by Timothy Zahn
“They’re called crawl-carriers,” Anakin told Kirian and Trissa when they were once again sitting around the kitchen table. “It’s an experimental weapons-delivery system designed for anticity or antibase intrusion.”
“So how is it better than a normal armored carrier?” Kirlan asked.
“Mainly because it can get its package a lot closer before it’s spotted,” Anakin said. “They travel very slowly when they detect sensor probes or nearby observers, and only pick up the pace when no one’s looking. Throw in some camouflage, and they can be on your doorstep before you know it.”
“It’s not something you’d use in the middle of a battle,” Obi-Wan added. “It’s a long-term weapon you’d set moving days or even weeks before you plan to attack.”
“Or you’d use it without any official attack at all,” Kirlan growled.
“Look at what it’s carrying; antipersonnel explosives, building-collapsing acids, power-grid-wrecking capacitors. It strikes me more as a terror weapon.”
“You could be right,” Obi-Wan conceded. “We haven’t really seen that sort of thing from the Separatists, but they may be starting to think in new directions.”
“It seems so incredible,” Trissa murmured. “You think something like this could actually work?”
“It already has,” Obi-Wan told her grimly. “One of these has to be what brought down my scout ship.” He looked sideways at Anakin. “Which brings us to the bad news. According to the base’s records, that particular carrier is still on the loose.”
Trissa caught her breath. “You mean it’s in our fields?”
“Yours or someone else’s,” Anakin said. “The carriers are autonomous, which means that the fact that their base is gone hasn’t bothered it any. If it was fully charged, it could keep going for a longtime.”
“But you can find it, can’t you?” Trissa asked anxiously.
“We’ll certainly try,” Obi-Wan said. “I’ll take the scout ship up first thing in the morning and do a scan. But with all its shielding and camouflage, it’s going to be pretty hard to spot.”
“Plus the fact that all our motion sensors are designed to locate and react to things coming in at high speed,” Anakin added. “Probably why they were experimenting with something this slow in the first place.”
“It has to be making for Vale City,” Kirlan rumbled. “That’s the only population center nearby big enough to bother with.”
“I agree,” Obi-Wan said. “We need to find it before it gets there.” He hesitated. “And then figure out how to stop it.”
“Can’t you call in reinforcements?” Trissa asked.
“We can call, but they may not answer,” Anakin said, “There’s a lot of action going on in this sector right now, and we’re spread pretty thin. Sector Command may not be able to free up anyone.”
“Especially when all that’s at stake is a minor city on an even more minor planet?” Kirlan asked bluntly.
Obi-Wan grimaced but nodded. “Yes.”
Kirlan nodded back. “Thanks for being honest. Okay, then. Can you destroy it?”
“1 don’t know,” Obi-Wan had to admit. “They’re programmed for threat analysis and response, which is why the one at the base opened when I approached it. Out there, with more potential targets than just me, the droids may very well scatter before Anakin and I can deal with all of them. We need a way to destroy the whole thing at once before that can happen.”
“I have a question,” Trissa said. “What happens if you attack it and don’t destroy it, but it hasn’t reached Vale yet?”
“Then it’ll attack whatever it can find,” Obi-Wan said quietly. “That means one or more of the homesteads.”
“And they’ll kill everyone there,” Trissa murmured.
Obi-Wan nodded. “Yes.” He paused, waiting for the inevitable accusations and recriminations because, ultimately, all of this was his fault. If he hadn’t been flying low enough for the crawl-carrier to pick him off, or if he and Anakin had simply left with the rest of the survey team early this morning, none of this would be happening.
But to his mild surprise, the inevitable didn’t happen. Kirlan and Trissa looked at each other with that silent communication he’d seen before in people who were very close; and with a microscopic nod from each, they turned to the two Jedi. “Then I guess we’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kirlan said firmly, getting to his feet. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” Obi-Wan asked as the other led the way out of the kitchen and down the hall. Kirlan didn’t answer but merely walked to the living room and gestured inside. Obi-Wan stepped through the entryway and blinked.
