected of the team leader, he was the first to finish.

“Steel here. Good to go.”

“This is Thunder. Punch it.”

“Akira here, up and at ‘em.”

“Ghost reporting ready.”

Seated at a sizable control console loaded with screens and holoprojectors across the hangar, Colonel Harrinos carefully checked off each and every one of the Avatars as their pilots reported ready.

“Pathfinders, you are good to launch,” he informed them over the comlink. “Starting countdown. Drop in ten. . . nine. . . seven. . . six. . .”

At three, the clamps holding each of the Avatars and its launch shell in place began to whine and hiss as they started detaching. By one, only the floor paneling was keeping the Avatars inside the cruiser. Then that too fell away, and the four giant war machines plunged out from the belly of the ship into the cold of deep space.

Harrinos watched his sensor displays as the four pods entered atmosphere. He tracked their trajectories as they burned through Falleen’s sky, trailing fire behind them from re-entry. All his indications were that the ablative heat shields were dissipating the incredible friction, but he could not communicate with his pilots, could not tell what they were thinking. He kept his gaze on the clock and on his sensors until the telemetry indicated touchdown in an icefield. The colonel waited another second, then flicked his comm switch.

“Eyes to Pathfinders, do you read?”

He waited tentatively for a moment, watching the sensor feed showing the four walkers’ landing site. Then a wave of relief swept over him as he received a reply.

“This is Steel. We’re all here and ready to unpack.”

“Do it,” Eyes told them. “Time to see what these things can do. Remember, callsigns only now.”

Steel affirmed as he received Eyes’ reply. Hitting a series of switches, the protective shell collapsed away from his Avatar. Another set of commands powered up the walker, which rose out of the shell like some kind of bizarre mechanical reptile emerging from an egg. Around him, the other Pathfinders had followed suit.

“Everything works,” Thunder offered succinctly. “I say we blow some stuff up.”

“Copy that,” Steel agreed. “Form up on me and move out.”

Gripping his controls, he brought his Avatar up to speed, striding across Falleen’s terrain at a moderate seventy kilometers per hour. His sensor board showed that the other three walkers were around him, but nothing else. The icy surface they were on seemed to stretch on forever in all directions, marked only by small dips or rises in the terrain.

“Welcome to beautiful Falleen, population zero,” Aleph commented.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of Vong, so stay alert,” Steel answered. “I’d rather not have them show us the error of that statement up close.”

It did not take long for the alien conquerors of Falleen to make their presence known. Less than twenty minutes since the Avatars had landed and begun striding their way towards a Yuuzhan Vong outpost near a Falleen city, the first signs of contact were detected.

“I’ve got something,” Aleph reported. “Airborne, moving fast.”

“Probably coralskippers,” observed Oegonar, referring to the organic Yuuzhan Vong starfighter equivalents.

“There’s three of them,” she added.

“Shields up, go to combat full,” Steel ordered.

He activated his shields and immediately felt the temperature in the crowded cockpit increase. Perspiration began forming on his neck as the shields drew power from the reactor, but as the energy barrier was the best defense against Yuuzhan Vong weaponry, he endured the discomfort. A minute later, the three coralskippers appeared in visual range, looking like small flying rocks aimed straight at them. The starfighters were flying low, less than a thousand meters above the ground, in order to get a good look at the mechanical intruders.

“Wait until they get close,” Eyes ordered them over the comm. “I don’t want them getting away.”

The four walkers’ torsos twisted as they each achieved weapons locks on the oncoming starfighters, but they held their fire. Yuuzhan Vong starfighters lacked shields, but instead used dovin basal creatures for defense. Although poorly understood, dovin basals could somehow project miniature black holes that soaked up all kinds of damage, making coralskippers extremely durable. At five thousand meters, the coralskippers opened fire, but not with lasers or missiles. Instead, they launched superheated rock projectiles akin to bursts of lava. The streams of hot plasma hit the icy surface, sloughing up clouds of steam as the water was instantly sublimed. The Avatars danced out of the fields of fire, but a few glancing hits bounced off their shields.

“Now,” Steel commanded, throttling his Avatar to full speed and cutting loose with his lasers.

Instantly the sky was filled with volleys of purple laser bolts. The coralskippers seemed surprised by the sheer magnitude of the return fire. Two were caught off-guard and immediately fell prey to the Avatars’ lasers, falling instantly. The last one survived the initial volley and attempted to retreat, but was gunned down by the combined fire.

“Target down! That was easy enough,” Thunder commented.

“This time,” Steel warned. “They’ll be back, and in greater numbers.”

“Don’t worry, Steel, we’ll lose them in the city,” Aleph chimed in.

“That’s the plan,” Steel replied.

At face value, it was a seemingly absurd plan. The Avatars had long-range weaponry and would be at a disadvantage to ambushers in close-in street fights. However, it was the only way that the Pathfinders had to conceal themselves. In the open, they would be hunted down by masses of coralskippers. At least the city had cover.

The Avatars covered the last ten kilometers to the city swiftly. They had seen sensor footage before and were thus unsurprised that it was devastated and deserted. What had once been a Falleen metropolis had been savaged by the Yuuzhan Vong, who had left the city ruined and slowly overgrown by unusual alien fauna.

“Lovely,” Aleph commented.

“Where is the outpost we’re supposed to investigate?” Thunder asked.

“Other side of town,” Eyes replied.

A beacon lit up on each of their navigational screens, informing them where to go. The walkers lumbered forward, weapons at the ready. They advanced through the eerily deserted streets, always on the lookout for trouble. For the first several minutes, they saw nothing but war-torn ruins. However, their journey through the desolate city was not destined to be entirely placid. When the Yuuzhan Vong response manifested itself, it was not what they had expected.

“I have a contact,” the reticent Ghost told them.

“What is it, Ghost?” Steel asked them.

“Large, at least twice our size. It appears to be an armored creature of some sort.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Steel said cautiously.

“Stay sharp, guys,” Eyes warned them. “Not really sure what it is, but Ghost is right; it’s big.”

They continued their advance, but slower this time. Rounding a corner past what had once been a multi-storied residential building, Steel got a good view of what Ghost had detected.

It was huge and reptilian, with mottled dark-green scales. At least twenty meters long, the thing was some kind of living six-legged walker. Rieves noted the presence of spiky yorik coral armor and the dark patches indicating dovin basal defenses, and, most importantly, the elongations indicating plasma cannons similar to those on the coralskippers.

“I think I’ve found your contact,” Steel said, throwing his Avatar into reverse.

A furious hail of superheated rock chased him, smashing into his shields and turning his viewscreen white from all the impacts. Even as he ducked behind the ruined building, the streams tore into its remnants, causing him to retreat further.

“Pathfinders, flank it,” Harrinos ordered. “It can’t have defenses everywhere.”

The Avatar pilots did as ordered, surrounding the large, ungainly creature on three sides. On a signal from their commanding officer, they popped into view and unloaded laser fire on it. To their surprise, though, the laser shots were almost completely swallowed up by dovin basal singularities, and those that got through the defenses only seemed to enrage the creature. Yuuzhan Vong infantry clustered around the giant walker swarmed forward, throwing some kind of spear-like creature that had to be a form of biological anti-vehicle weapon.

Steel winced as his Avatar lurched from all the plasma hits he was taking even as he continued firing from his lasers while on the move. His onboard computer informed him that he was taking damage and running near critical heat levels, though he needed no reminder of the latter. His suit was drenched with sweat from the oppressively humid heat of the cockpit that instantly materialized as soon as the Avatar began drawing power at full combat rating.

