"Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?"
Iella shook her head. "No, not really."
Elscol smiled and seated herself on the foot of lella's bed. "Well, doesn't
matter. Armed with vibroblades, force pikes, or blasters, we can get enough
Vratix that we can overwhelm humans in Xucphra City. Some of the Ashern indicate
their training cadres are swelling in our wake. We come through, they get more
volunteers. Sixtus has specified benchmarks for training, and it looks like
we'll have our force in a couple of months."
"I'd feel better about them if we ever got to see their warriors in action."
Elscol nodded. "Agreed. From what Sixtus has said, though, because bacta and
healing is so much a part of Vratix society, for a Vratix to become a warrior
and cause harm is a very solemn decision. The Ashern, as you know, sharpen their
forearm claws and paint themselves black. The former is for fighting, but they
paint themselves black so they can remain in the shadows, hidden away to
protect the other Vratix from what they can and will do to win freedom."
"Well, their reluctance to be violent explains why they haven't just risen up
and slaughtered all the humans on the planet." Iella sighed. "It's too bad they
have to resort to war to win the freedom they never should have lost in the
first place. I hope we can remain free long enough for the Ashern to be ready to
fight. How long do you figure we have until Isard storms us?"
"Good question. Me, I'd have done it in a heartbeat before we embarrassed
General Dlarit, but she's trying to keep the populace happy. If the Xucphra
folks see white armor in bulk on their world, they're going to figure she's got
no more use for them, and I suspect they can cause a fair amount of trouble for
her." Elscol sat back, leaning against the wall.
"Of course, Isard has more trouble than just us. That's what I came to tell you.
News from the front."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. And good news, too."
Iella dropped to the circular chamber's floor and sat cross-legged. Twisting her
blaster belt around so she was more comfortable, she smiled up at Elscol. "What
did you hear?"
"The Corrupter is no more."
lella's jaw dropped. "What? How?"
"Isard tried to ambush Wedge and the others. Apparently, Wedge had a surprise
waiting for them. A steady diet of proton torpedoes put the Corrupter down. No
word of squadron lossesat least none that are reliable. Data came from a tap on
Xucphra corp news, so it all has an Imp spin."
"Still, if they're saying the Corrupter was destroyed, that means its loss was
the least of the problems Isard has." Iella clapped her hands. "Maybe this
mission isn't going to be suicidal."
Elscol's face closed down. "We're a long way from getting out, Iella, but
getting shot up isn't going to get you and your husband reunited."
"What?" Iella tried to cover her surprise at Elscol's comment because when she
heard the words she knew part of her had been considering the mission in exactly
that light. "I never . . ."
Elscol leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "Hey, do I look like
some Xucphra clerk who's going to believe everything you say? No. I've been
where you are. I lost my husband to the Imps back on Cilpar, and part of me
wanted to die with him there. I took off after the Imps for revenge, but always
in the back of my mind was the feeling that when I died we'd be together again.
Wedge saw that in me and saw the urge for self-destruction grow in me. When he
kicked me out of Rogue Squadron, well, that wo ke me up; and I began to see a lot
of things."
lella's head came up. "Are you saying there's no life after death?"
"I'm saying it doesn't matter." Elscol held her two hands
out, palms toward the ceiling. "On one hand, if there isn't an afterlife, you'll
be remembered for the things you did while you were alive. On the other, if
there is an afterlife, you'll be able to share all you did with those who died
before you. Either way, living as long as possible and doing the most you can is
the only way to go. I decided I didn't want to be known here or in the afterlife
for having quit. I don't think you do, either."
Iella frowned. "You're right, but sometimes the pain . . ." She clutched her
hands against her breastbone. "Sometimes it hurts too much to live."
"Nonsense." Elscol's dark eyes sharpened. "Pain's the only way we know we're
alive."
"What?"
"If the afterlife is supposed to be special and wonderful and blissfuland there
aren't many theologies that suggest otherwisethen it follows that pain's the
only way you know you're alive. Not letting the pain get to you, not
surrendering to it, that's the way you continue living." Elscol brought her
hands together, then glanced down at the floor. "It still hurts me, too, at
certain times of the year, but I don't let it overwhelm me."
"I haven't let it overwhelm me, either."
"No, you haven't. You're strong, Iella, real strong." Elscol gave her a
half-grin. "It's just that as things get going tougher, in the moments when
stress is off, you'll start to feel the pain. Fight it."
Iella slowly nodded. What Elscol had said made perfect sense to her. While
involved in an operation, the stresses of the operation would push everything
else into the background. When the stress slackened, she tried to recover a
sense of well-being, and would invariably harken back to her time with Diric.
The joy would melt into melancholy, then that would congeal into sorrow and
pain. I'd come to a point where surrendering to the pain would be more simple
than fighting the Imps and everything else.
