Free Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne

silica and mineral content in the soils have resulted in some fascinating crystal structures that another division may exploit, but we are concerned with how those conditions have manifested themselves in the wildlife. Many of the herbivores, for example, have extraordinary crystalline spikes or horns growing around their heads, or, like a tortoise, have the ability to withdraw their heads into a highly armored body cavity.” A series of stills began to flash in the holo in place of Fayet, though he kept narrating. The creatures all had heavy, nightmarish heads of spines and other protuberances and long bodies with tails to balance out the weight. “This tendency for natural armor often goes midway down the back but does not apply to limbs or the lower torso. Bellies are unprotected. We even found this head-and-shoulder armor on display among the predators, which we thought highly curious. What environmental threat on Fex posed such a danger to heads that herbivores and carnivores alike evolved these extreme defenses? We hypothesized that there must exist some sort of arboreal or even aerial apex predator that attacked the head of anything it came across, and thus our first collection crew was sent out with armor suits, as well—but not nearly as strong as that which you currently have. That first crew, unfortunately, discovered why such headgear is necessary. Three were scouting and collecting development leads on the moon while their ship,the
Harvester
, orbited above. I will now play back a vid of their deaths, which they themselves recorded from their helmets.”
    “Um,” I said, “are we going to see a decapitation?”
    “I don’t know,” Nakari whispered.
    The holo shifted to helmet footage of a Bith in full armor walking through the Fexian forest. He wore a giant helmet to cover his fleshy, bulbous head, and when he turned briefly to check on his partners, his black eyes could be seen through his faceplate. He was leading the person with the cam and talking about what he was seeing, his alien speech overdubbed with a monotone translation in Basic that conveyed none of the excitement—and later panic—that he obviously felt. Our view switched to his feed, presumably, since the Bith disappeared and we saw nothing but the forest ahead and the quality of the sound changed from a comm crackle to a muffled internal echo like one often hears in the confines of a helmet.
    “The crystalline flowers we’ve seen are valuable just as they are for the jewelry trade, before we put them under a microscope for medical use,” he said. “And—” An impact to his head shook the cam. “Auggh! Chobb’s knob! What was that?”
    The holo switched back to the original view, where we could see the Bith ducking and shaking his head and slapping at the top of it. Odd how he never actually made contact with his helmet, and his hands came away pricked with blood.
    “
Gaahh!
Something’s on my head! Get it off!”
    “What? Where?” The owner of the first helmet cam spoke. “I don’t see anything!”
    “Right on top! I think it’s trying to get through! Hurry!
Aghk!
”
    The Bith suddenly ceased moving—or rather, I should say he ceased struggling, for his arms fell limp at his sides and he collapsed face-first to the ground, dead of completely mysterious causes. There was nothing visible attached to his head.
    “What in five bloody—” the first speaker began, and then hishelmet rocked as well. “Aw, no! No! What is it? Hafner, stun me, quick! Stun my head, and Priban’s, too!” The view swung around to reveal a third member of the party, a green-skinned Duros with wide, terrified red eyes behind his visor.
    “What? I don’t understand.” The view switched to the cam of the Duros named Hafner, as he watched the original speaker, a human male, gesturing madly at him. Beyond the human, we could see Priban’s still body on the forest floor.
    “Stun me now or I’m just as dead as Priban! Do it!”
    Hafner’s cam