“I’m down to sixty percent shields and nothing is even hitting the creature,” he reported. “Set for a missile volley.”

“I’ll spot, you shoot,” Ghost told him.

Though the Avatars all had their own missile designators, having multiple targeting arrays aimed at one target made acquiring locks that much easier, especially if they weren’t maneuvering at full speed.

Ghost’s Avatar stood in place long enough for all four Avatars to receive targeting data. The four walkers bucked as missiles streaked out of their shoulder tubes. A total of ten missiles rode blue exhaust trails into the Yuuzhan Vong creature. However, Steel was shocked to see that only one missile impacted on the reptilian walker—the rest were consumed by the dovin basals. From all appearances, the damage seemed to be minimal. Time seemed to slow down as the Yuuzhan Vong walker turned towards him, the motion accompanied by a massive rippling of muscles. It then unloaded fierce streams of plasma fire at him, eroding his shields away in a wash of superheated rock.

“Kriff,” Steel swore. “That didn’t work.”

“I dare say, Eyes,” Thunder commented. “I think it can have defenses everywhere.”

“Pull back,” Eyes ordered hurriedly.

The Avatars retreated into the smoldering ruins of the city as the Yuuzhan Vong creature advanced incessantly after them. Only their virtue of superior speed saved them, allowing them to gain some breathing room.

“I don’t get it,” Aleph cut in. “That salvo would have taken down an AT-AT.”

“Give the Vong some credit,” Steel answered grimly. “They might not know anything about us, but we’re in the same boat. It’s an even fight.”

“Okay, I have a plan,” Eyes announced suddenly. “Steel, go draw its fire.”

“Sir?” Steel replied, astonished. “My shields are only at twenty percent.”

“I know,” Eyes told him curtly. “Do it.”

Steel started to protest, but the disembodied voice of the colonel brooked no argument.

“That’s an order, Pathfinder,” he snapped. “The rest of you fall back to these coordinates and keep alert for other threats.”

“Understood,” Steel replied tersely, swinging his walker back out into view of the Yuuzhan Vong creature.

It was almost impossible for the thing to not notice the giant metal walker that appeared around the corner to challenge it once more. As Steel’s arm-lasers spat violet streams of bolts at the creature, it met the defiant Avatar with renewed streams of plasma fire. The Yanibar Guard walker lurched as it took the pounding, its protecting energy shielding rapidly being worn away. Despite his best attempts at avoiding fire, the sheer volume was too much for Steel to completely evade the barrage.

“Okay, now withdraw,” Eyes told him. “Follow these coordinates, speed sixty kilometers per hour.”

“About time,” Steel muttered, cursing at the ridiculously slow speed. At that pace, the Yuuzhan Vong creature could easily chase him.

A few seconds later, as he sideslipped yet another stream of plasma fire, the Avatar pilot was convinced that Eyes had a death wish for him. Every instinct in him screamed to break contact even as Eyes directed him down a debris-strewn slope into a dried-up riverbed, still dodging plasma fire. His fellow pilots had been apparently directed to radio silence, as they didn’t acknowledge his hails. In fact, they weren’t even on sensors. When he got back to the Quinlan Vos, he was going to punch Colonel Harrinos in the face. If he got back. The Avatar lurched as its stern caught another plasma projectile, slamming him painfully against the restraints.

Gritting his teeth, he miserably realized that he was in a long, narrow, straight riverbed, one with no room to hide. Perhaps Eyes meant for him to use his repulsors to jump to the banks and rain down fire on the walker from above. However, if that was his intent, then the order was not forthcoming. Instead, Eyes ordered him to make his way up the dry riverbed, maneuvering evasively. At last Steel could take it no longer. “Sir, this is may be easy for you to say, but I’m taking a lot of fire down here. I’m on five percent shields and at critical heat,” he informed the colonel, mopping at the sweat pouring down his brow.

“Then don’t worry about firing, you’ve got its attention,” the colonel replied.

“With all due respect, sir, what the kriff are you doing?” Steel snapped.

Something inside him held it in—a trust in Harrinos to pull his fat out of the fire. He’d worked with the man for months, and knew that the colonel wouldn’t just abandon him. There had to be a plan. He just wished he knew it, he reflected as his shields finally gave out. A plasma ball scorched his right weapons arm. He nearly returned fire, then realized the futility of it and directed all his available power into maneuvering. No sense powering shields that had failed or weapons that had no effect.

The cockpit temperature read forty degrees and Steel believed it. The Avatar was generating incredible amounts of heat, and running and shooting nonstop for ten minutes was not doing wonders for it either. He would have passed out several minutes ago if it wasn’t for the hydration line and the adrenaline, Steel realized as he passed under the crumbling ruins of a bridge. Chased by still more plasma, he cut left as the superheated rock streams tracked him. The persistent Yuuzhan Vong creature was unwilling to give up the chase and Steel hoped that the other Pathfinders were inflicting significant damage elsewhere because of it.

Suddenly, up ahead, Steel saw the ruined remains of some kind of shipyard or industrial plant built across the river rising out of the mist. The looming superstructure represented an impassable obstacle—there was no way he could blast through there in time. The tangled ruins were not narrow enough to admit the hefty Avatar either. If he was particularly suicidal and riding a swoop bike, he might could have found a way through. In an eleven-meter Avatar, there was no way past. Looking from side to side, he saw that the riverbanks had steepened; no escape that way. He was trapped.

“What now, sir?” he asked, his mouth suddenly dry as he glanced at the sensor board showing the creature advancing ominously behind him.

“Hold position,” Eyes replied calmly.

The Avatar pilot watched as the Yuuzhan Vong walker approached slowly. It was not even firing now, as if it knew it had its mechanical prey cornered and wanted to get a sure kill-shot. Rieves flicked the switches on his remaining missile pods, preparing to fire them all in a last-ditch attempt at causing damage, even if Eyes did not give the order to do so. He would have to wait until the last minute, though, because he couldn’t afford to give the dovin basals time to generate singularities.

The Yuuzhan Vong creature closed the gap to less than a thousand meters and Steel prepared to squeeze the missile trigger as the thing approached the bridge. He wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

Suddenly, before he could fire, a new contact appeared on his screen as the Yuuzhan Vong creature strode boldly under the ruined span. Thunder’s Avatar rose out from where it had been hiding on the riverbank, spraying the flank of the Yuuzhan Vong creature with laser fire and repeating blaster volleys. The creature roared and turned towards him to bring the bulk of its armament to bear even as the Duros’s Avatar powered its repulsors and leapt down from the bank into the riverbed in front of Steel’s Avatar. Its fresh shields protected Steel from the renewed plasma fire.

“Feel free to open fire when you have a shot, Steel,” Eyes told him.

While he was grateful for the temporary protection, Steel failed to understand the logic of the move. Aside from momentarily halting the Yuuzhan Vong creature’s advance and buying him some time, it had done nothing, even as he watched his and Thunder’s fire be swallowed up by dovin basals.

A second later, Steel was forced to amend that conclusion as Eyes’ tactic evidenced itself in the form of two new friendly contacts and two sets of missile launches. However, the missiles from Aleph’s and Ghost’s Avatars weren’t aimed at the Yuuzhan Vong creature. They were aimed at a far more vulnerable target: the crumbling bridge supports.

The eight concussion missiles obliterated the struts on either side of the creature and the explosions blew fragments of ferrocrete and durasteel everywhere, sounding the death knell for the bridge on either side of it. Steel watched as a fifty-meter piece of bridge smashed down on the Yuuzhan Vong creature, burying it under a pile of dust and rubble. It bellowed once, then was silenced, crushed under the weight of the bridge.

