by Timothy Zahn
Vader hardly noticed. His full focus was on the sensations coming steadily nearer; the swirl of thoughts and emotions, the mixture of hopes and fears, all of it rippling across space through the prisoners’ Force sensitivity.
And through it all wove The Jedi’s memories…and the simmering anger that Vader should have long ago recognized what the Emperor’s disturbance truly was.
Vader hadn’t seen this before. But The Jedi had. A long time ago; but he had already seen it.
The secret entrance into the factory was narrow and cramped. Vader didn’t even slow down, but slashed out a larger opening with his lightsaber as he strode through it. Two of his stormtroopers—Commander Kimmund and Sergeant Viq—slipped around in front of him as the stormtroopers filed into the service level, the two of them moving into vanguard positions ahead of Vader and the rest of the squad.
There were no defenses or other hindrances down here. Not that Vader was expecting any. The Separatists whom The Jedi had faced had sealed the east wing against intrusion from this direction, and the Grysks had undoubtedly confirmed the security of that protection when they moved in.
That the enemy were in the east wing was not in question. Vader could sense the Chiss minds, now lying directly ahead of him.
The same sense that The Jedi had felt aboard Thrawn’s ship at that first meeting over Batuu.
A pilot, Thrawn had identified her back then. But it was clear now that there was far more involved. These Chiss were Force-sensitive, and most likely Force-users as well.
Was that what Thrawn and the Emperor were being so secretive about in their private talks together? Were there Chiss Jedi in the Unknown Regions? Were they perhaps one of the threats Thrawn had warned the Emperor about at their first meeting, a threat that they were discussing together? Was the war against the Jedi, so long and so very, very painfully won, about to begin all over again?
Or could it be that the Chiss Force-sensitives were Sith?
That could be even more disastrous. The Rule of Two was all that had saved the Republic’s Sith from the level of internal warfare that could have brought about total self-destruction. Was there an echo of that same warfare going on even now on the Chiss worlds?
Vader frowned, a sudden realization breaking his train of thought. Earlier, when the Darkhawk landed near the river, he had sensed eight Chiss minds in the old factory. Now, somehow, the swirl of thoughts had diminished.
And the minds that were left had changed to the overpowering terror he’d felt back on Batuu.
The Grysks were putting them back into hibernation chambers. Or worse.
“Ahead,” he ordered the stormtroopers, picking up his pace. Whoever these Chiss were—whatever they were—he’d promised Thrawn he would bring them back. And no group of Grysk soldiers was going to stop him.
* * *
—
The dry riverbed had been exactly as Lord Vader described it to Kimmund and the other stormtroopers. So was the entrance to the sublevel, and the sublevel itself.
Clearly, the Grysk interrogation had gone well.
Of course, if Vader was right about all this, he was probably right about their east wing target area being loaded with machinery and other large objects the enemy could hide behind. Kimmund had been in enough urban combat missions to know those were among the most dangerous a stormtrooper could face.
His troops would see it through, of course, and they would succeed. How many of them Kimmund lost along the way would largely depend on how well Vader had anticipated their opponents, and whether the secret weapon Podiry and Tephan were lugging behind them functioned as well as Vader had said it would.
Hopefully, none of the aircars that had buzzed them earlier had had the necessary sensors for peeking into the coffin-sized box. Secret weapons never worked as well when the enemy knew they were coming.
The trapdoor that was their goal was just ahead, its ladder still sticking out of a plug of permacrete that had been sealed around it. At an order from Vader, Kimmund and Viq stepped to either side to let him pass, then watched as he ignited his lightsaber and stabbed upward into the material, digging a circle into and through it. He finished his cut, holding the plug in place long enough to move out of its way before releasing it to crash to the ground.
The ladder still hung precariously at the edge of the hole. But Vader clearly wasn’t in the mood to do this the slow way. Kimmund felt something invisible wrap around him, and a second later found himself flying upward through the hole. He got a glimpse of dark, half-ruined equipment and storage boxes scattered around a large, high-ceilinged room—
He jerked sideways as a last-second twitch by Vader sent him past the opening and dropped him onto solid floor. He keyed in his scanners, noting at least a dozen hot spots of hidden enemies as Viq flew up and landed on the other side of the hole.
And as Dorstren flew up behind them, his heavy DLT-19 cradled in his arms, and landed beside Viq, the entire room erupted into a blaze of blue-edged lightning bolts.
Kimmund ducked to the side, feeling a sudden tingling in his skin as one of the bolts barely missed him. A second later he staggered off balance as something small and hard slammed into his armor. No idea where the projectile shot had come from; the lightning weapon, in contrast, marked a clear path back to the gunner. Kimmund sent a volley of blasterfire to that point as another lightning bolt lashed out, this one targeting Viq. Kimmund shifted his aim toward that shot’s origin and again returned fire.
That latter shot went wide as another pair of impacts jolted against his chest and shoulder. Some kind of pellet weapons, apparently, which the First Legion’s armor was fortunately strong enough to block.
