Baanu Rass, Monday Fandom time
Previous.
The first thing that needed to be done when they boarded the worldship was to get rid of the ysalamiri. Of course the Vong would have them around to hold the Jedi Anakin had sensed. While Jaina was off with Raynar and Eryl killing off the lizards, two things happened. First, said Jedi turned out to be Dark Jedi. When the twins were fourteen, they had been taken by a Dark Jedi named Brakiss where they were trained at the Shadow Academy, trying to teach them dark side techniques and turn them. It hadn't worked, but they had recruited Zekk. He knew the Dathomirian Nightsister Lomi Plo and her apprentice Welk from those days, and to say he wasn't happy about helping them would be a gross understatement. The second thing that happened was that Ganner and Jacen spotted none other than the warmaster Nom Anor.
Jaina didn't care much for that particular Vong, no. He'd been the one that had infected Mara with that disease, and then he'd tried to kill her and Jaina by way of cave-in back on Duro. But she wasn't worried about any of that when she joined Jacen and Ganner at the entrance. "What's wrong with you two?" she asked. "You feel like you've been hearing the Emperor's voice. Don't tell me you're afraid of a few Yuuzhan Vong."
"There are more than a few," Jacen said, handing over the electrobinoculars to her so that she could see. "But it's Nom Anor's pet that bothers me. I think it touched me with the Force."
"You're sure?" Jaina asked, watching the creature he was referring to. Small and feathery, it was hard to forget where she'd seen it before.
"Not sure. But convinced."
"Me, too," Ganner agreed. "That smile..."
Jaina still wasn't impressed. "Hmm. Does Feathers there remind you of anybody?"
"I keep thinking it should," said Jacen. "But I've never seen anything like it."
"Sorry, I forget that New Republic Intelligence isn't sharing with Uncle Luke these days," she said, and was a little surprised she got to know this when he didn't. It had been right after Yavin, though. She'd definitely been in good standing then. "We've seen some interesting holograms in Rogue Squadron. That's Vergere."
"Vergere?" Jacen repeated. The truth was, they had no idea where Vergere stood on anything. While working with the Vong, including in one of the first efforts to start assassinating Jedi, it was her tears that had served as the treatment to put Mara's disease into remission. Because of course this whole thing couldn't get more complicated.
"It's either Vergere, or another creature like her," Jaina said. "And if she touched you through the Force, we can assume she was more than the assassin's pet 'familiar'."
There wasn't much time to discuss it before Anakin arrived with the rest of the strike team, Dark Jedi included. Jaina didn't pay them any mind, either. The electrobinoculars were passed to Anakin in order to let him see Nom Anor and all his troops for himself. "How many-"
"Too many to fight," Jacen answered.
Anakin ignored him, and looked to Ganner instead, apparently still stung by Jacen's accusations. "I counted a hundred and four warriors," he answered. "Probably three platoons and an overseeing officer."
"We can escape into the training course," Lomi offered. "There's an exit into the laboratory complex."
"What's the training course?" Jacen asked, and by the look on Welk's face and the sense he was giving off in the Force, the answer wouldn't be a good one.
"It's where the Yuuzhan Vong teach voxyn to hunt us," Lomi explained. "It will be dangerous- but less so than the spaceport."
"And we know the terrain better than the trainers do," Welk added. "The voxyn won't be a problem, not for so many of us."
"Unless Skywalker's students do not live up to their reputations," Lomi said, clearly taunting. "The choice is yours, young Solo."
Anakin simply said, "We deserve our reputations."
****
The training course was not easy, and Jaina had to wonder if taking on the Vong straight-on wouldn't have been preferable to things like the pack of voxyn hiding in the swamp, which led to them having to ambush the Vong that had tried to trap them there. That had been the first thing to go right today. They were all feeling the fatigue, knowing that they'd lost all control of the situation when they'd had to sacrifice their ship- and Ulaha- and everything since then had seemed to go wrong.
Before they even got to the series of chalk dunes, Jacen let down the battle meld. It was a good idea, considering they'd been on the worldship for over thirty hours now and the discord between everyone was getting worse and worse. Jaina herself wasn't very optimistic at this point. Their success rate lowered every hour they stayed here when it had started at a fifty-fifty shot, and they couldn't even call for an extraction. No one would be able to come for them out here without getting themselves killed. She didn't need to ask their odds because the chances were, they weren't getting out of here. They just had to complete their mission so there was a point to it.