“Hey Steel, did you miss us?” Aleph quipped.

“Just a little,” Steel commented dryly.

He looked down at his hands and was unsurprised to see them shaking. Being that close to death, alone, and without knowledge of the plan had certainly unnerved him.

“You okay down there, Steel?” Eyes asked him.

“I’m fine, sir. My Avatar’s a little banged-up, but nothing serious,” Steel replied. “But next time, someone else can be the bait.”

Eyes chuckled.

“Fair enough, Steel. Get your unit back on track to that encampment—it’s near the far edge of town.”

“Copy,” Steel replied. “You heard the man, let’s get a move on. Keep an eye on your sensor boards in case of further trouble.”

The other three Pathfinders formed up on him as they strode away from the river and back into the clump of the abandoned, ravaged city. The devastation spread around them for kilometers on end, hundreds of crumbling and battered buildings, heavily laden with alien fungi and plants.

“The Vong certainly know how to destroy a place,” Thunder commented in his rolling accent. “This city once had a population of over a million.”

“So where did the inhabitants go?” Steel asked.

“Enslaved, or worse, no doubt,” Thunder remarked. “Five kilometers until we reach the outpost. Look sharp.”

“Against all this greenery, it’s going to be hard to pick out living targets,” Aleph pointed out.

“Keep up your visual scanning,” Steel said. “Better safe than sorry.”

“The compound is supposed to be lightly defended,” Eyes reminded them.

“Whatever that walker was is not my definition of ‘lightly defended,’” Steel quipped.

“They’re called rakamats,” Eyes offered. “New Republic has fought them a few times.”

As they moved from the smashed hulks of higher-rise buildings into residential areas consisting of only two or three-story buildings at the edge of town, the Avatars were afforded greater visibility thanks to their height, which allowed them to look over the two-story buildings as they traipsed across the battered byways of the city. Throughout their advance, the streets had narrowed somewhat and the terrain sloped more than before—they were entering the foothills that the city was nestled against. The nav beacon on their sensor boards marked their position as a bit further than a kilometer from the compound.

“Spread out a bit,” Steel ordered. “Keep an eye out for flanking threats.”

The Vong foliage seemed to be denser and thicker in this area, if he was any judge of botany. His walker trudged through the undergrowth with little effort until he met a particularly dense thicket blocking the path in between two three-story buildings. Steel contemplated opening fire on it with his lasers, but as it was less than three meters high and not particularly threatening in appearance, he chose to simply plow through the greenery.

The metal behemoth crashed through the trees when suddenly, a hideous Yuuzhan Vong warrior leapt onto his cockpit from one of the buildings. Steel started in fright as the horrifically mutilated warrior pulled out a writhing insect and slapped it down on the canopy.

“Stang!” he swore, his heart pounding as the warrior attached more insects onto his walker, which began chewing away at the metal. “We got boarders!” The physical deflectors for the Avatars consumed large amounts of power and only triggered when sensors detected incoming fast-moving objects or when manually triggered so as to avoid draining energy. Now that the Vong were on top of his walker, the vehicle profile was too disrupted to generate shields. His viewcams revealed that dozens of Yuuzhan Vong infantry had concealed themselves among the ruined buildings and shrubbery and were now rushing the walkers like sapper teams, no doubt attaching the organic equivalent of demolition charges to the war machines.

“Pathfinders, commence shield burst, half power,” Eyes told them.

“Copy,” Steel said, recovering from his surprise and remembering that the Avatars had been designed to deal with this particular threat.

He dialed his shields to half power and then jabbed the burst button as soon as it blinked ready. The outside of the Avatar began to glow as the shield generators attempted to form a loose shield bubble around the Avatar and then deliberately exploded that energy into a close-ranged shockwave. The concussion literally blasted the Yuuzhan Vong warriors and insects off of the Avatars, sending them flying back. While effective, the maneuver drained half of his shield strength.

“Deploying caltrops,” Steel stated as he flipped another series of switches.

From under the arms and torso of his Avatar, concealed launchers fired canister shells containing multiple anti-personnel grenades. The canisters were designed to explode outward, scattering the grenades in a 360-degree radius. A ring of small detonations erupted around his Avatar, clearing a small perimeter around the beleaguered walker.

Steel reversed the walker, laying down a field of laser fire on the shrubbery, setting it ablaze. Meanwhile, he checked the rest of his squad. Their damage displays showed no trace of serious damage. One of the ruined buildings that had sheltered numerous Yuuzhan Vong for their ambush burst into flame. Aleph’s Avatar had been equipped with a chin-mounted flamethrower and she was putting it to good use, burning out the Yuuzhan Vong. Once the first structure was engulfed in an inferno, she hosed down the other one with a stream of fire, rendering it useless as a place of concealment.

“Just try that again,” she snapped over the commwave.

“Everyone okay down there?” Eyes asked.

“We’re fine, just a little startled,” Steel reported, mopping away at the thick layer of sweat and grime on his brow.

“Proceed to the outpost then,” Eyes told them. “And watch out for more ambushes.”

Once again forming up into a loose echelon formation, the four Avatars advanced, this time alert for more Yuuzhan Vong infantry. Scattered parties of warriors did attempt to engage them, but judicious use of their arm lasers and Thunder’s anti-personnel blaster arrangement quickly killed off the attackers. The warriors threw a variety of living projectiles at them, but the Avatars’ anti-missile batteries had been programmed to recognize the larger ones as threats and capably blasted at least half of the projectiles before they could impact.

“We’re getting close to the outpost,” Steel said.

“Good work,” Eyes replied. “Deploy recon drones and stand by. Look sharp.”

The Pathfinders complied and tiny drones hovering on repulsorlifts jetted out from compartments on the top of the Avatars to survey the battlefield. Much more subtle than the menacing walkers, the drones provided live feeds both to the Avatars and to Eyes up in the Vos. The pilots waited in the sweltering heat of their cockpits, staying alert for further Yuuzhan Vong attacks and following intermittent orders from Eyes to direct their drones to various locations over the camp.

When they could steal glances at the drone feeds, they saw hideous-looking organic buildings arranged throughout the sizable complex. There were plenty of Yuuzhan Vong in evidence, most of them warriors, seemingly unaware of the sneaky drones overhead. They seemed to be stockpiling large amounts of organic anti-vehicle weaponry for use in the defense of the outpost. Steel inhaled deeply as he saw another of the giant living rakamat walkers they had fought earlier striding through the camp. Aleph’s drone zoomed in on something that caught his eye and made him gag—a bloody pile of rotting corpses, mostly Falleen civilians. The sight of the sacrificial altar with so many dead civilians, including children, lying beside it sent a wave of revulsion running through Steel. He grimaced and forced the bile back down his throat.

“I think I understand why we’re here now,” Aleph said quietly. “Who could do such a thing?”

Her voice was restrained and she seemed to be holding back on fully expressing her emotions—Steel recognized the tight control she was exerting on her voice.

“The Yuuzhan Vong certainly have a flair for savagery,” Thunder put in drily. “I say we show their camp what these Avatars can do up close. I’m not detecting any civilians, so collateral damage shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Stand by,” Steel replied, though he was itching to issue the order to plunge their Avatars into the camp and wipe out every single Yuuzhan Vong warrior there. “Eyes?”

“We have something else in mind,” Eyes said with a little chuckle. “Move your drones away from the camp.”

