“No, I’m not lying!” Lucitor Thorn shouted into his comm. His assault team was hunkered down at the edge of the building, trading blaster fire with three death troopers who had unexpectedly showed up. Despite the civilians running from the burning building, screaming in terror, the death troopers were content with taking shots at the Cheka, unmindful of anyone getting in their way. Thorn ran out from behind cover, his sky blue robe whipping in the wind as he deflected blaster fire with his lightsaber. That was when he saw it.

They were not just facing three death troopers, but a large force of stormtroopers in white plastoid were marching toward their position. Thorn squawked involuntarily, then shouted, “We’re facing a total ground assault out here!”

“Then pull back!” said Fenn, sounding breathless and ragged on the other end of the comm. “We have to fortify the courtyard!”

Thorn cursed, then signaled for his Cheka to follow him back around to the courtyard.

* * *

Luke and Leia’s lightsabers hissed and spat as black waves crashed against the marble stairway. Luke backpedaled up the stairs, then seemed to lose his footing. Leia prepared to leap at him but, sensing a feint, she instead pulled herself skyward. Just as her feet left the ground, an even larger wave of stinking bile and ancient refuse crashed into the stairway.

Turning in the air, she got a good look at her ruined bathing area, which was disappearing under churning waves of dark water. She knew that Luke had done something to the machinery designed to break up waste and expel it from the perimeter of the Republic Palace, instead inviting all manner of refuse to pass through the Palace’s protective walls.

Leia crashed into a wide balcony just as Luke landed right beside her. She was annoyed at the sound of the Cheka shouting down below, having obeyed her summons only to arrive in time to confront a wave of sewage rather than her brother.

Another door opened on the far end of the ruined bathing area, revealing still more Cheka soldiers. Luke did not seem to notice them, but as their point man fired, Luke turned slightly and bent his wrists, deflecting the bolt and sending it directly into the chest of the shooter. Never taking his eyes from her, he gestured subtly and the door slammed shut.

Frustrated, Leia threw herself at her brother. Her purple lightsaber collided with his golden lightsaber, the luminous beams shrieking as they slid against one another, then tore through the steel guardrail. Using the Force, she pushed against his weapon, but he seemed to sense the maneuver before it came, and with his gaze still bearing down into her black eyes, he turned his blade against her own - and then his blade passed through her right wrist, sending her hand and lightsaber flying free.

Leia screamed and stumbled backward. Luke raised his lightsaber, but hesitated - then Leia reached out with her left hand, pulling her lightsaber back into her grasp before it could fall into the black waves. Just as Luke’s lightsaber came down, Leia swung and blocked it mere inches from her head. They glared at one another, drawing in ragged breaths, her facial tentacles clasping and unclasping rhythmically.

“Give up, Leia,” said Luke, forcing her back against the guardrail. “I beg you - don’t make me destroy you!”

Leia shrieked, drawing on the agony of her bleeding stump, forcing heat from her body and flaring like an inferno once again. Luke concentrated, forcing her beams of light backward. The guardrail snapped under the assault and Leia fell backward. He ran to the edge and saw her suddenly stop, hanging in space before flinging herself upward. Her quick mastery of the Force was unlike anything Luke had ever seen; now he knew for certain that she was like a puppet, an empty husk controlled by something else.

“It’s not Leia,” he said aloud.

Ignoring the voice of his sister screaming in the back of his mind, he leaped skyward, touching down on the roof before the Empress could stop him. Under brilliant yellow skies he found her crumbled on the slanting roof, the stump of her wrist tucked into her armpit. Her black eyes bore into him, but her seething hatred was now tempered by something unexpected.

* * *

“What was that?” said Han, stabilizing the Millennium Falcon. “We still have shields?”

“Barely!” said Lando. “Arryk! Can you do something about rerouting power to deflectors?”

“Don’t worry about shields!” Arryk shouted, turning about in the turret as he blasted a Cheka TIE Fighter. “Just get me in position to blast that guy!”

“He’s gonna come around again,” said Han. “Who is he?”

“I’m not a man, damn you!” Lucitor Opeia hissed on the comm. “Stop saying that!”

