“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m tired, and a little worried about all of this.”
She waved her hand at the cave in general but knew her sister would interpret the gesture differently than Ashla would.
“We should get some rest,” Ashla said. “We’ve got a few more days out here, and all the jobs require attention to detail.”
The cave floor was hard, but they were able to set up a place to sleep on a flat part of it, where no rocks protruded from the floor.
“Medical cots,” Ashla mused as she unfolded a blanket. “I have no idea how we’d carry them out here, though.”
“Selda will have an idea,” Kaeden said, and they bedded down for the night.
For the next two days, Miara built explosives to Ahsoka’s specifications. It took more parts than Ahsoka was expecting, but weapons manufacture had never been her strongest suit. While Miara worked, Ahsoka and Kaeden installed the door, using an old metal hatch Selda had somehow procured and a spot welder that short-circuited at the most inopportune moments. Then they carefully collapsed most of the other cave entrances. They left a few intact, the ones that were most hidden from view and the one that had a straight line of sight to the settlement. It was risky, but Ahsoka decided that entrance was strategically necessary. There was no good in setting up a camp if they couldn’t keep watch from it.
On the fourth day, they slipped back to town just as the sun was setting. Kaeden and Miara went straight home, since they would have to report to the fields the next day, but Ahsoka went to Selda’s to meet up with Vartan. Over a crokin game, which Ahsoka lost with astounding incompetence to Vartan’s superior play, the crew lead outlined how his work had gone.
“I picked the other crew leads carefully,” he said. “Not just the ones who have been on Raada the longest but the ones who have worked with the same teams for the longest time.”
Ahsoka took a shot and missed. It was a difficult game when she couldn’t use all her abilities to the fullest.
“I watched the stormtroopers, and they have units and patrol groups. I thought it would make sense to keep ourselves organized, too, and we already have teams we’re used to working with, so that’s how I recruited people,” Vartan continued. “It worked out well.”
“How many people?” Ahsoka asked. Vartan landed another disc in the center of the board, and his points showed up in flashing lights on the scoreboard.
“Eight crews, including ours,” Vartan said. “So that’s about forty, once we account for additions like you and subtractions like Malat and her husband.”
There was no bitterness when he spoke of Malat, even though she had been on his crew for longer than any of the others. Ahsoka knew that Malat had tried to arrange for Kaeden and Miara to go with her family, but she didn’t think anyone had told the girls. It had come to nothing in the end, but Ahsoka knew Vartan appreciated the effort.
“I have to get home,” Ahsoka said. “It’s later than I thought, and I’ve been gone from town for long enough that someone might have noticed. We’ll do a full briefing tomorrow.”
“Stay safe,” Vartan said.
She replied in kind and headed out, with a brief pause to say good-bye to Selda as she passed the bar.
She didn’t notice Hoban, who sat in the opposite corner. He watched her go and then leaned forward to catch Vartan’s eye. The older man nodded, and Hoban got up to go set his own plans in motion.
AHSOKA SWUNG UP OVER the back wall of the shipyard and adjusted her hood so she could pull it down over her face. Selda had given her a new cowl, and it fit her better. It was also a darker color, which helped her blend in with the night. With her were Miara, Neera, and a young Rodian male named Kolvin, from another crew. Ahsoka was ostensibly in command, Miara was needed to put the final touches on the charges, Neera had been selected because she was a quick thinker, and Kolvin was included because he was an agile climber. Each of them wore hoods like Ahsoka’s to obscure them from any surveillance and walked with light steps, staying as quiet as they could.
That part of the shipyard had been commandeered by the Imperials as a place to stage their walkers. Ahsoka had seen them being offloaded when the occupation began, but it had taken a couple of days for Vartan to figure out their exact models and where the Imperials had decided to keep them. After that, it was relatively easy for Ahsoka to plan her first strike.
They waited in the shadow of the wall until the Imperial patrol came into view. They knew that the whole yard was covered by only a handful of stormtroopers and that the rear wall they’d climbed over was thought by the occupiers to be unassailable.