The training course had every possible scenario she could think of, every environment in which a voxyn might have to hunt down a Jedi. To add to it, they also had an old AT-AT walker. Lowbacca and Jovan had commandeered it, leaving the rest of the strike team huddled against the passage wall, looking for the coralskippers that seemed to like showing up trying to gas them.
"Where did that thing come from?" Jaina asked, nodding toward the AT-AT.
"The trainers are very thorough," said Lomi. "They keep an entire city of slaves to operate captured equipment so they can habituate their voxyn to 'lifeless abhorrences'. There is nothing they will not do to rid the galaxy of Jedi."
"There's even a starliner berthed in a grotto hangar," added Welk.
Jaina's first thought, of course, was to crash the starliner into the cloning facility. "Is it-"
"The energy converters have been removed," Lomi interrupted. "Even the walkers and landspeeders run on low-capacity battery banks instead of fuel slugs. They cannot range much further from the city than this."
She sighed, disappointed. "Of course."
From inside the walker, Jovan's voice came over the comlink. "The Force has favored us today. The batteries still have a charge, but the power feeds have been isolated by mineral secretions."
That triggered her danger sense. "Secretions?"
"It appears to be an insect nest. Lowbacca is cleaning it off now."
"What kind of insects?" Jacen asked, obviously remembering the infestation on Duro. "If they look like worms with legs-"
"It's no shoackapede hive," Jovan assured them. "These are little flitnats, completely harmless."
"Nothing the Yuuzhan Vong create is harmless," Alema said, but kept it off the comm channel. "This is a trap."
"Everything's a trap with you," Tahiri countered. "Why can't the Force just be with us for once? We could all use the ride."
Anakin ignored them both and looked to Lomi. Dark Jedi or not, they'd been a great help in getting through the training course this far. Jaina had her reservations about them, but it was much easier to stow them away when there was a common goal to get out of here.
"That is an unnecessary risk," said Lomi. "We have almost reached our destination. The main cloning lab is only a kilometer beyond that wall."
Joining the rest of them, Zekk said, "About time. I was beginning to think you were stalling."
"You will understand if I prefer alive over fast, Zekk. Our fates will be the same in this."
"She's kept us out of trouble so far," Anakin said, though he hadn't been bothered by the amount of time it had taken them to just get this far. "Let's make the safe play and avoid the walker. We'll be done and on our way home in two hours anyway... four at the most."
"Careful, Anakin," Jaina warned, but smiled. "You're beginning to sound like Dad."
As they started up the dune, Jaina found herself worrying a bit about Anakin's attitude during this. He'd been down earlier, and understandably after losing Ulaha and the droids, but he seemed so confident they were going to make it. He hadn't seen the sort of things she had; he'd lost people, yes, but he hadn't seen nearly as many cut down in battle. She knew not to be overconfident. She knew to still be wary and expect things to go wrong because they had, and they would continue to do so.
As they neared the top of the dune, Anakin asked, "Jaina?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing out of line?" He glanced over his shoulder, then spoke so quietly he had to use the Force to carry his words to hear ears. "Is there something you want to say?"
Jaina smiled. "There is." She reached over and squeezed his forearm. "You're doing a good job, Anakin. If we're going to get this done, it's because of your confidence and determination."
"Thanks, Jaina." Anakin probably meant his lopsided grin to be cocky, but to his sister it seemed more surprised- perhaps even relieved. "I know."
"Sure you do," Jaina laughed. She punched him in the shoulder just hard enough to make him stumble, then added, "Just remember to keep your guard up."
When they got to the top of the dune, they were looking directly into the viewport of the AT-AT, and at first Jaina thought there was something wrong with the lighting. Then she realized that the darkness was in fact because of the swarming insects inside.
Anakin was already on his comlink. "Streak, what are you doing in there? I said-"
Jaina understood Lowbacca's reply, though Em Teedee translated for the others. "Master Lowbacca reports that he is simply trying to retrieve some needed equipment. And please forgive his brusqueness. The flitnats are starting to bite."
"Bite?" Jaina repeated, already looking to measure the distance between her and the cockpit. "What about you, Jovan?"
There was no answer. "Jovan?" Anakin pressed.
"Jedi Drark fails to answer," Em Teedee reported. "Master Lowbacca can see him-"
"Dangling from a belly hatch," Tesar interrupted. "Krasov will bring him down."
Lowie acknowledged, and through the transparisteel window they could see him scratching under the collar of his jumpsuit before going back to the instrument panel.