She realized that she'd not faced this problem before because when Diric had
been taken by the Imps there was always a chance that he would be released and
they would be
able to continue their lives together. Hope had shielded her against despair and
the pain of her loss. Circumstances are different now, but I'm also a different
person than I was. I will survive and fight the pain.
She looked up and was about to tell Elscol the same thing, when a howling shriek
filled the air and sent a tremor through her tower room. No mistaking that for
anything elseTIE fighters are coming in. She dove for the doorhole and lying
there on her belly stared out at the Vratix village. Other brown-gray towers
were all but invisible in the thick foliage of the rain forest until green laser
bolts illuminated them and began setting trees on fire. The bolts hissed through
the air, igniting a rain of flaming branches and leaves falling on buildings and
the forest floor.
Elscol hunkered down beside her with blaster in hand as the TIEs made another
pass. Trees split as if they had been struck by lightning. Their boles exploded,
spraying the rain forest with fiery hardwood splinters. Impaled Vratix and
kny-tix twitched on the ground or limped along, black blood streaming from their
wounds. In other spots, heavy bits of tree fell, crushing Vratix and pulverizing
the walls of houses.
"Sithspawn!" Elscol bounced a fist off the floor. "We've got nothing that can
stop them. They're just slaughtering Vratix for the fun of it."
"It's not fun for the Vratix." Iella watched as the Vratix began to flee. The
whole tableau took on an unreal air. Part of it came from the Vratix leaping
high into the branches of trees surrounding the village to escape. If Iella had
allowed herself to forget how sophisticated the Vratix could be and just see
them as insects, then she was watching a whole swarm of Corellian gluttonbugs
clear-chew a forest. They moved in a mass, leaping away as bolts rained down on
them, exploding and pitching body parts in every direction.
The most surreal element in the whole scene was the lack of wailing from the
victims. The Vratix vocalized no sounds as they fled. They grasped each 'other
and remained close, clearly taking security in the sense they trusted the most.
But that's what's getting them killed. Massed together like this makes them
terribly vulnerable to the strafing runs.
"Elscol, we have to do something."
"What? These blasters aren't going to bring down a starfighter, even if they
don't have shields." Elscol coughed as the breeze wafted smoke toward them. "The
only thing we can do is try to get out of here."
"Agreed." Iella looked out again, bracing to duck away from more aerial fire,
but as the echoes of the last TIE's shriek died, no new one rose to take its
place. Instead the whine of blaster fire started at the north end of the
village. She looked in that direction and saw figures in white moving into the
burning village. "Stormies."
Elscol laughed and checked the power pack on her pistol. "Not hardly. Look at
the armor and how they wear it. Most of them are too small for it. They're Home
Defense troops all dressed up for this operation."
"How can you be sure?"
"You think real stormies would raid a jungle village wearing white?"
Iella hesitated. "But on Endor, in the forest there, reports I heard . . ."
"Trust me, Iella, they learned from that mistake. Getting drubbed by a Wookiee
and a bunch of Ewoks convinced them to institute some reforms." Elscol pulled
herself into the door-hole and leaped out. "C'mon."
Iella followed, making the three-meter drop without injury. Running forward,
she caught up with Elscol at the wall that edged the rooftop where they stood.
As Elscol swung her legs over the top of the wall, Iella raised her blaster
pistol and sighted in on one of the advancing troopers.
Elscol gently slapped her thigh. "Save it, you'll never hit from here. Too far."
Iella glanced down and grimly closed one eye. "Too far for you, maybe." Her head
came up and she sighted in on a group of three troopers. She centered the gun on
the middle one, fired, then snapped a shot off at the other two. The first shot
hit the target square on the left breast, then glanced up off the armor and
burned through his throat. The second shot pierced the left eyepiece on the
second trooper, spinning him around like a top before he went down. The last
shot missed
its intended target, passing over the trooper's head by a couple of
centimeters, but only did so because the first trooper's body had knocked him
off balance and he was falling.
Elscol looked up with wide-eyed amazement at her. "A head shot at this range?"
Iella shrugged, then tapped the rear sight. "Shoots high." She sat on the edge
of the wall, then leaped down to the next level and remained crouched at the
foot of the wall. Elscol landed beside her. A few red blaster bolts bloodied the
smoke in their direction, but none came even close to getting them. "They don't
know where we are or where those shots came from."
"And because they aren't Vratix, they'll have a hard time jumping up here to
find us." Elscol smiled and crept forward toward the edge of the terrace wall.
"I can hit from this range."