He snarled under his breath. Whoever was running the defense here knew what he was doing. The lightning weapons were hard to aim, but had the capacity to do serious damage if they hit. The pellet guns didn’t do much damage, but they came out of nowhere and could keep the stormtroopers off balance, impeding their ability to stay clear of the more dangerous weapons. In addition, the lightning flashes briefly overloaded the stormtroopers’ targeting sensors, making the pellet gunners that much harder to spot and eliminate. Out of the corner of his eye Kimmund saw Morrtic fly up into view, her BlasTech E-11 blindly spattering cover fire everywhere she could reach. She hit the floor, shifting her blasterfire to another of the lightning-gun nests—
And then, with a dramatic flourish that never failed to send a shiver up Kimmund’s back, he was there.
Instantly the weapons shifted aim. But to no avail. The black armor shrugged off the lightning flashes with ease, and Kimmund could barely see the small twitches caused by the pellet impacts. The figure strode forward like something out of dark myth, heading toward the nearest pile of rusted machinery, a spot Kimmund’s sensors had tagged as the hiding place of at least four of the attackers. With the Grysk focus distracted, the other stormtroopers were emerging from the opening, adding their firepower to the battle. A final burst of lightning lashed out—
From dark shadows far to the rear of the main battle floor, half a dozen clouds of insects burst into view.
The figure stopped, lightsaber raised, as if daring the insects to attack. For a couple of seconds they buzzed almost aimlessly; and then, as if at a silent order, they swarmed forward.
Kimmund smiled tightly behind his faceplate. Once again, Lord Vader had called it. The Grysks were going with the same attack plan they’d used on Batuu: swarms of insects, directed by invisible controllers, carrying loads of immobilizing liquid stone. Layered with the pellet guns and the lightning weapons, it was a strategy the aliens probably assumed was unbeatable.
Only they’d forgotten something. They’d forgotten that this time there was a squad of stormtroopers along. Stormtroopers who were good at evasion and counterattack. Stormtroopers who also had enhanced sensors in their helmets.
Stormtroopers wh
o had known this exact moment would be coming.
“Viq?” Kimmund called into his comm.
“Got ’em,” Viq said with dark amusement. “Feeding coordinates now.”
The first wave of insects reached their target, and the glistening black armor erupted in multiple splotches of gray as the insects delivered their payloads and died. On Kimmund’s heads-up display six hazy red marks appeared, the locations where the swarms had appeared—seemingly from nowhere. “Targets marked,” he said. “Take them.”
The entire chamber lit up as the stormtroopers opened fire, concentrating everything on the cloaked Grysks.
The insects didn’t care, of course. They continued their mindless attack even as their masters abruptly became visible, choked or screamed or snarled, and died. The pellet guns belatedly opened fire again, but the lightning blasts remained silent, their owners no doubt reluctant to shoot through the swarms and possibly undermine the insects’ attack.
Not that there was much need to worry on that score. By now almost the entire suit of armor was covered in gray, with each successive wave adding new layers, to the point where it was barely even human-shaped. Only the lightsaber remained untouched, the blade frozen in place as it blazed uselessly toward the ceiling.
The final wave of insects splattered themselves and died. Kimmund looked carefully around, feeling the impacts of the pellets, knowing that the lightning guns would soon open fire again. With the stormtroopers pinned down, and the greatest threat fully encased in stone, the Grysks no doubt felt confident of victory.
They’d forgotten that Vader had already seen their attack. They’d perhaps not realized that the Dark Lord was himself a master tactician.
And they’d probably never known that Vader had two full sets of armor.
The lightning guns were beginning to open fire once more when the Dark Lord of the Sith appeared from below, for real this time. He stepped forward, calling his lightsaber to him from the now loosened grip of the hollow suit of armor that he’d walked so convincingly across the chamber and into the Grysks’ trap.
Someone hidden among the machinery gave a startled-sounding shout. But it was too late. Even as the lightning weapons shifted their full fury to Vader, he strode toward them, deflecting the bolts into the ceiling as he used the Force to twist their weapons off target, hurling his lightsaber to bring down sections of machinery onto the enemy, grabbing anyone who came into view and throwing them into the rapidly diminishing number of lightning bolts.
“Find the prisoners,” Vader’s voice came through Kimmund’s headset.
“Yes, Lord Vader,” Kimmund said, rising from his crouch and looking around. Off to his right, tucked away behind another wall of rusting machinery, were a handful of hot spots. Keeping one eye on the battle, making sure the rest of his squad was doing their job of laying down cover fire, he headed toward the hot spot, beckoning to Viq and Elebe to join him as he passed them. He motioned them to head to the far side of the hiding place, waited until they were in position, then stepped around his side.
And felt his eyes widen. Crouched down on their haunches in defensive positions, their lightning guns pointed in opposite directions to cover both approaches, were a pair of Grysks. Sitting hunched together between them, their faces rigid with fear and horror, were the prisoners.
Five young Chiss girls.
Chiss? Children?
A tiny corner of Kimmund’s mind noted that it would have been nice for Vader to have at least given them a bit of warning. But First Legion stormtroopers didn’t let something as simple as the unexpected deflect them from their battle plan. “Don’t shoot!” he called, stopping and raising his E-11 to point at the ceiling. “Don’t shoot!”