The Avatar pilots complied, suffering in the oppressive heat of their cockpits. Sweat glistened on every square centimeter of skin and if not for the intravenous hydration lines, they would have already passed out from dehydration and heat exhaustion. As it was, the four hours in the cockpit had proven extremely taxing. Eyes had them hold position for another half hour.

“We shouldn’t just sit here,” Aleph complained. “Sooner or later, they’re going to come looking for us, and in force.”

“I agree,” Thunder concurred. “In any case, we’ve been here far too long. We need to move to another position before we completely sacrifice our mobility and are surrounded.”

“Hold position,” Steel replied.

“Contacts, airborne. At least twenty,” Ghost sounded off. “Transponders indicate YGF.”

“You wanted a party? Here it comes,” Eyes told them.

Eight of YGF’s brand-new Maelstrom fighters roared over the outpost, strafing it with their laser cannons. Immediately, streaks of plasma began darting into the sky in response. In their wake, eight Thunderhead bombers, another recent YGF acquisition, followed, escorted by another four Maelstrom fighters. The bombers disgorged dozens of projectiles on the camp, raining ordnance on the organic buildings and their occupants. Explosions erupted and fireballs flared into the sky as the camp was laid waste to by the YGF bombers. The fighters looped around for another pass, adding their strafing runs to the firestorm consuming the Yuuzhan Vong outpost. The return fire was not as pervasive and quickly died down in the face of the bombing runs, though Steel thought he saw one Maelstrom take a hit and plunge to the ground in a fiery arc. The Thunderheads and remaining Maelstroms continued to pummel the outpost, unleashing their weaponry on the complex until it was reduced to burning wreckage. No more return fire emanated from the Yuuzhan Vong base, just columns of black smoke billowing into the sky.

“Not quite as personal, but there you go,” Eyes told them as the starfighters finished pulverizing the Yuuzhan Vong outpost and soared into the sky. “We even took out that giant walker for you.”

“Good, I hate competition,” Thunder quipped. “We’re the only giant walkers allowed on Falleen.”

“We’re almost done here, so check out the ruins of the outpost, then prepare for extraction,” Eyes reported.

“What about the pilot of the Maelstrom?” Steel asked.

“YGF did a flyover—no ejection seat, pilot KIA,” Eyes told them regretfully. “You can check it out and blow up the debris if you want to save YGF some time and energy.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Steel answered.

“Sending coordinates,” Eyes replied.

The Avatars lumbered into action as their pilots nudged them forward. Advancing into the smoldering ruins, they took in the stark difference from the organic structures they had seen earlier. There was no sign of life, though they did see the occasional incinerated Yuuzhan Vong corpse. Blackened, charred husks were all that remained of the buildings. Small fires burned here and there, sending columns of smoke wafting into the sky. Residual heat sent their heat gauges shooting upward, increasing the temperature in their cockpits by another one to two degrees. The need to have shields raised only intensified their misery.

“This heat is ridiculous,” Aleph commented. “We’re not even firing and it’s this hot.”

“Maybe they should have recruited Twi’lek pilots for these,” Thunder remarked drily.

“Keep your hydration lines in and turned all the way up,” Steel cautioned them. “Can’t afford any of you passing out in the middle of combat.”

“Well, there’s one thing I can do to fight off this heat,” Aleph said.

She gave no further explanation, but through the mini-video feed that showed each of the other pilots, he saw that she had unfastened her jumpsuit and peeled it at least off her upper body, leaving her in just the tank top she wore underneath.

“Isn’t that against regs, Aleph?” Thunder asked.

“The people who wrote those regs didn’t have to ride in one of these walking ovens for several hours on end,” she fired back.

“Eyes?” Steel asked.

The officer hesitated, then gave his reply after a moment’s contemplation.

“It’s not a good idea, but I know those things run pretty hot. You can take off your jumpsuits if you want—just leave the biomonitors on. Also, if you have to eject or your cockpit takes a hit, remember that the jumpsuit is flame-retardant, insulating, and has survival gear packed into it. Things which your skin and undershirts don’t have.”

“Duly noted,” Steel replied, gladly unfastening the closures on his jumpsuit and extracting his arms from its oppressive sleeves.

Peeling the garment down to around his waist, he felt immediate relief as air was allowed to circulate over his arms, shoulders, and upper torso. The light undershirt he wore underneath was far less restrictive and allowed better ventilation onto his body now that it was no longer encased in the jumpsuit. The heavy jumpsuit, while it did possess the benefits Eyes had ascribed to it, was simply unbearable in the stuffy, scorching confines of the Avatar cockpits.

Now somewhat less impeded by their clothing, the Pathfinders pushed ahead through the ruins of the Yuuzhan Vong camp. Again, no signs of life were observed. The outpost appeared to be completely devastated. They caught sight of the giant walker spotted earlier, lying on its side, blackened and dead. The detonations from the bombing runs had apparently worn down its defenses until a missile or torpedo had pierced its side, felling the beast.

“Camp’s clear, move out to the next navpoint,” Steel ordered, marking the coordinates that Eyes had sent him for the starfighter’s wreckage on his map display as the next navpoint.

The Avatar strode forward at Steel’s command, plowing through the ruins of the Yuuzhan Vong outpost. The articulated legs and splayed-toe metal feet did a good job of handling the irregular terrain as the Pathfinders advanced into the rugged foothills outside the city. There was little sign of the Yuuzhan Vong presence here and some remnants of the native flora could be seen amidst various Yuuzhan Vong plants. The blackened devastation of the camp gave way to scrub brush and rocky slopes as they left the bombarded area.

“Should be just a kilometer or so ahead,” Steel indicated to the group. “There shouldn’t be any major Yuuzhan Vong presence, but keep a sharp eye out for trouble.”

“Copy,” Thunder acknowledged.

The four metal behemoths stomped up to the fighter’s location. The stricken fighter had crashed violently, plowing into the side of a hill and scattering pieces across the landscape. The impact had gouged a deep trench into the hillside, a testament to the velocity the fighter had been traveling before crashing. Steel knew that the pilot’s corpse was still in the cockpit and so resisted the urge to look at the remains—he doubted it would be a pretty sight. He paused a moment in memorial of the pilot’s sacrifice, then powered up his lasers.

“All right Pathfinders, do what we came to do,” he said.

He placed the targeting reticule on the wreckage and squeezed the double-trigger. Purple laser bolts burst from his Avatar’s arms to light up the debris. Beside him, Aleph, Thunder, and Ghost followed his lead, blasting every piece of wreckage. Fanning out slightly, the four walkers made sure to destroy even small chunks of the fighter—they did not want to leave any significant trace of their presence on Falleen behind for the Yuuzhan Vong to investigate. Steel thought he felt the ground itself tremble as he sidestepped to line up a shot on a ruined nacelle that had fallen several meters away. To his surprise, Aleph’s Avatar was not firing; instead, it was facing back down into the valley towards the destroyed Yuuzhan Vong camp.

“Steel, did you notice a path leading into the hills on our way up here?” she asked.

“No, not really,” the captain replied, confused.

“I think I see one. There looks to be a path of some kind from the Vong camp that makes its way into the hills.”

“What use could they have for a path up here? There’s nothing of value,” Thunder commented.

“Unless there is something hidden away and we just haven’t seen it,” Ghost inferred.

“I’m going to see if I can get a good view on the path,” Aleph told them.

“I can re-position a satellite,” Eyes cut in. “We’ll get a good look at it.”

“No need, I’ll just jump,” Aleph replied.