Sitting quietly on the chairs and couches were most of the same friends and neighbors Kirlan and Trissa had assembled the first night he’d been here. “I wondered who all the other people were,” Anakin murmured from behind him.
“I didn’t even notice,” Obi-Wan confessed, studying their faces. The last time he’d faced this group, their predominant emotions had been fear and antagonism. The fear was stilt there, but now it was colored with determination and support. “What’s going on?”
“I should think that was obvious,” Hanco said. The same man, Obi-Wan remembered, who a few days ago had flatly accused him of bringing the war to Dagro. “Kirlan said you might need some help. That’s us.”
“I see,” Obi-Wan said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but what changed your minds?”
Hanco grinned tightly. “You did,” he said. “Kirlan gave you about the lowest job we’ve got, stripping crop stubble. And you did it. Not only that, but you did it without complaining.” He raised his chin a little. “That makes you okay in my book.”
“And besides,” Kirlan added, “like you said, the war’s already here. I guess it’s time we did our part.”
Anakin cleared his throat. “No disrespect or anything, but I’m not sure you’re really equipped for this sort of fight.”
“Whether we are or not, we can at least help with the first part of your problem,” Kirlan said. “That crawl-carrier may be invisible to city folks who don’t get out in the real world more than once a year, but it hasn’t got a chance of hiding from people who know our fields as well as we do.”
“And as to the rest of it, you might be surprised,” Hanco said calmly. “Come on in and sit down. We’ve got some serious strategizing to do.”
By the time the meeting broke up three hours later, they had the beginnings of a workable plan.
Two days later, when one of Hanco’s daughters finally spotted the crawl-carrier, they were ready to move.
“There,” Obi-Wan said, pointing out the harvester’s cab at a section of stubble where a sargheet field had recently been harvested. “A little north of the center.”
Beside him at the harvester’s controls, Kirlan shook his head. “I’ll take your word for it,” he said. “I still can’t see the blasted thing.”
“Frankly, neither can I,” Obi-Wan admitted, shifting his gaze to his right. Hanco’s harvester was paralleling them a few meters away with Hanco hunched determinedly over the controls. Beyond it, Obi-Wan could see the tops of Hanco’s house and barn, well within range of the carrier’s attack droids if this didn’t work. Probably one reason for the man’s grim expression. “But Hanco’s sure. That’s good enough for me.”
“Obi-Wan?” Anakin’s voice came from his comlink. “We’re ready.”
“So are we,” Obi-Wan confirmed. “Let’s do it.”
“Right.”
Slipping the comlink back into his belt, Obi-Wan opened the side door of the cab. “Be sure to stay to the right, on the carrier’s eastern edge,” he reminded Kirlan. “And whatever you do, don’t even look like you’re going to run over it.”
“Got it,” Kirlan said, his voice tight. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.” Catching the edge of the doorframe, Obi-Wan swung himself out onto the top step. He shitted grip, turned, and climbed the rest of the way up onto the pile of
crop stubble bulging over the side walls of the harvester’s wide grain bin. He crossed to the left-hand side, wincing at the stubble’s scratchiness as he waded through it. Ahead and to the left, rumbling southbound toward them on the other side of the harvested field, were two more harvesters with Pickers and Jurvi at their controls. Perched on the heaped stubble atop the nearest one-Jurvi’s-was Anakin.
The four harvesters were nearing the camouflaged carrier now, Kirlan’s and Hanco’s on the eastern edge, the other two aiming to pass just to the west of it, and Obi-Wan found himself holding his breath. According to the base’s records, the carrier had been out here a week and a half, and in that time it must surely have seen passing harvesters and concluded they weren’t a threat.
The question was whether seeing four of them together would be perceived as somewhat less innocent.