The Grysk facing him swung his lightning gun onto the target. The enemy facing the other way glanced reflexively over his shoulder in response to the sudden shout.
Neither had time to do anything else before Viq and Elebe appeared around the opposite corner and coolly put a single shot each into each Grysk’s skull.
“It’s all right,” Kimmund said, keeping his E-11 pointed away from the children as he hurried toward them. They were gazing up at him, their blue-skinned faces pinched with fear, their glowing red eyes narrowed, their bodies flinching back against the machinery behind them. One of them, perhaps braver than the others, lifted a tentative finger to point at something across from them.
Kimmund looked that direction, feeling his stomach tighten. Nestled beneath an overhang of old machinery were more familiar devices: eight hibernation tubes like the ones Vader and Thrawn had retrieved from Batuu. Three seemed to be active, which probably explained why there were five children still sitting here instead of the eight prisoners Vader had said might be present.
“Do you have them?” Vader’s voice came through his helmet speaker.
“Yes, my lord,” Kimmund confirmed. “Five Chiss children. There may be three more in hibernation chambers.”
“Good,” Vader said. There was no hint of surprise in his voice, Kimmund noted. At least he’d known what they’d come here for. “Prepare them for travel,” Vader ordered. “Are the courtyard defenses you detected on our approach still active?”
“I believe so, my lord,” Kimmund said, shaking away the questions and getting his mind back to the tactical situation. “But now that we’re inside, we should be able to take them out from behind.”
“Do so, Commander,” Vader said. “When you have secured the courtyard, summon the Darkhawk to meet us there. I do not wish to bring Admiral Thrawn’s prizes out through the underground passages.”
“Understood, my lord,” Kimmund said. “Drav?”
“On it, Commander,” Sergeant Drav said briskly. “We’ll have you clear to fly in ten minutes, my lord.”
Kimmund motioned to Viq and Elebe. “Go and assist,” he said. He watched them go, then stepped closer to the children and dropped down onto one knee. “Don’t be afraid,” he said.
No response. Probably didn’t understand a word of Basic.
Still, Thrawn would be able to talk to them. Once they were aboard the Chimaera the children could be told they were no longer Grysk prisoners.
In the meantime, he’d been ordered to make them ready for travel. “Come on,” he said, standing up and motioning back over his shoulder. He looked around, hunting for a safe place to put them in case the battle for the courtyard spilled back in here.
And felt his lips compress. Off to the side, well away from where the Grysks had set up for battle, was a large conveyer belt flanked by various pieces of assembly equipment. On the belt, in varying stages of construction, were five more of the gravity projectors the Grysks had used to close off the Batuu hyperlane.
It was a project the Grysks had clearly put a lot of time and effort into, equipment they would presumably be hesitant to damage. Ergo, a good place to put someone you didn’t want them to shoot at.
“Come on,” he said, beckoning to the girls and heading toward the conveyer belt. It was, he decided, going to take a lot more cargo capacity than the Darkhawk to get all this back to the Chimaera.
But that was all right. Once Vader and the rest of the stormtroopers cleared out the courtyard’s defenses, they would have all the time in the world.
* * *
—
“Two ships breaking to the sides,” Weapons Officer Pyrondi called. “Attempting to flank.”
“Order Squadrons Three and Five to intercept,” Thrawn said. The flanking ships do not go through the web, but maneuver around it for their attack. Possible conclusions: The web cannot be easily breached, or cannot be shut down in individual sections, or is being kept in place for additional purposes. The Grysks are likely keeping their options open while testing Imperial resolve, hoping to yet escape with their prize.
“Squadrons Three and Five moving to intercept,” Commodore Faro
confirmed. “Looks like they’re launching fighters.”
The smaller craft emerge from their host ship in single file. The host ship’s hatch is not armored. The smaller vessels’ acceleration is low as they move to the sides to permit those behind to exit. Their drive nozzles are wide-spaced for high maneuverability, and are overly large. “They are not fighters, Commodore, but more likely tugs,” Thrawn said. “Possibly for positioning the nodes of the web.”
“Not coming to fight, but to distract us and keep the TIEs busy so they can’t get after the real targets,” Faro said. Her voice holds understanding. “So we bypass them?”
“Correct,” Thrawn said. “Target them with the Chimaera’s turbolasers, but do not fire without command. The TIEs will continue on toward the web and the larger ships.”
“Yes, sir,” Faro said. Her voice and body stance hold wariness and growing suspicion. “I find myself concerned, Admiral, that they haven’t already abandoned the moon and tried to run. Surely they realize they can’t outfight us.”
“The launching of tugs in an attempt to slow our approach would seem to indicate that,” Thrawn said. “Why might they remain?”
“I’m thinking they may be expecting reinforcements.”
“That is one possibility. Another?”
“They could think they can still escape with the moon in tow,” Faro said. “They should be clear of Mokivj’s gravity well now. However it is that a hyperdrive works with something that massive, a few more minutes might be enough.”
“Indeed,” Thrawn said. “There is a third possibility.”
“A third,” Faro murmured. Her voice holds concentration. The TIEs swarm past the group of tugs and continue toward the moon and the Grysk web.