The ground shook as her Avatar powered up its back-mounted repulsor jets and rockets, launching the war machine several meters up. From her elevated position, she had a better vantage point of the surrounding area for a few seconds until energy demands forced her to lower her walker back down to the ground. Its legs came to rest heavily on the crumbly soil, sinking heavily into the terrain. The hill itself seemed unstable, but her Avatar’s gyroscopes were able to stabilize it.

“Looks like it leads off a few kilometers west,” Aleph reported. “Maybe we should check it out.”

“Stick to the mission parameters,” Eyes cut in. “Our window of opportunity is running out—we’ll have a follow-up team check into it. For now, we did what we came to do. Standby and prepare for extraction.”

“Copy that,” Steel said, nudging his Avatar one step forward to stand beside Aleph’s so he could look at the path.

That proved to be one step too far. The slope under them, weakened from having a starfighter plow into its side and then trampled by heavy battle walkers trembled and shook. Then, without further warning, it collapsed under the four Avatars, spilling them downward along with a rain of soil and stones. Down they plunged into a previously-concealed underground chamber two dozen meters below.

“Kriff!” Steel swore as he fired his repulsors, attempting to arrest his descent.

However, they did not fire fast enough to propel him back up through the gap they had just created, nor were any of his other pilots successful in their own attempts. They finally landed two dozen meters below onto a rocky cave slope surrounded by piles of dirt and rock from above. Steel’s Avatar took the impact hard, but he braced for it. Though the walker lurched, he managed to keep it upright. However, the rough landing caused his damage display to light up showing significant internal damage to his legs’ structure. Not good. Beside him, Ghost and Thunder had managed to land upright as well, using their repulsors to arrest their descent. However, as Aleph’s repulsor and rocket packs had been recharging when the cave-in occurred, she hadn’t been as fortunate. Her Avatar fell and collapsed onto its side, one of the worst possible situations for a battle walker. Sparks and smoke flew from the left leg the Avatar had fallen on.

“Aleph!” Steel called. “Are you okay?”

"I think so,” she said, her voice pained. “I might have cracked a rib.”

“Can you stand?” he asked.

“Maybe,” she said.

The Avatar heaved and creaked as its pilot extended the left arm to brace the walker against the ground. Slowly, it eased itself upright as the arm came to full extension, splaying out the damaged left leg to help support the walker as it stood back up.

“My Avatar’s taken a lot of damage, but it can walk,” she reported.

The wounded walker hobbled forward, obviously limping from the damage.

“Sort of anyway.”

“I say, Steel, I think we’re going to have more problems in just a tick,” Thunder remarked casually. “Look around.”

Steel did so and noticed there was a surprising amount of light in the cavern into which they’d fallen—and then he realized why. The cave walls were illuminated by a bioluminescent fungus and the preponderance of the substance, along with several other types of living creature lining the wall, made him suspect that these were not native species.

“Eyes?” he called. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

There was no response.

“We’ve lost contact—the rock must be interfering with the signal,” Ghost told him.

“Shavit!” Steel swore. “Aleph, you said that the path led up into the hills but didn’t go to any obvious Yuuzhan Vong facility, right?”

“That’s right,” she reported as she fought to keep her walker standing.

“What if it led to an underground facility?” Steel wondered aloud.

“Then I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this,” she commented.

They heard a loud alien roar from farther ahead in the cave. Then a loud thudding sound that reminded them of extremely heavy footsteps running on stone.

“I think I’m getting that same bad feeling,” Thunder remarked wryly.

“Repulsors will not be ready to charge for another three minutes,” Ghost cautioned.

The rhythmic thudding soon resolved itself into distinct silhouettes approaching their position. The foremost alone was enough to send a shiver down Steel’s spine, even in the sweltering confines of the cockpit. It was yet another one of the giant rakamat walkers that had required either a bridge being dropped on it or sustained aerial bombardment to take down and it didn’t look happy. Beside it were two creatures advancing on multiple spindly legs. Atop the legs was a large bulbous body covered in some kind of hardened carapace. Another Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a war vehicle no doubt—and one he recognized from intel holos as a flame-spitting Fire Breather. Steel bit back the urge to swear repeatedly.

“Shields up, accelerate to max speed if you can,” he ordered as the giant walker began spewing plasma at them.

Steel sidestepped most of the initial barrage and returned fire with his lasers as the three enemy war creatures, accompanied by a horde of infantry, swept forward. His Avatar was now in constant motion regardless of the heat buildup, moving evasively while spraying laser fire. Unfortunately, his lasers were either absorbed by the defensive dovin basals on the larger walker or seemed to have no impact on the Fire Breathers. The return fire was punishing, slamming into his shields and eating away at the integrity of the protective field. In particular, Aleph’s damaged Avatar sustained several serious hits.

“We’re getting torn up here!” Thunder reported as his Avatar was knocked around by plasma projectiles.

“Go for a concentrated missile strike on the legs of one of those Fire Breathers,” Steel ordered as he juked a burst of plasma.

The projectiles sailed wide of his Avatar to splash onto the luminescent fungi on the walls, setting it aflame.

“Targeting computer can’t lock onto a target that small!” Ghost shouted.

“Aim manually then,” Steel told them.

Switching to his secondary weapon, a rail cannon, he sprayed the head of the walker with laser fire to distract its dovin basals, then punched a hyper-accelerated durasteel-tungsten slug into the creature. The impact left a deep wound, but only seemed to enrage it further.

“That’s a hell of a shot,” Thunder commented as he tried to line up a clean missile shot at the advancing fire breathers.

“Then I hope you’re a hell of a pilot,” Steel shot back even as he slewed his torso around to hose down a group of advancing infantry seeking to flank them with laser blasts.

“Fire missiles whenever you have a clean shot!” he ordered. “At least a dozen per leg!”

Cutting power from engines to shields, he stood his ground temporarily. Lining up the targeting reticule was difficult with all the impacts jolting his Avatar. Steel gritted his teeth as the reticule bounced around on the HUD. His left hand toggled a red button marked “Manual Aim” on his weapons console and then to flicked a set of switches to arm missile banks while his right hand fought the jerking stick to lock on to the Fire Breather’s leg. Steel suddenly realized he should stop trying so hard even as his aim juked up and to the left from a particularly violent impact. Instead, he relaxed, allowing his nascent Force talents to take over for him. Instead of fighting the motion of the impacts, he anticipated and adjusted for them. His mind, now in a primitive flow state, was focused, tuning out the distractions. And in that state, he was able to find the clarity, timing, and aim that he needed.

“Pathfinders, use the Force to aim,” he said in a calm, strangely detached voice as he laid the reticule on a long, spindly leg.

Without hesitation, Steel squeezed the trigger. His Avatar bucked and lurched as thirty-six missiles shot from their racks in a fiery blossom of smoke, a full half of his original missile load. Immediately, he snapped his Avatar back into motion as the other Fire Breather sprayed a streak of superheated burning chemicals onto his Avatar. The shields repelled the combusting material, but just barely—he was down to less than ten percent strength.

Meanwhile, the streaks of his missiles and others from a mass salvo fired from the Avatars impacted on the legs of the Fire Breather. While many of the rockets missed, the rest blasted into the creature, tearing through its protective hide and bypassing the laser-absorbent aerosols it exuded. The initial impacts blasted away its thick hide, and the rest exploded among muscle, ligament, and bone. Unable to stand with so much leg tissue destroyed by the missile volley, the Fire Breather bellowed and collapsed onto the cave floor, spewing gelatinous fire as it fell. Some of it splashed onto the giant walker, sending it roaring in pain as the flames burned away at its exterior.

