[LotS] Combats and avoids several hundreds of Lyleks

Vader sensed it, a hostile, hungry wave coursing toward them through the thick forest. The Royal Guards broke through the tree line at a full run, blaster rifles hanging from their hands. The sergeant had lost his helmet, and his eyes were wide and white in the mask of his tattoos. The ground vibrated slightly, and the foliage behind them shook as whatever was in pursuit charged hard after them. The captain stumbled as he ran but managed to keep his feet. He waved for Vader and the Emperor to retreat.

"Run, my lords!" the captain shouted, his voice muffled by his helmet. "We need a more defensible position!"

"Defensible from what?" Vader asked, igniting his lightsaber.

"Lyleks, my lord! More than-"

Vader heard them then, the insectoid clicking and hissing of Ryloth's apex predator carried on the wind. From the sound he judged there to be a dozen or so of the huge creatures, all tearing through the forest and closing fast.

"Lyleks," the Emperor said. "Interesting."

"My lords!" the captain said as he reached them, gasping. "They'll be on us in moments! We should move!"

Deez aimed his blaster rifle back at the trees. "Seconds only, Captain," he said tensely.

Vader activated his saber and took position beside the Emperor. Seeing this, the sergeant and the captain stood near the Emperor, too, rifles ready. They didn't have long to wait.

The lyleks burst through the trees, huge insectoid creatures that bounding over logs, the pair of tentacles near their mandibles squirming. Seeing Vader, the Emperor, and the guards, they hissed and rushed forward.

The guards fired, their rifles writing red streaks in the air. The bolts struck the lyleks but bounced off their carapaces, deflecting into the trees.

Vader raised his hand, seized one of the leading lyleks with the Force, and flung it sideways into the trees. It struck a tree trunk as thick around as a man, and its ridged, spiked carapace cracked open, leaving it squirming helplessly at the base of the tree.

Beside Vader, his Master gestured with both hands and jagged lines of Force lightning shot forth, striking two of the foremost lyleks, lifting the creatures from the ground and driving them backward, tumbling, hissing, screaming in agony, dying.

When his Master ended the lightning, he drew his lightsaber and he and Vader moved forward as one, each protecting the other as they twisted and spun out of the way of the lyleks' tentacles and snapping mandibles, slashing and severing legs, tentacles, heads. In moments the forest was still and Vader and his Master stood back-to-back in the midst of the carnage. Both deactivated their weapons. The sergeant and the captain simply stared at them, their blaster rifles hanging uselessly from their gloved hands.

The Emperor cocked his head, as though hearing something from far away. "There are more."

Alerted, Vader attuned himself to the Force. He felt them coming.

"Many more," his Master said.

"This terrain is poor for a stand against so many, Master," Vader said, feeling the lylek horde draw closer. A rushing sound came from the forest, like an incoming tide. "There are hundreds," he added, hearing the snapping of limbs, the hisses of the lyleks, the insectoid chittering. "At least."

"Agreed," the Emperor said absently, his voice as calm as still water. "Let's find a more suitable spot to face these creatures, Captain."

The captain sagged with relief. "Yes, my lord. Follow me." To Deez, he said, "Take the rear, Sergeant."

With that the captain turned and bolted through the forest, leaping logs and skirting tree trunks. Vader deactivated his lightsaber, and he and his Master kept pace. Vader noticed that the forest had quieted around them. There was only his breathing and the distant clicking and chittering of the pursuing horde, the snapping of wood, the low rumble of the lyleks' collective tread. They were gaining.

"I don't see any of them yet," Deez said.

"They're still coming," Vader said. He presumed the lyleks could smell them somehow, or had a keen sense of hearing, or used some other sense to hunt.

The four men broke into a clearing covered in low grass and brush and dashed across it. The exhausted breathing of the Royal Guards now sounded as loud to Vader as his respirator. He still felt the lyleks behind them, their numbers growing as their bloodlust drew more of their kind. He imagined a horde could clear the fauna from a few square miles of forest.