"Lowbacca?" Jaina called. "What are you doing? Get out of there!"
There was some sort of reply about face masks, and then he sort of fell out of view, and then Em Teedee came back with, "Oh my. Master Lowbacca appears to be suffering a processor crash."
That was it. Using the Force to help her along, Jaina somersaulted off the chalk dune and landed atop the AT-AT's cockpit roof, and was nearly knocked over when Zekk and Anakin did the same, landing beside her. Anakin and Jaina got to work on using their lightsabers to cut open the escape hatch, while Zekk dropped onto his belly in order to dangle over the front to look inside. "I can't believe it! He's still trying to get the face masks."
"Perhaps he is getting tired of carrying unconscious Jedi," Lomi said, landing alongside them. She pointed to two places on opposite sides of the hatch, and Jaina and Anakin cut as instructed.
"Jovan's alive, but dizzy and sick," Ganner said over the comlink. "Tekli thinks she can save him."
Anakin looked alarmed and pale. "Save him?"
"You should see, Anakin," Tahiri commed. "I didn't know Rodians swelled up like that."
"Orders?" Ganner asked.
"We must retreat and try another way," said Lomi.
"Never," Anakin said immediately.
The first thought that came to Jaina was that if she weren't such a nice person, she could just knock Lomi off the AT-AT for suggesting that. It wouldn't be the first Nightsister she'd pushed to possible doom. But the rational part of her, the side that so dominated at times like this, knew better. Lowie was probably her closest friend out here, and on top of that he was Chewbacca's nephew, but they had a mission, and if they didn't complete it, they were all dead.
There was a muffled thud from inside, and Zekk's declaration that Lowbacca was down. And it killed Jaina to do it, but once she'd fried a bolt off, she disengaged her lightsaber. "Anakin, maybe you should listen to her," she said. "If this is a trap, they'll be coming for us."
"So what if they are?" Anakin asked, continuing his work. "We're Jedi, aren't we?"
"The value of sacrifices has a limit even to Yuuzhan Vong," Lomi said. "They will kill us before allowing us to reach the cloning lab. We must go around."
"I thought that was why we came this way," Zekk countered.
"They anticipated us. But there are other ways."
"And when they anticipate those?" Anakin demanded, finishing cutting open the hatch.
"Then we try another way, and another," Jaina said calmly. "Sooner or later, we may have to fight- but on our terms, not theirs."
Anakin ignored Jaina and Lomi, deactivating his lightsaber as the hatch came free.
"Anakin, there's a dust cloud coming up the canyon toward us, and I don't think it's a New Republic landspeeder," Ganner commed. "How about those orders?"
"In a second!" Anakin snapped. He knelt beside the hatch, looking up at Jaina. "Ready?"
Despite her misgivings, she wasn't going to tell him no. "Ready," she said. "Watch yourselves." She levitated the hatch out of its seating, moving it aside. Anakin leaned in to look inside, ignoring the flitnats escaping, and tried to pull him through to safety. The first attempt didn't work, though, and Jaina dropped to her knees beside her brother and reached in to grab one of Lowie's arms to try and squeeze him through the opening. The flitnats bit her face and hands, but she ignored the stinging pain as best she could.
As Lowbacca's torso came through the hatchway, masses of blood-bloated flitnats began to drop from his sleeves. The skin on his hands had been chewed bald and was already erupting into purple lumps the size of Jaina's fingertips.
Anakin's only reply was to pull Lowbacca the rest of the way through. A billowing cloud of flitnats poured out behind the Wookiee, prompting Jaina to turn for the hatch. The flitnat bites were already making her sick, and itching so madly she had to take a second to concentrate before she could levitate the heavy piece of steel. When she turned back around, it was to find Lomi summoning an armful of filter housings and breath masks through the hatchway.
"Mustn't forget these." She gathered the equipment and started to the front of the cockpit, where Anakin was already lowering Lowie onto the dune. "The Wookiee did risk his life for them."
Jaina put the hatch back in place, and Zekk grabbed her arm. She stumbled after him as he pulled her along, right off the edge of the AT-AT and onto the dune below. For a second Jaina thought she really would be sick, between the effects of the bites and the drop, but between that, choking on the chalk dust and all the itching, it was like her body just didn't know what to respond to.
"What do you think now, young Solo?" Lomi asked. "Still determined to fight?"
After a moment, Anakin swore, pulled Jaina to her feet, and issued the retreat.
Next.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue taken from Star by Star by Troy Denning, and okay a bit or two is taken directly from him too.]
