Star Wars

Legacy of the Force

Book 7

Fury

by Aaron Allston

get,OCR,proof : �������� ���� ������ ( Hungry Ewok Gryzley)

uploaded : 17.III.2008

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Acknowledgments



Thanks go to:

Karen Traviss and Troy Denning, my partners in crime;

Shelly Shapiro, Sue Rostoni, Keith Clayton, and Leland Chee, for making things work right;

My Eagle-Eyes (Chris Cassidy, Kelly Frieders, Helen Keier, Beth Loubet, Bob Quinlan, Roxanne Quinlan, and Luray Richmond), for helping keep my errors down to a necessary minimum;

My agent, Russ Galen; and Dr. James Dooner, without whose skill and generosity I might not have retained enough vision to finish this book.



Dramatis Personae



Alema Rar; Jedi Knight (Twi'lek female)

Allana; Hapan princess (human female)

Ben Skywalker; Jedi apprentice (human male)

Denjax Teppler; Corellian Minister of Information (human male)

Genna Delpin; Supreme Commander of the Corellian armed forces (human female)

Han Solo; pilot and firefighter (human male)

Jacen Solo / Darth Caedus; Sith, joint Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance (human male)

Jagged Fel; pilot and hunter (human male)

Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (human female)

Koyan Sadras; Corellian Five Worlds Prime Minister (human male)

Kyle Katarn; Jedi Master (human male)

Kyp Durron; Jedi Master (human male)

Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight (human female)

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (human male)

Syal Antilles; pilot (human female)

Tenel Ka; Hapan Queen Mother (human female)

Toval Seyah; Galactic Alliance scientist-spy (human male)

Tycho Celchu; military analyst (human male)

Valin Horn; Jedi Knight (human male)

Wedge Antilles; pilot (human male)

Zekk; Jedi Knight (human male)



Chapter 1



ABOVE THE PLANET KASHYYYK, ABOARD THE MILLENNIUM FALCON

The Falcon banked over a vision of hell.

Directly below was a roiling surface of blacks and yellows, reds and oranges. Eastward, the carpet of fire gave way to doomed forest. The line between the two zones was an irregular and uncertain one, and even at the distance of a couple of kilometers Han Solo could see individual trees at the border burst into fire, some of them exploding from the heat.

Westward, superheated air rose in a column kilometers in diameter, hauling smoke high into the atmosphere, obscuring the afternoon sun. And it was the smoke column that showed the real danger of the maelstrom. As that column rose, it drew in air from all directions, constantly fanning the fire around it, feeding the voracious beast that burned out of control.

It had once been an unbroken vista of soaring wroshyr trees and other foliage. But a few days earlier, the Star Destroyer Anakin Solo, at the order of Jacen Solo, had directed its long-range turbolasers at the surface of Kashyyyk, concentrating fire to cause square-kilometer patches of forest to explode in flames. These strikes were intended to punish the Wookiees for harboring Jedi and for dragging their feet before committing their forces to Jacen's Galactic Alliance.

Punish they had. The fires had grown into firestorms raging out of control ever since.

The Falcon kicked as she glided over a thermal updraft. Han brought her back to smooth, level flight, cocking his head to hear any sound of a panel dislodge, a bolt kicked free by the unexpected motion, but no new noise was added to the catalog of thousands he knew by heart.

The communications board crackled with Leia's voice. "Sweep complete. I've planted the last beacon."

Han sent the disk-shaped freighter into a bank and descent toward their rendezvous point, about two kilometers outside the fire zone. "Any problems?"

"Nothing but. Had to make some quick repairs on one of the beacons. And I keep having to dodge streams of fleeing animals."

The Falcon bucked harder as a particularly ferocious thermal caught her, and then she was out over unburned forest. The ground was higher here, the trees far shorter-not one of them was over half a kilometer in height. Geological surveys showed that the soil here was too shallow to support full-grown wroshyrs-a subterranean ridge of stone, stunting the trees, would mark the fire's stopping point, in this area at least.

Han checked the comm board, looking for the signal being transmitted by Leia's last beacon, and homed in on it. "Waroo! Stand by on the winch."