Star Wars Agents of Chaos II Jedi Eclipse The New Jedi Eclipse

"Punch it, Droma!" Han yelled as he veered the Falcon into an abrupt bank. Muttering nervously to himself, Droma boosted power to the sublight drives and maxed the throttle. "We'll be fine venturing into Hutt space, you said. You used to do a lot of contract work up and down the Sisar Run and Sriluur was like a second home, you said. Nothing to worry about, you--" "Quit griping and give me an update on those ships!" Droma swung to the display screen of the ship's friend-or-foe authenticator, which showed seven bevel-shaped icons closing fast on the Falcon's aft. "Yuuzhan Vong, all right." Han glanced at the display. The scanners limned images of what might have been asteroids save for the distinctive bulges that were cockpits and the pitted noses characteristic of weapons emplacements and dovin basal housings. "Coralskippers." "Coordinates for the jump to Nar Shaddaa coming in." "Belay that," Han countered, throwing switched on the console. "There's no shaking those skips. Route power to the rear deflector shields and lock in a course back to Sriluur. I'd rather deal with them in an atmosphere than out here." Droma quickly applied himself to the task. "At least we won't have as far to fall." "Thanks for the encouragement." The Falcon whipped through a half-twisting loop, and the curve of the dun-and-ecru-colored world ballooned into view. Terrain-following data said they were traveling northward, looking out at a slice of the northern hemisphere just east of the planetary date line. "Skips don't perform well in gravity," Han assured. "Have to rely on the anti-grav capabilities of the dovin basals." As if they had heard him, the enemy pilots began firing at extreme range, molten-gold comets streaming from the projectile and plasma launchers in the bows of their small craft. Two of the missiles connected and, even though weakened by distance, were powerful enough to rock the larger ship. The Falcon's sensor suite began screaming. "Rear shields holding," Droma reported while he activated countermeasures and distortion systems. "For now." Han took a steadying breath, vised his right hand on the throttle lever, and rammed it home. The light freighter surged into Sriluur's upper atmosphere, trembling as it continued its oblique dive. With arrant scorn for the planet's protective wrapping, the Yuuzhan Vong crafts plunged after. "See what I told you?" Han exclaimed. "They stick like epoxy!" The ship's indicators railed in protest as the Falcon plummeted into denser air, rolling and corkscrewing to evade the deadly fire that sought her. All caution forgotten, Han sharpened the angle of descent, sloughing control in exchange for added speed. "You've got the bridge!" he told Droma. Droma threw him a panicked glance. "What?" Unfastening the straps that secured him to the pilot's chair, Han stood, spun on his heel, and started for the main ladderwell. He didn't make it past the cockpit hatch when ship-rattling impacts aft threw him to the desk and forced him to rethink the idea of getting to one of the gun turrets. "Enable autotracking for the quad lasers," he said in a rush as he was scrambling to his feet. Buckling back into the chair, he donned a headset and began to call up targeting data on the weapons control display screen. "Let's see if we can't even up the odds." Droma reached for the joystick that controlled the Falcon's belly gun while Han took hold of the controls for the dorsal gun. Data began scrolling across the respective screens. Han bracketed a coralskipper in the targeting reticle and squeezed the trigger on the control grip. The enemy craft swallowed the bolt whole. He pouLuceno, James is the author of 'Star Wars Agents of Chaos II Jedi Eclipse The New Jedi Eclipse', published 2000 under ISBN 9780345428592 and ISBN 0345428595.