The first thing that needed to be done when they boarded the worldship was to get rid of the ysalamiri. Of course the Vong would have them around to hold the Jedi Anakin had sensed. While Jaina was off with Raynar and Eryl killing off the lizards, two things happened. First, said Jedi turned out to be Dark Jedi. When the twins were fourteen, they had been taken by a Dark Jedi named Brakiss where they were trained at the Shadow Academy, trying to teach them dark side techniques and turn them. It hadn't worked, but they had recruited Zekk. He knew the Dathomirian Nightsister Lomi Plo and her apprentice Welk from those days, and to say he wasn't happy about helping them would be a gross understatement. The second thing that happened was that Ganner and Jacen spotted none other than the warmaster Nom Anor.
Jaina didn't care much for that particular Vong, no. He'd been the one that had infected Mara with that disease, and then he'd tried to kill her and Jaina by way of cave-in back on Duro. But she wasn't worried about any of that when she joined Jacen and Ganner at the entrance. "What's wrong with you two?" she asked. "You feel like you've been hearing the Emperor's voice. Don't tell me you're afraid of a few Yuuzhan Vong."
"There are more than a few," Jacen said, handing over the electrobinoculars to her so that she could see. "But it's Nom Anor's pet that bothers me. I think it touched me with the Force."
"You're sure?" Jaina asked, watching the creature he was referring to. Small and feathery, it was hard to forget where she'd seen it before.
"Not sure. But convinced."
"Me, too," Ganner agreed. "That smile..."
Jaina still wasn't impressed. "Hmm. Does Feathers there remind you of anybody?"
"I keep thinking it should," said Jacen. "But I've never seen anything like it."
"Sorry, I forget that New Republic Intelligence isn't sharing with Uncle Luke these days," she said, and was a little surprised she got to know this when he didn't. It had been right after Yavin, though. She'd definitely been in good standing then. "We've seen some interesting holograms in Rogue Squadron. That's Vergere."
"Vergere?" Jacen repeated. The truth was, they had no idea where Vergere stood on anything. While working with the Vong, including in one of the first efforts to start assassinating Jedi, it was her tears that had served as the treatment to put Mara's disease into remission. Because of course this whole thing couldn't get more complicated.
"It's either Vergere, or another creature like her," Jaina said. "And if she touched you through the Force, we can assume she was more than the assassin's pet 'familiar'."
There wasn't much time to discuss it before Anakin arrived with the rest of the strike team, Dark Jedi included. Jaina didn't pay them any mind, either. The electrobinoculars were passed to Anakin in order to let him see Nom Anor and all his troops for himself. "How many-"
"Too many to fight," Jacen answered.
Anakin ignored him, and looked to Ganner instead, apparently still stung by Jacen's accusations. "I counted a hundred and four warriors," he answered. "Probably three platoons and an overseeing officer."
"We can escape into the training course," Lomi offered. "There's an exit into the laboratory complex."
"What's the training course?" Jacen asked, and by the look on Welk's face and the sense he was giving off in the Force, the answer wouldn't be a good one.
"It's where the Yuuzhan Vong teach voxyn to hunt us," Lomi explained. "It will be dangerous- but less so than the spaceport."
"And we know the terrain better than the trainers do," Welk added. "The voxyn won't be a problem, not for so many of us."
"Unless Skywalker's students do not live up to their reputations," Lomi said, clearly taunting. "The choice is yours, young Solo."
Anakin simply said, "We deserve our reputations."
****
The training course was not easy, and Jaina had to wonder if taking on the Vong straight-on wouldn't have been preferable to things like the pack of voxyn hiding in the swamp, which led to them having to ambush the Vong that had tried to trap them there. That had been the first thing to go right today. They were all feeling the fatigue, knowing that they'd lost all control of the situation when they'd had to sacrifice their ship- and Ulaha- and everything since then had seemed to go wrong.
Before they even got to the series of chalk dunes, Jacen let down the battle meld. It was a good idea, considering they'd been on the worldship for over thirty hours now and the discord between everyone was getting worse and worse. Jaina herself wasn't very optimistic at this point. Their success rate lowered every hour they stayed here when it had started at a fifty-fifty shot, and they couldn't even call for an extraction. No one would be able to come for them out here without getting themselves killed. She didn't need to ask their odds because the chances were, they weren't getting out of here. They just had to complete their mission so there was a point to it.
