Loden stood, taking his lightsaber from its holster.

“What is it, Master?”

The Nihil ship took to the air, moving up and away quickly. Loden ignited his blade.

The ship curved in the air, turned, and headed back. Straight for them.

“Are they going to kill her?”

“No,” Loden said. “She was bait. They knew we would stop to help her. They’re going to try to kill us.”

The Nihil starship whipped toward them, ugly and brutish, the three lightning strikes painted on its hull in reflective paint gleaming in the harsh glare of Elphrona’s sun.

“Get behind me, Padawan,” Loden said. “Protect Erika.”

How? Bell thought. That’s a starship.

But he was dutiful. Lacking any other ideas, he placed himself between the Nihil ship and the injured woman, and reached for his lightsaber.

Loden changed his stance, putting himself side-on to the approaching starship. His front knee was bent, and he held his saber hilt in both hands. He looked like a durasteel wall. Unbeatable.

But that’s a starship, Bell thought again.

The Nihil fired, a rain of blasts from their ship lasers. Most went wide—a person was a small target for a starship—but a few were dead-on.

Loden Greatstorm roared, a battle cry echoing out into the empty deadlands of Elphrona. His lightsaber flashed, too fast for Bell to understand what he did, and the laser bolts wicked away. Loden’s feet skidded back, kicking up rust-colored dust, and he grunted, as if he had been hit hard in the stomach by a huge, heavy maul.

He fell to his knees, his saber blade flickering out, as the Nihil ship whipped past overhead.

“Master!” Bell cried.

“I’m…all right,” Loden said. “But…I don’t think I can do that…again.”


Star Wars The High Republic Light of the Jedi Chapter 30