"Hurry, my lords!" the captain said.

They'd almost crossed the clearing by the time the lyleks broke through the tree line behind them.

"There they are!" Deez said.

Vader spared a glance back to see that two score lyleks at least had burst out of the trees, a clicking wall of spiked exoskeletons, tentacles, and mammoth jaws. More followed, more, the horde boiling out of the trees. They clambered over one another in their hunger, a tangle of limbs and claws and clicks.

The creatures saw them right away, of course, and uttered a collective hiss and eager clicking. Their thick limbs and great weight threw up chunks of soil and dirt as they lumbered across the clearing. The four men reached the tree line on the opposite side of the clearing and plunged once more into the tangle of trunks and roots.

"Look for a cliff or a tunnel," Vader said calmly. "A place where we can channel their attack."

"They're closing!" Deez cried, looking back. He fired behind him with his blaster rifle. "Shots bounce off the carapaces!"

The Emperor gestured with a free hand, using the Force to topple trees. They fell into the horde, crushing lyleks, knocking down other trees that crushed still more. The survivors clambered over the dead without pausing, continuing their frenetic pursuit.

The captain drew one of the grenades he carried, activated it, and tossed it behind them at the horde. It exploded a couple of seconds later, the boom reverberating through the forest, toppling another tree, and causing shrieks of pain among the lyleks.

"Go right, Captain," the Emperor said. "One hundred meters from here there is a tunnel."

The captain did not question, though Vader wondered how his Master knew. The captain angled right as the lyleks closed from behind, their huge bodies snapping trees as they came. The distance between the four men and the horde shrank, and both guards fired their rifles one-handed as they ran, the shots blowing off parts of tree trunks and striking lyleks but not slowing the overall advance of the horde.

They reached a steep ravine and the guards started down the side, stumbling and grabbing at roots to stay upright as they descended. Vader and the Emperor leapt down from the top. A creek bisected the ravine; the opposite side was a steep wall of rocks and tree roots and soil that extended as far as they could see to the left and right. The lyleks were still coming.

"Where, my Emperor?" the captain asked. "I don't see a tunnel anywhere."

The lead lyleks from the horde poured over the side of the ravine, long limbs digging into the soil, tentacles grabbing at branches and roots as they scrambled down.

Vader activated his lightsaber and stood beside the Emperor, eyeing the side of the ravine for the tunnel. Meanwhile the captain and Deez shot at everything that moved, their blasterfire lighting up the darkness. Lyleks hissed and chittered.

"Heads!" Deez exclaimed as he fired. "A head shot puts them down!"

More lyleks came over the side, more, until they looked like a seething avalanche tumbling down the hill.

"There!" Vader said, finally spotting the opening, a dark oval low on the face of the valley wall, perhaps two meters tall, and partially blocked by exposed tree roots as thick as an arm.

"Go, Sergeant," the captain said to Deez as they all backpedaled quickly toward the tunnel entrance. "Then the Emperor, then Lord Vader. I bring up the rear. Go!"

The lyleks rolled toward them, clambering over one another as they came, the pedipalps at either side of their large mouths waving spasmodically, as if already shoveling flesh into their jaws. Half a dozen lylek carcasses hung in the roots along the side of the ravine, but the rest kept coming.

The captain's blaster rifle dropped one with a shot to the head, then another, but the creatures just kept pounding forward. Ten or more had reached the ravine's bottom and clambered wildly toward the men, tentacles squirming, jaws working.

Vader raised a hand, fell into the Force, and loosed a blast of power that slammed into the lyleks on the ravine's floor, driving them backward, partially back up the ravine's side, and into those that came behind, turning the creatures' advance into a chaotic scramble of limbs and agitated clicking. They tore at one another in their frustrated frenzy.