The training course had every possible scenario she could think of, every environment in which a voxyn might have to hunt down a Jedi. To add to it, they also had an old AT-AT walker. Lowbacca and Jovan had commandeered it, leaving the rest of the strike team huddled against the passage wall, looking for the coralskippers that seemed to like showing up trying to gas them.
"Where did that thing come from?" Jaina asked, nodding toward the AT-AT.
"The trainers are very thorough," said Lomi. "They keep an entire city of slaves to operate captured equipment so they can habituate their voxyn to 'lifeless abhorrences'. There is nothing they will not do to rid the galaxy of Jedi."
"There's even a starliner berthed in a grotto hangar," added Welk.
Jaina's first thought, of course, was to crash the starliner into the cloning facility. "Is it-"
"The energy converters have been removed," Lomi interrupted. "Even the walkers and landspeeders run on low-capacity battery banks instead of fuel slugs. They cannot range much further from the city than this."
She sighed, disappointed. "Of course."
From inside the walker, Jovan's voice came over the comlink. "The Force has favored us today. The batteries still have a charge, but the power feeds have been isolated by mineral secretions."
That triggered her danger sense. "Secretions?"
"It appears to be an insect nest. Lowbacca is cleaning it off now."
"What kind of insects?" Jacen asked, obviously remembering the infestation on Duro. "If they look like worms with legs-"
"It's no shoackapede hive," Jovan assured them. "These are little flitnats, completely harmless."
"Nothing the Yuuzhan Vong create is harmless," Alema said, but kept it off the comm channel. "This is a trap."
"Everything's a trap with you," Tahiri countered. "Why can't the Force just be with us for once? We could all use the ride."
Anakin ignored them both and looked to Lomi. Dark Jedi or not, they'd been a great help in getting through the training course this far. Jaina had her reservations about them, but it was much easier to stow them away when there was a common goal to get out of here.
"That is an unnecessary risk," said Lomi. "We have almost reached our destination. The main cloning lab is only a kilometer beyond that wall."
Joining the rest of them, Zekk said, "About time. I was beginning to think you were stalling."
"You will understand if I prefer alive over fast, Zekk. Our fates will be the same in this."
"She's kept us out of trouble so far," Anakin said, though he hadn't been bothered by the amount of time it had taken them to just get this far. "Let's make the safe play and avoid the walker. We'll be done and on our way home in two hours anyway... four at the most."
"Careful, Anakin," Jaina warned, but smiled. "You're beginning to sound like Dad."
As they started up the dune, Jaina found herself worrying a bit about Anakin's attitude during this. He'd been down earlier, and understandably after losing Ulaha and the droids, but he seemed so confident they were going to make it. He hadn't seen the sort of things she had; he'd lost people, yes, but he hadn't seen nearly as many cut down in battle. She knew not to be overconfident. She knew to still be wary and expect things to go wrong because they had, and they would continue to do so.
As they neared the top of the dune, Anakin asked, "Jaina?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing out of line?" He glanced over his shoulder, then spoke so quietly he had to use the Force to carry his words to hear ears. "Is there something you want to say?"
Jaina smiled. "There is." She reached over and squeezed his forearm. "You're doing a good job, Anakin. If we're going to get this done, it's because of your confidence and determination."
"Thanks, Jaina." Anakin probably meant his lopsided grin to be cocky, but to his sister it seemed more surprised- perhaps even relieved. "I know."
"Sure you do," Jaina laughed. She punched him in the shoulder just hard enough to make him stumble, then added, "Just remember to keep your guard up."
When they got to the top of the dune, they were looking directly into the viewport of the AT-AT, and at first Jaina thought there was something wrong with the lighting. Then she realized that the darkness was in fact because of the swarming insects inside.
Anakin was already on his comlink. "Streak, what are you doing in there? I said-"
Jaina understood Lowbacca's reply, though Em Teedee translated for the others. "Master Lowbacca reports that he is simply trying to retrieve some needed equipment. And please forgive his brusqueness. The flitnats are starting to bite."
"Bite?" Jaina repeated, already looking to measure the distance between her and the cockpit. "What about you, Jovan?"
There was no answer. "Jovan?" Anakin pressed.
"Jedi Drark fails to answer," Em Teedee reported. "Master Lowbacca can see him-"
"Dangling from a belly hatch," Tesar interrupted. "Krasov will bring him down."
Lowie acknowledged, and through the transparisteel window they could see him scratching under the collar of his jumpsuit before going back to the instrument panel.
"Lowbacca?" Jaina called. "What are you doing? Get out of there!"