Lando swallowed in a dry throat. “He’s a hybrid, one of the Stralucitor.”

“I’m a woman!”

“Ignore that thing, whatever it is,” said Sindo, overriding the Lucitor’s comm chatter. “Dagen, I want you and the others to-”

“Hold on,” said Han, peering through the cloud of ships locked in combat. “That beauty pageant X-Wing is picking up a squad of A-Wings. We’re gonna have company!”

“You’re right,” said Lando. “Chewie, Arryk, get ready for trouble!”

“Everyone form up on the Falcon!” said Sindo. “We’ll knock that bird off course by flying right through the middle!”

Han winced, as he had not actually meant to go all-in on a frontal assault, but a glance at the scanners told him that Sindo and her five Interceptors had already formed up behind him.

“These Imperial boys really play for keeps,” Han muttered.

“Uncle Han, I want to sit at the gunport with Chewie but Anakel keeps saying-”

“Somebody hold those kids down if they won’t strap in!” Han shouted over his back, drowning out the twins’ high-pitched wailing. To emphasize his point he gunned the engine and blasted toward the oncoming formation of A-Wings riding in spearpoint formation behind the violet X-Wing.

Lando’s fingers hovered over the controls, hesitating before directing power to forward shields. “Power to engines?” he said.

“Yes!” Han wheezed, pressing back into his seat.

Falling in behind Han and Lando, and then racing to keep up with them, Sindo felt her awareness shifting gears. It was a thoughtless, timeless state in which her body seemingly became one with the ship at her command, where she could react faster than her conscious mind was capable. She felt no fear as her Interceptor was jerked left and right in the Falcon’s wake, nor was she alarmed at the buildings whipping past and starfighters tearing across the avenues. She understood why Han and Lando preferred such bursts of speed, as it undoubtedly forced them into the same state of mind that she enjoyed, and that she lived for.

The Falcon corkscrewed as the violet X-Wing unloaded green bolts in a blinding flurry, avoiding all but one blast that crashed into its forward deflector shield. The A-Wings fanned out behind the X-Wing, only to be targeted by the Falcon’s roving turret blasters. Without command Sindo’s own Interceptors sought targets as well, crossing blaster fire in a suicidal rush toward the enemy. Sindo felt the concussive force of one of her teammates exploding nearby, but regained control as she pulled out of the Falcon’s wake and targeted the violet X-Wing.

Lucitor Opeia must have sensed Sindo’s attention, for just as she shot past the Falcon, she jerked the control stick and pulled out of Sindo’s targeting reticles. As if in afterthought the violet X-Wing fired one shot, which smacked into the center of an Interceptor’s cockpit, sending it spiraling into the walkway below.

The two forces crossed one another and a wave of A-Wings exploded or hurtled into the sides of buildings. The surviving Cheka starfighters quickly broke off after the deadly encounter, opting for easier prey.

“Damn!” Lando cried out on the comm, with Chewbacca bellowing in the background. “That fruitcake managed to hit us on the nose. Our shields are down!”

“You need to get out of here,” said Sindo. “That hunk of junk won’t take another shot!”

Before Lando could respond, Regis cut into her comm.

“Sindo, you there?” said Regis. “We need a lift out of here!”

“Hear that, Falcon?” said Sindo. “Major Regis needs immediate extraction!”

“I’m supposed to stick my neck out for some Imp?!” Han blurted.

“You’d be dancing for the Cheka if it wasn’t for that Imp!” she said. “Now you go and get the Major, and I’ll handle that X-Wing!”

Over her shoulder, Sindo spotted the violet X-Wing going into a steep ascent. Guessing that she meant to fall on them from above, Sindo pulled on her stick and rose as well.

“I’m going to kill that X-Wing. Dagen, you alive?”

“I’m here, ma’am!”

“Then form up on me.” Heart racing at the thought of the Stralucitor’s inhuman fighting ability, she added, “If the rest of you are willing to show that freak the power of the Empire, then follow me!”

“Black Three, right behind you, ma’am!”

“Black Six forming up, ma’am!”