Deez ducked into the darkness of the tunnel, followed by the Emperor, followed by Vader, who deactivated his lightsaber, and finally by the captain, who backed in, still firing as he retreated. The tunnel, as black as pitch, went back only a meter before opening into a large cavern that had openings to the left and right and center.

"The hillside must be honeycombed with these!" Deez said.

"Keep going!" the captain said over his shoulder, still firing out through the mouth of the tunnel. "Move, move!"

"No," Vader said, reigniting his lightsaber. "This is where we stand."

There was movement in the growth at the tunnel's mouth, and then a lylek lurched through, snapping roots, all teeth and hisses, only half a meter from the captain. Vader pushed the captain aside, bounded forward, and drove the blade of his lightsaber into the creature's mouth and out the top of its head. The huge carcass collapsed. Behind it, dozens more lyleks scrambled to get in around their fallen fellow. Vader bowed his head, raised his hand, and loosed a blast of power, eliciting squeals of pain and sending the lyleks flying backward.

"Back away," the Emperor commanded, and Vader and the captain fell back.

The Emperor gestured casually, and the tunnel's ceiling came down in a shower of rock and dirt. The sound of frustrated hisses and roars carried through the rubble. The four men stood in the light of Vader's lightsaber. He deactivated it, casting them in darkness. The captain turned on his helmet lights.

"Listen," Deez said, cocking his head. "I think something is down there." He nodded at the left-hand tunnel.

Vader reached out with the Force, felt the lyleks coming at them down the side tunnel.

"You're correct, Sergeant," he said.

"We shouldn't make our stand here, my lords," said the captain. "They'll be coming at us from both directions."

The lyleks were getting closer, their clicks and hisses growing louder. Deez pulled one of the grenades he carried. Vader grabbed him by the wrist to stop him.

"You could collapse the tunnels," he said.

Deez looked embarrassed. "Right. Of course, Lord Vader."

"Please, my Emperor," said the captain, gesturing down the central tunnel.

"He's right, Master," said Vader. "We should continue."

"Agreed," the Emperor said, and they turned and hurried into the winding central tunnel, which sloped downward, widening as they went. They'd covered maybe two hundred meters, moving ever deeper underground, when they heard the first sounds of the lyleks' pursuit coming from behind them. Rock formations dotted the floor and thick clumps of crystal hung from the ceiling of the tunnel, but there was nothing that would have made for a defensible pocket. The chitters and hisses bounced off the stone, seeming to race ahead of them.

"They're faster than us in this terrain," Deez said. "We're going to have to turn and fight."

As the lyleks closed on them, the tunnel seemed to hum under the force of their tread. Soon Vader could hear the clatter of their exoskeletons as they ran over the stone.

"They are almost upon us," he said. The captain fell back, taking station with Deez at the rear, between the Emperor and the horde. Vader ignited his lightsaber to provide at least some additional light.

"Here they come!" the captain said, and started firing wild one-handed shots over his shoulder.

"I see them!" said Deez, and started firing, too.

Lyleks squealed and hissed.

"You may use your grenades," Vader said. The cavern was wide enough to endure the blast without collapsing.

Both guards immediately activated and tossed grenades; five seconds later the tunnel behind them reverberated with the sound of the explosions, lylek screams, and the rumble of falling stone. The blast wave roared from the confines of the tunnel. Vader and the Emperor used the Force to deflect the bulk of the wave from them, but the power of it drove the two Royal Guards face-first into the floor, their armor scraping along the stone.

Vader turned and used the Force to lift both guards to their feet. Deez was bleeding from the nose and looked stunned.

"We won't slow for you again," Vader said. "The horde is still coming."

As if to make his point, the sounds of the pursuing lyleks rose up from behind, clicking, hisses, and squeals.

Vader took position beside his Master as the four of them continued down the tunnel. He sought a place where they could stop and hold their ground, but the tunnel went on and on, not narrowing, with its downward slope diving ever deeper into the planet.