“No imagination at all,” Vartan had muttered under his breath when Ahsoka told him the intel. Then they had set about altering the repulsors on the bottoms of the threshing machines to help Miara and Neera make the climb.
Miara shifted her pack very carefully. Not only did she need to keep the parts from making any noise, she also had to ensure that none of the circuits activated prematurely. It was finicky work, but Miara was endlessly patient with it, even though she was restless about other things.
“Are we ready?” she asked Ahsoka, making sure to lean close so her voice wouldn’t carry.
“I want to see the patrol a couple of times,” Ahsoka said. “This might be our only chance to break in here this easily, and we should take advantage of it.”
“She’s right,” Neera said. “Get comfortable, kids.”
Miara grumbled but did as she was told. Kolvin, whom Ahsoka still didn’t know very well, settled in without protest, apparently used to both waiting and following orders.
It was ten minutes until the patrol came back, the same two stormtroopers. They didn’t even step into the yard. They just shone their lights around for a few moments and moved on. Behind the crates, Ahsoka and the others were never in danger of being discovered. It was almost too easy, which made Ahsoka nervous. She pushed the feeling away. She needed to focus on what was in front of her, and nothing else.
They waited another ten minutes, and the patrol came again. After they moved on, Neera leaned close to Ahsoka.
“We should go now. The others will get antsy waiting for us to come back if we don’t.”
Ahsoka nodded. These were farmers, she had to remind herself constantly. She had helped train farmers to fight before, back on Felucia, against pirates. They were smart and they learned quickly, but they still weren’t soldiers. They didn’t have the adaptability or patience of the clones, and she’d had to remember to treat them differently because of that. She had learned a lot on that mission that she could use on Raada now.
“Okay,” she said. “Miara, give me your bag and follow me. Neera, you and Kolvin give us a few moments and then follow to install your part of the charge.”
Their goals were simple, as befitted their first real mission. Miara had built several devices that she would activate at the last minute, and then Ahsoka would install each of them in the knee joints of the walkers. Then Kolvin, who had steadier hands than Ahsoka—since she couldn’t overtly use the Force—would climb up with the second piece. Once the liquid in Kolvin’s half started mixing with the liquid in Ahsoka’s, it would become corrosive enough to melt not only the charge but also the knee joint itself.
“If we’re really lucky,” Ahsoka had told Vartan and Selda while the others listened, “the devices will be corroded entirely, and the Imperials will think something about Raada’s weather is responsible for the damage.”
“You really think so?” Kaeden had asked.
“No,” said Ahsoka. “No one’s that lucky. But we can hope for the best.”
The only problem with the plan was that the liquid in Ahsoka’s half of the device was quite corrosive all on its own. She’d have to let Miara open the seal on the device at the base of every walker and then climb with it very carefully. It was not a good place to make mistakes.
Ahsoka waved at Miara to get her attention and then pointed to their first target. The two of them sli
pped off into the dark, leaving Neera and Kolvin behind to wait until they were done. The chances of getting caught were slim, but splitting into pairs meant that if two of them did get nabbed, the other two might escape.
At the base of the first walker, Miara placed the device carefully in Ahsoka’s hand. It limited her ability to climb, which slowed her down, but the knees on the walker weren’t very high anyway. She remembered training the Onderon rebels to take out Separatist weapons by exploiting their weaknesses, and tried not to think too hard about the fact that she was exploiting the weaknesses in the equipment she’d once served in.
She placed the first four charges without incident. If she listened very hard, she could hear Neera and Kolvin working behind them, but they were doing well at keeping quiet. The patrol was due back any moment, so Ahsoka and Miara hunkered down behind the feet of one of the walkers, which would conceal them from the searchlight the troopers lackadaisically employed. Ahsoka was already holding the next charge, ready to climb as soon as it was clear, but she noticed something different about it, even in the dark. It wasn’t a corrosive charge at all. It was an actual bomb.