Obi-Wan could make out the carrier now, looking for all the world like a slightly raised section of harvested sargheet field. Gazing across its artificial stubble, he saw Anakin lean toward his harvester’s cab window and say some-thing, and Jurvi made a slight adjustment in their direction.
Still no reaction from the carrier. Reaching to his belt, Obi-Wan got a grip on his lightsaber and braced himself.
Right on cue, with the carrier barely five meters ahead, Pickers suddenly slowed his harvester, letting Jurvi’s roll past it, then made a hard left turn to cut across in front of the crawl-carrier’s northern edge.
At the same time, Jurvi pushed his throttle to full speed, and Obi-Wan had to grab for a handhold as Kirlan did likewise with his harvester. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Hanco pull a mirror image of Pickers’ maneuver, cutting behind Kirlan’s harvester to run alongside the crawl-carrier’s southern edge. With a precision that would have done a drill team proud, the harvesters braked to a stop, neatly surrounding the carrier on all four sides.
Even before they came to a halt, Obi-Wan had leaped down from the bin, landing beside Kirlan’s harvester. Igniting his lightsaber, he made two quick slashes, slicing through the latches on the side of the bin.
And as he stretched to the Force and jumped sideways and backward out of the way, the side wall of the bin burst open, releasing the load of gravel that had been concealed beneath the camouflaging layer of crop stubbie. His leap landed him beside Hanco’s harvester, and as the roar of flowing rock filled the air, he slashed again, opening up Hanco’s bin and adding its load of gravel to the flow. Leaping straight up out of the way, he caught the side of the bin and pulled himself up onto the cab, turning around to look.
It was an even more impressive sight than he’d expected. Already the gravel pouring in from four directions had covered most of the crawl-carrier with only a small area in the center still visible. Lifting his lightsaber, he watched the clear area closely, wondering if the carrier would have time to spring at least a couple of its attack droids.
But it didn’t. The last bit of the war machine vanished beneath the gravel, and the pile grew deeper, until finally the roaring subsided and only the idling of the harvesters’ engines remained.
“Everything’s set,” Obi-Wan said, climbing out of Anakin’s starfighter and stepping over to where the Swens family waited. “An analysis team will be here tomorrow. They’ll dig out the crawl-carrier and take it with them for study.”
“Good luck to them,” Kirlan said doubtfully. “The thing’s pretty well flattened.”
“These teams are used to looking at stuff that’s crashed or been blown up,” Anakin pointed out dryly. “Trust me; this’ll be a walk in the park. What did General Bavris say about the bounty?”
“That’s set, too,” Obi-Wan confirmed.
“Bounty?” Trissa asked, frowning.
“There’s a reward for discovering and turning in new Separatist equipment,” Obi-Wan explained. “It should be more than enough to cover all the harvester catches Anakin and 1 wrecked, plus hauling the gravel back out of Hanco’s field, plus hopefully enough left over to pay all of you back for the time you took off from your work schedules.”
“Are you leaving us?” Zizzy asked, a note of protest in her voice.
“Yeah, can’t you stay awhile?” Kit seconded.
“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan said, looking at the children. “Maybe someday we can come back. Right now, though, we have a war to fight.”
He looked back at Kirlan and Trissa. “And with luck,” he added, “that task will keep all of us a long way from your world.”
“We can hope so,” Kirlan said, stretching out his hand to grip Obi-Wan’s. “But if the war does come back to Dagro, you know who to call.”
“We will,” Obi-Wan said. “May the Force be with you.”
“And may the Jedi be with us,” Trissa added. “Always.”
The End
A Bonadan®BookPublished by The Srengseng Publishing Group
Copyright © 2002 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated.All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the Bonadan System by The Srengseng Publishing Group, a division of Bonadan Books, Inc., Srengseng, and simultaneously in Canada by Bonadan Books of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Srengseng is a registered trademark and the Srengseng colophon is a trademark of Bonadan Books, Inc.
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