Selecting his point of landing with as much care as he was able, Starkiller came down on the creature's back, close enough to one of the duranium anchors to take hold of it. He braced himself with both feet against the spine, ignoring the way the world was spinning around him. The Gorog didn't know he was there. It wouldn't be expecting an attack from this side.

He took a deep breath, reaching deeper into the Force than he had before. He had never journeyed to the center of a planet, where the molten metal raged and burned under pressure hard enough to make diamond out of dust, but he imagined something much like that. This time, he wanted to do more than just enrage the Gorog. He could feel the web of veins thudding a panicky bear beneath the skin. He concentrated on that beat, on the rapid pulsing of life that would be extinguished when it reached the bottom of the sinkhole. Why wait that long, when Kota's life was at stake as well?

For a moment, he faltered. He had never killed anything this big before.

But it was just one life, and it stood between him and his goal. He had no choice.

Instead of a wild crackle of 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.

Chapter 5