“Miara, what is this?” she whispered, after checking to be sure the Imperials weren’t back yet.
“Oh, sorry,” the girl replied. “I passed you the wrong charge. I must have packed that by accident.”
Miara spoke like it was no big deal, but Ahsoka couldn’t let the subject drop so easily. She didn’t remember Miara’s making that kind of charge, and it certainly wasn’t included in any of the plans Ahsoka had gone over with Vartan.
“Are you planning your own operations without me?” she hissed in Miara’s ear, but before she got an answer, the searchlight turned on.
Both of them froze, and Ahsoka hoped that Neera and Kolvin were similarly concealed. This time the troopers stepped into the yard—only two or three steps, but far enough that Ahsoka prepared for the worst. Tucked in beside Ahsoka, Miara wasn’t breathing at all, but Ahsoka could feel her trembling. For the first time, Miara was really scared. After a few more nervous moments, the searchlight went off and the troopers moved on. Ahsoka put the more dangerous charge in her pocket and held out her hands for a proper one. Miara handed it to her without asking for the other one back.
They didn’t speak for the rest of the mission, not until all the charges were placed and Neera and Kolvin had caught up with them at the other end of the yard. Ahsoka could already hear the sound of failing metal struts, straining to stay upright, and knew they had done their job well.
“Back to Selda’s,” she commanded.
Neera shot her a surprised look. That hadn’t been the plan. Ahsoka didn’t give them any time to protest. She led the way back over the wall and then down the unlit streets to the cantina.
There were more people inside than there should be, Ahsoka could see, but they were staying away from the windows at least. She barged right through the front door.
“Hey, now!” Vartan had jumped to his feet, a blaster in his hand. There was the sound of several chairs scraping back as others leapt up. “Wait, wait,” he said. “They’re friends of ours. Put your weapons down.”
Something was very wrong. Kaeden wasn’t there. Ahsoka couldn’t imagine she was at home if Vartan was in the cantina. And yet if she were present, she would have run toward Miara immediately. Worse, Kaeden wasn’t the only person who was missing.
“Where’s Hoban?” Ahsoka demanded.
There was no immediate answer. Neera slumped into a chair and gestured to Vartan as if to say, It’s your problem now, boss, so Ahsoka turned her attention back to him. She took a tally of who wasn’t there. It was fully half of Vartan’s recruits. He’d mixed up the crews. The older ones, the slower ones, were all there. The ones who could run were gone.
Wearing her most fearsome expression, Ahsoka pulled out the chair opposite to where Vartan was standing and they both took a seat. He leaned as far back as he could, scared of her even though he held a blaster and she was, to all appearances, unarmed. When she reached into her pocket for Miara’s charge and set it on the table, he flinched as if she had struck him. Ahsoka didn’t care. Kaeden was out there, doing something stupid, and Ahsoka didn’t know if she’d be able to set things right.
“Let me see if I have this figured out,” she said. “You thought I would be distracted by the walker operation and it would be a good time to run your own mission.”
Nobody said anything. She wasn’t even sure they were still breathing.
“You picked a target. The admin building, maybe? I hope it’s not the barracks.” Vartan flinched again, and she knew her guess was right. “You sent them out, your own crews, to lay explosives.”
“We had to do something.” That was Kolvin’s crew lead. Ahsoka didn’t know the woman’s name. “We can’t just sit here.”
“Any moment now, a pair of stormtroopers are going to find out that their walkers are damaged,” Ahsoka said. “All of their walkers. And they’re going to raise an alarm, and that will wake up all the other troopers. And where do you think those troopers are going to go to receive their orders?”
Miara gasped and made a break for the door. Selda caught her and held her until she stopped struggling against him.
“We didn’t know,” Vartan said.
“You didn’t even try,” Ahsoka said. “What were you thinking?”
“We can go help them,” Kolvin’s crew lead said.
