[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Star WarsNew Jedi OrderForce Heretic IRemnantSean Williams and Shane DixWith the New Republic shattered and a Yuuzhan Vong conquest looming, itis up to Luke, Leia, and their loved ones to snatch victory from the jaws ofdefeat... .There are three ways to defeat your enemy. The first, and most obvious,is to better him in a trial of force. The best, way is to have him destroyhimself... The middle way is to destroy your enemy from within. Judiciousapplication of the middle way shall make your blows more effective if youlater take the way of force. From the middle way it is also possible to pushyour enemy onto the path of self-destruction.-UUEG TCHING of Kitel Phard, Fifty-fourth Emperor of AtrisiaPROLOGUESaba Sebatyne knew the moment she emerged from hyperspace that Barab Iwas burning. Where the planet normally displayed a cloudy, gray face lit bythe glow of its primary, a sullen red dwarf, her infrared sensitive eyes nowsaw a fiery inferno. Smoke billowed high into the planet's atmosphere as thesurface below boiled in outrage at some recent violation.Wanting to suppress the dread welling up inside of her, wanting to denywhat she was seeing, Saba banked her X-wing into a steep dive toward thesurface so she could take a closer look.This couldn't be happening, she told herself. There had to be someoneleft alive down there, surely.But her monitors were empty. There were no ships in orbit; notransmission sources; no signs of life."This iz Saba Sebatyne," she spoke into the comm unit. "If anyone canhear this broadcast, please respond. Anyone."Silence was her only answer, scratched with static.She shook her flattened, leathery head, hoping in vain to lose thevision, the thought, the truth. So many worlds had fallen since the YuuzhanVong had first invaded the galaxy-but not Barab I. While a part of her hadalways known it was a possibility, she hadn't really imagined that it wouldever actually happen to her homeworld.She clicked the comm to try again-not because she seriously expected aresponse, but because there seemed nothing else to do."Reswa?" Her voice broke on the emotions rising at the thought that herhatchmate might have perished in those cruel fires. It was for Reswa she hadbeen returning to her home planet in the first place. Her hatchmate was toembark on her coming-of-age ritual shenbit bone-crusher hunt, and she hadasked Saba to be her witness in this. It was an honor to be asked, and arejection of the invitation was regarded as highly insulting-especially whenthe one asking was a close family member.Family... the word had never sounded so empty as it did now. Friends,family-they were all gone. Nothing could have survived the flames that nowravaged her homeworld. And the closer she came to the surface of the planet,the more horror she saw. Alater-ka Spaceport was a smoldering crater; theshenbit reserves were now nothing but bubbling lava plains; the Shaka-kamemorial was sliding inexorably into a steaming sea. ..She guided her X-wing through the upper reaches of the atmosphere, theship buffeted by the upthrust of hot gases rising from the smoking ruins ofher homeworld."This one should have been here," she whispered. It was a foolish notion,she knew. Even had she been here she wouldn't have made any difference to the-All thoughts ceased.She saw them.Slipping around the limb of the planet, a small contingent ofcoralskippers-four in all-were breaking from low orbit, where they had beenout of her scanning range. They were escorting a ship the likes of which she'dnever seen before: a huge, vaguely ovoid mass, its movement slow as it laboredagainst the pull of Barab I's gravity. It reminded Saba of a bloated balloonready to burst.Whatever the ship was, it and its escorts were all that remained insystemof the attack fleet that had destroyed her world. A mopping-up squadron,perhaps. Whatever. It didn't matter. If there had been a hundred Yuuzhan Vongbattle cruisers out there, her response would have been the same.. .She allowed the grief inside her to rise unfettered, feeling it blossominto a rage that felt perfectly satisfying, immediately easing her emotionalpain. That pain, she knew, could be eased still further by action.Gritting her razor-sharp teeth, Saba veered off to intercept thecoralskippers. They didn't see her at first, clearly assuming that allresistance had been quashed. She was able to get in close before they realizedshe was even there. Only when she was practically on top of them did the skipsbreak formation, three of them