Taking only a breif detour to gather a survival pack from the ship's supplies, Arai hurried to the rear of the ship. If what she had read in her research on the Yuuzhan Vong was right, she did not want to be here when the Vong showed up.
Coming to stand beside Jade, she handed the pack off to the other woman.
" I'll go look around to make sure it's clear."
Not waiting for an answer, she descended the ramp and into the desolate waste that was now Nal Hutta. A gust of wind blew a cloud of ash across the blackened soil and a strong pity for the inhabitants of the planet suddenly filled her.
She had read various accounts of planets under Yuuzhan Vong occupation, but nothing in the reports prepared her for this. Everything was gone. The sky was dark, the sun of the sytem barely able to penetrate the thick layers of smoke and ash that filled the planet's atmosphere. Off in the distance she could hear the thundering echo of explosions and fainter sound of blaster fire. Somewhere, someone was fighting back.
And they were going to lose.
She had moved out from the ship, only a dozen meters or so, when a noise closer to her position drew her attention. As she rounded a mound of soot and ash she could see a huminoid figure standing less than a hundred meters from her. Even when she narrowed her eyes she could not see clearly what was going on.
Despite her better judgement she found herself drawing on the Force, stopping any sound around her. In utter silence she approached the huminoid, warry of any sudden evidence that he-or she- had noticed her.
It became obvious to her after only a few steps that the huminoid was preoccupied with something at his feet. His voice screamed out into the Nal Hutta sky, the tell-tale language of the Yuuzhan Vong cursing at what lay at his feet. She could not understand what was being said, but the intensity of the words were enough to send a shiver through her spine.
She stopped beside a waist high boulder, standing a mere twenty meters from the scene that now stole her breath. The huminoid was ravaging a silver chromed protocol droid, kicking and stabbing at it with his menacing weapon. She flinched when the helpless droid was picked up and slammed back into the ground, again and again.
The pity she had felt for Nal Hutta faded only to be replaced by anger and rage. In the bubble of silence created around her, she removed the borrowed Lightsaber from her belt and ignited it. The orange light of the blade glowed softly as she continued toward the huminoid.