“No,” Ahsoka said. “Now you are going to listen to me. Those of you who are here have to go home. Right now. If anyone asks, you disavow any knowledge of what went on tonight. You lie.”
“We can’t leave them,” Vartan protested.
“You have to,” Ahsoka said. “Or every member of our group is going to end up arrested, dead, or on the run tonight. We need operatives in town.”
“She’s right,” Selda said. His tone brooked no argument, and he received none. He pointed to the door. “And I think the bar is closed.”
“I’m not going home,” Miara said, pushing through the crowd to stand next to Ahsoka. “I’m sorry, Ashla, I’m so sorry. She’s everything I have.”
Ahsoka looked at Vartan, who was directing people through the door with Selda’s help, and then locked eyes with Neera. Ahsoka could see that she was just as determined as Miara was.
“Fine,” Ahsoka said. “But you do everything I tell you to.”
They both nodded.
“And bring the charges.”
STEALTH WAS IMPOSSIBLE, so they just had to run for it. The streets were mostly deserted, thanks to the curfew. Ahsoka and the others were almost halfway to the Imperial compound when the alarms sounded. The damage to the walkers had taken a while for the troopers to detect. That was good news, as far as Ahsoka was concerned. Anything that bought them more time was good news.
As she ran, Ahsoka put aside her anger. It would do her no good in the coming confrontation. She also put aside her desperation to make sure Kaeden was all right and every thought about her failures over the past year. She focused on her strengths: her speed, adaptability, and familiarity with military procedure. That was going to get them through this.
They were a block from the compound when the first explosion rocked them back on their heels. Ahsoka looked at Miara with some surprise. She’d had no idea the girl was capable of building anything that big.
“That wasn’t one of mine!” Miara said. “They must have found something else. That or…”
She trailed off, unwilling to voice the other option.
Ahsoka waved them both close. They were behind the cover of the last non-Imperial building before they’d be exposed to the artillery. She needed to know more before she stepped out into the fray. Once they went around the corner, they’d be in full view and wouldn’t have time to confer.
“Tell me everything about the plan,” she said. “Numbers, objectives, all the details. Quickly.”
“Hoban split the group into three, one for each door,” Neera
said. “They all have explosives, and most of them have blasters, too.”
“Where did you get blasters?” Ahsoka asked.
“Here and there,” Neera said. “Vartan said most of them are in pretty bad shape, but they’ll get the job done for a little while at least.”
“I hope it’s long enough,” Ahsoka said.
They walked the last block cautiously, even though they met with no resistance. The Imperials must have been busy with the others. It wasn’t exactly a cheery thought.
“Miara, can you find the caves again in the dark?” Ahsoka asked when they stopped again. She took a look around the corner, to see how the fight was unfolding, and then came back to finalize the plan.
“Yes,” Miara said. She sounded sure.
“Then you wait here,” Ahsoka said. Miara started to protest, but Ahsoka held up her hand. “This is one of those things I said you were going to listen to me about, got it? You wait here, and Neera will start to channel our people toward you. Tell them where to meet up on the edge of town. Not Selda’s. Pick someplace random. Then lead everyone out to the caves as quickly and quietly as you can.
“Neera, you come with me. There’s a line of Imperial tanks pointed away from the compound. They must have set them up for defense, and they haven’t had time to get them turned around yet. I’m going to disable as many as I can. You go to the doors on the left side of the compound and get those people out. They aren’t being pressed as hard, so they should be able to get free.” Neera nodded. “If you can get to the right-side doors, try for that, too, but if you can’t, leave them, do you understand?”
“Where’s Hoban?” Neera asked, shrewdly seeing the information Ahsoka had omitted.
“I didn’t see him,” Ahsoka said. “I’m sorry, but you need to focus, too.”
“I understand,” Neera said.
“What are you going to do, Ashla?” Miara asked. For the first time, she sounded very small.
“I’m going to the front,” Ahsoka said. “The fighting is the thickest there, but I might be able to help out long enough for our people to retreat.”
Star Wars: Ahsoka Page 9