Her fear was pushed out by a sudden rush of joy, knowing that her companions would stick by her side even against such a foe. With an electric jolt running through her she swerved toward the violet X-Wing banking overhead, and said, “Then let’s end this.”

Sindo knew full well that Lucitor Opeia was routinely one step ahead of her. So it was that she fired one shot at the X-Wing’s nose - and when the X-Wing banked in a downward descent to avoid the shot, Sindo already had her lined up in her sights. As the Stralucitor fell toward them, Sindo and the others unloaded on her. The violet X-Wing’s shields buckled in a blue haze under concentrated fire, then faded as the X-Wing fired a shot, then jerked aside.

Even as the Stralucitor leaned into her evasive maneuver, her single shot blasted Black Three, sending debris raining overhead. Sindo turned as tightly as she could, causing her Interceptor’s wings to buckle under the pressure.

“Don’t let her get behind us!” she hissed through gritted teeth.

“She’s making for the buildings!” said Dagen.

“Then let’s hunt her down. Her shields are down, we just need to finish her off!”

Sindo, Dagen, and Black Six finished their sickening turn, then leveled out within the duracrete canyon. Racing past ruined buildings, their scanners picked up hundreds of blips duking it out, but not their chosen target.

“Where did she go?” said Sindo.

“Behind us!” Black Six shouted.

“Who’s hunting who, little girl?” Lucitor Opeia’s cold voice crackled through the comm. Sindo turned and saw the flare of blaster fire just as Black Six erupted in a flaming shower of twisted steel.

“Split up!” Sindo shouted. “Dagen, go left, and I’ll-”

“Sindo, look out!” Dagen shouted, swerving behind her and blocking her rear view.

Just then, Lucitor Opeia fired. Blaster bolts raced past Sindo’s cockpit - then Dagen’s Interceptor exploded behind her, the concussive wave forcing her to swerve. A blaster bolt smacked against her underbelly and her control panel shrieked in alarm. Hurtling through the canyon nearly sideways, Sindo gunned the engine and flew through a side street, breathing a sigh as the Stralucitor swooped past.

Sindo knew she had only seconds to reorient herself before Opeia hunted her down. Her control stick still felt responsive, and glancing at the alarms flashing on her panel, she was glad to see that the engine was still functional.

That was when she noticed that her weapon systems were fried. Her mouth fell open. She was alone, and disarmed.

* * *

Regis crouched beneath the burning building. A clogged, filthy canal crawled past the narrow walkway on one side, and at the end of the walkway lay an avenue leading to the courtyard. Regis kept his gaze fixed on the avenue, for he knew that a Cheka could pass by at any moment and ruin their escape.

Birdy grunted in pain, and Regis turned to look. While one stormtrooper steadied their grappling line, another carefully climbed down with Birdy hanging onto him. Regis swallowed his anger at the sight, as he could tell that Birdy was hurt much worse than a few cracked ribs. He had one arm tucked in at his side, and he had barely been able to walk without assistance.

“Cheka!” said a stormtrooper.

Two stormtroopers on the walkway fired, and Regis turned in time to see a short alien in uniform pull back around the corner. The stormtroopers’ shots smacked into the corner, smoldering harmlessly on the duracrete.

“Little Utai coward!” a stormtrooper growled. “He saw us, Major!”

“We’ll be having company, then,” said Regis. “We need to… ah, here’s our evac!”

Regis’s heart soared at the sight of the Millennium Falcon swinging over the top of the buildings across the canal.

“Is that you, Major?” Lando’s voice came through on the comm. “We’ll have to make this quick, there’s a-”

Before Regis could shout a warning, the violet X-Wing dropped out of the sky like a falling stone. Her blasters shrieked once, and a green bolt smacked against the top of the Falcon. The Stralucitor pulled up and rose, and the Falcon spurted dark smoke and fell in a shower of sparks.

“Take cover!” Regis shouted, grabbing one of his men. “She’s coming right for us!”

The stormtroopers looked on in horror as the Millennium Falcon fell screaming into the canal. A wave of dark sludge erupted as the blasted freighter careened straight toward them.