“I don’t have enough missiles left to finish the rest of those off,” Aleph reported, her Avatar in the back of the Pathfinders’ line to avoid sustaining mortal damage.

“Me neither,” Thunder reported, using his secondary blaster turret to mow down advancing infantry. “We could probably finish the other Fire Breather before the walker gets us.”

More plasma splashed onto Steel’s Avatar, blasting through the shields despite his evasive maneuvering. Follow-up strikes burned away at the right arm on his walker, literally melting the metal casing that contained the laser cannon. Steel twisted his torso to evade, only to lose more of the arm to the plasma strikes.

“Lost an arm!” he reported.

Beside him, he could see Thunder’s Avatar being engulfed in flame from the Fire Breather, overloading the walker’s cooling systems. Thunder’s vehicle was almost inoperable from the heat—and the pilot had to be suffering the brunt of the extreme temperatures. It was barely moving, trying to backpedal away from it even while Aleph fired ineffectually on the Fire Breather.

“Over. . . heated. . .” Thunder managed to report under with relentless dousing of burning material his Avatar was suffering.

Steel cursed as the giant walker bore down on him, though its advance was impeded by the fire stream crossing across its path from the Fire Breather to hit Thunder. Then, suddenly, the tactic he needed popped into his mind. It was foolhardy, suicidal, even, but it might just save his squad at the cost of his own safety or survival. Steel weighed the decision for a nanosecond and watched Aleph’s Avatar get knocked down again by a volley of plasma shots. The thought of her being possibly injured or killed by the weapons fire caused something in his throat to tighten. These were his pilots and he would do anything to ensure their survival. He was responsible for them, and so his decision was made.

“Pathfinders, get their attention,” he said. “Fire at the roof and its head to get their attention. Use missiles if you have to.”

Then, he charged. His Avatar dashed forward under full power. The heat intensified in his cockpit, sapping his strength, but willpower and adrenaline kept him going. His remaining laser sprayed fire and he punched off missiles indiscriminately, aiming both at the Fire Breather and the Yuuzhan Vong walker. Meanwhile, the other Pathfinders attempted to divert its attention by pouring their own laser fire at the walker and sending missiles into the roof a dozen meters above to rain stones down on the voluminous creature.

Steel’s Avatar raced forward in an ungainly fashion, sustaining repeated plasma strikes that burned away at his Avatar’s legs, arms, and torso. The rapid stride and natural Yuuzhan Vong targeting tendencies meant that most of the strikes struck his Avatar’s torso, but Steel’s instinctive slewing meant that the plasma projectiles landed the heaviest on his empty missile racks instead of on the Avatar’s vitals. Steel plotted his course to run between the Fire Breather and the walker, so plasma streaks that missed him slammed into the other war beast. Striding to run alongside the Fire Breather’s legs, he extended his left arm outward and extruded the vibroblade. Even while planting rail cannon shots into legs on its other side, he sideswiped the Fire Breather, scoring its tough hide with deep gashes that carved into its legs. Enraged, the war beast swiveled around to face him even as plasma fire gouged deeply into his right side and rear armor. Steel saw the Fire Breather’s aperture tracking him, preparing to engulf him in flames. Right as it spewed its burning streak, he punched his repulsors and rockets, sending him jetting several meters above the Fire Breather. Its destructive stream licked at his Avatar’s feet, overloading many of the heat sinks there and causing the internal cockpit temperature to push sixty degrees, and then he was clear.

His head was pounding from the heat and he could barely see straight, but that was far from the worst effect of the brief immolation of his walker. For, as his Avatar had jumped, the rest of the burning stream had arced back to land on the giant walker. The dovin basals were not able to react in time and now the Yuuzhan Vong beast suffered the full fury of the Fire Breather’s weapons. The yorik coral burned as the fire spread across its flank. Meanwhile, Steel continued his ascent, cresting up and over the Fire Breather and then he cut out the repulsors, effectively dropping the full weight of his Avatar down onto its body. The momentum and weight, combined with the damage he’d already inflicted onto its legs, caused the ponderous creature to wobble and then collapse. Steel’s Avatar rolled off as its legs went out from under it, depositing him onto the cavern floor with a loud booming impact that cracked the stone and Yuuzhan Vong warriors flying. The falling Avatar had smashed a depression into the stone, landing on its battered right side right in front of the fallen Fire Breather.

Even as he struggled to breathe from the severe heat and barely registered the blood trickling down his face from a gash to the forehead, Steel glowered at the Fire Breather collapsed in front of him. Lining up his chin turret to point the rail cannon at its head, he pulled the trigger as fast as he could. Slug after slug boomed from the weapon, tearing into its body and burning away at the vitals underneath. A series of missiles from his teammates slammed into the damaged area, puncturing through the rents in its armor and exploding inside. That was enough to ignite the inflammable compounds stored inside the Fire Breather and the creature blew up in a sizable fireball. The blast washed over Steel’s Avatar, overloading its heat management systems and causing him to black out temporarily.

When he awoke, the Avatar pilot immediately tried to stand, but his Avatar was still trying to desperately cool off—his primary coolant tank had been ruptured and his body-slam had further damaged his heat sinks. His video feeds showed the giant walker, its side burning, had charged the remaining Pathfinders, intent on lashing out on its tormentors in its agony. Thunder and Ghost had fallen back, sustaining the brunt of its anger, when Aleph’s crippled Avatar turned and brought its weapons to bear on the injured walker.

Unleashing all of her weapons, she poured purple laser blasts, every last one of her missiles, and—most crucially—the chin-mounted flamethrower onto the walker’s less damage side. Already ablaze on its right, the new searing from the Avatar’s flamethrower sent the walker out of control. It fired its many plasma cannons at Aleph at first, but the pain and burning soon meant that it lost control, thrashing around helplessly as it tried to cope with the flames engulfing it.

“Burn, you motherkriffer!” Aleph shouted as she continued to spray liquid fire onto the stricken creature even as it pummeled her walker with plasma globules.

From their positions, Thunder and Ghost compounded the creature’s misery, pulsing laser cannon bolts into it now that the dovin basal defenses were eroded and uncoordinated. Slowly, they chewed away at the burning creature, blasting through its yorik coral armor. Then, when it finally appeared weak enough, they fired their last missiles in a lethal barrage. The warheads plunged into gaps of the armor and exploded. The creature spasmed one last time and then collapsed, flames still licking away at it. The remaining Yuuzhan Vong warriors charged, but were quickly dealt with, as the laser cannon bolts from the Avatars practically vaporized any infantry they hit. After several minutes of brutal fighting, the cacophonous sounds of war finally died from the cavern, leaving smashed rocks, burned corpses, and molten metal as visible reminders of the devastation.

Thunder slowly stood up, using his extended left arm to push the Avatar off from the ground as the Avatar rose. Extending his left foot outward, he used it distribute the vehicle’s weight as it struggled to a standing position.

“Good work team,” he said, his head still spinning from the heat.

“Good tactic, Steel,” Aleph told him.

“Now how do we get out of here?” Thunder asked. “I can’t jump—I doubt many of us can.”

“The Vong had to be guarding a door of some kind,” Steel reported. “We just have to find it and then use it to get out of here. But first, I want to see what they were defending down here.”

“We should get in contact with Eyes,” Ghost said. “We can’t signal up through the cavern, but perhaps we can relay messages through our aerial drones.”

“Good thinking,” Steel replied. “Do it.”

The Avatars deployed their drones, sending them spiraling up into the gap they had made. Thankfully, the sound of Eyes’ voice soon crackled through their audio systems.