Drawing on the Force as he ran, he gestured at the ceiling and took hold of several large chunks of crystal stalactites. He rocked them loose with his power, then let them dangle there, waiting for the vibration of the passing horde to cause them to fall.

The tunnel wound left and right as they descended, but Vader saw no side tunnels. Just the single tube continuing to burrow into Ryloth's crust.

From behind came the boom of falling rock-the crystals Vader had loosened-and the squeals of crushed lyleks. Yet still they came, the horde seemingly unbreakable. And they were still closing.

At the end of a long, sloped straightaway, Vader let the rest of the group run on while he stopped to look back. His helmet reflected the meager light projected by his lightsaber and he saw the horde enter the far end of the tunnel, an ocean of legs, tentacles, and mandibles, saw them scrabble over and around the stalagmites that dotted the floor. The beat of their armored, pointed legs put small pits in the stone. Some of them clambered along the walls like giant arachnids, coating the surface of the tunnel behind them. Their tentacles waved as they scurried, jaws working as if already masticating flesh. Vader could not escape the feeling that he was being steered, perhaps by the lyleks, or perhaps by his Master.

He fell deeply into the Force and loosed a wave of power from his outstretched hand that filled the circumference of the tunnel. The blast slammed into the charging horde, cracking exoskeletons, shattering stalagmites, and driving a score or more of the lyleks in the lead backward in a shower of broken bodies and broken stone. They squealed and chittered and flailed, and the lyleks following after scrambled over the fallen and wounded, their eyes fixed on Vader.

Vader was prepared to meet them all, slaughter every one of them then and there, but his Master's voice from up the tunnel pulled him around.

"Come, Lord Vader!"

He deactivated his lightsaber, turned, and hurried forward, using the Force to augment his speed and catch up with the other three.

"What happened?" Deez asked, but Vader ignored him. When he reached his Master's side, he voiced his thoughts.

"Yes," the Emperor agreed. "The beasts are herding us-unintentionally, I think."

"Herding us to where?" Vader asked.

"We'll soon know," the Emperor said. "I think we should prepare ourselves."

They hustled through the tunnel, which had finally started to narrow.

"There's light ahead," the captain said. "Look!"

Vader saw it, a dim, green glow coming through a circular opening about a meter and a half in diameter. Soon the tunnel gave way to a large cavern thirty meters across, a hemispherical cyst in the planet. They stood in the opening, five meters up on the wall of the cyst. Clusters of glowing crystal sprouted from the walls and floor-the source of the ambient light.

Hundreds of lyleks milled about on the floor of the cyst, all of them tending what Vader assumed to be the queen of the colony, a lylek with a bloated abdomen three times the size of the rest. Large, gray, leathery-looking sacs adhered to the walls in clumps of ten or twenty here and there-egg sacs. A dozen or more tunnel openings dotted the walls and ceiling, all of them about the same size as that in which the four men stood. For a moment no one spoke, and the only sound in the tunnel was the labored breathing of the guards and Vader's respirator.

The queen lylek noticed them then. She swung her huge head in their direction, fixed her eyes on them, and hissed in alarm, the sound bouncing off the walls of the cavern, echoing. The rest of the lyleks in the cavern turned toward them, too, their movement causing a collective clicking. They hissed as one, their tentacles squirming in agitation. Down the tunnel behind the men, the pursuing lyleks continued to close.

"And now we know to where we were being herded," the Emperor said.

Vader turned to Deez and the captain. "You two are to hold as long as you can here."

The captain stiffened. "We will stay with our Emperor."

"Do as Lord Vader commands," the Emperor said.

"What are you going to do then?" Deez asked while he and the captain took grenades in hand, activated them, and waited for the pursuing lyleks to appear.

"We're going kill them all," Vader said, igniting his lightsaber.

The Emperor cackled, drew his own lightsaber, and activated the red blade.