Iella came forward carefully, ducking as a fleeing Vratix leaped past. At the
edge of the terrace, she saw the troopers moving into the village, shooting into
the doorholes on the ground level. Scarlet backlighting sometimes silhouetted a
Vratix form. More often than not it seemed as if the blasterfire started the
tower's lower rooms burning. There is no searching, this is just a mission to
destroy this place.
Angered beyond the point of caring about anything, Iella rose from her crouch
and began shooting at targets. Elscol rose up beside her, laying down a pattern
of fire that sent the troopers scurrying for cover. Iella looked over at her,
and they both knew seasoned troopsreal stormtroopersnever would have shied
from blaster pistol fire. A few of the troopers were down and still, and yet
more thrashed in pain on the ground. Iella wanted to feel compassion for them,
but their cries for help were her greatest ally. If the wounded infect the rest
with a desire to avoid death, they'll break and run. At the same time she
acknowledged that the troopers' running was her only chance at survival.
Iella ducked down as scattered return fire headed in her direction. She popped a
fresh power pack into her blaster pistol and pressed her back against the wall.
Though the wall itself was smooth, Iella felt anything but placid at the mo-
ment. "Well, we've gotten their attention so the Vratix can flee."
Elscol ducked back beneath the edge of the wall. "You realize it's just a matter
of time before they call for one of the starfighters to come back, don't you?"
Iella slid further along the wall, then nodded. "I guess we finish them quickly,
then."
Elscol raised an eyebrow. "Your suggestion for Dlarit made me think you might
not have the stomach for this kind of fight. I'm glad to be wrong."
Iella came up and triggered off two more shots before the troopers shifted their
aim to shoot back at her. She dropped back down, uncertain if she'd hit anything
and disturbed by what she saw. "Bad news. They've got a squad moving to flank
us."
The smaller woman shrugged as if Iella had reported she felt a light drizzle
starting to fall. Elscol checked her power pack and smiled in the near silence
that reigned in the village. "We can give up, or we can fight our way through
them."
"I don't see surrender as an option."
"Nor me." Elscol tucked a lock of brown hair behind her left ear. "On three
we're over the wall to the last terrace. We go forward, ta ke some shots, then
over again and at them."
"Frontal assault?" Iella shook her head. "I may be dead and not know it, but I'm
not crazy."
"They're scared. We sprint to their line of cover, then we start vaping them
close in. CorSec had to train you for that sort of fight and I've gotten used to
it, too."
Iella thought for a moment. From the base of the wall to the trees and rubble
the troopers were using was only twenty-five meters. Shooting like mad to make
them keep their heads down, it might just work. "I'm game."
"Let's do it." Elscol rose into a crouch. "One, two, three!"
With her left hand on top of the terrace wall, Iella came up and over, then
dropped the eight feet to the next terrace. She hit, rolled, and sprinted to the
next edge. She vaulted it in tandem with Elscol and la
nded solidly. She shoved
off the wall with her right hand, then brought the blaster around to
spray shots at the troopers crouching twenty-five meters away. Her hastily
snapped shots didn't hit any of them, but they dove for the ground as if she
were a Star Destroyer commencing a planetary bombardment.
As she raced forward, cutting right and left, she waited for a target to show
himself so she could drop him with a clean shot to the head or belly. Belly
would be better. He'll scream. She waited for the screams, waited to hear the
troopers she was approaching start to scream in terror. She started to scream
herself, hoping to spark her foes into panic.
Suddenly one of the troopers did stand. She brought her pistol around, but he
leveled his blaster carbine at her and triggered a burst before she could shoot
him. She saw a trio of sizzling scarlet energy darts fly at her and for a second
considered it nothing short of miraculous that they had missed. Then she felt
the tug on her left thigh. Her world whirled, and her chin dug into the moist
loam at the base of a gloan tree. She snorted dirt from her nostrils and
wondered what had happened, then the first wave of pain hit her.
Iella rolled onto her back and glanced down at her left thigh. Crusted black
flesh surrounded a hole oozing blood. Biting back a scream, she unbuckled her
blaster belt and pulled it off. She pressed the holster against the wound, then
wrapped the belt around her leg and refastened it. Pulling it tight almost made
her faint, but she struggled against the darkness nibbling at the edges of her
sight.
She didn't think she'd blacked out, but as the world lightened again she found
herself looking up at a trooper standing over her. He was saying something, but
she couldn't focus on the words. All she could notice was that the armor seemed
over-large on him, with the breastplate covering half his stomach and the helmet
resting firmly on the armor's collar.
The trooper gestured with his blaster carbine, but Iella still wasn't able to
understand him. She tried, but an odd whirring sound eclipsed his words. An
angular shadow dropped down behind him. Iella heard a horrid snapping and
crunching as the trooper began to telescope down toward the ground. He twisted
around, his legs going limp, allowing Iella
to see the ragged parallel wounds slashed down through the back of his armor.