“Pathfinders, report!” he called. “What happened down there?”

“Eyes, you missed a hell of a fight,” Steel replied, mopping at his brow. “We fell into a Vong nest down here, but managed to clean it up.”

“Looks that way, judging by the damage readouts. I had surveillance craft scouting around—there should be a cave entrance you can use to escape about a kilometer to the east. There’s no surface activity—we have teams en route to secure it,” Eyes informed them. “We’ll have extraction craft ready to meet you there.”

“Not quite yet,” Steel said. “We just fought our way through heavy Vong defenses that we didn’t realize were here. I think it’s worth looking into to see what they were hiding. Knowing the Vong, they were just as surprised as we were to find us dropping down and committed all their forces to its defense.”

“Very well, Steel,” Eyes answered. “Just be careful.”

Leaving the battlefield behind them, the Avatars turned to advance deeper into the caves. Noticing that Aleph’s Avatar was limping considerably, Steel decided to let her opt out.

“Aleph, head for the extraction point,” he said. “Your Avatar is too damaged.”

“No, we stick together,” she insisted, though it was obvious she was in pain. “We just fought through hell to get this far. I’m not turning back now.”

Steel gave no argument and the Avatars advanced together, much slower than they had earlier. Signs of battle damage were abundant on the battered walkers and lesser vehicles would have already been destroyed. Sparks and smoke issued from damaged systems on their blackened chassis. Their munitions were mostly depleted and the overheating had taken its toll even on their laser cannons.

“I sure hope you’re right on this, Steel, because we’d be lucky to fight off a pack of womp rats with this much damage,” Thunder commented.

“Extraction point is that way if you’re worried about it,” Steel replied lightly.

Thunder chuckled.

“And miss the chance to say ‘I told you so?’ That’s hardly my style,” the other pilot responded.

The four walkers had advanced for about a kilometer when the passage they were in—already wide enough to easily hold three Avatars walking side-by-side—widened into a massive chamber that could easily have held the entire Quinlan Vos. A few Yuuzhan Vong warriors attempted to make a stand there, but they were easily gunned down, their insectile weapons blasted away by the anti-missile systems. The rest of the Yuuzhan Vong were nowhere in sight, doubtless lurking inside the chamber for a chance to ambush the mechanical invaders.

As they entered the chamber, the four Avatar pilots saw a breathtaking sight. The entire floor was covered by giant pools a dozen meters or so in diameter. In each one was a half-submerged creature that resembled a brain with numerous tentacles emanating from it. There were at least twenty or thirty of the pools. Each of the pilots suddenly felt a headache as they entered, combined with a sensation of hearing voices being whispered in their head. It was unnerving, breaking their concentration.

“Eyes. . . what are we looking at here?” Steel asked, struggling to maintain his focus.

“Listen carefully,” Eyes told them solemnly. “You’re looking at a Yuuzhan Vong yammosk farm. Those creatures you see are telepathic war coordinators—they’re like battlefield analysis computers and command teams all put in one for the Yuuzhan Vong. This is what gives their forces such eerie coordination. The ones you’re looking at are half-grown. The Yuuzhan Vong raise them in nutrient pools and force slaves to tend them so the yammosk can practice telepathic communication and manipulation.”

“How. . . awful,” Aleph said, grimacing.

“It gets worse,” Eyes informed them. “Each one of those, when fully grown, can synchronize an entire war fleet or invasion force. It’s an advantage that the New Republic hasn’t been able to counter yet. The best comparison I can give you is that yammosk coordination is said to be similar in effectiveness to a Jedi battle meld.”

“And there’s at least twenty of them here,” Aleph said in stunned astonishment. “I can feel the mental pressure just standing here.”

“That’s right,” Eyes told them. “These things are extremely dangerous.”

“Can you hit this cavern from space?” Aleph asked. “We can’t just leave them here for the Yuuzhan Vong to eventually use.”

“You’re dozens of meters underground and the Vos isn’t ideal for that kind of bombardment,” Eyes told them. “We don’t have the kind of time it would to take to hit it from orbit—the best we can do is report its existence to the New Republic and hope they can strike it in force.”

“The Vong will have reinforced it heavily by then,” Aleph argued. “This is our one chance to eliminate this threat.”

“I thought you weren’t sure if we should even be in this fight,” Thunder pointed out. “Didn’t you have misgivings about our involvement in the first place?”

“I did,” she said. “But what I’ve seen here has changed my mind. Look at what the Yuuzhan Vong did to Falleen. The city was completely destroyed, the people killed or ruined. Now they’re growing tools that will let them do to dozens of other worlds what they did to Falleen.”

She paused and took a deep breath.

“The Yanibar Guard might not have a mandate to go stop the Yuuzhan Vong, but the Yuuzhan Vong are brutally conquering hundreds of worlds. I think when we have a clear opportunity to contribute to stopping their rampage, particularly when we can do so without getting caught, we have an obligation to do so.”

“Well said,” Thunder chimed in.

“Indeed, and I agree,” Steel replied. “Power up lasers and we’ll deal with this.”

“Wait!” Eyes warned them. “Before you start firing, you need to consider the yammosks’ telepathic abilities. If one of them begins to emit a distress signal, the others may join in. The mental pressure has been said to be able to defeat a Jedi’s willpower—it could possibly kill all of you.”

“So what are you saying?” Steel asked.

“If you can’t kill them all at once, it’s probably not a good idea to attack,” Eyes replied. “In fact, I’m ordering you not to attack them—we can’t afford to lose you and then deliver the Yuuzhan Vong our Avatar technology.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Steel protested in exasperation. “This is a golden opportunity to influence the overall war.”

“And could very well get all of you killed,” Eyes replied sternly. “Overruled.”

“What if we could kill them all at once, or at least do so from a safe distance?” Aleph asked suddenly.

“How?” Steel asked. “We’re out of missiles and our lasers can’t possibly kill all of them within a few seconds, even with perfect shooting.”

She took a deep breath before continuing—it was obvious her injuries were paining her and the idea she was about to convey was also likely controversial or risky.

“An unrestrained detonation of an Avatar’s fusion core would create a sizeable explosion. It might even cave in the chamber if positioned properly. The radiation and concussion from the blast should be sufficient to kill anything not caught directly in the blast.”

“You’re talking about using the self-destruct after de-activating all the engine shielding?” Steel inquired.

“That’s exactly what I mean. We can set off the blast remotely and escape before the yammosks react.”

“Eyes?” Steel asked.

The officer considered her proposal.

“It has a chance. Probably the best chance out of any idea we’ve come up with so far for taking out the yammosks.”

“So you’ll let us do it?”

Eyes sighed.

“Those Avatars you Pathfinders are walking around in are highly-valuable pieces of machinery that took years to develop. Yet, at the same time, I know what the destruction of twenty yammosks could do to the overall war. I won’t order any of you to do it, but anyone wishing to sacrifice their Avatar in a remote detonation is free to do so.”

“I’m in,” Aleph said immediately.

“Seems right up my alley as well,” Thunder added. “If this is the best way to hurt the Vong, I want in.”

“All right, but we’re not leaving you behind and you’re not walking out of here,” Steel said. “You two are going to hitchhike.”

“Acknowledged,” Aleph said.

Ghost fed them coordinates for where to position their Avatars to inflict maximum damage and, escorted by Steel and Ghost respectively, they moved into place. After checking for Yuuzhan Vong ambushes, Steel sidled his Avatar to stand nose-to-nose to Aleph’s. Her cockpit unsealed and she slowly eased out of the chair after having set her Avatar’s self-destruct sequence on active.