peeling away to come about on an attack vector.It was too late for the skip closest to the balloonlike ship: she emptied around of laserfire into it, crying out in rage as she did so. She didn'treally expect such a crude attack to achieve anything except to get theirattention, so was surprised when the coralskipper exploded in a violent flashof crimson that flung shards of the craft far and wide.The explosion had the unexpected effect of clearing her mind. The skipmust have been already damaged, its dovin basal disabled from recent battlewith the Bara-bels. Such a simple victory, so soon in the battle, startledher. Perhaps, she thought, she hadn't expected victory at all. She had simplygone into the fight expecting to die - no, wanting to die. Her people weredead, and so deep down she reasoned that she should be, too.Now she was in a fix-and one she might not be able to get herself out of.Two of the remaining skips were coming at her from behind, unleashing streamsof molten plasma in her direction. She didn't want to die, and her reflexesagreed. She avoided the fate of her fellow Bara-bels by rolling her X-wing andskewing down and around her attackers. Some of the plasma reached its target,however, instantly depleting her shields.She didn't have time to check if the skip had stayed on her tail. Her R2unit tootled an urgent warning: off to her port side another skip was comingin fast. She pulled up sharply, rocking unsteadily in her cockpit as plasmaballs flickered past. Saba winced. That last shot must have sheared amillimeter of paint from her wing.She barely had time to thank her droid for the heads-up before the firsttwo skips returned to make another pass at her. It was too much, she knew; ifshe remained on the defensive like this, then sooner or later they were goingto get her-and out in the open, she had no choice but to be defensive.With this in mind, she moved her X-wing nearer to the larger Yuuzhan Vongcraft. She kept her flying tight, swooping in close to the massive, bulbousvessel, feeling the craft's dovin basals tugging at her shields. They weren'tas effective as the dovin basals on the other ships she'd come across inaction; these no doubt had a different purpose, although she couldn't guesswhat that might be.Sweeping under the belly of the thing, confident that she was safe on atleast one side, Saba gave pursuit to the. skip whose buddy she had destroyed.It tried to shake her by swerving abruptly from side to side, but she was ableto stay on it long enough to get a bead on its dovin basal. When her target-lock flashed, Saba loosed one of her torpedoes. She had done this enough timesto sense when she'd fired a good shot, and the second her finger squeezed thetrigger, she knew she had the skip beaten. The torpedo detonated on target,effectively downing the skip's defenses and allowing her to blast the rockycraft into oblivion with a hail of laserfire. She called out in delight as thecoralskipper fell apart in a stutter of explosions.She was quick to bring her emotions into check, however, when she bankedher X-wing to come back around and once again saw her planet burning. This wasnot a time for celebrating, she reminded herself.Another warning from her droid. This time she didn't even pause to checkwhere the attack was coming from; she just rolled her X-wing in toward themain ship. The surface of the thing seemed to move in strange and subtleundulations as she passed near it-almost like a sac filled with water-althoughat all times it remained as rough as the exterior of the coralskippers. Shenoticed something else, too: huge tentacles that unfurled from the stern ofthe craft, flailing around as though reaching for Saba's ship."What iz this?" she said aloud, not really expecting a reply.Nevertheless, the R2 unit behind her tootled a response. She didn't need tocheck her translator to know that the droid didn't have enough information tobe able to give her a proper answer.She kept herself close in to the huge ship, veering constantly to avoidthe writhing tentacles. She swung around the underside of the vessel when oneof the skips came in too close and risked taking a couple of potshots at her.She avoided the attack easily enough, and the plasma shot harmlessly into thespace away from the balloon-ship. The skips wouldn't fire if she stood betweenthem and their charge.What iz it? she asked herself again. And why were the skips being socareful around it? It had no defenses to speak of, except for the small es... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

xiaodongxi.keep.pl