Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II by Sean Williams Page B

lightning, he discharged a single pure bolt into the metal anchor, stabbing deep through the creature’s chest into its heart.
    Its back arched. A strange, fluting cry emerged from its mouth. Starkiller rode out the spasm, maintaining the electric shock for as long as he was able. Muscular waves rolled back and forth, twisting him from side to side. It felt like a groundquake-a fleshquake on a planer-sized monster.
    The pulsing coming through the soles of his boots ran wild, faltered, ceased.
    He sagged as the mountain of flesh finally grew still. The fight was over, but darkness enfolded them as they entered the mouth of the sinkhole and went into free fall.
    Starkiller used rough pits in the creature’s skin to pull himself up to the shoulder, then down the limp arm that had held Kota captive. The general was clinging to the slackened thumb, head cocked as though he could see the sinkhole walls sliding by. He shouted a greeting over the sound of the rushing wind.
    “I hope you’ve got a way out of this, boy. “
    Starkiller put an arm around Kota’s shoulders. Together they leapt off the Gorog’s hand. Starkiller could slow their fall somewhat, but he couldn’t fly. The beast fell ahead of them. Maybe, he hoped against hope, it would go some way toward arresting their impact.
    “If you’re wearing a comlink, ” Kota said, “hand it over. “
    Starkiller did so, even though that was as faint a hope as his own. “The whole city’s jammed. “
    Kota punched keys on the comlink. “Let’s hope she can reach us in time. “
    Starkiller’s heart quickened. She?
    He glanced down into the shadow, wondering how deep the sinkhole could possibly be. Above, he saw only the shrinking circle of cityscape. He stared until it was occluded by something solid. He thought he recognized the silhouette. The roar of a starship’s engines echoed down the sinkhole, as the familiar angles and planes of the Rogue Shadow dived down toward them, and then overtook them so it could intercept them from below.
    Though Starkiller pushed down against the starship’s hull with the Force to cushion their fall, they still hit the surface hard. Starkiller blinked away stars and groaned under the return of gravity.
    Kota was faring no better, clutching his shoulder and struggling to sit up. A hatch popped open nearby, and the old man waved the younger man ahead of him.
    Starkiller was already moving. His entire being thrilled at the certainty that Juno was here at last. He could practically see her already, waiting at the controls for him to arrive, ready with some quip about being late to his own funeral.
    He dropped down through the hatch and ran breathlessly to the cockpit.
    “Juno!”
    He stopped dead. The cockpit was empty. All he heard in reply was a ghost of her voice, speaking from the depths of his memory.
    “Please don’t make me leave another life behind.”

CHAPTER 6
    One day earlier…
    Juno took one last look at the fluted domes of Heurkea a floating city, before diving under the waves. Its shell-like buildings gleamed red and gold by the light of Mon Calamari system’s primary, looking more like something grown than built-much like the coral of Mester Reef beneath her. None of the reef protruded above the water, and she was submerged up to her waist, buffeted by the alien sea as she stared at the city. She wanted something beautiful to hold in her mind before entrusting her life to air that stank of rotten rubber.
    Ackbar ducked under without hesitation, followed a second later by Bail Organa, who had donned an old clone subtrooper breathing apparatus like hers. In a wet suit and mismatching white helmet he looked about as ridiculous as Juno felt. For the first time she didn’t worry that her weapons would be sealed in their packs until they emerged at the other end. If anyone saw them climbing out of the water at the far end, they would certainly not regard them as any kind of threat.
    The Quarren were already underwater.