There was some sort of reply about face masks, and then he sort of fell out of view, and then Em Teedee came back with, "Oh my. Master Lowbacca appears to be suffering a processor crash."
That was it. Using the Force to help her along, Jaina somersaulted off the chalk dune and landed atop the AT-AT's cockpit roof, and was nearly knocked over when Zekk and Anakin did the same, landing beside her. Anakin and Jaina got to work on using their lightsabers to cut open the escape hatch, while Zekk dropped onto his belly in order to dangle over the front to look inside. "I can't believe it! He's still trying to get the face masks."
"Perhaps he is getting tired of carrying unconscious Jedi," Lomi said, landing alongside them. She pointed to two places on opposite sides of the hatch, and Jaina and Anakin cut as instructed.
"Jovan's alive, but dizzy and sick," Ganner said over the comlink. "Tekli thinks she can save him."
Anakin looked alarmed and pale. "Save him?"
"You should see, Anakin," Tahiri commed. "I didn't know Rodians swelled up like that."
"Orders?" Ganner asked.
"We must retreat and try another way," said Lomi.
"Never," Anakin said immediately.
The first thought that came to Jaina was that if she weren't such a nice person, she could just knock Lomi off the AT-AT for suggesting that. It wouldn't be the first Nightsister she'd pushed to possible doom. But the rational part of her, the side that so dominated at times like this, knew better. Lowie was probably her closest friend out here, and on top of that he was Chewbacca's nephew, but they had a mission, and if they didn't complete it, they were all dead.
There was a muffled thud from inside, and Zekk's declaration that Lowbacca was down. And it killed Jaina to do it, but once she'd fried a bolt off, she disengaged her lightsaber. "Anakin, maybe you should listen to her," she said. "If this is a trap, they'll be coming for us."
"So what if they are?" Anakin asked, continuing his work. "We're Jedi, aren't we?"
"The value of sacrifices has a limit even to Yuuzhan Vong," Lomi said. "They will kill us before allowing us to reach the cloning lab. We must go around."
"I thought that was why we came this way," Zekk countered.
"They anticipated us. But there are other ways."
"And when they anticipate those?" Anakin demanded, finishing cutting open the hatch.
"Then we try another way, and another," Jaina said calmly. "Sooner or later, we may have to fight- but on our terms, not theirs."
Anakin ignored Jaina and Lomi, deactivating his lightsaber as the hatch came free.
"Anakin, there's a dust cloud coming up the canyon toward us, and I don't think it's a New Republic landspeeder," Ganner commed. "How about those orders?"
"In a second!" Anakin snapped. He knelt beside the hatch, looking up at Jaina. "Ready?"
Despite her misgivings, she wasn't going to tell him no. "Ready," she said. "Watch yourselves." She levitated the hatch out of its seating, moving it aside. Anakin leaned in to look inside, ignoring the flitnats escaping, and tried to pull him through to safety. The first attempt didn't work, though, and Jaina dropped to her knees beside her brother and reached in to grab one of Lowie's arms to try and squeeze him through the opening. The flitnats bit her face and hands, but she ignored the stinging pain as best she could.
As Lowbacca's torso came through the hatchway, masses of blood-bloated flitnats began to drop from his sleeves. The skin on his hands had been chewed bald and was already erupting into purple lumps the size of Jaina's fingertips.
Anakin's only reply was to pull Lowbacca the rest of the way through. A billowing cloud of flitnats poured out behind the Wookiee, prompting Jaina to turn for the hatch. The flitnat bites were already making her sick, and itching so madly she had to take a second to concentrate before she could levitate the heavy piece of steel. When she turned back around, it was to find Lomi summoning an armful of filter housings and breath masks through the hatchway.
"Mustn't forget these." She gathered the equipment and started to the front of the cockpit, where Anakin was already lowering Lowie onto the dune. "The Wookiee did risk his life for them."
Jaina put the hatch back in place, and Zekk grabbed her arm. She stumbled after him as he pulled her along, right off the edge of the AT-AT and onto the dune below. For a second Jaina thought she really would be sick, between the effects of the bites and the drop, but between that, choking on the chalk dust and all the itching, it was like her body just didn't know what to respond to.
"What do you think now, young Solo?" Lomi asked. "Still determined to fight?"
After a moment, Anakin swore, pulled Jaina to her feet, and issued the retreat.
Next.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue taken from Star by Star by Troy Denning, and okay a bit or two is taken directly from him too.]