“How long?” Steel asked, popping his own cockpit to let her in.

“Five minutes,” she said, clutching her side and stepping forward onto the ledge that normally had a ladder positioned alongside it for boarding.

She took a long step forward, intending to step onto his Avatar’s boarding ledge. However, even with arms extended for balance, a combination of heat exhaustion and dizziness from her broken ribs was enough to make her slip and fall, slamming painfully into the side of his Avatar before continuing a bone-crushing fall to the ground several meters below. At the same time, Steel’s proximity sensors lit up as a squad of Yuuzhan Vong warriors ambushed the two walkers at the worst possible time.

Steel reacted instinctively, lunging out of the cockpit, his arm shooting out to grab Aleph’s before she could complete the plunge. She screamed even as a pair of razor bugs soared dangerously close. His Avatar’s anti-missile system opened fire, the pulsing sound of the laser astonishingly loud without the benefit of the cockpit’s sound suppression system. Steel gritted his teeth and held tight, his knuckles turning white from the exertion of single-handledly holding Aleph’s weight. She looked up at him plaintively even as the Yuuzhan Vong battle cries grew increasingly close.

“Let me go,” she said. “Complete the mission and get out of here.”

“I’m not dropping you,” he swore resolutely. “We’re all leaving this place alive.”

“They’re going to kill us both. Just let me go!” she pleaded as she dangled precariously.

Steel redoubled his grip, clenching onto her wrist with bruising force so that she couldn’t let go voluntarily.

“That’s not going to happen,” he said.

“Steel!”

A thud bug slammed into her ankle and she cried out, but Steel wouldn’t let her go even though his overtaxed muscles were trembling with exertion.

“Drop me!” she begged, her face contorted with pain.

Steel reached out with his right hand, toggling another button that dropped two folded droideka battle droids down from the back of his Avatar. Upon landing, the droids unfurled into a standing position and began blasting back, but the Yuuzhan Vong continued advancing. He looked directly into Aleph’s eyes.

“Get ready,” he said solemnly.

She nodded, preparing for him to release her to fall to her death and then reseal his cockpit and escape. Steel shook his head regretfully.

“Not this time,” he said.

In an instant, he stood up, leaning out of the cockpit and reached down with both arms to haul mightily on Aleph’s arm. She cried out, but he was able to pull her up to the point where she could reach out with her other arm and grab the ledge with both her arms, even bringing up one foot to perch precariously on the ledge as well. Even as the Yuuzhan Vong hacked apart the droidekas, Steel was not about to let her fall. While she held herself in place, he momentarily reached back and squeezed the trigger on the rail cannon. The thunderous boom assaulted his hearing, but the slug punched into the middle of the warriors, killing two and sending the rest flying from the impact. Then he leaned over, grabbing her by the back of her tank top with one arm and under her thigh with the other to drag her bodily into the cockpit.

As soon as she was inside, he resealed the cockpit, ignoring the fact that she was on top of him. The canopy slid shut and sealed as he backed away, spraying fire at the Yuuzhan Vong. He fought to see over Aleph’s hair in his face and to work around her in the cramped confines, but managed to retreat away from the warriors.

“Is there any way they can disable the Avatar?” he asked.

“No,” she said from her uncomfortable position half on his lap, half over his shoulders. “The self-destruct was manually activated and the cockpit is sealed behind me. The detonator core can’t be disarmed once it’s set.”

“Good, let’s get out of here. Ghost, you got your passenger?”

“Correct, tossed him in the back.”

“Time to go then,” Steel reported.

The two remaining Avatars turned and retreated, Yuuzhan Vong weapons bouncing off their rear or being zapped by the anti-missile system.

“Just infantry weapons, not a lot of damage,” he reassured Aleph as they strode as fast as possible back up the cave. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better,” she said with a wince. “But I’ll make it.”

“Just sit tight,” he told her.

It was extremely difficult to pilot with her in place, but he couldn’t spare the time for her to clamber into the storage compartment behind the seat, nor did he think she was up to it. On the other hand, Steel could think of worse things than having an attractive human female literally on top of him, even if she stank of sweat.

Keeping his focus on the cave ahead of him, he pushed the limits on his engine. He and Ghost reached the cave entrance, where he could see a small group of Yanibar Guard infantry had established a perimeter after having deployed from two Javelin shuttles. Hovering expectantly to pick up the Avatars were two Discblade transports equipped with magnetic claws to carry them back into orbit. Circling overhead were several starfighters on patrol for marauding coralskippers. Behind them, the cave rumbled as the Avatars that had been left behind exploded. A wave of dust and stones blew out through the entrance, but there was no trace of the explosion.

Steel exhaled heavily in relief as they reached the safety of the extraction team. He powered down his weapons and engine as the Discblade clamped onto his battered walker and lifted it into the sky for his trip back to the Quinlan Vos. Finally, the oppressive heat of the Avatar faded. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see turbolaser beams striking from orbit over the location of the yammosk crèche, hoping to inflict further damage.

“It’s over,” he told Aleph as she pulled herself onto a more comfortable sitting position straddling him.

“I know,” she said simply.

He gently placed a hand on her injured side, probing to see how severe the wound was. She grimaced, but shook her head in response to his concerned look.

“It’ll be fine,” she told him.

“Fair enough,” he said, reaching up to brush an errant strand of sweat-soaked hair out of her face. “You did a hell of a job down there. Good work, Lieutenant Arkani.”

“You too, sir,” she told him. “You saved me, from both the Vong and my own clumsiness.”

“We all saved each other,” Steel replied.

“Fine,” she said, “but after we get back and I get patched up, your drinks are on me for a while.”

He smiled in response, the first in several hours.

“I think I’m okay with that, and maybe a little bit more,” he said roguishly.

“Don’t push it, Captain,” she replied with mock indignation.

“Worth a shot,” Steel answered with a shrug. “After what you did down there, I think we need to give you a better callsign. Aleph just doesn’t fit you.”

“Oh?” she asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise as he settled her weight evenly on his legs.

“Well, I’m torn between two names. The first is Gimp—for your Avatar getting hobbled so fast and then you getting hit in the ankle,” Steel said mischievously.

She scowled and punched him in the shoulder.

“The other one better be an improvement,” she warned him.

“The other one I’m thinking about is Blaze,” he said. “You were pretty effective with that flamethrower and you did seem to want to go out in some kind of blaze of glory for just a second.”

She considered it thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded.

“I could get behind Blaze,” she said. “Not a bad idea at all.”

“Of course, the others would have to approve of it,” he warned her. “And I think ‘Gimp’ might be a strong dark horse candidate.”

She scowled and punched him again, but he just laughed. Somehow, against all odds, he and his unit had accomplished their mission, been thrown into a completely impossible situation by surprise, and then not only survived, but had overachieved significantly to hurt the Yuuzhan Vong war effort. And while the equipment losses had been heavy, he had managed to escape with all of his pilots alive. That was more than enough cause for celebration. The fact that the rather attractive Akira Arkani was sitting on his lap in a state of partial undress after having promised to buy his drinks didn’t hurt either.

“No, I think we’ll be just as fine with calling you Blaze,” he told her in all seriousness. “After today, I think we’ll be fine no matter what the mission is, as long as we stick together.”

“We did something big today, didn’t we?” she asked, as if surprised by the realization.

“We did,” he answered. “Only time will tell how big it really was, but that’s all we have to do—blaze the path on which we’re placed. The rest will sort itself out.”

She looked contemplative, then nodded satisfactorily.

“Good enough for me.”