“Lula,” he said, blocking two more shots and stepping backward. “Zeen.”
“What do you need?” Zeen was ducking behind a support beam, taking
shots whenever she could through the Drengir’s branches.
“I need you both to cover me, ’kay?”
They both nodded, ready.
“Drengir!” Ram yelled.
“Meat?”
“Meat speaks!”
“What says meat?”
Ram tried to add a commanding tone to his voice, one that sounded like
he knew what he was doing. “I know you’re mad! I need you to focus that
anger. Specifically on the orange flier and single-pilot bomber, and those two
Z-trawlers shooting at us. And the Cumberjumper and that, whatever that
rusty thing is—can you handle those? Just keep them still!”
Ram swatted away another shot as the plant creatures conferred with each
other. His arms were aching, and he felt like his mind was on fire.
“When?” came the grumbly reply.
“NOW!” Ram yelled.
Zeen holstered her blasters, took the lightsaber Ram held out to her, and
stood at the ready. Beside her, Lula batted away a couple of bursts.
The vines and leaves rustled, then quaked. Then, with a sudden
wrenching and crashing, branches shot outward on all sides, blasting through
windscreens and wrapping around landing gear and heating ducts.
All the Nihil ships around them shuddered, trapped in place.
Ram closed his eyes and reached out with the Force.
He would see the whole for the whole, each part for the role it played. He
flinched as another shot slammed into the steel nearby him, sending cruel
quakes through his bones. He would see the whole for the whole, each part
for the role it played. He adjusted his stance and reached out again, harder
this time, wider.
There! He felt each whirring machine around him, felt the Force move
through him.
The whole for the whole, each part for the role it plays.
He reached into the orange flier and wreaked tiny havoc on its circuitry,
engine valves, exhaust systems. He could feel the pieces click into place
around him, remembered each one from his grease-stained handbooks.
Wrecking things was so much easier than putting them back together!
The Cumberjumper started fizzling and smoking as soon as he used the
Force to crunch its exhaust pipe shut. The flier was already spiraling toward
the ground, the pilot jumping out with a shriek.
The bomber was more complicated, and as soon as he tapped into it, he
could feel the craft start to shudder free of the Drengir’s grasp. It wasn’t
moving yet, though! The landing gear was tucked away beneath huge metal
plates, but wrecking those wouldn’t help much. Just above them, Ram knew
there should be an intricate circuit board that kept the main engines running,
yep, and beside it the fuel tank—a fuel tank, Ram realized, calibrated to
maintain a certain degree of pressure, since that class of bomber ran on
zylium 12, which would solidify if not kept under the exact right atmospheric
specifications!
That’d do it.
He reached with his mind toward the tank, then shoved outward with the
Force. Immediately, the zylium 12 tightened into itself, and then the whole
tank burst outward with a sharp bang, frying the circuit board instantly.
The bomber reared backward and then hurtled toward the trees.
The clunker was already wrenching free from the Drengir’s viney grasp
when Ram got to it. His eyes flew open to see the ship’s front cannons
exploding to life directly at him, and then…with a fwooosh, two lightsabers
crossed in front of him—Lula’s and his own. The laser barrage zinged away
into the sky, and the two girls ran in opposite directions, each along a length
of Drengir branch.
They moved like they were extensions of the same person—not a word
exchanged. Lula leapt off one of the trawlers, which was too busy trying to
free itself from the Drengir’s death grip to even notice, and Zeen the other.
They met halfway across, in the air just above the clunker, and both
dropped down, lightsabers extended. Within seconds, the ancient ship was
reduced to a flaming wreck. Lula and Zeen leapt off together just as it began
a steep plummet toward the ground.
“MEATS!” the Drengir roared. Explosions burst out of one of the
trawlers. It spun backward, firing in chaotic bursts, before a single vine
wrapped around its turrets and sent it smashing into a tree.
“Whoa!” Ram yelled as Zeen and Lula landed on the platform in front of
him.

Star Wars The High Republic Race to Crashpoint Tower Chapter 23